A "Task Failure in Instance" email is an automatic alert from OrangeHRM. It means one or more scheduled background tasks did not run as expected. These tasks handle things like sending queued emails and processing leave accrual. The email itself doesn't change any data. However, a task that keeps failing or doesn't run can delay emails or leave balances. Check the email's details, then follow the steps below.
How it works
OrangeHRM runs many jobs on a schedule rather than when someone clicks a button. Examples include sending notification emails, processing leave accrual and carry forward, and automatic terminations. Once a day, a diagnostic task checks whether each monitored job ran on time and finished successfully. If it finds a problem, it sends one summary email to the address configured for scheduled task failure notifications.
The subject line reads Task Failure in Instance: [your organization name] followed by a category:
- Category: Error means at least one item in the report needs attention.
- Category: Notice means every item is informational only.
The email body has a table with a Time, Category and Description for each item. Error rows are shown in red. The description tells you what went wrong:
- Missed execution of task ... means the task did not start at its scheduled time. This is an Error.
- Execution of task ... (Completed: Unsuccessfully) means the task ran but ended with an error. This is an Error.
- Overlapping execution of task ... means a new run started while the previous one was still running. This is an Error.
- Duplicate execution of task ... means the task ran more than once for the same time slot. This is a Notice.
- Mismatched execution of task ... means the task ran outside its schedule, usually because someone started it manually. This is a Notice.
What you can do
- Open the email and note the category, the task names and the times listed.
- If every row is a Notice, you usually don't need to do anything. A notice is often caused by a planned manual run.
- If there are Error rows, check whether the affected feature is behind. For example, if the send-email task failed, check whether notification emails were delayed. If the leave accrual task failed, check whether leave balances were updated.
- If OrangeHRM is hosted on your own servers, ask your server administrator to make sure the server's scheduled job (cron) is running. They should also check the server and application logs for the times listed.
- If errors repeat over several days, or you are not sure how to proceed, contact OrangeHRM Support. Include the full email, especially the description column.
Things to note
- The alert is sent to a single email address set in your system configuration, not to all administrators. If you need to change the recipient, contact OrangeHRM Support or your system administrator.
- Only tasks that have failure monitoring turned on are checked.
- One failed run often fixes itself on the next scheduled run. A pattern of repeated errors is the main sign that something needs fixing.