Introduction
In TimeXtender, scheduling packages and tasks—or running them manually—has always been possible, but only for those with technical skills and direct platform access. And let’s be honest, keeping track of everything wasn’t exactly a breeze! Without diving into the end dataset, there was no easy way to verify if things ran smoothly. Ingestion tasks (formerly ODX transfers) lacked proper failure alerts, and worst of all, there was no way to schedule everything end-to-end—from ingestion to final delivery—in a single job.
And then came the inevitable business user questions:
- Jake, are you sure all the data from system X is refreshed in my reporting dataset?
- Juliet, I just updated my categories, and I need them in my presentation this afternoon. Can you upload those changes ASAP?
Well, guess what? Those struggles are officially over! TimeXtender has integrated the incredible Exmon scheduling and orchestration tool—available for free with any subscription (except Classic/On-Prem). Now, as a TimeXtender expert, you’ll be scheduling and monitoring with ease, while your users gain more independence—no more constant interruptions. It’s a whole new level of efficiency! 🚀
Meet the TimeXtender Orchestration app:
And grant control with the process maps from the Exmon Portal
As a TimeXtender expert, I want to...
..., I want to schedule my ETL jobs end-to-end
Look at this simplified scenario: 2 tables need to be ingested on demand from a SQL server on-premise, and read from the data warehouse using a TimeXtenders Rest API.
As the data flow is implemented now, the tables will be loaded using an ingestion task (formerly know as transfer task in the ODX) , then cleaned up and integrated in the data area in the data warehouse for consultation by a PM tool Tagetik (hence the name of the data area). For this, we’ve chosen a perspective called Tagetik_TM and an execution package with the same name.
To get an end-to-end schedule, you’ll open the orchestration tool, which is a desktop application which needs to be installed separately from the TimeXtender app. Once you have installed it, you’ll log in with the same credentials used to log in to the TimeXtender portal. In fact, it automatically logs you in, if you use the link in TDI
There are 3 actions to take:
1. Add packages, which refer to an ingestion task from your TSI (formerly ODX) or a prepare - or delivery package from a data warehouse or semantic model instance. These will be the “gateway” to your TimeXtender items and contain the notification settings. For each step, a package needs to be created. This makes orchestrating and visualising easier afterwards.
2. Now you’ll add a process, which orchestrates how different packages should be run. You can choose to add just one series of packages. Or have a more complex set of sub steps. For each step, you can choose if the sub items will run in parallel or sequentially. It also allows to set if a failure should stop the whole process, or if it is ok to continue. And it’s all drag and drop, with little risk to add the same package twice.
3. The last step is to add one or more schedules to this process. You can pick from a standard set, or create your own.
The schedules can have complex logic, and even be based on a SQL query to decide when and if they should run.
..., I want to have a retry on the Ingest job and get notified if it fails
In the previous versions, when the ODX task failed, you did not have a retry option, nor were there notifications. But with this scheduler, you can also make this type of task give it a second go. Just set it up in the package.
..., I want to see in one place how all the daily loads have run
There are two places where you can see if things have run as planned, and also if they are running at a constant execution time or that things are getting a bit slow.
One place is directly from the Orchestration tool. You can open the execution history from any level. From the process, package or from a schedule. And it will show you all the recent runs, both manually triggered and scheduled alike. You can drill through to the actual objects, and see the logs of each part of execution
But you can also see the same logs via a website, linked to the scheduling engine, which actually runs in the cloud.
To do this, you need to make a process map so you get a visual representation of your process, which requires a background, which shows the overall data flow, and to add the packages to its items.
You can also assign a process to the process map so it can be triggered from within.
Once this is deployed, you can head to the browser, and see both the last state at a glance, take a look at the last runs per package, but also check the evolution in time. You can navigate to the “orchestration portal”, from your usual portal, and in a couple of clicks view the process map where you can directly see the latest state of your packages, go into details of the latest logs and also see the overall evolution in performance per package
As a Business Analyst, I want to…
..., I wish to see if all data was loaded in the data warehouse last night
Before this orchestration tool came along, your options to enlighten the report user of the state of your data model were limited. You could add a pseudo fact to the report, showing the last load, but that didn’t show where the load process might have failed, or if it was simply not scheduled correctly.
Now, however, you can give the end users access to the process maps. You have complete control over the rights they will have to view one or several processes, or all within a specific system.
..., I want to make a last-minute refresh of certain data for my report
Just you can configure the user access to the configuration portal (Exmon portal), you can also grant them the right to execute a process (or individual packages) as you could see in the small demos in previous paragraphs. This means that they can do (and re-do) those micro updates without needing to rely on somebody with the administrative access to the TimeXtender processes. They can simply go and click “Run process”.
Conclusion
With this powerful new tool in your TimeXtender toolkit, you can effortlessly stay on top of your data flows! Get instant insights, receive real-time notifications when processes complete (or don’t), and most importantly—empower your end-users with true self-service BI. Now, they can see exactly when data was last updated, giving them the confidence and control they need. It's a game-changer for data visibility and efficiency! 🚀
More information
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