Indicator Scheduled Jobs

[Michael-Goal17]

Hi,

Working with Indicators there are a couple of Scheduled Jobs:

Two of them are False by default.
The docs tell us: The GRC indicator nightly run job executes the indicators.
So, why is this job de-activated by default? What are the use-cases for Active = false vs true?
Similarly, updat_indicator_status_fields is de-activated by default as well. Why is that? And what are the use-cases for Active = false vs true?

Thanks!

[KristianG]

Hello @Michael-Goal17 ,

Take a look of the explanation here: https://www.servicenow.com/community/grc-forum/grc-indicator-nightly-run/m-p/1296947

Regards,

Kristian

[Phil Swann]

As per @Jan Spurlin comment on the linked post @KristianG , these are deactivated - ready to be activated; although to expand slightly there, if a customer is not using indicators they will not be generated if the job is active. 

I would say, there is a use case for customers to have indicators without schedule - as they start to ramp up, the ability to use the "Execute" functionality at the indicator level.

Also consider that the manual indicators will generate a new task, regardless of whether the previous indicator task was closed. 

Regarding the job: update_indicator_status_fields , I was actually surprised to see this - and it seems like it should not be required, even so it would not be my preferred design. I believe the status and previous status are actually maintained within the main Indicator APIs , so this should be defunct. That said, I did experience something recently which may have been caused by this job not being active! So thank you for raising the topic and bringing this to the front. I would keep it inactive and see if status/previous status is being maintained without, if so, ignore. 

[Michael-Goal17]

Hi @Phil Swann , thanks. Regarding Jan's comment - I would expect this to be properly documented: "Please note, Scheduled Job: GRC indicator nightly run should be activated for this process to work". I've made a remark on the docs-site, and I'll raise a support ticket.

I agree with the update_indicator_status job - I'm puzzled, especially combined with the new Indicator properties (see here). I've added this question to the support ticket as well. I'll keep you posted here.

[Michael-Goal17 · Accepted solution]

Discussed the scheduled jobs with SN Support and the involved ServiceNow architect:

Q1a: SN documentation tells us: The GRC indicator nightly run job executes the indicators. But this job de-activated by default. Why is this? What are the use-cases for Active = false vs true?

A1: This job is supposed to run daily, It first checks if any indicators in the instance have having Next run date match with the current date or less, It would execute the indicators matching the above criteria. Hence should be activated once indicators are present in the instance.

Q2: Similarly, update_indicator_status_fields is de-activated by default as well. Why is that? And what are the use-cases for Active = false vs true?

A2: The "update_indicator_status_fields" is related to the defect PRB1422650. The update_indicator_status_fields is an On-Demand Scheduled job, which tries to update the Indicator Status, and Previous Status fields. Based on Indicator results. This is executed only when triggered explicitly. This job should not be run.