--- schema_version: "1" id: 6ec3ecbbc4e301ca9acb78e59ba5c88f3956129415d5aafb32e52fafb6bc5434 title: Managing Background Jobs in Tableau Server collection: tableau version: current locale: en-us portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/tableau/current/en-us/server/server_backgrounder_job_management.md canonical_url: https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/server_backgrounder_job_management.htm source_site: help.tableau.com content_type: documentation content_hash: da6fbc04c46edb23ef7b0a1b3f8299f085c27756689a4858089b0767882646f7 description: Manage background jobs, tasks, and statuses in Tableau Cloud. --- [Skip to main content](#main-content) # Managing Background Jobs in Tableau Server In Tableau Server, users can schedule extract refreshes, subscriptions, or flows to run periodically. These scheduled items are referred to as **Tasks**. The Backgrounder process initiates unique instances of these tasks to run them at the scheduled time. The unique instances of the tasks that are initiated as a result are referred to as **Jobs**. Jobs are also created for runs that are initiated manually, by selecting **Run Now** in the web interface, programmatically through REST API, or tabcmd commands. For example, an extract refresh task is created to run daily at 9 AM. This is an extract refresh task, and every day at 9 AM, a job will be created for the Backgrounder to run. In addition to user-generated jobs, the Backgrounder also does a number of System jobs on behalf of the user to support general Tableau work flows, such as thumbnail generation. Running all these jobs can mean that Backgrounder uses a lot of resources at various times during the day. Using the Job Management feature, Server and Site administrators can get more details on these jobs that happen in their Server or Site, and take action on those jobs to better manage server resource usage. System jobs are only viewable by Server administrators, and by default are filtered out. The **Run Now** settings on the **General** settings page also allows you to manage your resources by either allowing or blocking users from running jobs manually. By default, this option is selected to allow users to run jobs manually. Clear the check box to prevent users from running jobs manually. To learn more about managing Backgrounder resources, see [Tableau Server Backgrounder Process](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/server_process_backgrounder.htm). The Jobs page which contains the information about jobs can be accessed by navigating to the **Existing Tasks** menu of the left navigation menu. **Note:** Information about jobs can only be viewed by Server and site administrators. ## Overview This topic describes how to view and understand the information displayed in the Jobs page. At the top of the page there are high level statistics for the number of **Failed**, **Completed**, and **Canceled** jobs within the past 24 hours. For Server administrators, this also includes System jobs. Applying filters does not change these values. ![Show System Jobs checkbox on the job filter options.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_management.png) For each job generated, there is a Job ID, the status of that job, the priority, the type of task that the job was generated from, the content associated with the job, the current run time - if the job is in-progress, current queue time - if queued, as well as the average run time, and average queue time. Select a name in the **Content** column to go to that content's page. If the content was deleted, the **Content** column doesn't show a name or link. Jobs that aren't associated with content, such as System jobs, show a dash (-). Tableau records historical run times and queue times to compute the average run times and average queue times. Both average run times and average queue times are calculated as weighted averages using the following formula: ((current run time or queue time average x 4) + most recent run time or queue time)/ 5. For more information about a job and its task, select the Job ID to open the Task Details page. You can also use the Job ID to find the job in admin views or to query the [Workgroups Database](https://tableau.github.io/tableau-data-dictionary/2019.4/data_dictionary.htm). > [!IMPORTANT] > > Jobs that existed 24 hours or newer before an upgrade to Tableau Server 2019.4 will not have data for **Average Queue Time**, **Average Run Time**, **Last Successful Run Time**, and **Job Creator** on the **Jobs** page. ### Task Details Starting in version 2026.3.0, the **Task Details** page shows information about a job's task and run history from the past 30 days. Use it to confirm that a task is running as expected. If something goes wrong, you can find out why a job failed and who owns the content, or spot patterns like repeated failures or longer queue times. You can open the **Task Details** page from the Jobs page in two ways: - Select a Job ID. - Select the ellipses next to the Job ID, and then select **View Details**. **Note:** If the content associated with a job was deleted, selecting the Job ID opens a dialog instead of the Task Details page. ![A Task Details page displaying task settings and a job run history table.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/task_details.png) At the top of the page, you can see information about the task: - **Content**: The content associated with the task. Select the name to go to the content's page. - **Content owner**: The user who owns the content. - **Project**: The project that contains the content. - **Site**: The site that contains the content. - **Last successful run**: The date and time the task last ran successfully. - **Next run date and time**: The date and time the task is next scheduled to run. - **Average run time**: The average time the task's jobs take to run, calculated as a weighted average of the task's recent jobs. - **Average queue time**: The average time the task's jobs wait in the queue before they start, calculated the same way as average run time. - **Task type**: The kind of task, such as an extract refresh, subscription, or flow. - **Schedule**: How often the task runs, including the time and time zone. - **Priority**: The task's priority. Lower numbers have higher priority. - **Task creator**: The user who created the task. The **Job Run History** section lists each job that the task generated in the past 30 days, with the most recent job first. Scroll down to load older jobs. For each job, you can see: - **Job ID**: The job's ID number. Use it to find the job in admin views. - **Job LUID**: The job's unique identifier. Use it to refer to the job in the REST API. - **Status**: The job's status, such as Completed, Failed, or Canceled. - **Details**: Messages about the job. For example, a subscription job shows how many views were sent successfully. Other messages include a failure reason, a delay message, or the reason the job was canceled. - **Scheduled At**: The date and time the job was scheduled to run. - **Started At**: The date and time the job started running. - **Completed At**: The date and time the job finished. - **Queue Time**: The time the job waited in the queue before it started. - **Run Time**: The time the job took to run. ### Task Types There are several types of tasks: - Extracts: Includes extract creation, incremental extract refreshes, and full extract refreshes. Extracts can