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About Tasks

Owned by Aliaksei Shautsou (Deactivated)
Last updated: Jun 28, 2017 by Arkadi_Bourkov
7 min read

When you perform a task, such as adding a DNS zone or modifying a DHCP range, you can execute it immediately or schedule it for a future date and time, depending on your permissions. For information about how to schedule a task, see Scheduling Tasks.
Certain tasks, scheduled or not, may be subject to approvals if approval workflows are defined for specific admin groups. For information about how to define submitters and approvers for an approval workflow, see Configuring Approval Workflows.
Note that not all tasks can be scheduled or routed for approval. For a list of supported objects, see 22282480 22282480.
When you schedule a task or submit it for approval, consider the following:

  • The appliance cannot execute a scheduled or approval task that is associated with an extensible attribute, if you delete the extensible attribute after you have scheduled the task or submitted it for approval. For information about extensible attributes, see About Extensible Attributes.
  • The appliance cannot execute, reschedule, or delete a task that is associated with a child object (such as a DHCP range) if you delete the parent object (such as a network) after you have scheduled the task or submitted it for approval.
  • There are certain guidelines about scheduled and approval tasks when you upgrade the software, back up the database, and restore data. For information, see 22282480.

Viewing Tasks

The appliance displays scheduled tasks and approval tasks in the Task Manager tab of Grid Manager. Scheduled tasks are those with scheduled time listed and approval tasks contain approval status. A task can also be scheduled and queued for approval at the same time. By default, all completed and rejected tasks are displayed in Task Manager for up to 14 days before they are removed from the list. You can configure how long the completed and rejected tasks are displayed in Task Manager using the CLI command set delete_tasks_interval. For more information about the CLI command, refer to the Infoblox CLI Guide.
The appliance logs all tasks in the audit log and associates each with a task ID. By default, Grid Manager sorts tasks by Task ID in Task Manager. You can view tasks that you are allowed to see based on your permissions. For information about admin permissions, see About Administrative Permissions.
To view tasks:

  1. From the Administration tab, select the Workflow tab -> TaskManager tab.
  2. Grid Manager displays the following information for each task:
  • Task ID: The ID associated with the task. The appliance assigns an ID to a task in chronological order. By default, the appliance sorts tasks by Task ID.
  • Type: Indicates key information about certain types of executing/executed jobs. The Type column lists values for Port Control and for Object Change tasks undertaken by Grid Manager or submitted by Grid Manager for approval by the administrator.
  • AffectedObject: The name or value of the object that is associated with the task. For example, if the task involves an A record, this field displays the domain name of the record. If it is a fixed address, it displays the IP address of the fixed address.
  • ScheduledTime: The date, time, and time zone when the appliance executes the task.
  • SubmittedTime: The date, time, and time zone when the task was submitted.
  • Submitter: The username of the admin who scheduled or submitted the task.
  • TicketNumber: For an approval workflow, this number may be entered by the submitter to associate the task with a help desk ticket number or a reference number.
  • SubmitterComment: Comments entered by the submitter.
  • ApprovalStatus: The current approval status. Possible values are Approved, NotApplicable, Pending, and Rejected.
  • ExecutionStatus: The execution status of the task. Possible values are Completed, Failed, Pending, and Executing.
  • ExecutedTime: The date, time, and time zone the task was executed.
  • AssociatedTask: (hidden by default) Applies to Port Configuration tasks. If a port configuration task is dependent on an object change task (such as a new Fixed Address or an edit to an existing object), this could will show the Task ID value for the associated object change task.
  • Action: The operation the appliance performs in this task. The can be: Add, Modify, Delete, NetworkDiscovery, Lock/UnlockZone, or RestartServices.
  • TaskDetails: Detailed information about the task. This message also appears in the audit log.
  • Approver: The username of the admin who has approved this task.
  • ApproverComment: Comments entered by the approver.
  • ObjectType: The object type. For example, the appliance can display A Record or Fixed Address.

You can do the following in the Task Manager tab:

  • Sort the tasks in ascending or descending order by column, except for Task Details.
  • Use filters and the search function to look for specific values.

Note: You cannot use the search function to search for approval or execution status. Use filters to search for these values.

  • Create a quick filter to save frequently used filter criteria. Grid Manager provides the following default quick filters that you can select from the Quick Filter drop-down list: Pending Approvals, Rejected Tasks, and Scheduled Tasks. For more information, see Using Quick Filters .
  • Export and print the information in the table.
  • Control the display of information in the panel by toggling between a single-line view and a multi-line view.
  • Reschedule a task, cancel a scheduled task, or execute a task immediately.
  • For approvers, select a task and click the Approve icon to approve the task, or click the Reject icon to disapprove the task. You can also reschedule the task while approving it.

