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Monitoring Windows Server Scheduled Tasks

Learn how to monitor Windows Server Scheduled Tasks and share access to only a limited few cherry-picked tasks to end-users.

This page describes what's being monitored for the Scheduled Task Category in Nodinite, using one or more role-based Monitor Views. Nodinite monitors the state based on user-defined thresholds, either global or specific. In addition, for managing the Scheduled Task, remote commands are available as Actions. These help you swiftly manage reported problems. The implemented Remote Actions are further detailed on this page.

Example with a list of monitored 'Scheduled Tasks' as resources in a Monitor View.

Monitoring Features

The Nodinite Windows Server Monitoring Agent makes use of WMI and offers the automatic discovery of your Windows Scheduled Tasks. Sharing insights is very easy from within Nodinite using Monitor Views.
State Evaluation - Based on user-defined thresholds
Category-based monitoring - To help you sort out the different type of resources, the monitored Resources are grouped by Categories

Scheduled task as Nodinite Resource

The monitored Scheduled Tasks manifest within Nodinite as Resources. For example, if you have 2 Windows Server configurations with 15 and 27 Scheduled Tasks, then in total, you have 42 'Scheduled Task' resources in Nodinite.

The name of the Resource is the same as the name for the Scheduled Task as seen in a Windows Server MMC.
The 'Scheduled Task' resource belongs to the following Category:

Category Description

Windows Scheduled Task Make sure the Scheduled Tasks run on time and with successful execution status

List of the Scheduled Task category as a filter in a Monitor View
The Application name is the Display Name from the Remote Configuration of the monitored Windows Server:

Category	Description
Windows Scheduled Task	Make sure the Scheduled Tasks run on time and with successful execution status

Each item (presents in Nodinite as a Resource) evaluates with a monitoring state. (OK, Warning, Error, Unavailable).

From within Nodinite, you can reconfigure the Resource state evaluation using the Expected State feature.

Note
Depending on the user-defined synchronization interval set for the Windows Server Monitoring Agent, there might be a delay before Nodinite Web Client/Monitor Views reflects upon the change. Click the Sync All button (or on the dropdown for individual agent selection) to force Nodinite to request a resynchronization request.

Option to force Nodinite to request a resynchronization request with the monitoring agent

State evaluation for Scheduled Task based monitoring

For the Scheduled Task category, the monitored state evaluates as described in the table below:

State	Status	Description	Actions
Unavailable	Service not available	If the server can't be reached and evaluated either due to Network or security-related problems Bad configuration (invalid/non-existing Scheduled Task)	Review prerequisites
Error	Error state raised	The 'Scheduled Task' failed Failed to run within the expected error time frame	Enable Disable Run Details Edit
Warning	Warning state raised	Failed to run within the expected warning time frame	Enable Disable Run Details Edit
OK	Online	The 'Scheduled Task' executed successfully and within the user-defined time thresholds	Enable Disable Run Details Edit

What Remote Actions exist for Scheduled Tasks?

The following Remote Actions are available for the Scheduled Task Category:

Enable

You can Enable a disabled Scheduled Task. For the selected Scheduled Task resource, click on the Action button and then click on the Enable menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Here's an example of enabling a Scheduled Task, using the 'Enable' action.

You will then be prompted to confirm the intent to proceed with the operation:

Here's an example of the 'Enable' prompt.

Next, a modal presents with the result of the operation:

Here's an example of a successful Enable operation.

