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Managing Mule Apps Schedules

You can use Anypoint Runtime Manager to view and control the Scheduler components within the flows in your deployed applications, all without changing the running application. For example, you might want to disable a scheduled job while one of the applications is undergoing maintenance.

On the Schedules tab, you can:

  • View the schedules in your running application.

  • Change the schedules in your application.

  • Run the scheduled job immediately, without changing the schedule.

  • Disable or enable the schedule for a flow.

You configure Scheduler component types as either fixed frequency to trigger at a regular interval or cron to trigger at a date and time based on a specified cron expression.

To change a schedule type (between fixed frequency and cron or vice versa), you must update and redeploy the app. You can’t change the schedule type on a deployed application.
The minimum required Mule runtime engine version to use this feature is 4.1.2 or later, and the minimum Runtime Fabric Agent version is 2.0.0 or later.

Schedule Design Considerations

When designing the schedule, consider the following:

  • The Runtime Fabric scheduler reads the job configuration every time it runs.

    When you update the scheduler configuration, the change takes effect the next time the scheduler runs.

  • Changing the schedule redeploys your application.

  • If a scheduled job is not triggered because the application is not running, Runtime Fabric triggers the job as soon as the app restarts.

  • Schedules are based in the scheduler’s defined timezone.

  • For multi-replica apps, Runtime Fabric runs scheduled jobs on all replicas.

    If you run the scheduled job immediately by clicking Run, the scheduler runs on a single replica.

    Runtime Fabric distributes multiple concurrent schedulers across replicas.

  • You cannot manage Runtime Fabric schedules using scripts.

    Use the Schedules tab or the Runtime Fabric API to manage Runtime Fabric schedules.

  • Flow names can contain only upper and lower case latters, numbers, hyphens (-), underscores (_), and periods (.). The following characters are invalid: /, [, ], {, }, and #.

  • When you create a schedule using a scheduler that has a placeholder, the value that appears when you create a schedule varies based on when the placeholder is discovered. For example:

    • If the value is available before the app is deployed, the value appears.

    • If the value is available before deployment and depends on deployment properties, an estimation of the value appears.

    • If the value is a placeholder (such as ${cronExpression}) that is provided at the time of deployment, the exact value of the placeholder does not appear in the user interface.

    • Runtime Fabric uses a default value of 60000.

  • If you make changes to schedulers, you should reupload the application to Exchange to ensure the expected scheduler behavior occurs.

Before You Begin

To use the scheduling feature in Runtime Manager, deploy an application that includes one or more Scheduler elements using Anypoint Studio 7.13 or later.

Scheduler component in the Anypoint Studio canvas

After you deploy the app, you can manage the schedule in Runtime Manager. The app doesn’t need to be running.

Use Mule Maven facade v3 when you deploy through Maven to Runtime Fabric for the schedules to show in the Runtime Manager UI.

View and Manage Application Schedules in Runtime Manager

After deploying an app to Runtime Fabric, view and manage the Scheduler elements in Runtime Manager:

  1. From Anypoint Platform, select Runtime Manager > Applications.

  2. Click the app name.

  3. In the navigation menu, click Schedules.

    Runtime Manager lists the Scheduler elements in the order they appear in your app:

    (1) Flow name and (2) the frequency link on the Schedulers page.

    • The Name column shows the name of the flow (1) that contains the Scheduler element.

    • The frequency link (2) in the Schedule column shows the schedule for the element.

  4. If you want to see more information about when the jobs started and ended, click Logs in the navigation menu:

    Logs option in the navigation menu.

  5. Click the frequency link for an element to open the schedule editor.

    The schedule editor you see depends on the schedule type:

  6. In the schedule editor, change the schedule or deselect Enabled to disable the schedule.

  7. Click Update to save changed settings or click Cancel to exit without saving.

Change a Fixed Frequency Schedule

  1. From Anypoint Platform, select Runtime Manager > Applications.

  2. Click the app name.

  3. In the navigation menu, click Schedules.

    The Schedule column shows the schedule for the element:

    Fixed frequency schedule type

  4. Click the frequency link for an element to open the schedule editor.

  5. In the schedule editor, change the schedule or deselect Enabled to disable the schedule:

    Fixed-frequency schedule configuration

    You can specify milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, or days for the frequency. The minimum recommended frequency between calls is 10 seconds.

    By default, schedules run at the frequency defined in the application. When you change the frequency of a schedule from Runtime Manager, the schedule runs at the frequency configured in Runtime Manager even if you update and redeploy the same schedule in the application JAR file.

  6. Click Update to save changed settings or click Cancel to exit without saving.

Change a Cron Schedule

With cron expressions, you can create more complex schedule frequencies, such as every 5 minutes between 9:00 am and 10:00 am on Fridays.

To change the frequency of a cron schedule type:

  1. From Anypoint Platform, select Runtime Manager > Applications.

  2. Click the app name.

  3. In the navigation menu, click Schedules.

    The Schedule column shows the schedule for the element:

    cron schedule type

  4. Click the frequency link for an element to open the schedule editor.

  5. In the schedule editor, change the schedule or deselect Enabled (1) to disable the schedule:

    cron schedule configuration with (1) Enabled option and (2) Quick Reference link

  6. In the schedule editor, click Quick Reference (2) to expand or collapse the table that lists required fields and allowed values.

    The cron expression in this example sets the schedule to every 10 seconds.

    For information about building cron triggers:

    1. View the Quartz documentation.

    2. Select a version, click Documentation > User’s Guide > Tutorial, and then click the CronTrigger lesson.

  7. Click Update to save changed settings or click Cancel to exit without saving.

Run a Scheduled Job Immediately

If a job runs nightly but you want to debug it now, you can trigger the job while it’s running without updating the schedule in your application. When you trigger the job in between instances of the scheduler running, the timer for the indicated time period resets.

If you run the scheduled job immediately, the scheduler runs on a single replica even for multi-replica apps.

To override the schedule and run the job immediately:

  1. From Anypoint Platform, select Runtime Manager > Applications.

  2. Click the app name.

  3. In the navigation menu, click Schedules.

  4. Select the elements to manage and then click Run.

Disable or Enable a Scheduler Element

You might want to disable a scheduled job if an application you are connecting to is undergoing maintenance and then reenable it after maintenance is complete.

Runtime Fabric does not run the scheduled job until you reenable the Scheduler.

Known issue: If you disable the scheduler, it still runs when starting an application. If you want to prevent the scheduler from running, set the startdelay property to five seconds in your app using Anypoint Studio.

To disable the Scheduler element:

  1. From Anypoint Platform, select Runtime Manager > Applications.

  2. Click the app name.

  3. In the navigation menu, click Schedules.

  4. Select the elements to manage and then click Disable.

    You can also disable or enable the schedule by deselecting or selecting Enabled in the schedule editor.

    Enabled toggle in the schedule editor

See Also