Note: If you have multiple pages of tasks in Task Manager, you can select multiple tasks on the current page for approval or disapproval. If you click the Select all objects in this dataset link to select all the tasks in the dataset, the Approve and Reject icons are disabled and you cannot approve or reject any task.

Using the Task Manager Action Menu

The Task Manager page provides an Action icon column with a series of menu options for features related to grid Manager tasks to manage task execution, scheduling and approval. Menu choices change based upon the context and the current state of tasks in the table; features available in the Action menu include the following:
Figure 1.6 Task Manager Action menu

  • (Applies only with Network Insight) Approve and Reject: Enables admins to approve or reject a pending job; rejecting a job immediately cancels it.
  • AssociatedTask (applies only with port configuration tasks): Choosing this option opens the object change task, if any, for the currently selected port configuration task.
  • ExecutionLog: Opens a completed task's execution log window. the Execution Log lists the complete communications sequence sent to a device to perform a port control task.
  • ExecuteNow: Force a selected pending task to execute immediately.
  • Re-execute: Allows you to re-run the selected task. Combined with the Execution Log, this process can aid in troubleshooting a failed port control task.
  • Reschedule: Opens the Reschedule window for the selected task. To immediately execute this task, click Now. Or, in the Reschedule panel, click Later, and then specify a date, time, and time zone. You can reschedule the task if you have the applicable permissions. Click Save to commit the changes.
  • Delete: Deletes the pending task.
  • View: Opens the Task Viewer to the currently selected task. For related information, see Using the Task Viewer toView Job Logs and Approve Jobs.

Supported Objects for Scheduled and Approval Tasks

  • DNS zones (authoritative, forward, stub, and delegated)
  • DNS views
  • DNS resource records (except SOA records)
  • Import resource records to DNS zones
  • Lock and unlock DNS zones
  • Hosts
  • Bulk hosts
  • Roaming hosts
  • Shared records
  • Shared record groups
  • IPv4 and IPv6 networks
  • IPv4 and IPv6 network containers
  • IPv4 and IPv6 shared networks
  • IPv4 and IPv6 DHCP ranges
  • IPv4 and IPv6 reserved ranges
  • IPv4 and IPv6 fixed addresses
  • IPv4 reservations
  • DHCP fingerprints
  • IPv4 DHCP filters (MAC, option, NAC, relay agent, and DHCP Fingerprint)

Note: Only IPv4 MAC filters support approval workflows.

  • IPv4 MAC address filter items
  • Conversion of IPv4 and IPv6 static and dynamic leases
  • Microsoft objects that are supported by NIOS
  • Load balancer related objects
  • DNS64 Synthesis Groups
  • All IPAM tasks except CSV imports
  • Response Policy Zones
  • Response Policy records

You can also schedule the following operations or create approval workflows for them:

  • Network Discovery
  • Device Discovery
  • VM Discovery
  • Port Control provisioning tasks for setting Admin Status, VLAN assignments, and a Description;
  • Defining infrastructure device port reservations for the following IPAM/DHCP objects:
    • IPv4 Reservations
    • IPv4/IPv6 Fixed Addresses
    • Hosts
    • Grid Members
    • IPv4 and IPv6 Networks
  • Service restarts (for scheduled tasks only)

Note: Service restarts are not subject to approvals.

Guidelines for Upgrading, Backing Up, and Restoring Dat a

You should take into consideration the impact on scheduled and approval tasks when you perform any of the following:

  • When you upgrade from previous releases to NIOS 6.7 and later, the appliance converts all valid punycode data to IDNs for DNS resource records and DNS zones. When you have a fresh installation of NIOS 6.7 and later, the appliance converts all valid punycode data to IDNs for DNS zones only. It retains punycode data for resource records.
  • Upgrade the NIOS software: In a full upgrade, all scheduled and approval tasks are deleted. In a lite upgrade, scheduled and approval tasks are not deleted.
  • Back up the NIOS database: All scheduled and approval tasks are backed up for troubleshooting purpose.
  • Restore the database: Scheduled and approval tasks are not restored.
  • Promote a Grid member to a Grid Master: After the promotion, all scheduled and approval tasks that are past due are executed immediately.
  • Revert the NIOS software image: After the revert, all scheduled and approval tasks that are past due are executed immediately.
  • Restore data from the Recycle Bin: To restore a deleted parent object (such as a network) that contains a child object (such as a DHCP range) associated with a scheduled or approval task, you must first delete the scheduled or approval task for the child object.