Exact Synergy Enterprise

Running background jobs for Exact Synergy Enterprise

Introduction

Note: The Federated Identity and Microsoft Azure SQL Database features are only available for the controlled release participants.

With every installation of Exact Synergy Enterprise, there will be a number of background jobs that perform specific tasks in the database. These background jobs run with parameters and can be scheduled either via the Microsoft SQL Server Agent or Windows task scheduler. Exact Synergy Enterprise must be installed in the server running the background jobs.

This document contains a single point of reference from which you can access documentation describing the various background jobs that are included in Exact Synergy Enterprise.

Description

Configuring background jobs

A Domain user that is part of the Administrator group should also be present in Exact Synergy Enterprise. This user will be responsible for running the background jobs because some background jobs will interact with the domain controller, the Exchange server, and Exact Synergy Enterprise. The user needs to have the Administrator role in Exact Synergy Enterprise.
The user must have SQL administrator rights in order to execute background jobs.
The Windows user name should be same as the user ID in Exact Synergy Enterprise.
The SQL Server Agent service or Windows task scheduler is used to run the background jobs. The service or task should be started by the user described before. For more information, see Configuration MS SQL Server Agent.
The user starting up the background jobs (starting up the SQL Server Agent service) should have an Outlook Express profile. Although Outlook Express is not used for sending out e-mails, it is important to create this profile, while the information entered is not important. For more information on starting up the SQL Server Agent service, see Installation Application Server.
It is important to be logged on as the user that starts the background jobs when creating the profile.
Microsoft Excel must be installed in the server so that the exported file will be exported correctly in the Microsoft Excel format.

Exact Synergy Enterprise uses only one executable file (exact.process.exe) to run all the background jobs. The different background jobs are DLL files that are called by the executable file via parameters.

The three main parameters are:

/DBCONFIG:

This refers to the entry in the db.config file that contains the information about the location and the name of the database.

Note: The name of the virtual directory is case-sensitive.

/ASSEMBLY:

This refers to the DLL storing the respective functions.

/CLASS:

This refers to a specific function or task within the DLL.

For Exact Synergy Enterprise that uses the Federated Identity authentication, an additional parameter is required, such as the following:

/FIDUSER

This is the username that is used as the Federated Identity login to connect to the Exact Synergy Enterprise environment.

/FIDPW

This is the password of the Federated Identity user that is used to connect to the Exact Synergy Enterprise environment.

Note: Both FIDUSER and FIDPW must coexist to run the background job in Exact Synergy Enterprise that uses the Federated Identity authentication.

For Exact Synergy Enterprise that connects to the Microsoft SQL Azure database, additional parameters have to be defined in the db.config file, such as the following:

<MODE>

This refers to the type of database server that is used. There are two supported values, such as “0” for the SQL server and “1” for the Microsoft SQL Azure server.

Note: If the user has selected “1”, the user must include the username and password in the db.config file.

<Username>

The username used to log in to the Microsoft SQL Azure server database.

<Password>

The password used to log in to the Microsoft SQL Azure server database.

Apart from these generic parameters, each job can have specific parameters steering the behavior.

Syntax for Exact Synergy Enterprise hosted on the local premise:

Exact.Process.exe /DBCONFIG:<virtualdirectory> /ASSEMBLY:<bgJob Assembly> /CLASS:<bgJob Class>

which results in

E:\Program Files\Exact Software\Exact Synergy\bin\Exact.Process.exe /DBCONFIG:SynergyNET /ASSEMBLY:Exact.WordIndex /CLASS:IndexDocuments

Syntax for Exact Synergy Enterprise hosted on the local premise with the Microsoft SQL Azure server database:

Exact.Process.exe /DBCONFIG:<virtualdirectory> /ASSEMBLY:<bgJob Assembly> /CLASS:<bgJob Class>

which results in

E:\Program Files\Exact Software\Exact Synergy\bin\Exact.Process.exe /DBCONFIG:SynergyNET /ASSEMBLY:Exact.WordIndex /CLASS:IndexDocuments

with the db.config file that points to the Microsoft SQL Azure server database.

<database>databasename</database>

<username>encryptedusername</username>:

<password>encryptedpassword</password>

<server>servername</server>

</database>

Note:

Exact recommends you to use a dedicated user to run the background processes, such as the background jobs, Exact Integration, and Event Manager for certain reasons, such as traceability of changes, security, and functional division of rights.
When Exact Integration or Event Manager is used, it is up to the end-user to decide whether to use the same user for both the background jobs and Exact Integration or Event Manager, or to use two separate users.
Nonetheless, both methods will require at least one additional Professional user license. It is possible to use the included administrator account in Exact Synergy Enterprise as the user for the background processes, as long as it is not used for work in Exact Synergy Enterprise.

