Server Admin: Restart

[MarqueeCrew]

Use Cases:

1. As a server admin, planned PM outages should be scheduled.  These outages should prevent jobs from beginning execution (window of time) prior to the outage.  Jobs running at the time of the cut-off should be system-cancelled.  
2. As a server admin, unplanned outages should cause running jobs to stop.  At the conclusion of an outage, jobs that are system cancelled should be restarted.

Currently, we use Task Manager to control Alteryx Service (or command line).  An administrative function within Alteryx should support graceful stopping and starting of the service as user jobs are interrupted (or can be) by our activities.  While I currently post messages to users alerting them to admin activities, I am asked why Tableau can restart jobs (admin) and we can't.  Other admins have asked what is "hanging" alteryx service up for a STOP command.  I have explained that all jobs must be stopped in order for a quick restart of the service.  

We're using a single server today (this client) and plan to add workers to the configuration.   It would be helpful to know where work is running and be able to use admin functions across the servers.

Cheers,

Mark

[MarqueeCrew]

24/7 access to the server is desirable, but not always feasible.  If scheduled downtime is needed, it would be nice to have the ability to have scheduled blocks of time where jobs are prevented from being executed or scheduled.  If we are planning a downtime, these windows would cease accepting new workflows and would possibly even kill jobs if they moved from a grey block of time to a black block of time.

Just a thought,

Mark

[MattB]

Thanks for the idea @MarqueeCrew . We'll keep this in consideration. Along these lines, customers have asked to have the ability to set blackout windows for scheduled jobs. For example, they may have a scheduled DB downtime and don't want any Alteryx jobs trying to access the data. It can become tricky when handing a wide array of jobs that may take hours to run or run longer than expected.

[patrick_digan]

Big thumbs up on this one.

[JulieM]

@MarqueeCrew thank you for posting this use case and feedback.  We are actively looking at building out a better administrative experience for Alteryx Server and platform as a whole.  I am marking this as under review and we will definitely keep this in mind as we're building out the enhancements.  Thank you again!  

[Mike2456]

Having the exact same issue ending Alteryx Server Service for running Mongodump command.   Server just hangs in Stopping status.  Using the the following in a .bat file that performs the Mongodump backup:

sc stop AlteryxService

Sure need some resolution to this......

Mike Shaw

[sgabriel62]

@AbbyB Shaw

Is this "stopping" status occurring when there are jobs running or in the queue or when there are no jobs running and the queue empty?

We have seen it where a running workflow contributes to the delay in service status changes.  Once the workflow is completed the service status changes.

Steve

[BenBo]

@MattB curious if there's been further movement on this. Just got a request today for this very feature.

[KylieF]

Updating this idea's status back to Under Review, to be in line with past product updates.

[KylieF]

Updating this idea's status back to Under Review, to be in line with past product updates.

[KylieF]

Thank you for your idea! Our product team has reviewed this idea and decided they would like to put it on the roadmap. We'll update the status again once we are close to releasing this feature.