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How to Handle Long-running or Stuck Tasks

Common tasks in BI include: Extract card tasks, direct connection card tasks, ETL running tasks, extract dataset update tasks, direct connection dataset update tasks, etc.

So when we do data analysis, we encounter these tasks taking longer to run such as:

  • Card tasks taking over a minute (extract, direct connection) or no response for several minutes, normally seconds

  • ETL, dataset automatic update tasks, large time difference compared to historical running records

(1) For card tasks, regular users can only see the surface phenomenon, that is, it's slow, or keeps loading or reports timeout errors

(2) For dataset or ETL update tasks, you can enter "View Update History"

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To judge, if it was 3 seconds before, but this time it's 30+ minutes or has been a long time since the scheduled update time, then you have reason to suspect there's a system problem now;

(Next step, find the internal BI system administrator)

Enter Administrator Settings——System Operation and Maintenance——Task Management to view the current running task situation in the system

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If there's widespread task blockage, find the currently running tasks, if abnormal (very long time, no status) you can manually kill them, see if tasks can run normally.
(1) System tasks gradually recover and start executing in sequence, then record the abnormal tasks and report in the group for Guandata technical support to investigate

(2) System tasks remain blocked, immediately contact Guandata technical support for feedback and processing.

Special Additional Notes

(1) First look at whether the task running situation is healthy, mainly look at running duration; ☞ For cards, getting direct connection cards is relatively slow, time may be several seconds, but whenever card tasks take several minutes, you need to check if there are very complex calculations on the card, if the data volume of the dataset referenced by the card is very large, if the card content needs optimization, etc.; ☞ For ETL, if there are very long running times like hours, you can first click into that ETL to see previous running records, if it's always been this long, if not, first check if the ETL has been modified recently, if not check the system, or report in the after-sales group, technical support assists in checking ☞ For datasets, first check if it's an extract dataset or direct connection dataset, then check the dataset update method (incremental or full), if full then check the dataset update SQL, if there are large segments of complex SQL (in this case dataset update speed will be very slow), optimize (2) If emergency situations occur, system has serious task blockage, such as being blocked by an abnormal ETL or dataset, you can cancel that task, currently supports batch task cancellation, temporarily restore the system, then contact after-sales technical support for investigation.