Overview

Within Exact Synergy Enterprise, the following background jobs are available:

Exact.Jobs.SysMaint

This background job updates the status of employees from Hired to Active, and from Active to Inactive based on the start and exit dates. It creates NT accounts for new employees, and informs managers or account managers (of resellers) about the user accounts and passwords through a task. It also creates documents for the manager of new employees, informs the manager of the new IDs, deletes NT accounts for inactive persons, and updates the absence field in the humres table to indicate whether the person is in or out of the office for the day. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.SysMaint.

Exact.WordIndex

This background job updates the index tables in order to make use of the Exact Synergy Enterprise search mechanism. For more information, see Exact.WordIndex.

Exact.Jobs.SysHrMail

This background job sends out e-mails for mail merge purposes, merges, and creates requests from the CRM or Logistics batch updates, cleans up the Not validated accounts, and exports the HRM, CRM, and Financial reports to Microsoft Excel. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.SysHrMail.

Exact.Jobs.CRM

This background job validates and checks account statuses (Not validated, Prospects, and Customers) based on sales forecasts and contracts. It evaluates account ratings based on their contract values (for customers and resellers only), updates all databases defined in Exact Synergy Enterprise CRM from the central database, and updates all licenses. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.CRM.

Exact.Jobs.Documents

This background job recalculates all document counts which are displayed when using the Category view of Documents. It also removes the New indication in that same overview.

The background job also calculates all existing document references for pictures.

Furthermore, the background job removes all the expired documents based on the expiry date set for those documents and removes all pictures in the database that are not used by any document.

Finally, the background job updates the versions of documents.

For more information, see Exact.Jobs.Documents.

Exact.Jobs.SysLogTool

This background job reduces the size of the database by deleting old log entries at Modules > System > Reports > Log > Processes. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.SysLogTool.

Exact.Jobs.ConProcess

This background job is responsible for processing contracts. The main functions are to automatically prolong contracts after a certain date and to validate and budget contract details. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.ConProcess.

Exact.Jobs.FinExchange

This background job performs automatic import of financial entries. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.FinExchange.

Exact.Jobs.FinCheck

This background job compares financial figures with the Exact Globe+ administration. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.FinCheck.

Exact.Jobs.FinPending

This background job performs the validation of imported financial transactions. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.FinPending.

Exact.Jobs.FinExcel

This background job handles import transactions via Microsoft Excel. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.FinExcel.

Exact.Timesheet.Core.Export

This background job handles Exact PSA-related tasks, such as registering costs in Exact Globe+, and creating sales invoices in Exact Globe+ based on billable requests in Exact Synergy Enterprise. For more information, see Exporting Exact PSA requests and project budgets from Exact Synergy Enterprise to Exact Globe+.

Exact.Timesheet.Core.GenerateIPR

This background job generates and approves Invoice proposal requests automatically. For more information, see Exact.Timesheet.Core.GenerateIPR.

Exact.Jobs.SysExchange

This background job synchronizes the appointments between Microsoft Outlook and Exact Synergy Enterprise Calendar. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.SysExchange.

Note: This background job is no longer supported if you are using Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. You will need to install Exact Exchange Integrator to implement the Exchange calendar synchronization in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. For more information for product updates 244 to 249, see How-to: Installing Exact Exchange Synergy Enterprise Integrator (Exchange 2010). For more information for product update 250 onwards, see How-to: Installing Exact Exchange Integrator (Microsoft Exchange 2010). Form Based Authentication is also not supported.

Exact.Jobs.Workspaces

This background job generates thumbnails for workspaces automatically. For more information, see Exact.Jobs.Workspaces. In addition, this background job creates requests automatically for certain actions, which include the creation of Task requests when pinning a workspace to other users and the notification feature is enabled. For more information, see Discovering workspaces.

Script for automated creation of scheduled Exact Synergy Enterprise processes (background jobs)

The SQL script to create multiple background jobs at once can be found in Script for automated creation of scheduled Exact Synergy Enterprise processes (background jobs).

Note: These background jobs must be scheduled sequentially and not at the same time.

Troubleshooting

After setting up the background jobs, you should perform tests. The first check is to start the jobs one by one and observe the job history of the SQL Server Agent. The second and most important check, is to verify in Exact Synergy Enterprise whether errors were logged during execution of the jobs. Go to Modules > System > Reports > Log > Processes to check whether the jobs have been executed properly.