Active tasks

The /_active_tasks endpoint provides a list of the tasks that are running on the server, which is helpful for monitoring the performance of your system.

You can retrieve a list of active tasks, including compaction, replication, and indexing tasks. For more examples on using the /_active_tasks endpoint, see the Managing tasks guide.

Retrieving a list of active tasks

Method: GET
Path: /_active_tasks
Response: List of running tasks, including the task type, name, status, and process ID.
Roles permitted: _admin

You can get a list of active tasks by using the /_active_tasks URL. The result is a JSON array of the currently running tasks, with each task described with a single object.

See the example request to retrieve a list of active tasks by using HTTP commands:

GET /_active_tasks HTTP/1.1

See the example request to retrieve a list of active tasks by using the command line:

curl "https://$ACCOUNT.cloudant.com/_active_tasks" \
	-u $ACCOUNT

The returned structure includes the following fields for each task:

Fields in the returned structure
Name	Description
`database`	The database and shard on which the operation occurs.
`pid`	Erlang Process ID
`started_on`	Time when the task was started. The value is an integer that includes the UNIX™ time UTC.
`total_changes`	Total number of documents to be processed by the task. The exact meaning depends on the type of the task.
`type`	Operation Type
`updated_on`	Time that the task status was updated. The field updates every few seconds. Returns the most recent update.

In the type field, the possible values include:

database_compaction
view_compaction
replication
indexer
search_indexer

The meaning of other fields in the JSON response depends on the type of the task.

See the example JSON response array that includes details of currently running tasks:

[
	{
		"user": null,
		"updated_on": 1363274088,
		"type": "replication",
		"target": "https://repl:*****@tsm.cloudant.com/user-3dglstqg8aq0uunzimv4uiimy/",
		"docs_read": 0,
		"doc_write_failures": 0,
		"doc_id": "tsm-admin__to__user-3dglstqg8aq0uunzimv4uiimy",
		"continuous": true,
		"checkpointed_source_seq": "403-g1AAAADfeJzLYWBgYMlgTmGQS0lKzi9KdUhJMjTRyyrNSS3QS87JL01JzCvRy0styQGqY0pkSLL___9_VmIymg5TXDqSHIBkUj1YUxyaJkNcmvJYgCRDA5AC6tuflZhGrPsgGg9ANAJtzMkCAPFSStc",
		"changes_pending": 134,
		"pid": "<0.1781.4101>",
		"node": "dbcore@db11.julep.cloudant.net",
		"docs_written": 0,
		"missing_revisions_found": 0,
		"replication_id": "d0cdbfee50a80fd43e83a9f62ea650ad+continuous",
		"revisions_checked": 0,
		"source": "https://repl:*****@tsm.cloudant.com/tsm-admin/",
		"source_seq": "537-g1AAAADfeJzLYWBgYMlgTmGQS0lKzi9KdUhJMjTUyyrNSS3QS87JL01JzCvRy0styQGqY0pkSLL___9_VmI9mg4jXDqSHIBkUj1WTTityWMBkgwNQAqob39WYhextkE0HoBoBNo4MQsAFuVLVQ",
		"started_on": 1363274083
	},
	{
		"user": "acceptly",
		"updated_on": 1363273779,
		"type": "indexer",
		"node": "dbcore@db11.julep.cloudant.net",
		"pid": "<0.20723.4070>",
		"changes_done": 189,
		"database": "shards/00000000-3fffffff/acceptly/acceptly_my_chances_logs_live.1321035717",
		"design_document": "_design/MyChancesLogCohortReport",
		"started_on": 1363273094,
		"total_changes": 26389
	},
	{
		"user": "username",
		"updated_on": 1371118433,
		"type": "search_indexer",
		"total_changes": 5466,
		"node": "dbcore@db7.meritage.cloudant.net",
		"pid": "<0.29569.7037>",
		"changes_done": 4611,
		"database": "shards/40000000-7fffffff/username/database_name",
		"design_document": "_design/lucene",
		"index": "search1",
		"started_on": 1371118426
	},
	{
		"view": 1,
		"user": "acceptly",
		"updated_on": 1363273504,
		"type": "view_compaction",
		"total_changes": 26095,
		"node": "dbcore@db11.julep.cloudant.net",
		"pid": "<0.21218.4070>",
		"changes_done": 20000,
		"database": "shards/80000000-bfffffff/acceptly/acceptly_my_chances_logs_live.1321035717",
		"design_document": "_design/MyChancesLogCohortReport",
		"phase": "view",
		"started_on": 1363273094
	},
	{
		"updated_on": 1363274040,
		"node": "dbcore@db11.julep.cloudant.net",
		"pid": "<0.29256.4053>",
		"changes_done": 272195,
		"database": "shards/00000000-3fffffff/heroku/app3245179/id_f21a08b7005e_logs.1346083461",
		"started_on": 1363272496,
		"total_changes": 272195,
		"type": "database_compaction"
	}
]

Specific response fields for compaction tasks

Response fields for compaction tasks
Name	Description
`changes_done`	Number of documents compacted.
`phase`	Reports the stage of compaction.
`total_changes`	Number of documents in the database.

In the phase field, the value indicates the stage that was reached by compaction:

ids: Document compaction is in progress.
views: View compaction is in progress.

Specific response fields for replication tasks

Response fields for replication tasks
Name	Description
`changes_pending`	Number of documents that need to be changed in the target database, expressed as an integer.
`continuous`	Boolean value that indicates whether the replication is continuous.
`docs_read`	Number of documents that are read from the source database, expressed as an integer.
`replication_id`	Unique identifier string of the replication that can be used to cancel the task.
`revisions_checked`	Number of document revisions that were checked to verify whether they're already in the target database.
`source`	An obfuscated URL string that indicates the database from which the task is replicating.
`target`	An obfuscated URL string that indicates the database to which the task is replicating.
`user`	User who started the replication, expressed as a string, or `null` if the replication was not initiated by a user.

Specific response fields for indexing tasks

Response fields for indexing tasks
Name	Description
`changes_done`	Number of document revisions that are processed by this task. A document can have one or more revisions.
`design_document`	The design document that includes the view or index function or functions.
`total_changes`	The number of unindexed changes to process. This count includes deleted documents, although these documents are automatically skipped by the indexer.