The Activity workspace is used to monitor the status of jobs and other activities. The Activity workspace gives visibility to many types of events and activities, such as scheduled jobs, ad-hoc jobs, compliance or vulnerability assessments.

For more on assessments, see Using and Managing SaltStack SecOps.

Note:

A SaltStack SecOps license is required to run compliance and vulnerability assessments.

The Activity workspace has three sections that sort jobs or other activities by status:

  • Completed - Used to monitor the status of completed jobs or activities. See Job returns for more information.
  • In Progress - Used to monitor the status of jobs or activities that are currently running.
  • Upcoming - Used to monitor the status of upcoming jobs or activities.

The table in each section shows information about the latest jobs or activities and events, such as the event’s status, origin, schedule (if available), job, target information, and more. You can customize which columns are displayed as needed. See Filtering and sorting table columns for more information.

Jobs and other activities move from In Progress to Completed when all associated nodes have finished reporting.

Note:

In some cases, a job or activity could move to Completed with Partial status. This happens if minions fail to respond when the Salt master checks whether the minion is still working on an assigned task. In these cases, SaltStack Config checks with the Salt master to see if the job or activity is running. If the Salt master reports that the job or activity has finished running, the job or activity moves to the Completed tab, but displays with Partial status.

The minions might not return anything due to system misconfiguration, network outages, client issues, or machine failures. In these cases, the job might show with Partial status under the Completed tab.

You can pause or stop jobs or activities that are in progress, or skip upcoming iterations of a scheduled job or activity. You can also adjust the table view to show or hide additional details.

Note: As part of VMware’s initiative to remove problematic terminology, the term Salt master will be replaced with a better term in SaltStack Config and related products and documentation. This terminology update may take a few release cycles before it is fully complete.

Accessing the Activity workspace

To use the Activity workspace, click Activity on the side menu. Activity expands to show the three possible job or activity statuses:

  • Completed
  • In Progress
  • Upcoming

Select the status of the jobs or activities that you are interested in viewing or managing. See Overview for a description of the different activity statuses.

Pausing a job or activity

To pause one or more ongoing jobs or activity:

  1. In the Activity menu, click the In Progress sub-menu to view ongoing jobs or activities.
  2. Check the box next to the jobs you want to pause.
  3. Click Pause, then click Pause again in the confirmation dialog.
    Note:

    Depending on the job or activity size and progress, it may finish running before it can be paused.

Stopping a job or activity

To stop one or more ongoing job or activity:

  1. In the Activity menu, click the In Progress sub-menu to view ongoing jobs or activities.
  2. Click Stop, then click Stop again in the confirmation dialog.
    Note:

    Depending on job or activity size and progress, it may finish running before it can be stopped.

Skipping a scheduled job or activity

To skip one or more ongoing or scheduled jobs or activities:

  1. In the Activity menu, click the Upcoming sub-menu to view ongoing jobs or activities you want to skip.
  2. Click Skip, then click Skip again in the confirmation dialog.

Searching for jobs or activities

To view a list of completed, upcoming, or in progress activities, access the Activity workspace.

By default, only 20 activities are shown on a page at a time. To view more activity, click the Items per page menu at the bottom of the activity table and select the desired number of activities you want to view.

To find a specific job or activity:

  1. In the Activity menu, click the sub-menu related to the state the activity is currently in: Completed, In Progress, or Upcoming.
  2. Click the filter button filter-icon for the column you want to search.
  3. Select or start typing the search criteria to see the rows filter instantly. For example, you might search for a job by name using the Job column.
    Note:

    You can also click any column name once to sort the rows in descending order. Click again to reverse the order. For more information about filtering, see Filtering and sorting table columns and Filtering by time range.

Filtering and sorting table columns

You can filter each column by selecting its filter icon filter-icon and clicking or typing your filter criteria. To clear a filter, click the Clear Filters button above the minions table.

You can also sort a column by selecting the column name. To customize which columns display in the table, click the Show columns button show-columns-icon in the lower left corner of the table.

Note:

Filters, column sorting, and column visibility settings are persistent for a given user, regardless of the device used to log in. This means that when a particular user logs in, he or she sees the same filtering, sorting, and visibility settings the next time he or she logs in until the filters are cleared or the sorting and visibility settings are changed.

Filtering by time range

You can display activity for a specific time ranges by filtering or sorting the Start time column. Clicking the filter icon filter-icon opens a menu that allows you to select the time range for the activity you want to see, such as Past hour or Next 7 days.

You can also enter custom time ranges by selecting Custom from the filter menu. A date and time pop up box appears where you can select your desired date and time range.

Statuses

Each tab in the Activity workspace includes additional status details for each job or activity as follows.

In Progress

Status Description
Running The job or activity is currently running.
Paused The job or activity began running but was paused by a user. You can resume the activity as needed.
Pausing The job or activity will pause when there is an ideal moment between executing different tasks.
Resuming The job or activity is attempting to continue running.
Queued The job or activity is attempting to start running.
Stopping The job or activity is looking for an opportunity to stop, between executing different tasks.

Upcoming

Status Description
Scheduled The job or activity will run at a set time, indicated in the Start time column.
Skipping The scheduled job or activity will not run at its indicated time.
Disabled The job or activity is part of a disabled schedule, and will not run.
Note: See Schedules for more information.

Completed

Status Description
Completed The job or activity has finished running.
Partial The job or activity is still waiting for some minions to return, though the Salt master has reported that the activity has finished running.
Skipped The job or activity was scheduled for the indicated time but did not run.
Disabled The job or activity is part of a disabled schedule; it was scheduled for the indicated time but did not run.
Stopped The job or activity was stopped and cannot be resumed.
Failed The job or activity ran but failed on one or more minions.