How to Schedule Workflows in Alteryx Designer

For full enterprise scheduling of workflows, interactive running of workflows for non-Alteryx users, API integration and full workflow lifecycle Alteryx Server is a proven platform that delivers tremendous value in the IT estate.

However, when a client starts with a handful of licences it’s a big step to get to Server - and we now have a solution to bridge the gap.

The Alteryx Desktop Automation add-on product allows you to elevate an Alteryx Designer into a scheduler of workflows for clients with 4 Alteryx Designers or less.

A drawback of Desktop Automation has been the reliance on a single user PC/laptop being left running on the user’s credentials, and most clients not having a cloud environment.

With the rapid technology change brought about by COVID, most organisations now have a cloud platform such as Microsoft Azure.

Prompted by a client requirement, we recently proved that installing the Scheduler on a Microsoft Azure Windows Virtual PC (Windows 10 Professional) removes that lack of resilience with the cloud infrastructure and “always-on” availability.

The scheduler works in the same way as the Alteryx Server scheduler with options to run once, by minutes or hours, by days or weeks, by months or finally a custom schedule. 

The workflows themselves can be run from where they are located on disk or can be stored in the Scheduler DB (SQL Lite database).  The results can clearly be seen in the product with a visual representation of Success, Warnings or Errors. As with the Alteryx Server we would recommend setting up monitoring to ensure the Alteryx Service is up and running as well as monitoring for low disk space because either of these would affect the scheduler.

To see Desktop Scheduler in action, please watch the YouTube video below, and get in touch with enquiries@continuum.je if you’d like more information !