Disable

You can Disable an enabled Scheduled Task. For the selected Scheduled Task resource, click on the Action button and then click on the Disable menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Disable Scheduled Task, using the 'Disable' action

You will then be prompted to confirm the intent to proceed with the operation:

Here's an example of the 'Disable' prompt

Next, a modal presents, with the result of the operation:

Disabled successfully example

Run

You can Run the enabled Scheduled Task. For the selected Scheduled Task resource, click on the Action button and then click on the Run menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Invoke the scheduled task, using the 'Run' action

You will then be prompted to confirm the intent to proceed with the operation:

Here's an example of the 'Run' prompt

Next, a modal presents with the result of the operation:

Here's an example of a successful invocation

Details

To view the selected Scheduled Task Resource; Click the Action button and then click on the Details menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'Details' action menu item to open the details modal for the selected 'Scheduled Task'.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

Image from 5.2.0.17, later versions may have improved the details

Edit thresholds

You can Edit the monitoring thresholds, click on the Action button and then click on the Edit menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Example: Edit thresholds Action button menu item.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

Here's an example of editing monitoring thresholds for selected 'Scheduled Task'.

You can manage the following monitoring properties:

Warning - Number of days before Certificate expires to trigger the Warning alert
Error- Number of days before Certificate expires to trigger the Error alert
Error Codes - The user-friendly description of this specific Certificate monitoring configuration

By default; The Agent evaluates the following values as the state OK*:

#
0
267009
-2147023840
-2147479295

You can provide other values for state OK:

Add the Scheduled Task as a Specific scheduled task (or use the Edit action from a Monitor View)
Add Expected exit code(s) for this job
Note
Only the provide values in the list will now be used; Any other value returned, will set the resource in the Error state

Click the Save button to persist changes.

Save button.

View History

To view the history for the selected Scheduled Task Resource; Click the Action button and then click on the View History menu item within the 'Control Center' section.

Use the 'View History' action menu item to open the history modal for the selected 'Scheduled Task'.

Next, click the option to present the modal.

History for a Scheduled Task as presented in a paged table.

Configuration

Use the Remote Configuration to manage the Scheduled Task configuration.

Scheduled Tasks tab

Click the Scheduled Task General tab to manage the Scheduled Tasks Monitoring options.

Here's an example of the 'Scheduled Tasks' tab

Enable Windows Scheduled Tasks Monitoring - When checked, Windows Scheduled Tasks are monitored for this Windows Server

Scheduled Task General Tab

Click the Scheduled Task General tab to manage Monitoring options.

Here's an example of the 'Scheduled Task General' tab

Polling Interval of scheduled tasks - Polling Interval in number of seconds
Warning Time Span - The longest allowed timespan since the last run (days.hours:minutes:seconds, e.g. 7.12:30:59)
Error Time Span - The longest allowed timespan since the last run (days.hours:minutes:seconds, e.g. 7.12:30:59)

Scheduled Task Source Tab

Click the Source tab to manage include options.

Here's an example of the 'Scheduled Task Source' tab

Include Disabled Scheduled Tasks - When checked, disabled scheduled tasks are monitored
Include Scheduled Tasks in folder '\Microsoft\Windows' - When checked, internal Windows scheduled tasks are monitored

Specific scheduled tasks

You can opt to configure named scheduled tasks with specific settings that override the global ones:

Here's an example of specific 'Scheduled Task' configuration

Name - Name of the task for this specific configuration, e.g. \Folder\Task Name
Warning time span - The longest allowed timespan since the last run (days.hours:minutes:seconds, e.g. 7.12:30:59)
Error time span - The longest allowed timespan since the last run (days.hours:minutes:seconds, e.g. 7.12:30:59)

Exit Codes

You can specify further the expected exit codes for the scheduled task.

Here's an example of exit codes for specific 'Scheduled Task' configuration.

Exit code - HEX or decimal exit code for the task (default OK values are 0, -2147479295, 267009 or -2147023840)

Scheduled Task Options Tab

Click the Options tab to manage the exclude options.

Here's an example of the 'Scheduled Task Options' tab

You can add multiple RegEx expressions to exclude scheduled tasks from Monitoring.

RegEx filter expression - RegEx will match with 'Folder\Task Name' of the scheduled task

Next Step

Add or manage Monitor View

Windows Server Monitoring Agent
Resources
Monitoring
Monitor Views

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