Jobs Progress Details
Introduction
Alma Jobs run batch processes on a large number of entities. Some jobs split the job population into discrete units of work called bulks, which are not dependent on one another, and can be processed in parallel.
Job Progress details are available for jobs that run in bulks, providing information about the progress of the job over its entire runtime, increasing transparency regarding the job’s state, and assisting in determining the job’s health.
Job Stages
- Pending — A submitted job waiting to be triggered by Alma. If no available system resources exist, the job remains in Pending status until system resources become available.
- Initialization — When started, a job begins with the initialization stage. The operations performed during the initialization stage vary between job types. For jobs that work with bulks, bulks are created during the initialization stage.
- Processing — The main job stage during which the job’s work is done.
- Finalization — Before the job ends, the finalization stage is run. The operations performed during the finalization stage vary between job types.
Jobs Queue
Bulks are created during job initialization and are initially assigned the Waiting for processing status. Bulks in the waiting list are periodically moved to the queue in a process called a Round. A job cannot exceed the maximum allowed number of bulks in the queue at a time. A job Round moves the maximum number of bulks to the queue without exceeding the limit.
Bulks are processed from the Jobs Queue. Alma continuously optimizes and prioritizes running jobs to allocate resources effectively. Bulks of jobs assigned a higher priority may be processed before bulks of jobs with lower priority.
Job Progress Details
To access a job’s “Progress Details” page, from the Monitor Jobs page (Admin > Monitor Jobs), in the Progress details column, select View, or from the job's action menu, select Progress details.
Not every job has a progress details page.
Basic Details
The job progress detail includes:
- Job ID, Name, Description, Status.
- Job progress rate – a score of the job’s overall progress
- Low — when the progress is significantly lower than expected
- Medium — when the progress is slightly lower than expected
- Normal — when the progress is as expected
- High — when the progress is higher than expected
- Job stages start times
Bulks Awaiting Processing
The number of bulks awaiting processing and have not yet been moved into the Jobs queue in each Round. After the initialization stage, the number of awaiting bulks should decrease steadily.
Bulks in Queue and Transferred
The Bulks in queue transferred graph displays the number of bulks in the Jobs Queue and the number of bulks transferred from the waiting list into the Jobs Queue in each Round.
If there are bulks still in the queue when a Round is run, fewer bulks are transferred into the queue. The number of bulks transferred corresponds to the decrease in the number of waiting bulks.
Progress Rate Distribution
Shows for each of the progress rates the number of job runs that had that progress rate for jobs of the same type from the past 3 months.
Bulks Processing Examples
- Smooth sailing — The number of waiting bulks decreases steadily, and the number of bulks in the queue at the start of each round is 0.
- Waiting bulks is 0 at the end of the job for multiple rounds, and there are still bulks in the queue. The job is still running and needs to process the remaining bulks in the queue, and there are no more bulks waiting to be moved into the queue.
- Waiting bulks is 1 at the start of the job for multiple rounds. This is the initialization stage.
FAQ
Q: Why does my job not have Progress Details?
A: Not all jobs have progress details. Progress details are only available for jobs that work in bulks.
Q: Why was my job in Pending status for an extended time?
A: A job may remain in Pending status for several reasons, for example, when waiting for available system resources.
Q: Why did the initialization/finalization stage of my job take a long time compared with other jobs?
A: The operations performed in the initialization and finalization stages vary between job types, and may also depend, in some cases, on the items on which the job runs.