Scheduling Service Tasks

Each of the service tasks can be configured to run on a schedule. The Console allows you to specify how often, and when specifically the service task should recur.

The following options are available:

Field	Description
One time	The service task should only execute one time. If the service tasks fails to run and repetition has not been selected, the service task is retried the next day.
Daily	The service task should execute on a recurring schedule every X days, where X is a user specified number. Recur every: X days - Specify the recurrence interval. For example, specifying 2 runs the service task every other day, specifying 90 runs the service task every 90 days.
Weekly	The service task should execute on a recurring schedule every X weeks, where X is a user specified number. Additionally, the service task should only execute on the specified days. Recur every: X weeks on: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday - Specify the recurrence interval. For example, specifying 2 runs the service task every other week, specifying 4 runs the service task every 4 weeks. Specifying 2 and Monday only runs the service task every other Monday. Specifying 4, Tuesday and Saturday runs the service task every 4th Tuesday and Saturday.
Monthly	The service task should execute on a recurring schedule every month or during the specified months. Additionally, the service task should execute every day, or only on the selected days. Months: Every Month, Only Selected, Jan-Dec - Specify the recurrence interval. For example, leaving this blank runs the service task every month. Checking Only Selected and then checking individual months runs the service task only during those months. For example, selecting January, April, July, and October runs the service task quarterly. Days: Every Day, Only Selected, 1-31, Last - Specify the recurrence interval. For example, leaving this blank runs the service task every day during the selected month(s). Checking Only Selected and then checking individual days runs the service task only on those days. For example, using the quarterly schedule above, checking 15 runs the service task on Jan 15, Apr 15, Jul 15 and Oct 15. Checking Last runs the service task on the last day of the specified month(s). The: first, second, third, fourth, last, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday of the month(s) - Specify the recurrence interval. For example, if you selected third and Tuesday and had Months: set to Every Month, the service task would run on the third Tuesday of every month. If you had Months: set to January, May, and September and selected last and Monday, the service task would run on the last Monday of the specified months.
Start: Date/Time	Specify the earliest time and date that the service task can execute. The time is local to the Console (unless "Synchronize across time zones" is selected). If the time is 12:00 PM, the service task executes at noon locally on the Console. Synchronize across time zones: Specifies that the Start Date/Time is GMT. When this option is enabled, the time entered is universal across all time zones. For example, if the time is 12:00 PM and this option is selected, the Console executes the service task at noon London time, which is 7 a.m. (EST) in New York and 4 a.m. (PST) in San Francisco.
Repetition	Allows you to schedule the service task to execute on a recurring basis throughout the day. Repeat the service task every X minutes, hours, days for the duration of X minutes, hours, days, indefinitely. For example, if you selected Repeat task every: 60 minutes for the duration of: 30 days, the service tasks would execute hourly for the next 30 days.
Resume when no other tasks are pending	When selected, the "Repeat task every:" is ignored when no tasks are pending and the task starts immediately.
Maximum task run time	Specify the amount of time that the service task has to complete. For example, if you set the Maximum task run time to 5 minutes, after 5 minutes has elapsed from the time the service task first executes, the service job stops and its status shows as Aborted. The default setting is indefinitely. The following options are available: Indefinitely - The task runs until completion. Minutes - Set the number of minutes the service task has to complete. If the service task does not complete within the allotted time it aborts. Hours - Set the number of hours the service task has to complete. If the service task does not complete within the allotted time it aborts. Days - Select the number of days the service task has to complete. If the service task does not complete within the allotted time it aborts.

Note: If you create a task to run multiple times throughout the day, it is recommended that you set the Start time to the earliest time that you want the task to run. Setting the start time too late could make it so that the task is only able to run once per day. For example, if you set the Update Policy States service task to run every two hours and you enter a Start time of 11:00 PM, then the task is only able to run between 11:00 PM and midnight and would therefore only run once per day. Setting the Start time to 12:00 AM ensures that the task can run more than once per day.

Note: The first time a task runs is whatever you have entered for the Start date and time. If you create a task that runs on a weekly schedule, for example each Monday at 1:00 AM, the first time that the task runs is whatever you have entered as the start date and time in the Start: field. So even though the task recurs each Monday at the specified time, if you have selected Sunday 6/9/2013 1:00 AM as the start, it first runs on Sunday and then recurs each Monday at the same time.