Hi,

I am evaluating VisualCron for our business needs and am in a bind with regards to what the Variables option does.

The task I am trying to set up is of the type "Execute". It is a batch file which takes in up to 6 command line arguments. Now the batch file makes use of an environment variable and runs some python scripts. For one, it does not identify the environment variable (%my_files%) and also does not identify the python script directory which is in my %PATH%.

I went through the documentation but couldn't really find anything to help me on this. How can I not alter my scripts and make VisualCron identify my environment variables?

I am using VisualCron 5.6.2 [2010-06-29]

On a sidenote, the link in the example which explains using arguments/parameters for a job is broken.

Thanks.
Ankur

UPDATE:
After much mucking around I modified my task to be executed in Foreground mode and also checked the "Use shell execute" box and it was able to identify my environment variable. Have not checked if the PATH is being identified since it has to work on the network. The strategy outlined in another thread to pass VisualCron variables as parameters also failed. When I did that test I did not have the Foreground or the use shell execute options enabled.

Obviously since I am using the shell execute option I am losing my output. Is there a simple way to capture that? Or if someone can suggest an alternative to my approach that'd be great.

Further, I plan to queue my jobs on a machine based on CPU usage. What is the ideal Trigger to set for the same? I trolled the Performance Counter but didnt find any obvious equivalent in the Process/Processor/ProcessorPerformance entries. Will appreciate pointer in the right direction.

Hi,

about environment variables:

There are two type of environment variables;

* User
* Global

By default, the VisualCron service runs as SYSTEM account and do not have any specific user access. If you create a batch file that writes one user and one global variable you will only see the global variable.

To be able to see the user variable you need to run the batch file as that particular user. You do this by creating and selecting a credential. If you do that you will be able to see both variables.

Foreground execution
You should not use Foreground execution unless you really really need to. There are many limitations in that and in this case you don't need it. Switch back and try the above.

Triggering CPU usage
You should use the performance trigger. You can use many alternatives to get the same thing but we used:
Processor->% Processor Time

I am adding a screenshot. In my case the cpu usage should be over 10% over 5 seconds (duration) to trigger.

---

Henrik,

Thanks for the pointer ... your suggestion worked and I was able to set it up as a background execution.

Before I set up the trigger based on CPU usage, I wanted to ask if there is a way to set it up so that the job runs only once? I see the option of "Run once" but that applies to the Job and not to the Task. Also, if I apply that to the Job then if I have 10 Tasks then they will be run one after the other, right? If that is the case I'd have to have 10 Jobs for 10 Tasks to set it up.

Another thing that I noted is that the Standard Output for a Task is limited to 2000 characters and I am unable to change that. However, the documentation says 3000 characters. How can I increase that to a very large number?

Thanks.

As the Tasks belong to one Job I think that is what you are looking for, to use the "Run once" property.

Yes, the Tasks will be run after each other.

The output is not limited when using the output Variable. It is only limited when sending it to the Client from the Server. Optionally, when double clicking on output column you can fetch all output.

---