Automation giving validation errors and not running

[mgupta]

Context - creating an automation to circulate in progress Jira items by assignee once per week. 

Items to share are being created by JQL and it is validating fine.

Action step is looping against each issue fetched by the JQL and adding them one by one to the body email and sending the email after that.

Validation error on the rule - 

Warnings won't stop your rule from running, but it's best to resolve them.

Audit log error - 

SOME ERRORS

...the rule was disabled, deleted or re-configured while it was running; or you may have reached your execution limits

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @mgupta 

For a question like this, context is important for the community to help.  Please post the following:

• an image of your complete automation rule in a single image for continuity
• images of any relevant actions / conditions / branches
• an image of the audit log details showing the rule execution
• explain what is not working as expected and why you believe that to be the case 

Until we see those...

That error message means what it states: the rule was modified while trying to run it, or something the rule does exceeded usage limits or service limits.  Seeing your complete rule and audit log details will help clarify what is happening.

Also, when you want to send one communication per assignee weekly, consider using:

• a saved JQL filter with subscriptions, or
• an automation rule to send one email per assignee, as described here:
  • https://support.atlassian.com/automation/kb/automation-rule-to-send-single-email-for-all-issues-per-assignee-due-next/

Kind regards,
Bill

[mgupta]

Hey Bill, thanks for the help. Here's the screenshots for context - 

Rule - 

Trigger with the JQL-

JQL = project = ET AND status IN ("In Progress", "IN QA", "READY FOR DEV", "UAT SIGNOFF", "To Do") AND "Start Date" >= startOfWeek() AND "Start Date" < startOfWeek("+1w") ORDER BY assignee ASC, "Start Date" ASC

Action - 

Hi,

Here are all ET issues with Start Date in this week:

|| Key || Summary || Assignee || Status || Start Date || Due Date || Sprint ||
{{#issues}}
| [{{key}}|{{url}}] | {{summary}} | {{assignee.displayName}} | {{status.name}} | {{Start Date}} | {{duedate}} | {{sprint.name}} |
{{/issues}}

Thanks,
Jira Automation

Audit log error - 

[Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_]

Hi @mgupta 

Click on the arrow at the end of the log to see the actual error. 

Regards

[mgupta]

Thanks, though not much help there as you can see..

[Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_]

yeah that didnt help.

What if you run the rule manually? In the 3 dots near the toggle, you can run it manually. see if that gets you any logs.

Also can you add here:

1. Test the query on the search item section. see if you get what you need.

2. a screenshot of the send email action

Add the query here and same for the email you are sending.

Regards

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks for those images, @mgupta 

Based on what I see in the rule details, I wonder: are you using a service account for the rule?

And, related to the scheduled trigger:

• The trigger does not have any JQL to provide work items to the rule
  • The option "Run a JQL search..." is not enabled
• Instead, there appears to be a condition on the trigger, which is likely not needed
  • There are several open defects for conditions on triggers, and thus I recommend never using them until Atlassian fixes all of them
  • Instead, when additional conditions are needed, add them separately after the trigger

[mgupta]

Hi @Bill Sheboy : I tired having the "Run a JQL search..." in the rule, but in that case it would send 30 emails with the same email message in case there are 30 items from our JQL query. Hence I chose to not use it and thought that having the JQL in the condition would have the same effect without sending multiple emails. That's the rationale for my setup far and if conditions on triggers are riddled with defects, I guess I cannot achieve what I want to do as of now using built in automations, unless I am missing something :(

Anyway to reach out to dedicated Atlassian support reps with this query cos to me my ask seems pretty table stakes. Thanks!

[mgupta]

Hi @Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_ the current audit log error I got was from running the rule manually. That's all the detail that it shows unfortunately.

[Bill Sheboy]

To send one email per assignee, please see the article I noted earlier:

https://support.atlassian.com/automation/kb/automation-rule-to-send-single-email-for-all-issues-per-assignee-due-next/

With that approach:

• the scheduled trigger has no JQL 
• instead, a Lookup Work Items action uses the JQL to identify any items and their assignees
• an advanced branch iterates over the assignees
• and another Lookup Work Items action uses a refined JQL with the branch variable for each assignee to send their email

Please read the entire article and before trying to implement it.  Thanks!

[mgupta]

Thanks @Bill Sheboy that worked. My loop wasn't working and through your article I was able to fix the smart value to use. 

[Florian Bonniec]

Hi @mgupta 

Do you have a screenshot of the automation, and the error in the audit log ?

How many issues are returned by the JQL.

As mentioned in the error message you may have reach the automation limit.

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/automation-service-limits/

Regards

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @mgupta 

from your description, I would first check whether the rule is doing a JQL search and then iterating through each returned issue one by one.

If yes, then the problem may be less the email action itself and more that the rule scope is simply too broad. A broad JQL combined with a loop can consume Automation capacity quite quickly, especially on Standard, even if you send only one final email.

The message about warnings by itself is not the main problem, because warnings do not always stop the rule. The more useful part is the audit log error below it, since that should show whether the rule is hitting validation, throttling, or simply processing too many items.

So I would suggest checking:

• the exact JQL
• how many issues it returns ?
• whether the loop is really needed
• and the full audit log error, because that should show the actual failing point

So my first suspicion would be:
the rule is not really failing because of the email itself, but because it is processing too many issues one by one.