Jobs view
The jobs view shows an overview and details about every workflow or job (triggered by an activity) that was or is executed in Silverstack. It can be reached by clicking on the identically named control in the bottom left corner of the main screen or via the menu and clicking View > Toggle Jobs Details View. This article correlates with the workflow configuration window and configuring a workflow.
1. Workflows, activities, jobs & tasks#
Workflows consist of one or more activities like backup, transcode, or verify. Activities are an additional level of abstraction above jobs. This is because single activities can result in several jobs. For example:
- A backup activity with multiple destination paths can start multiple verify jobs
- Verify or backup activities can both start verify jobs
Don’t be confused because activities and jobs have the same name. Let’s look at an example: In case you created a workflow with a single backup activity that has two destinations and the following settings:
- Verify: Destinations + Source
- Job Execution: Separate Verification Job
Then this activity will trigger one backup (copy only) and three verify jobs for:
- The 1st destination
- The 2nd destination
- The source medium
As you can see, jobs describe in a very concrete way what needs to be done. Then again, jobs consist of individual tasks which are the bottom level of the hierarchy. Ultimately, tasks correspond to individual files that need to be copied, transcoded, etc. The overall hierarchy is workflows > activities > jobs > tasks and this is reflected by the jobs view.
1.1 Activity and job types#
- Backup (copy & verify or copy only)
- Verify
- Transcode
- Dynamic Metadata Extraction
- Dailies Upload
- Ci Media Cloud Upload
- AWS S3 Upload
- Checksum Creation
1.2 States#
Workflows, activities, jobs and tasks can be executed but hereafter we only refer to jobs (for reasons of simplicity).
Active#
- Running: A job is currently being executed. A blue horizontal bar shows the job progress while the vertical bar shows the overall workflow progress, including the estimated time of arrival (ETA) and the time remaining.
- Waiting: A job waits to be executed.
- Suspended: A job was interrupted (by the user). A grey clock icon indicates this state.
- Has Failed Tasks (but running): One or more files of a job failed, but the job is still being executed.
- Automatically Interrupted: You can configure transcoding jobs to pause automatically while a copy job is running. See the transcoding options section in the settings’ copy&jobs tab.
Finished#
- Complete: A job was executed successfully. A green checkmark icon indicates this state.
- Failed: A job failed. A red stop sign icon indicates this state.
- Cancelled: A job was cancelled. A grey cross icon indicates this state.
Read / Unread#
Whether a workflow/job is marked as read or unread is shown with a small blue dot next to the workflow on the left side.
1.3 Actions#
Abort
Immediately stops the job. The progress of the current task is lost but the progress of completed tasks is preserved. Stopped activities can be re-queued and will proceed after the last successful task.
Re-Queue
Starts the job again.
Suspend
Interrupts the job after the task that is currently being executed has finished.
Resume
Continues the suspended process.
2. Navigating the jobs view#
The jobs view is separated into different areas. In the center, you see a grid showing workflows and the jobs that belong to them. When a workflow or job is selected, the right details sidebar shows the according details. The shown selection depends on whether a workflow (1st column) or a job (2nd column and beyond) is selected. The left volumes sidebar shows all detected volumes. By selecting a specific volume in this sidebar, the center view only shows workflows that interacted with the selected volume.
The top bar offers buttons to quickly suspend or resume all activities while the bottom bar shows the overall progress and which activities currently are being executed (expressed by small icons). The individual areas are explained in detail below.
2.1 Grid/center view (Workflows)#
Scheduled Workflows
Shows workflows that are queued and waiting to start for their execution. The single jobs show detailed information why they have not started yet.
Running Workflows
Shows the workflows that have been started and are in execution.
Workflow History
Shows the entire workflow history, meaning all workflows that are finished successfully, failed or canceled. The most recent workflows are shown at the top.
1st column
Gives a top level overview of the workflow name and input.
2nd column and beyond
Shows each job that belongs to the workflow shown in the first column.
2.1.1 View options#
Stage / Finish / Read / Date
Filters the grid view according to the shown criteria.
Zoom in / out
Allows you to increase or decrease the size of the grid view.
Zoom 1:1
Sets a default size.
Zoom to fit
Fits the entire grid into the window.
2.1.2 Single job metrics#
FPS
Shows how many frames are processed per second.
ETA
Shows the estimated time when the job will finish.
Time Remaining
Shows the remaining time for the job to finish. When a job is finished, it shows the time it took the job to finish.
Task progress
Shows the total amount of tasks that need to be executed, the amount of completed tasks (green) and the amount of tasks that still need to be done (blue).
