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Alteryx Server Knowledge Base

Definitive answers from Server experts.

Alteryx Service Stuck in Stopping State

DanC
Moderator
Moderator
Created

Question

In the Services tab of the Windows Task Manager, the Alteryx Service seems to be stuck in the 'Stopping' state.

Answer

One common reason why the Alteryx Service appears stuck in the 'Stopping' state is when the service is trying to stop but the AlteryxEngineCmd.exe process is running. In other words, a workflow is running. The Alteryx Service cannot be stopped when a workflow is running due to a schedule or a Gallery run.

One common reason why the Alteryx Service is trying to stop is when a change is made to the Alteryx System Settings. Once the 'Finish" button is pressed, the service must go through a shutdown and restart routine. If a workflow is in the middle of running, you will need to wait until the workflow is complete, or kill the AlteryxEngineCmd.exe process.

Warning:Killing the AlteryxEngineCmd.exe process will stop the workflow from finishing. As it is possible that workflows critical to users are running, and members of the organization may rely on the timely output/results of these workflows, please use caution and best judgement when killing any engine command process, as the workflows will not attempt to rerun automatically.

Important Notes:

  • There may be multiple workflows queued to run at approximately the same time. In such a case, if you kill the engine command, another one may appear immediately afterwards, preventing you, yet again, from stopping the service. These will need to be killed as well, or you must wait until they are finished.
  • If you do not see any AlteryxEngineCmd.exe process running as expected, please make sure to click on the "Show processes from all users" button at the bottom left of the Windows Task Manager window.
  • If the AlteryxEngineCmd.exe is running due to workflow being run manually in the Designer on the Alteryx Server, the Alteryx Service will be allowed to stop.

Alteryx Service in 'Stopping' State:

ServiceStopping.jpg

AlteryxEngineCmd.exe Running ("Show processes from all users" highlighted at bottom left)

EngineCmd.jpg

Thank you for reading!

Comments
saiHareesh
8 - Asteroid

Awesome! it worked for me. Killing the AlteryxEngineCmd.exe made the Alteryx service start option enable and then I have cross checked the UI(server).

adrianloong
11 - Bolide

Really useful perspective to know

jason_scarlett
10 - Fireball

We use the backup script provided elsewhere on these forums (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Server-Knowledge-Base/Alteryx-Server-Backup-amp-Recovery-Pa...). But, if a job is running when the backup tries to stop the service it causes the server to hang in the "stopping" state ... until the next morning when I manually intervene.

 

Is there a way to tell if a job is running from the command line? .. and thus prevent the backup attempt in the first place.

DanC
Moderator
Moderator

Hi @jason_scarlett,

 

I hope you are doing well and thanks for checking out this article!. Here is an article that shows you how to view the current running processes from the Command Prompt and how to kill tasks if needed. Keep in mind that if you kill the AlteryxEngineCmd.exe it will kill all instances that are running. I hope this helps!

 

Thanks!

 

 

jason_scarlett
10 - Fireball

Thanks!

For now I just want to prevent the backup from script from trying to stop the server, so I will add something like this:

 

tasklist | FIND "AlteryxEngineCmd.exe"
IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO ProcessRunning

 

DanC
Moderator
Moderator

Sounds good, @jason_scarlett!

npsmith
8 - Asteroid

To add to the scenario where you directly try to stop the service via Task Manager.....it was not releasing from Stopping status even through I was pretty sure there were breaks between workflows running....so I opened up the Alteryx System Settings, clicked Finished after cycling through the different config menu screens and then it stopped (not restarted) the service.

 

Hope this helps anyone else stuck in this scenario with a group of users staring you down.... 🙂

gsjacobs
8 - Asteroid

We have experienced this issue two days in a row.  We don't appear to have the stated contributing to the issue. Can someone provide some guidance on doing a deeper dive for a root cause?

 

preeti121288
6 - Meteoroid

If we manually forcefully stopped alteryx service then it will imapct running jobs on alteryx server and can cause issue for users.

 

it is not wise to stop services forcefully but then how we can take backup. please suggest.

AijajShaikh2021
7 - Meteor

We have similar issue, every week we perform MongoDB backup where we first forcefully kill the AlteryxEngineCMD.exe  and then stop Alteryx Service, which causes issue for User's schedule workflow which shows state as completed and next run type "never". Any solution for this? 

EddieW
Alteryx
Alteryx

Thanks @DanC ! Works for me!

ashokkumar1
8 - Asteroid

Hi @DanC 

 

I dont find AlteryxEngineCmd.exe in Windows Task manager then what could be the steps to follow? As i am facing the same issue as above Alteryx services in stopping stage. Kindly help me on the same.

 

Thank you