Data View: Automation Instance

What This Data View Shows

• Automations that ran recently
• When an automation ran
• The duration of an automation
• Whether an automation succeeded, skipped, or failed
• The reason an automation failed
• The file that was being processed when a triggered automation failed

What You Need to Know

Note This data view generates a row for each email address that’s receiving notifications about the automation. To prevent duplicate records, use a shared distribution list for notifications.

Questions That You Can Answer

Which Automations Failed Yesterday?

Identify problems with your automations and prevent future failures by reviewing automations that failed yesterday.

SELECT automationcustomerkey
FROM   [_automationinstance]
WHERE  automationinstancestatus = 'Error'
       AND automationinstanceendtime_utc >= Dateadd(day, -2, Getutcdate())

Which Automations Completed Yesterday?

Confirm that the automations that you expected to run yesterday successfully completed.

SELECT automationcustomerkey
FROM   [_automationinstance]
WHERE  automationinstancestatus = 'Complete'
       AND automationinstanceendtime_utc >= Dateadd(day, -2, Getutcdate())

Which Automations Skipped Yesterday?

Skipped instances are a warning that an automation could be unhealthy, for example, there isn’t enough time between scheduled automations. Or, there were multiple instances of the same file drop automation queued when a running instance was stopped. Use this query to identify automations that were skipped yesterday, and decide whether to take action.

SELECT automationcustomerkey
FROM   [_automationinstance]
WHERE  automationinstancestatus = 'Skipped'
       AND automationinstanceendtime_utc >= Dateadd(day, -2, Getutcdate())

What Is the Average Duration of Each Automation?

Track the average performance of your automations to find trends and investigate problems before they impact critical processes. If an automation is slowing down over time, you can investigate the root cause and take corrective action. Use this query to determine each automation’s average duration over the past 6 months.

SELECT automationcustomerkey,
       Avg(Datediff(minute, automationinstancestarttime_utc,
           automationinstanceendtime_utc)) AS AvgDuration
FROM   [_automationinstance] automation
GROUP  BY automationcustomerkey

What Is the Latest End Time and Status of Each Automation?

View details of all automations with at least one run in the last 6 months, including the latest end time and status. Use this information to identify critical failures and automations that haven’t run recently.

SELECT automationcustomerkey,
       automationinstanceid,
       automationinstancestatus,
       automationinstanceendtime_utc
FROM   (SELECT automationcustomerkey,
               automationinstanceid,
               automationinstancestatus,
               automationinstanceendtime_utc,
               Row_number()
                 OVER (
                   partition BY automationcustomerkey
                   ORDER BY automationinstanceendtime_utc DESC) AS run_count
        FROM   [_automationinstance]) AS instances
WHERE  run_count = 1 

Data View Columns