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Schedules

A schedule says when its tasks fire; Flow Scheduler admins create schedules in the Flow Scheduler or import them from Tableau.

Schedules are stored in the Flow Scheduler, not in Tableau. An imported schedule is a copy: later changes in Tableau do not change it.

Before you begin

  • You are a Flow Scheduler admin (listed in MetaMiner Administrator under Tools > FSS Configuration... > Admins).
  • Open the schedule list with Admin > Schedules, or Manage Schedules on Scheduled Tasks.

Steps

  1. Click + New Schedule. The Create Schedule dialog opens.

  2. Fill in the fields:

    Field Applies to Value
    Name All For example Daily 6am. Required.
    Repeats All Hourly, Daily, Weekly or Monthly
    At All Time of day, in the Tableau server's time zone. For hourly, the first firing of the day.
    Every Hourly 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or 4 hours
    Until Hourly Optional last time of day to fire
    On Weekly, Hourly Days of the week (optional for hourly)
    Day of month Monthly A day, or Last day
    Timezone All Read-only: the Tableau server's time zone (see below)
    Enabled All Clear it to create the schedule switched off

  3. Click Create.

Time zone

Every schedule fires in the time zone of its Tableau Server. There is no per-schedule time zone and no zone picker.

Where What you see
Timezone in the dialog " (server time)" once the Flow Scheduler knows the server's zone; "Server time" before that
Next to At A hint such as "≈ 01:00 your time", converting the entered time to your browser's time
Banner on the schedule list "Schedule times are in server time: . Next Run is shown in your local time."
Preview The next firings, in your local time
Next Run on Scheduled Tasks Your local time

Schedules wait for the server's time zone

The Flow Scheduler reads the time zone of each Tableau Server. It does not fire an environment's schedules until it knows that zone.

Manage schedules

Each schedule row has these actions:

Action What it does
Preview Opens "Upcoming firings": the next firings, in your local time
Edit Opens Edit Schedule
Enable / Disable Switches all firing of the schedule on or off. Its tasks show a badge while it is disabled.
Delete Deletes the schedule. A schedule that tasks still use cannot be deleted: the "Schedule in use" dialog offers Disable schedule instead.
Run all now Runs every enabled task and chain on the schedule now

Run a schedule now

  1. Click Run all now on the schedule.
  2. Confirm "Run schedule now?". Every enabled task and chain on the schedule is queued. If nothing on it is enabled, you see "Nothing to run".

Import schedules from Tableau

  1. On Admin > Schedules, click Import Schedules.
  2. In Import Schedules from Tableau, select the schedules (Select all shown, Clear selection).
  3. Click Import selected. Each selected Tableau schedule becomes a Flow Scheduler schedule.

Missed slots

Situation What the Flow Scheduler does
A task is still running when its next slot comes Records the slot as SKIPPED; no second copy starts
A slot was missed by up to 10 minutes while the Flow Scheduler was running Still fires it
The Flow Scheduler was stopped After start, runs one missed slot per task within startup.catchup.window.minutes, with trigger Catch-up, unless the task's next run is within recovery.window.hours
Tableau Server was down at the slot Holds the run as SERVER_DOWN and releases it as a catch-up run when Tableau is back, unless the next run is within recovery.window.hours; then the held run is skipped

Defaults for these settings are in the Configuration Reference. Status meanings are on Run History.

Verify

  • Preview lists the firings you expect.
  • Tasks on the schedule show the matching Next Run on Scheduled Tasks.

Troubleshooting

Firings are an hour off

Schedules follow the Tableau server's time zone, not your browser's. Preview and Next Run show times converted to your local time. Check the time zone of the Tableau Server host.

A schedule shows Next Run but never fires

Check that the environment is enabled (see Allowed Environments), the schedule and the task are enabled, and the Flow Scheduler knows the server's time zone (the Timezone field shows a zone, not just "Server time").

Tasks show the schedule as deleted or missing

The task's schedule was removed. Edit the task and pick another schedule.

Next steps