PowerShell CLI 1.2 - Use Cases - Task History Report

Starting Situation

User might be interested to automatically receive reports about past job executions.
- The reports include the same information as available from the JOC Cockpit History view for tasks.
- The reports are provided as Excel® files similar to what is available for export from the JOC Cockpit History view.
The report can be scheduled e.g. on a daily basis or more frequently to report about past job execution results.

Use Cases

Report Task History from a job

The PowerShell CLI is used by jobs to create reports. Two modules are applied for this purpose:

the JobScheduler PowerShell Module
a reporting PowerShell Module. This example makes use of the ImportExcel PowerShell Module that can be used to create Excel® reports on Windows and Linux.

The Get-JobSchedulerTaskHistory cmdlet is used to retrieve task history items and to forward them to the ImportExcel module within a job. Two flavors of the job are available for Windows and Linux. The difference is not about the handling of cmdlets or parameters but due to the fact that PowerShell is invoked differently on Windows and Linux. For Windows environments usually PowerShell is available with the OS, for Linux the job has to call pwsh to invoke the PowerShell.

Find a sample report: jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx

Please consider that below jobs are examples that have to be adjusted for your environment.

Windows Version

Download: report_task_history_windows.job.xml

Task History Report (Windows version)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<job title="Report Task History" process_class="agent_windows">
  <script language="powershell"><![CDATA[
Import-Module $env:SCHEDULER_DATA/config/powershell/Modules/ImportExcel;
Import-Module $env:SCHEDULER_DATA/config/powershell/Modules/JobScheduler;

Connect-JS -Url $JOCCockpitUrl -Credential $JOCCockpitCredential | Out-Null;

# Dates in local timezone, output includes local date format
Get-JSTaskHistory -Timezone (Get-Timezone ) `
                |  Select-Object -Property @{name="JobScheduler ID"; expression={$_.jobschedulerId}}, `
                                           @{name="Task ID"; expression={$_.taskId}}, `
                                           @{name="Job"; expression={$_.job}}, `
                                           @{name="Status"; expression={$_.state._text}}, `
                                           @{name="Start Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.startTime }}, `
                                           @{name="End Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.endTime }}, `
                                           @{name="Duration (sec.)"; expression={ (New-Timespan -Start "$($_.startTime)" -End "$($_.endTime)").Seconds }}, `
                                           @{name="Criticality"; expression={$_.criticality}}, `
                                           @{name="Exit Code"; expression={$_.exitCode}} `
                | Export-Excel -Path /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx -WorksheetName "Task-History" -ClearSheet;
				
Write-Output ".. report created: /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xls";
]]></script>
  <run_time/>
</job>

Explanations

Line 2-3: The job is executed with a Windows Agent that is assigned by a process class. The job is of type "powershell" and will use the Powershell version provided with the server.
Line 4-5: The required PowerShell modules are imported. They could be installed with any location in the file system
Line 7: The Connect-JS cmdlet is used to authenticate with the JOC Cockpit REST Web Service. The required URL and credentials are specified in a PowerShell profile, see PowerShell CLI 1.2 - Use Cases - Credentials Management
Line 10: The Get-JSTaskHistory cmdlet is called
- with the parameter -Timezone to specify to which timezone date values in the report should be converted. The parameter value -Timezone (Get-Timezone) specifies that the timezone of the Agent's server is used. Otherwise specify the desired timezone e.g. like this: -Timezone (Get-Timezone -Id 'GMT Standard Time'). Without using this parameter any date values are stored as UTC dates to the report.
- optionally with additional parameters, e.g. to specify the date range for which the report is created A value -DateFrom (Get-Date -Hour 0 -Minute 0 -Second 0).AddDays(-7).ToUniversalTime() specifies that the report should cover the last 7 days (from midnight). Keep in mind that dates have to be specified for the UTC timezone. Without this parameter the report will be created for the last day.
- see the Get-JSTaskHistory cmdlet for a full parameter reference.
Line 11-19: From the output of the Get-JSTaskHistory cmdlet a number of properties are selected and and are specified for the sequence in which they should occur in the report.
- To add more speaking column headers the property names are mapped to a more readable textual representation.
- Consider the handling of date formats in lines 15, 16. Use of the Get-Date cmdlet converts the output format of dates (not the timezone) to the default format that is in place on the Agent's server. Without using the Get-Date cmdlet any date values will be stored to the report in ISO format, e.g. 2020-12-31 10:11:12+02:00 for a date in the European central timezone that is UTC+1 in winter time and UTC+2 in summer time.
- Lines 17 introduces a new property, a calculated duration. From the start time and end time values of a past start the difference in seconds is calculated and is forwarded to the report.
Line 20: The list of properties per task history item is piped to the Export-Excel cmdlet that is available with the ImportExcel PowerShell Module. The report file name is specified and optionally the worksheet. For a full list of parameters see the ImportExcel PowerShell Module.

Linux Version

Download: report_task_history_linux.job.xml

Task History Report (Linux version)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<job title="Report Task History" process_class="agent_linux">
  <script language="shell"><![CDATA[
pwsh -NoLogo -NonInteractive -Command '& {
    . $env:SCHEDULER_DATA/config/powershell/JobScheduler.PowerShell_profile.ps1;
    Import-Module $env:SCHEDULER_DATA/config/powershell/Modules/ImportExcel;
    Import-Module $env:SCHEDULER_DATA/config/powershell/Modules/JobScheduler;

    Connect-JS -Url $JOCCockpitUrl -Credential $JOCCockpitCredential | Out-Null;

    # Dates in local timezone, output includes local date format
    Get-JSTaskHistory -Timezone (Get-Timezone ) `
                |  Select-Object -Property @{name="JobScheduler ID"; expression={$_.jobschedulerId}}, `
                                           @{name="Task ID"; expression={$_.taskId}}, `
                                           @{name="Job"; expression={$_.job}}, `
                                           @{name="Status"; expression={$_.state._text}}, `
                                           @{name="Start Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.startTime }}, `
                                           @{name="End Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.endTime }}, `
                                           @{name="Duration (sec.)"; expression={ (New-Timespan -Start "$($_.startTime)" -End "$($_.endTime)").Seconds }}, `
                                           @{name="Criticality"; expression={$_.criticality}}, `
                                           @{name="Exit Code"; expression={$_.exitCode}} `
                | Export-Excel -Path /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx -WorksheetName "Task-History" -ClearSheet;

    Write-Output ".. report created: /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xls";
}'
]]></script>
  <run_time/>
</job>
</job>