Job scheduler - Legacy UI

SECURITY  Refer to JOBS in Security Level Details - Permissions

NAVIGATION  Legacy UI > Jobs > New Job

NAVIGATION  Legacy UI > Site lists > select one or more sites > Schedule a job

NAVIGATION  Legacy UI > Device lists > select one or more devices > Schedule a job

NAVIGATION  Legacy UI > device summary > Actions > Schedule a job

NAVIGATION  Legacy UI > Device Audit > Actions > Schedule a job

NAVIGATION  Legacy UI > Account > Monitor > Monitor Alerts radio button > select one or more alerts > Schedule a job

NAVIGATION  Legacy UI > Sites > select a site > Monitor > select one or more alerts > Schedule a job

NAVIGATION  Legacy UI > Components > select a component > Schedule a job

Refer to Scheduled jobs.

About the job scheduler

A scheduled job allows you to run multiple components immediately or at a scheduled time. When a job is scheduled, the Web Portal signals the targeted devices that a job needs to be run. The Agent will download the job to the local hard drive, unpack the package into its component parts, and run the script. This process takes place in the system session where the Datto RMM Agent runs. If you want a job to run in the user session (for example to copy a shortcut to the desktop), you can set it up when scheduling the job. Refer to Execution.

Jobs can be scheduled for individual devices, sites, filters or groups. You cannot run a job at the Account level.

Components must first be downloaded from the ComStore into your Component Library. Refer to ComStore - Legacy UI.

NOTE  A quick job allows you to immediately deploy one component without having to schedule the job. Refer to Quick jobs - Legacy UI.

How to...

  1. Go to Jobs > New Job.

NOTE  Alternatively, you can access the same page from any of the site, device, or alert paths listed above, and the selected sites or devices will be added as job targets. For more information, refer to Job Targets.

NOTE  When the page is accessed from a component list, the selected components will be added as components but no job target will be defined.

  1. Configure the following sections:
    • General
    • Job Targets
    • Components
    • Advanced Options
    • Alerts
    • Automatically Email StdOut/StdErr Options
    • Job Recipients

See below for further details on each section.

Field Description
Name Enter a name for the job schedule.

NOTE  You can identify your active and completed jobs by this name. Refer to Active and completed jobs - Legacy UI.
Schedule
 By default, the job is executed immediately. To schedule the job for later or for recurring instances, click Click to change...
Select one of the following options:
Immediately: The job will run as soon as it is saved.
At selected date and time: The job will run once at the selected date and time.
Daily: The job will run every day at the time indicated in the Start field.
Weekly: The job will run every week on all selected days at the time indicated in the Start field.
Monthly: The job will run in the selected months on the selected days, at the time indicated in the Start field.
Monthly day of week: The job will run in the selected months on the specified occurrence of the selected days of the week, at the time indicated in the Start field.
Yearly: The job will run on the selected day (1 - 365) each year, at the time indicated in the Start field.
On Connect: On-connect jobs can only be scheduled by following one of these paths:
• Sites > select one or more sites > click Schedule a job
• Sites > click a site name > Devices > select ALL devices > click Schedule a job
The job will run once on each device in the selected site(s) as soon as they connect to the platform. This happens only once the next time the Agent connects following the scheduling of the job. For example, if the Agent is already online, the job will run immediately. If the Agent is offline, the job will run the next time the device comes online (provided that the job has not expired).
Initial Audit: New devices with audit data matching the target filter will run the job once the initial audit has completed. Jobs will automatically retire on devices that do not meet the target.

Once the job schedule has been configured, click OK.

NOTE  By default, offline devices will queue until they come online or the job expires.

NOTE  If it's a recurring job, any new devices added to the sites will pick up the job at the next run time.

NOTE  Jobs respect the account time zone that can be configured in either the legacy UI or the New UI. Refer to Time Zone in Your user account - Legacy UI (legacy UI) or Time zone in Account Settings (New UI).
Running as Security Level This field is not editable, however, when you edit a job after it's been saved, the field will show the security level used when the job got scheduled.
  1. Click Add targets.
  2. Select one of the following Target types and select any number of items within it.
    • Sites
    • Devices
    • Site Groups
    • Default Device Filters: When selected, the sites that you have access to will be listed below the list of filters. You can select any number of Default Device Filters and any number of sites to target the selected filters at. If you have access to all sites in the account, you will see an All Sites option as well.
    • Custom Device Filters
    • Device Groups
    • Site Device Groups
    • Site Device Filters

NOTE  You can only target sites, devices, groups, and filters that you have access to.

The page lets you:

  • Search: As you type, the search results are narrowed to match your search string.
  • Show entries: Select to show 10 / 25 / 50 / 100 entries per page. 10 is selected by default.
  • Select pages: Click a page number or click Previous / Next to jump to the previous / next page of results.
  1. Once you have selected the items, click Add.
    Your selection is now added to the Job Targets section.
  2. To add more items from other target types, repeat the steps. You can add any number of items and target types to the job targets.
  3. To remove a target from the list, click the Delete icon .

NOTE  For details on how jobs target devices, refer to A note on job targets.

Add components to the job. Components will be executed sequentially in the order in which they are added.

Field Description
Add a Component
 Click Add a Component and select one or multiple components from the list. You will see all components your component level allows you to see. Refer to Component Level in Users - Legacy UI (legacy UI) and Component Level in Users (New UI).

