Configure an agent to run on a schedule if it is an agent
that should run regularly.
Before you begin
You must create an agent before you can specify what triggers
it to run. See Creating agents for more information.
About this task
You can trigger an agent on an event or on a schedule.
To trigger an agent on a schedule, complete the following steps:
Procedure
- At the Basics tab of the Agent Properties
box, click On Schedule.
- At the pull-down list next to the Schedule button, choose
one of the following schedules. Note that the Web does not support
scheduled invocation of agents; however, an agent on the Web can be
triggered in other ways, such as through Tools/Macros or from the
URL.
- More Than Once a Day
- Use this schedule for high-priority applications, such as those
critical to a business process, and for applications that replicate
several times a day, such as workflow applications that route documents
for approval. Be aware that if you schedule very frequent runs (for
example, every 5 minutes), the server's performance could be affected.
- Daily
- Use this schedule for activities that are important but that will
not cause a delay if they are only generated once a day. Examples
include mailing news articles or generating low-priority assignments.
- Weekly
- Use this schedule for routine tasks. Examples include generating
summary reports and sending reminders.
- Monthly
- Use this schedule for low-priority maintenance tasks. Examples
include archiving documents and distributing company newsletters.
- Never
- Use this schedule for agents that you do not want to run in particular
circumstances. For example, use this run option for agents that do
run on the Web or for agents that are called by other agents.
- Once you make a choice from the pull-down menu, click the Schedule button
to display the Schedule dialog box. You can add more detail on exactly
when you want the agent to run. For example:
- If you specified More than once a day, you can specify how often
you want the agent to run on each day. You can also specify that the
agent not run on weekends.
- If you specified Weekly, you can specify the day of the week for
the agent to run.
- If you specified Monthly, you can specify a day of the month and
time of the day for the agent to run.
- At the same Schedule dialog box, you also specify the servers
on which you want the agent to run. You can choose from the Run
on pull-down list. Alternatively, you can have users choose
the server.
- Local
- The agent runs only on the client. Use this option to schedule
agents to run in the background on the local Notes® client.
The application containing the agent must be local. The agent will
run with the rights of the current Notes ID.
Note that for scheduled agents to run on the local Notes client,
the user must first check the Enable scheduled local agents box
at the Basics tab of the User Preferences dialog box ().
- Any server
- The agent runs on any server that the agent is available on. When
agents run on multiple servers and they are changing documents in
applications that are replicated, you should specify the servers they
run on to prevent replication conflicts. Then, set up the applications'
replication schedules so they do not interfere with the agents' scheduled
runs. Note that this option does not cause problems if you are using
copies (instead of replicas) of the application.
- Specific server
- The agent runs only on the single server you select from the list
of available servers.
- Choose when agent is enabled
- Checking this option prompts users to select a server when the
agent is enabled. This option is useful for distributing agents in
ready-to-use applications.
- From the Target pull-down list,
select the documents in the application the agent will run on. You
have two choices:
- All documents in application
- All new and modified documents
These options are not supported on the Web.
Results
When you schedule an agent, remember that when agents that
run on multiple servers change documents in applications that are
replicated, you should specify the servers they run on to prevent
replication conflicts. Then, set up the applications' replication
schedules so they don't interfere with the agents' scheduled runs.
Note that agents are scheduled according to the interval you set up,
not the exact time of day. For example, if you schedule an agent to
run hourly, it runs about one hour after the last time it ran.