A job associates multiple computers, the corresponding images, and unattended answer files with one or more assessments. You can create a new job, open an existing job, or select a preconfigured job from the home page or the File menu.

In this topic:

Creating a Job

  1. If the Windows® Assessment Services - Client (Windows ASC) is not running, start it from the Start menu.

  2. On the File menu, click Open Project, and then select a project.

    For more information about how to create a project, see Projects.

  3. On the home page, click Create new job.

  4. In the New Job window, type a job name in the Job Name box.

  5. Select one of the following job types:

    • Create a custom job. If you select this option, you add assessments that are designed for general use in the Windows ASC when the custom job opens.

    • Create a job from a template. If you select this option, a template window opens and you add jobs that have preconfigured settings.

    • Create an energy efficiency job. If you select this option, you add assessments that are designed to run as workloads to test the battery life and energy efficiency in the Windows ASC when the energy efficiency job opens.

  6. In the new job tab in Windows ASC, the job settings are highlighted by default. In the Details pane, you can change the name, add a description, and add a keywords to help you identify the job and the results. These job settings are also available:

    • In the Failure behavior drop-down list, take one of these actions:

      • Click Hold to hold a test computer if there are any job failures on it.

      • Click Continue to ignore a failure on a test computer and move on to the next assessment.

      • Click Abort to stop running all subsequent assessments within the current job on a test computer that had a failure.

    • Select the Apply Image check box to deploy an image to the test computer before you run the assessments. Clear this check box if you are assessing computers where the operating system that you want to assess is already installed.

    • Select the Dynamic Driver Provisioning check box to add drivers during deployment using your Windows® Assessment Services server.

  7. Click Add Assessments, and then select one or more assessments from the Details pane.

  8. To change the assessment settings, select an assessment that has been added to the job, and then adjust the settings in the Details pane.

    Note
    Each assessment has different settings available. Additional information about each assessment and the settings for each are provided online. For more information, see Assessment Toolkit Technical Reference.
  9. On the File menu, click Save to make sure that your job is available the next time that you open the project.

Warning
You can't run the job until you add assets. For more information, see Evaluation Assets.

Opening an Existing Job

  1. If the Windows ASC is not running, start it from the Start menu.

    Note
    When you start Windows ASC, the most recent project opens. Check the status pane on the bottom to see what is listed as the current project.
  2. On the File menu, click Open Project, and then select a project.

    For more information about how to create a project, see Projects.

  3. In the Project Settings dialog box, on the Jobs tab, select a job, and then click OK.

Running a Job

You can run a job on all the assets that you added to the project, run a job on a subset of those assets, or run different jobs on different assets that are available in the project.

To run a job

  1. In the Windows ASC, click Run to start the job instance.

  2. In the Run Job dialog box, enter Job instance tag and Test pass information, and then click OK.

    Note
    Windows Assessment Services uses three high-level concepts to organize job instance results:
    • Projects. The highest level of organization is used to segregate data by purpose, location, or event. For example, 2012 Kitchen Tablet.

    • Test pass. A test pass represents a milestone, a logical set of computers, or other differentiations. For example, Phase A, Phase B, Phase C, Phase D.

    • Job instance tag. This tag identifies the iteration, installation type, or focus of comparison. For example, OEM-Win7, Clean-Win7, OEM-Win8, Clean-Win8.

    When the job finishes, the results are copied back to the server at \\%WAS-Server%\relax\results\%Project%\%TestPass%\%JobName%\%ComputerName%\%JobInstanceTag%_%TimeStamp%\.

  3. When the Results tab opens, review the progress of the job on each computer or view details about the status of the running job. The following section, Monitoring Job Progress, provides more information about this.

Monitoring Job Progress

While you run a job, you can monitor the progress of the job instance in the Windows ASC as it runs on a particular computer. You can also delete a job instance, cancel a job instance, and drop a computer from a job in the Monitor job instances window.

