Special cases in job schedules

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Special cases in job schedules

    This content outlines important considerations for scheduling jobs in ServiceNow, particularly focusing on end-of-month and weekday schedules, as well as executing scheduled jobs from scripts and handling imported scheduled scripts and jobs.

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    Key Features

    • End-of-Month Schedules: Avoid scheduling jobs for the 29th or 30th of the month, as they may not execute in shorter months (like February). Scheduling on the 31st will run the job on the last day of the month.
    • Weekday Schedules: A script is provided to ensure jobs run only on weekdays. Note that conditional scripts for scheduled report emails run in a sandbox, limiting certain API calls and function definitions.
    • Executing Scheduled Jobs: Use specific scripts to execute scheduled jobs triggered by events, with options available for various types of scheduled jobs.
    • Handling Imported Jobs: Scheduled jobs and scripts are data records and do not transfer with update sets. You need to update corresponding records in the target instance after import.

    Key Outcomes

    By following these guidelines, ServiceNow customers can effectively manage job scheduling, ensuring that jobs run as intended without errors related to month lengths or weekends. Additionally, customers can accurately execute and manage imported jobs, maintaining operational consistency across instances.

    Some special cases require care in job scheduling.

    End of the month schedules

    Because months have different lengths, take care when scheduling jobs for the end of the month.

    • Scheduling an event for the 29th or 30th is not recommended, because the scheduled job is executed in months (like February) which are shorter than those dates.
    • If an event is scheduled for the 31st, it executes on the last day of the month, even if the month is shorter.

    For example, something scheduled to run on the 31st of the month runs on February 28 or February 29 in a leap year.

    Weekday schedules

    For scheduled scripts, use the following script to run only on weekdays:

    Warning:
    Conditional scripts for scheduled report emails are executed in the sandbox. Therefore, function definitions are not allowed. Some API calls and keywords are also not allowed.
    
    var isWeekday;
    var today = new Date();
    var dayOfWeek = today.getDay(); // Get day of the week(0 = Sunday, 1 = Monday, ... , 6 = Saturday)
    switch (dayOfWeek) {
    case 0: // Sunday
    case 6: // Saturday
    isWeekday = false;
    break;
    default:
    isWeekday = true;
    }
    answer=isWeekday;

    If the conditional script on a Scheduled Report is more complex and you need to make use of our Glide classes, then please use the following steps as a workaround:

    1. Create a Scheduled Job and complete all the conditional logic of the Scheduled Report inside the Scheduled Job.
    2. If all the conditional logic is satisfied, you can trigger the Scheduled Report with the following script inside the Scheduled Job.
      var schRpGr = new GlideRecord("sysauto_report");
      schRpGr.get("<sys_id of the scheduled report>");
      gs.executeNow(schRpGr);

    Scheduled jobs from scripts

    To execute a scheduled job triggered by an event, use the following script:

    //Execute a scheduled script job
    var rec = new GlideRecord('sysauto_script');
    rec.get('name', 'YOUR_JOB_NAME_HERE');
    SncTriggerSynchronizer.executeNow(rec);
    You can run the script using one of several tables:
    • scheduled_import_set (Scheduled Import Sets)
    • sysauto_script (Scheduled Script Execution)
    • sysauto_template (Scheduled Template Generation)
    • sysauto_report (Scheduled Report)
    Note:
    SncTriggerSynchronizer does not provide methods to execute scheduled jobs in the future.

    Running scheduled scripts and jobs imported from another instance

    Scheduled Script Execution and Scheduled Jobs are categorized as data records in the ServiceNow AI Platform, which means they are excluded from update sets. To determine if a table is included, navigate to All > System Definition > Dictionary and view the Attribute value for the table in question. Only tables with the attribute update_sync=true are included in update sets.

    You can optionally export and import data records via XML. However, to prevent unexpected data changes, Schedule Item [sys_trigger] records are not created for data records imported from an XML file such as an update set. To run scheduled jobs or scripts imported from another instance, update the corresponding job or script record in the target instance.