Workflow hanging in windows command line scheduling and not completing.

Question

Hi Guys,

I'm experiening itermittent issues with workflows hanging mid way, and also not closing when they're finsihed, when scheduled in windows task scheduler to run via the command line.

I have no problems running them individually in designer.

Anyone familir with such an issue?

Its a process that runs every 5 minutes, and runs an alteryx workflow looking for a qualifying customer, and if found, will then run a batch macro for them (with lots of batch macro ops within that).

Most runs will come back blank if no qualifying customer is found and shut down, but will run the macro if one is found, marking it as running so it doesnt come through again.

Obviously if one is found then the task will be occupied for some time (30 mins max) , and so the windows task which comes round again 5 minutes later will run another instance in parallel to make sure the next customer isnt waiting.

Is the parralelisation the problem, or could it be something else.

Machine spec and bandwidth is gratuitously overpowered so I dont suspect an issue here, but am gretaful for any pointers.

best

w

BrandonB · Answer

I might suggest explicitly writing the workflow messages to a log file as explained here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Save-workflow-messages-log-in-database/m-p/185132/highlight/true#M47861

That way you can see exactly what line it is stopping at. You may also want to "Show All Macro Messages"

warrencowan · Answer

it does vary, which is a real pain. I have a suspicion that the last DB write in the chain is a recurring issue. I've scrolled through the command window while the hung task is running, and it often looks stuck after a db write. The write was successful by all acounts, and quite some time before hand, but the batch macro doing it woudln't complete having finished the run.

We tried moving to a stronger db env just in case but with no resolution.

fyi each customer writes to its own dedicated DB and tables, albeit in same server.

Am using the bulk sql as my dirver for upload.

BrandonB · Answer

When you mention that a workflow is "hanging" that makes me wonder if there is a script maybe you have executing that isn't properly exiting which I could see possibly causing a workflow not to complete. Have you already taken a look at the workflow logs to determine where the workflow is hanging at?