To monitor job progress

  1. When you click Run to start the job instance, the Monitor job instances window appears. To display the window, you can also click the Monitor job instance link on the Configure job page. The Monitor job instances window lists the jobs that ran or are currently running, sorted by start time.

  2. To add or remove data, right-click a column heading in the Monitor job instances window. By default, this data appears:

    Data Description

    Job instance tag

    You can run a job many times. So, you can have multiple instances of the job. This is the keyword that you entered to identify this iteration of the job.

    Test pass

    This is the description that you entered for the testing cycle that you're in, like a milestone or a season. These keywords help you identify the appropriate results when you're searching through a list of results. But they're not required fields, so they might contain the default values.

    Start time

    The time that the job instances started.

    Progress

    The progress of the job.

    Status

    The job status. Possible values include:

    • Not started. The job hasn't started because the computer needs a reboot, or it's currently running another job instance or holding another job instance.

    • Running. The job instance is currently running.

    • Complete. The job instance finished successfully, and results were saved.

    • Computer held. The computer that's running this job instance is being held. Review the task status for detailed information.

    • Canceling. The job instance is in the process of being canceled. It isn't fully canceled yet.

    • Canceled. The job instance was canceled, or the computer was dropped from the job.

    • Error. There was one or more failures while the assessment was running, processing, or posting results.

    Status message

    A message that's related to the job status, like an error that occurred while the job was running.

    Computer status

    A link to view the details about what's happening on the computer where this job instance is running.

  3. To get more details about what's happening on each computer in the job, double-click the job instance. To add or remove data, right-click a column heading. By default, this data appears:

    Data Description

    Computer name

    The name of the computer that you're assessing.

    Location

    The location of the computer that you're assessing, if you entered a location when you added the computer to the inventory.

    Completed actions

    The number of actions that are complete. For example, 2 of 3.

    Status

    The job status. Possible values include:

    • Not started. The job hasn't started because the computer needs a reboot, or it's currently running another job instance or holding another job instance.

    • Running. The job instance is currently running.

    • Complete. The job instance finished successfully, and results were saved.

    • Computer held. The computer that's running this job instance is being held. Review the task status for detailed information.

    • Canceling. The job instance is in the process of being canceled. It isn't fully canceled yet.

    • Canceled. The job instance was canceled, or the computer was dropped from the job.

    • Error. There was one or more failures while the assessment was running, processing, or posting results.

    Status message

    A message that's related to the job status, like an error that occurred while the job was running.

    Phase

    The type of currently running task or task status. Possible values include:

    • Apply image

    • Not started

    • Hold

    • Run assessment

    • Complete

  4. To see more details about the progress of the tasks that are running on a computer, click the computer name. To add or remove data like the following items, right-click a column heading:

    • Task

    • Task status

    • Start time

    • End time

    • Completion status

Deleting a Job Instance

When you delete a job instance, it's deleted from the job monitoring view.

  1. When you click Run to start the job instance, the Monitor job instances window appears. You can also click the Monitor job instance link on the Configure job page.

  2. When the Monitor job instances window opens, the jobs that ran, or are currently running are listed, sorted by start time. Select the job instance you want to delete, and click Delete job.

Canceling a Job Instance

When you cancel a job instance, it's still visible in the job monitoring window until it's fully deleted.

  1. When you click Run to start the job instance, the Monitor job instances window appears. You can also click the Monitor job instance link on the Configure job page.

  2. When the Monitor job instances window opens, the jobs that ran, or are currently running are listed, sorted by start time. Select the job instance you want to delete, and click Cancel job.

Dropping a Computer from a Job Instance

When you drop a computer from a job, the job continues to run on other computers.

  1. When you click Run to start the job instance, the Monitor job instances window appears. You can also click the Monitor job instance link on the Configure job page.

  2. When the Monitor job instances window opens, the jobs that ran, or are currently running are listed, sorted by start time. Select the job instance you want to delete, and click Drop computer.

See Also