run on a schedule or manually with **Run Now**. For more information on extract refreshes, see [Quick Start: Refresh Extracts on a Schedule](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/qs_refresh_extracts.htm). - Subscriptions: Includes subscriptions for workbooks and views. Subscriptions can run on a schedule or when data refreshes. For more information, see [Set Up a Site for Subscriptions](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/subscribe.htm). - Flow: Includes scheduled flows and manual flow runs. See [Job runtime capacity](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/to_site_capacity.htm) for information about the maximum runtime for flows and [Concurrent jobs capacity](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/to_site_capacity.htm) for capacity limits when running concurrent flow jobs. Scheduling more flows than the number of resource blocks you have can result in an error. See the Knowledge Base article [Flow Job Pending](https://kb.tableau.com/articles/Issue/flow-job-pending-with-cannot-run-because-your-site-has-reached-its-concurrency-limit-for-extract-refreshes) for more information. - Encryption: Includes the following: - Extract encryption and decryption - Flow encryption and decryption - Re-key extracts and flows - System: Includes all system jobs that the Backgrounder handles behind the scenes to support Tableau Server. ### Filters You can filter to see only certain jobs. The available filters are by Job Status type, Task Type, and Time Range. For the Time Range filter, you can choose from past one to 24 hours, in four hour increments. The option to filter in System Jobs is available if you are a Server Administrator. ## Canceling Jobs Extract refreshes, subscriptions and flow run jobs can be canceled. You can only cancel one job at a time, and selecting multiple jobs at one time for cancellation is not supported. When you cancel a job, an email with the time the job was canceled, the affected content, and the time the job ran before being canceled is sent to the recipients that you select in the **Cancel Job** dialog box . In addition you can add your customized notes to be included in the email. If you do not select any recipients, the job will be canceled, but no email will be sent. To cancel a job, select the ellipses next to the Job ID, and then use the dialog to cancel the job: ![Cancel button.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_cancel.png) ![Cancel Job dialog box with the check box for sending an email to Site Administrators about cancelled jobs highlighted.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_cancel_dialog.png) ## Status There are seven types of status that jobs can be in, and hovering over each status will display more relevant information. - **Completed:** This job shows as **Completed successfully** and you can see the time when the job completed in the tooltip that is displayed when you hover over the status. ![A green checkmark appears next to the word "Completed."](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_completed.png) ![A message indicates that a job successfully completed on June 13, 2019, at 10:23 AM.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_completed_tootip.png) - **In Progress:** This job shows as **In Progress**. A time for how long the job has been running for is displayed in the tooltip when you hover over the status. ![In progress icon.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_inprogress.png) ![A tooltip showing the in progress job run time.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_inprogress_tooltip.png) - **In Progress:** This job is **In Progress**, but is **running late**. Tableau keeps track of the average run times for the same job, and if the current run time is longer than the average run time, then it is considered running late. Times for how much longer than average the job has been running and its average run time is provided in the tooltip that is displayed when you hover over the status. ![In progress icon indicating a longer job run time than previous runs.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_late.png) ![A tooltip showing the in progress job run time that exceeds previous run times.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_late_tooltip.png) - **Pending:** This job is currently **Pending**, waiting to be run when there is available Backgrounder capacity. A time for how long the job has been in the queue for is provided in the tooltip that is displayed when you hover over the status. ![Job Queued icon.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_queued.png) ![A tooltip showing the in progress queue time.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_queued_tooltip.png) - **Pending:** The flow cannot be run because the number of Resource Blocks is less than the number of flow you have scheduled and the site has reached its concurrency limit. ![Job Queued icon.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_queued.png) ![A notification stating that a queued job cannot run because the site reached its extract refresh concurrency limit.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_pending_flow.png) - **Pending:** This job is currently **Pending**, but is **running late**. Tableau keeps track of the average queue times for the same job, and if the current queue time is longer than the average queue time then it is considered running late. Times for how much longer than average the job has been queued is provided in the tooltip that is displayed when you hover over the status. ![Job Queued icon indicating a longer queue time than previous runs.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_queued_late.png) ![A tooltip showing the in progress queue time that exceeds previous queue times.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_queued_late_toolip.png) - **Canceled:** This job was **Canceled** by a Server or Site administrator. The time the job was canceled and how long it ran for before cancellation is provided in the tooltip that is displayed when you hover over the status. ![A yellow exclamation point and the word "Cancelled."](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_canceled.png) ![A message indicates that a job was cancelled on June 11, 2019 at 9:55pm after running for 29.5 minutes.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_canceled_tooltip.png) - **Failed:** This job is showing as **Failed**. The time when the job failed, how long it ran for before it failed, and why the job has failed is provided in the tooltip that is displayed when you hover over the status. ![A red exclamation point next to the word "Failed."](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_failed.png) ![Message indicates that a job failed on June 11, 2019 at 4:23am after running for 51.6 minutes because of invalid credentials.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_failed_tooltip.png) - **Suspended:** This job is showing as **Failed** with a pause icon. If the job fails 5 times consecutively, then the job is suspended. Suspended tasks are still available but Backgrounder will not create jobs for these tasks until they are resumed by the user. ![Job Suspended icon.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_suspended.png) ![A tooltip explaining that jobs can't run for suspended tasks.](/tableau/current/en-us/server/en-us/Img/backgrounder_job_suspended_details.png)