Jobs that Don’t Start

Failure to Start

You can (and are encouraged to) monitor the progress of your runs. You can follow the progress of your job by viewing intermediate results. To view intermediate results for a running job, click on the "View Status" button. When that page opens, you will see an "Intermediate results" hyperlink. Click it and you and a pop-up will appear that displays all input files and any results for the selected job. The intermediate results pane shows input files and scheduling information files immediately, so you can make sure everything looks fine before the job begins. When the job initiates (normally within a few minutes) more files will appear, beginning with a start.txt file, which notes the time when the job began executing.

How do I know if my job has started? If the job has not started, the intermediate results pane shows only input files and scheduling files. This means your job is still waiting in the queue. Jobs usually (but not always) start within 15 minutes. You can keep the intermediate file page open and refresh from time to time to see when the intermediate fields appear. The first new file to appear in a running job is names start.txt.

What if the queue time seems long? If the queue time seems long, there are two possible reasons.
First, and most likely, the queue may be paused because of a scheduled or unscheduled maintenance. Typically, when a maintenance occurs we will post a message on the front page. The (normally green) status box will turn red, and an informative message will appear in the box. You can also check for scheduled maintenance events here; or just contact us at the link below if you aren't sure. Any job that might be still running into the maintenance period will be held in the queue until maintenance is complete. Once maintenance completes, the job should initiate within an hour or so. If it does not, you should contact us at the link below. Occasionally (but rarely) a job does not come out of maintenance cleanly, so it is possible that your job will hang.

How do I know if my job has started? If the job has not started, the intermediate results pane shows only input files and scheduling files. This means your job is still waiting in the queue. Jobs usually (but not always) start within 15 minutes. You can keep the intermediate file page open and refresh from time to time to see when the intermediate fields appear. The first new file to appear in a running job is names start.txt.

Second, and less likely, the queue might actually be long, and it could take hours for the job to start. This is quite rare, however. If you have questions, please contact us.