2.2 Details bar (right sidebar)#
The values shown in the details bar depend on whether a workflow, job or volume is selected in the grid view.
2.2.1 Workflow details#
Workflow Summary
Shows detailed information about the selected workflow.
Show State History… opens a pop-up menu showing the jobs’ state changes.
Log File… opens log files belonging to the workflow. This is helpful for debugging.
Workflow’s Job
Shows all the jobs that belong to the workflow, including information about the source and destination volumes.
2.2.2 Job details#
Status
Shows detailed information about the selected job, including the amount of completed (green), failed (red) and active tasks (blue).
Errors
Only shown when errors occur. This section lists all the errors that occur for each of the tasks.A failed task fails the job and consequently fails the workflow.
Configuration
Shows detailed information about the source and destination volumes or paths.
Completion Steps
This section is only shown when the job contains one or more completion steps (e.g., MHL or report). A completion step can succeed (green checkmark) or fail (red stop sign).A failed completion step results in a failed job.
Parent Workflow
Shows the workflow to which the job belongs.
2.2.3 Volume details#
Eject
buttonEjects the volume.
… button
Opens a context menu with additional options for the volume.
Ingest Source label
Indicates that files were registered from this volume.
Backup Source label
Indicates that files were copied from this volume.
Backup Destination label
Indicates that files were copied to this volume.
Volume Summary#
Shows detailed information about the selected volume, including the (free) capacity. A comment may be written for the volume.
Performance Settings#
Contains options to tweak the volume’s performance for your workflow or playback.
Playback Prio dropdown menu
Allows you to adjust the playback priority for a specific volume.The priority defines which volume is considered first for playback. See also the article about volume playback priority.
Flags checkbox
When enabled, marks a volume as LTFS.
Read / Write dropdown menu
Defines whether reading and writing tasks can access the volume at the same time, or if only one type is allowed at once (exclusive write & read).
Max Reading dropdown menu
Sets the maximum number of tasks that are allowed to read from the selected volume simultaneously.
Max Writing dropdown menu
Sets the maximum number of tasks that are allowed to write to the selected volume simultaneously.
2.3 Volumes bar (left sidebar)#
The volumes sidebar allows you to filter the workflows shown in the center grid view by volumes. Every volume that was used by a workflow contains a summary of completed, failed and active jobs.
+ Button
Allows you to quickly offload the volume. Only shown for new volumes (not used as source or destination in Silverstack yet).
Count Indicators
Show the number of finished workflows related to this volume. Counts are cleared when workflows are marked as read.
Progress View
The progress view is only shown for volumes currently used in workflow execution. The R and W indicators show the number of currently running reading or writing tasks, and the concurrent task limits set to this volume. The blue pie chart shows the average progress of tasks from running jobs related to this volume.
Context Menu
Right-Click any volume to open a context menu which allows you to:
- Offload…
- Seal…
- Eject
- Open in Finder
- Manage Resources… (shows all resources managed by Silverstack for the selected volume)
- Show in Offload Menu (enables the volume again for the Offload button)
2.4 Top and bottom bar#
2.4.1 Top bar#
Suspend All
Suspends all jobs (tasks already in progress are still being completed).
Resume All
Resumes all suspended jobs.
Project Chooser
Is disabled in the Jobs & Volumes view.
Search Bar
Allows you to search for workflows and tasks.
Tasks
Allows you to view all tasks related to a workflow or job. A workflow or task must be selected to click it.
Chart
Shows all jobs and their tasks within a timeline representing the task execution time. This view is especially useful for debugging and error identification.
Volumes
Enables the volumes bar on the left.
Details
Enables the details bar on the right.
2.4.2 Status bar (bottom bar)#
Library / Jobs
Switches between the library and jobs view.
Workflows / Summary
Switches the presentation of running workflows in the status bar. Summary shows a progress bar with the overall progress and expected ETA across all running workflows; Workflows gives a separate view with an individual progress indicator for each workflow.
Scheduled
Shows the count of scheduled workflows that have not started execution yet.
Running
Shows the progress of running workflows (appearance can be switched with the Workflows/Summary switch). Clicking opens a popup window with more details.
Note:
The overall progress is calculated as an unweighted average of workflow progresses — all workflows contribute equally.
Job indicator
Shows which job type is currently being executed with a highlighted icon.Hover the icons to see the associated tooltips. From left to right, the icons indicate if one of the following job types is currently running:
- Backup
- Verify
- Transcode
- Upload
- Dynamic Metadata Extraction
Failed / Aborted / Ok
Shows a summary of finished jobs. Marking workflows as read will clear the counts.