To find the components more easily, you can:
• Search: As you type, the search results are narrowed to match your search string.
• Select a group: Click to select a component group to only display components of that group. For information on component groups, refer to Manage component groups.
Once your components are selected, click Save.
You can change the order in which components are executed. To reorder the components, click the green up and down arrows on the right. To remove a component from the job, click the delete icon .

NOTE  If the components have variables, you can configure them under the Variables column.
Variable value limit: 20,000 characters.

Field Description
Job disabled The job schedule is enabled by default. Check the check box to disable the job schedule without deleting it.
Expire this job after Set an expiration time for the job (30 minutes - 3 days). By default it's set to 1 hour, except for Initial Audit jobs for which the default setting is Do not expire.
Expiration defines the length of time the scheduled job remains available as either a queued or a running job. After this time has elapsed, the expired job will be canceled (if running) or removed from the job queue until the next scheduled time.
Duration This setting defines the last date and time that a recurring job is available for the scheduler. After this date has passed, this job will no longer be automatically rescheduled.

NOTE  The duration setting works independently from the expiration setting and will therefore not prevent a correctly scheduled job from running.
Execution These options allow you to run the job in the user session, either automatically or with user interaction.
• Only run this job when user is logged in: Check this check box to only run the job when the user is logged in. Once selected, additional options become available.
• Logged in user must have Administrator rights: Check this check box if the end user must be an Administrator of the device in order for the job to run. It will wait for an Administrator logon even across multiple Limited User logons.
• Execute when user is logged in: Automatically runs the job in the user session.
• Advertise to user but do not execute: Prompts the user to run the job. The user is presented with a Datto RMM system tray icon to authorize the execution of the job. When the user clicks on the icon, the software installer will be displayed.

Field Description
Alert me if You can choose to create an alert when the job:
• succeeds
• fails
• has warnings
• expires

IMPORTANT  You must select at least one of the Alerts options to be able to receive StdOut or StdErr files via email. See below.

NOTE  Job alerts appear on the Account > Monitor page when you toggle to Job Alerts. Refer to Job alerts - Legacy UI.

You can configure to receive an StdOut or StdErr file via email after the job has run.

NOTE  You can download the job output file from within the email notification. The link expires after seven days, however, you can also access and download the file in the Web Portal. Refer to The job view - Legacy UI in the legacy UI or the Activities card in the New UI.

NOTE  A job output file can also be downloaded from within an email notification in the New UI. Refer to Automatically Email StdOut/StdErr Options in Scheduled jobs or StdOut/StdErr in Job results.

Field Description
Select output choices

IMPORTANT  You must select at least one of the Alerts options above to receive files.

Select any of the following options:
• Stdout: Check this check box to receive an email when the job is complete.
• Stderr: Check this check box to receive an email when an error occurs.
Select the file format Select one of the following options:
• HTML
• Plain text
Choosing Plain text lets you select two additional options:
• Output Only: Check this check box to omit job summary information from the message (such as number of devices the job was run on, and so forth.).
• Use custom file extension: Check this check box to present the output in a certain format (for example, output tab-delimited text as .csv).

Field Description
Send alert to

IMPORTANT  You must select at least one of the Alerts options or the Automatically Email StdOut/StdErr Options to be able to configure this section.

Select any of the following options:
• Default recipients: An email will be sent to the user who scheduled the job, and to the default email recipients set in the Email Recipients section in Account Settings - Legacy UI (legacy UI), in the Email Recipients section in Global Settings (New UI), and/or in the Email Recipients section in Site Settings - Legacy UI (legacy UI).
• Additional recipients: Add any additional email recipients.

NOTE  The email field accepts the following characters:
a-z, A-Z, 0-9, @, and !#$%&'`*+-|/=?^_{}~.
  1. Click Save. The job schedule is now created and you are directed to the Jobs > Active Jobs page.

Jobs scheduled for a one-time or recurring delivery in the future are listed on the Jobs > Active Jobs page. Completed jobs are listed on the Jobs > Completed Jobs page. For more information, refer to Active and completed jobs - Legacy UI.

IMPORTANT  A job can only be edited, copied, deleted, or retired by an Administrator or a user with the same security level as the one that was used when the job was created. For example, if a job was created by a user with the Administrator security level, non-administrator users will be unable to edit, copy, delete, or retire that job.

Active and completed jobs can be edited or deleted on the Jobs > Active Jobs or Jobs > Completed Jobs page, respectively. For more information, refer to Active and completed jobs - Legacy UI.

Notes

When a job is about to fire, it performs a scan to build a list of devices that are part of the job targets (for example, filters or groups) at that time.

To better understand this, let's see a few scenarios when a job targets your devices via a filter:

  • If you change the criteria of a filter after you scheduled a job with that filter, you do not need to redefine the job because the job will fire against all devices that hit the filter criteria defined at fire time.
  • If a job has been fired (that is, the scheduled time has passed) but it has not run on certain devices, and the job is set to never expire and has no duration setting, it will run on those devices the next time they come online. This is irrespective of any changes you subsequently make to the filter because the job is already queued up to hit those device. Therefore, if, at this point, you delete the filter, the devices will still be targeted. However, if the job is set to expire or has a duration timestamp, and the devices come online after that time, the job will not fire due to the expiry and/or duration setting.
  • If a job has been scheduled but the scheduled time has not yet passed, and you delete the filter before the scheduled timestamp, the devices in the filter will not be targeted because there is no filter to target against.