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Overview

SYS.DBMS_AUTO_TASK is an Oracle-supplied PL/SQL package that supports the Oracle Database Scheduler's automated maintenance infrastructure and, by extension, the maintenance and diagnostic framework used by Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. Its principal responsibility is to compute and expose the schedule of "auto tasks" — predefined background jobs such as optimizer statistics gathering, segment advisor, and Automatic SQL Tuning Advisor — that the database runs inside named maintenance windows. The package abstracts the complexity of window calendars and repeating time intervals so that clients (notably Enterprise Manager and other administrative tooling) can query when a given task is expected to execute between two points in time.

In an EBS context, this package is part of the underlying Oracle Database installation owned by SYS. EBS itself does not call it directly from application forms; rather, it is invoked by the database's own scheduler machinery and by DBA/administration interfaces that manage the automated maintenance tasks configured for the EBS database.

Key Procedures and Functions

• WINDOW_CALENDAR — A pipelined table function that consumes a reference cursor of window name/start/end records and returns a collection of window calendar entries, each comprising the window name, start time, and duration. It allows the caller to materialize the sequence of maintenance windows over a range.
• GET_SCHEDULE_DATE — Computes the list of scheduled run dates for a named auto task, given a start date, an end date, and the task name (the auto task name used by Enterprise Manager). The computed list is returned through an OUT parameter of type ket$_window_list. This is the procedure most commonly referenced when administrators need to determine future execution points for statistics gathering or advisor jobs.
• RECONCILE_ATTRIBUTES — Combines several attribute flag sets into a single reconciled set. Arguments are prioritized in descending order, so task repository attributes (task_rep_attr), when supplied, override all other settings. Returns the reconciled numeric attribute flag.
• DECODE_ATTRIBUTES — Decodes a numeric attribute flag into a human-readable string for display purposes.
• GET_CLIENT_STATUS_OVERRIDE — Determines whether a given client's status should be overridden to DISABLED even though it appears ENABLED on disk (for example, because the package is disabled or an underscore parameter is in effect). A return value of 1 indicates such an override applies.
• CHECK_CLIENT_STATUS_OVERRIDE — The companion check routine that evaluates client status override conditions, complementing GET_CLIENT_STATUS_OVERRIDE.

Tables Accessed

The package reads scheduler metadata associated with maintenance windows, as reflected by its record types over DBA_SCHEDULER_WINDOWS columns (window_name, start_time, duration). No APPS-synonym tables are documented for this package, consistent with its low-level database scheduler role. Its internal scheduling results are surfaced through the SYS type ket$_window_list.

Usage Notes

DBMS_AUTO_TASK is normally invoked by the Oracle Database Scheduler and by DBA/Enterprise Manager administrative interfaces rather than from EBS application code. Because it is owned by SYS and depends on internal types such as ket$_window_list and DBA_SCHEDULER_WINDOWS, it is not intended for direct invocation from EBS forms, concurrent programs, or customization. Where EBS DBAs need to understand when automated maintenance will run — for example, to avoid contention with online users during statistics collection — the package's GET_SCHEDULE_DATE procedure and WINDOW_CALENDAR function remain the documented entry points for that information. The metadata records the package as referenced by five other packages, confirming its role as a shared internal utility.