Data View: Automation Activity Instance

What This Data View Shows

• Activities that ran in an automation
• When an activity ran
• The duration of an activity
• Whether an activity succeeded or failed
• The reason an activity failed

What You Need to Know

How to activate the data view	Available by default
When data is available	Data in this view is available in real-time
How much data is available	Data for automations that ran in the last 6 months
Data view scope	Single business unit
Time zone	UTC

Questions That You Can Answer

Which Automations Are Failing and Why?

Identify the cause of automation errors to prevent future failures. An automation error can be categorized as a configuration error or system error.

• A configuration error occurs because an activity or dependency isn’t set up correctly. For example, if a file transfer activity is looking for a file named test.csv and the file doesn’t exist. Modify your automation or its dependencies to solve a configuration error.
• A system error is more general and often temporary. For example, if a server runs out of memory or a connection fails. In many cases, you don’t need to change your automation to solve a system error, and you can run the automation again.

Use this query to find activities that failed because of a configuration error. Check the error message to learn how you can address the error.

SELECT activitycustomerkey
FROM   [_automationactivityinstance]
WHERE activityinstancestatus = 'Error'
       AND activityinstancestatusdetails LIKE 'System Error occurred%'

Use this query to find activities that failed because of a system error. Retry the associated automation.

SELECT activitycustomerkey
FROM   [_automationactivityinstance]
WHERE activityinstancestatus = 'Error'
       AND activityinstancestatusdetails NOT LIKE 'System Error occurred%' 

Which Activities Are at Risk of Timing Out?

Proactively identify long-running activities that are approaching the 30-minute time limit.

Use this query to find query activities with an average duration greater than 20 minutes. Optimize the query activity, or break it up into multiple steps.

SELECT activitycustomerkey,
       avgduration
FROM   (SELECT activitycustomerkey,
               Avg(Datediff(minute, activityinstancestarttime_utc,
                   activityinstanceendtime_utc)
               ) AS AvgDuration
        FROM   [_automationactivityinstance] activity
        WHERE  activity.activitytype = 300
        GROUP  BY activitycustomerkey) durations
WHERE  avgduration > 20

Use this query to find SSJS activities with an average duration greater than 20 minutes. Optimize the SSJS activity, or break it up into multiple steps.

SELECT activitycustomerkey,
       avgduration
FROM   (SELECT activitycustomerkey,
               Avg(Datediff(minute, activityinstancestarttime_utc,
                   activityinstanceendtime_utc)
               ) AS AvgDuration
        FROM   [_automationactivityinstance] activity
        WHERE  activity.activitytype = 150
        GROUP  BY activitycustomerkey) durations
WHERE  avgduration > 20

What is the Average Duration of Each Activity?

Track the average performance of your activities to find trends and investigate problems before they impact critical processes. Use this query to determine each activity’s average duration over the past 6 months.

SELECT activitycustomerkey,
       Avg(Datediff(minute, activityinstancestarttime_utc,
           activityinstanceendtime_utc)
       ) AS AvgDuration
FROM   [_automationactivityinstance] activity
GROUP  BY activitycustomerkey

Data View Columns

Name	Description	DataType	Data Extension Data Type	Nullable
MemberID	The unique ID of the business unit.	BIGINT	Number
JobID	The job ID number for the email send	INT	Number	X
AutomationName	The automation name.	NVARCHAR(400)	Text
AutomationCustomerKey	The unique ID of the automation.	NVARCHAR(400)	Text
AutomationInstanceID	The unique ID of the automation run.	UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	Text
ActivityType	The activity type. Possible values are listed in the Activity Type IDs table.	INT	Number
ActivityName	The activity name.	NVARCHAR(400)	Text
ActivityDescription	The activity description.	NVARCHAR(400)	Text	X
ActivityCustomerKey	The unique ID of the activity.	NVARCHAR(400)	Text
ActivityInstanceStep	Where the activity occurs in the automation. For example, 3.2 is step 3, activity 2.	VARCHAR(25)	Text
ActivityInstanceID	The unique ID of the activity run.	UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	Text
ActivityInstanceStartTime_UTC	The time that the activity run started. This value is null if the automation was skipped.	DATETIMEOFFSET	Date	X
ActivityInstanceEndTime_UTC	The time that the activity run ended. This value is null if the automation was skipped, is still running, or wasn’t selected as part of an Advanced Run Once.	DATETIMEOFFSET	Date	X
ActivityInstanceStatus	The status of the activity run when the data view is queried. Possible values are Initialized, Executing, Complete, Error, or NotSelected.	NVARCHAR(256)	Text
ActivityInstanceStatusDetails	The message from the error log, if applicable. If a system or unclassified error occurs, the value is System Error.	NVARCHAR(4000)	Text	X

Activity Type IDs

Activity Type ID	Activity Name
33	SMS Activity
42	Send Email
43	Data Copy or Import
45	Refresh Group
53	File Transfer
73	Data Extract
84	Report Definition
300	SQL Query
303	Filter
423	Script
425	Data Factory Utility Activity
426	Refresh Segment Template
427	Publish Audience
467	Wait
615	Verify Audience Count
724	Refresh Mobile Filtered List
725	Send SMS
726	Import Mobile Contacts
733	Journey Builder Event Activity
736	Send Push
749	Fire Event
771	Salesforce Email Send
772	Mobile Connect Send Salesforce Sync Subscriber
783	Send GroupConnect
952	Journey Builder Event Activity
1000	Verification
1010	Interaction Studio Data
1101	Interactions
1701	Batch Personalization
3700	Contact to Business Unit Mapping