How to get email notification when a BPD instance fails

On Demand Consulting
Author: Volodymyr Sitarchuk

Notification of Failed Instances

Detailed instructions on setting up Notifications of Failed BPD Instances can be found here:
http://evilbiz.com/?p=126


However in 8.5.*
the feature stopped working

There may be two reasons :

1.
Look at the "Step Three - Setup Notification User"
the parameter notify-error was moved from TW config files to WAS config files
see
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSFPJS_8.5.6/com.ibm.wbpm.ref.doc/topics/samplecfgprops.html?lang=en
The notifyError parameter is among of parameters moved to WCCM:
"WebSphere Lombardi Edition XML configuration properties that are migrated to WebSphere Application Server configuration files"

It is recommended to use wsadmin to update WAS config file
but as a quick way to set:
1 find cluster-bpm.xml file in DMGR profile
2 backup it
3 find the securityUsers element in the file and check that it has the notifyError attribute: like notifyError="bpmdeadmin"
   if necessary insert/update it
4 full resync of nodes
5 restart of BPM
6 check running the command
wsadmin>print AdminConfig.showall(AdminConfig.list('BPMServerSecurityUsers'))

the result should be like
[notifyError bpmdeadmin]
[userToCloseTask bpmdeadmin]
[userToCreateTask bpmdeadmin]


2.
The new feature so called OnHoldEMTasks
(See details:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1JR47860
and
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSFTDH_8.5.5/com.ibm.wbpm.ref.doc/topics/rref_bpmreplayonholdemtasks.html?)
breaks the notification on failed instances feature
The reason is that when SystemLaneTask fails it is not re-executed.
corresponding BPD Instance is just put into Failed status.
it does not reach the re-execute-limit to get a new task created and a notification sent to EM administrator.

The workaround is to set the re-execute-limit to 1 - see this parameter in the 80EventManager.xml
How to change parameters in the TW config files can be found here :
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSFTN5_8.5.6/com.ibm.wbpm.admin.doc/topics/managing_twks_config_settings.html