Why is the rule not executing consistently?

[In Heo]

The rule is designed to execute every minute to check if a ticket was created 1440 minutes (exactly 24 hours) ago, but not beyond 1441 minutes. However, there have been irregular time gaps in its execution, indicating it’s not functioning as intended. What could be the potential cause for this inconsistency?

[Aron Gombas _Midori_ · Accepted solution]

@In Heo It is an implementation detail, but in the background "pending executions" will be put to a global queue (of work-to-be-done), and a pool of workers is working on them.

In this case, your scheduled execution will be put the queue, but it is impossible to tell how many other executions are also waiting in the queue. All in all, the latency of actually starting your scheduled execution is impossible to estimate. It will vary depending on the load.

Simply, you should not rely on the precise start time. There is no guarantee for that. You have to accept the random latency.

[In Heo]

Totally understand the situation now. Appreciate the details!

[Michel Neeser]

Hi @In Heo

Is your automation rule running for more than one minute? A scheduled rule can only run once at a time. So if the run time is more than one minute, the next executions of the same rule may be postponed or even skipped.

[In Heo]

Hi @Michel Neeser

thanks for your input. I’ve considered the scenario you mentioned, but it seems the execution time consistently takes less than 1 second.

[Michel Neeser]

@In Heo If I recall correctly, the minimum scheduling interval used to be 5 minutes. While I know that this is no longer the case, I can imagine that, from a technical standpoint, there might still be some limit in place to prevent excessive system load. It may be worth asking Atlassian Support regarding this.

[In Heo]

Alright, but isn't this something for Atlassian support...?

[In Heo]

then do you think adjusting the rule to run every 5 minutes would ensure it executes consistently every 5 minutes?

[Michel Neeser]

@In Heo I would give it a try, at least. I assume that longer intervals lead to greater consistency due to potential technical limitations in the background.

[In Heo]

Haha, I’ve updated the rule to run every 5 minutes, but it’s still showing inconsistency with larger time gaps—ranging from 5 to 8 minutes.