Schedule a data collection job to regularly collect Performance Analytics indicator scores and snapshots.

Before you begin

Before defining data collection jobs, make sure that indicator sources, breakdown sources, and indicators have been defined. Otherwise, jobs cannot return any results.

Roles required: pa_data_collector or admin

About this task

The important items to know when you configure a data collection job are:
  • Collection period
  • Collection timezone
  • Collected scores domain, if domains are used.
  • The collection job runs without any restrictions. It does not use the permissions of the user who runs it.

Data collection jobs run different steps to collect scores and to collect text analytics data. By default, jobs collect both types of data. To improve performance, you can instead schedule separate jobs for scores and for text analytics data.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Performance Analytics > Data Collector > Jobs and click New.
    You can instead edit an existing data collection job, for example to change the schedule of when the job runs. In this case, navigate to Performance Analytics > Data Collector > Jobs and click the job name.
  2. In the Name field, give the job a meaningful name.
    Follow a standard format for naming data collector jobs, such as [PA Indicator] Daily Data Collection, [PA Indicator] Historic Data Collection...
  3. In the Operator field, select whether to collect data for an absolute or a relative time period.
    Operator valueDescription
    Fixed Collects data for an absolute time period.
    Relative Collect data for a period of time that is relative to the time when the job is run.
  4. If you selected Fixed as the operator, select the Fixed start date and the Fixed end date.
  5. If you selected Relative as the operator, specify the intervals prior to the run time to collect data from.
    1. In the fields Relative start and Relative start interval, set the number and the length, respectively, of time periods in the past to begin to collect data from.
    2. In the fields Relative end and Relative end interval, set the number and the length, respectively, of the last period in the past to collect data from.
      Tip:
      • Most indicators, and therefore most data collection jobs, run Daily. Daily scheduled jobs normally should collect for the most recently completed day. Therefore, they should have both a relative start and relative end of one day ago. Run historical data collection jobs, which have longer collection periods, only once.
      • If you plan to use this job with indicators that use business calendars, consider the periods ago interval. This interval is based on the periods that are defined for a business calendar.
      For example, you want to collect scores for a set of several new indicators with a daily frequency, all using the same indicator source. First you create a historical data collection job that collects data from two months ago up to the day before yesterday. For this job, enter 60 in Relative start and days ago in Relative start interval. Enter 2 in Relative end and days ago in Relative end interval. Set the Run field to On Demand. Click Execute now and run this job once, to collect the initial scores.

      Create a second job with relative start and end of 1 day ago and set the Run field to Daily. Activate this job to collect the scores for yesterday and all future scores for the day before the job is run.

  6. Fill in the Job parameters, as appropriate.
    Job parameterDescription
    Run as For domain separated instances, select the user that runs this job. The job collects scores from facts table and Performance Analytics records that have either the Global domain or are in the domain of this user.

    The data collection job follows only the domain, not the permissions of this user. ACLs and business rules do not apply to data collection jobs. Any user can run the job.

    Important: If you select a domain configuration for this job, it overrides the Run as user. See Step 9 in this topic.
    Run as tz Select the time zone that the queries use when they are executed from the job. Use the reporting time zone of your company if one exists. By default the System time zone is used.

    This time zone determines what day is "Today" for conditions like [[Opened][on][Today]].
    Active If selected, as it is by default, the data collection occurs at the scheduled date and time.
    Run Select the schedule for collecting the data. Choices are:
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • Monthly
    • Periodically
    • Once
    • On demand
    If you are using business calendars, you also have these options, for the start and end of the business calendar period (See Define business calendar entries):
    • Business calendar: Entry start
    • Business calendar: Entry end

    If you are creating a historical data collection job, schedule the job to run On demand.
    Day
    • If Run is Weekly, specify the day of the week.
    • If Run is Monthly, specify the day of the month.

    To collect at the end of the month, set for day 1 and set Time to soon after midnight. This setting collects data for a completed month regardless of the length of the month.
    Repeat Interval If Run is Periodically, specify the amount of time between scheduled data collections, in days and hour.
    Starting If Run is Periodically or Once, specify the date and time of the first scheduled data collection.
    Time Time that the job runs, on 24 hour clock. Field appears after Active is selected.
    • Time based on the time zone for your user session, not the Run as tz time zone.
    • Generally set for an hour between midnight and 6 am at your company, to collect the last complete period.

    For example, if you are in New York and want to collect data at 5 am for your company that is on Los Angeles time, set the time to 08:00:00.
    Collect Data collection jobs have separate steps for collecting scores and for collecting text analytics. Select one of:
    • Scores only
    • Text index only
    • Both scores and text index (default)

    For more information, see Set up text analytics.
    Conditional If checked, the data collection occurs only if certain conditions are met.
    Conditions Conditional script that determines if a scheduled job should run. The last expression of the script should evaluate to a Boolean (true/false) value. This text box appears only if you select Use conditions.
    Warning: Conditional scripts for Performance Analytics data collection jobs are executed in the sandbox. Therefore, function definitions are not allowed. Some API calls and keywords are also not allowed. For more information, see Script sandbox property.

    After upgrade, jobs with conditional scripts that contain these disallowed API components will conclude with "Collected with errors." These jobs do not collect scores.

    The com.snc.pa.dc.script.use.sandbox system property controls whether data collection scripts use the sandbox. Only users with the security_admin role can modify this property. Exercise caution when turning off this property. When set to false, unauthorized users may be able to execute malicious actions on your instance.
  7. Right-click the form header and select Save.
  8. In the Indicators related list, click Edit and select the indicators that this job collects data for.
    Important:
    • Include at least one indicator for the job. Otherwise, the job cannot return any results.
    • To help keep jobs maintainable, try not to associate an indicator with more than one active collection job unless you have a clear use case. If you are trying to get real-time data, consider using a real-time indicator.
    • The data collection job produces one database query for each indicator source for the associated indicators. Thus the data for all indicators that share an indicator source represent the same point in time.
  9. If you have enabled domain configurations, you can select a domain configuration to associate with this job in the Domain configurations related list.
    Domain configurations are grouping of domains based on their visibility to a user group or other condition. These groupings can include parent-child relationships. If you select a domain configuration for a job, the job collects scores for records in the domains of the configuration, including the global domain. Domain configurations override the Run as user. For more information, see Grouping domains in Performance Analytics domain configurations.
  10. Click Submit.

What to do next

  • By default, for each job indicator, data is collected for all breakdowns and the indicator itself. To change this configuration for an indicator, see Configure a job indicator.
  • If you have enabled domain support, you have a related list named Domain configuration. In this tab, click Edit to relate an existing domain configuration with this job or click New to create a new domain configuration. For more information, see Create a domain configuration.