agent failed to compare evidently drift reports across two dates after report parse error

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Align the two reports before comparing them: the agent failed to compare Evidently drift reports across dates after a parse error, so extract both reports through the same parser version, normalise metric names, and only then diff the drift results. Cross-date comparison fails when the two reports were produced or parsed differently. A report format change between the dates is the usual hidden difference.

agent failed to compare evidently drift reports across two dates after report parse error

Use this when

• The check or run fails with this symptom: an agent fails to compare Evidently drift reports across two dates after a report parse error.
• You are working on an agent workflow tracking Evidently drift over time for a model or a table and the failure repeats on the same data or configuration.
• You need the failing rows, rule, or stage isolated before changing thresholds or code.

Not for this skill when

• Reports from the same day and version that still fail to parse, which points at a damaged report file.
• The error text names a different tool, stage, or root cause. Match the verbatim error first and use that skill.

Steps

1. Record the Evidently version that produced each report. Verify: the versions match, or the difference is named
2. Parse both reports with one extractor and export both to the same flat metric table. Verify: both dates produce rows in the identical shape
3. Normalise metric and column names across the two exports. Verify: the same drift metric has one name on both dates
4. Diff the flat tables by column and metric. Verify: drift changes between the dates are listed
5. Save the flat export with each report. Verify: the next comparison starts from parsed data, not from the reports

Variant phrasings

agent failed compare evidently drift reports two dates parse

The shorter phrasing focused on the named failure.

evidently drift report comparison parse error

The symptom phrasing a searcher tries next.

compare drift reports across dates fix

The variant naming the failing stage or tool directly.

Compatibility: Evidently report versions and JSON exports, agent comparison workflows

Why it happens

Evidently report internals evolve between versions, so a parser fitted to the newer report fails or misreads the older one. Comparison code that assumes one format across a version boundary breaks even though both reports are individually valid.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Store the parsed metrics at report time; future format changes then never reach historical comparisons.
• A missing column in one date is a finding about the feature set, not a parse failure; keep absent and unparsable distinct in the output.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstqUHIdT80Sf9RQc34GUWNA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstqUHIdT80Sf9RQc34GUWNA

Thread query: agent failed to compare evidently drift reports across two dates after report parse error

TL;DR: Align the two reports before comparing them: the agent failed to compare Evidently drift reports across dates after a parse error, so extract both reports through the same parser version, normalise metric names, and only then diff the drift results. Cross-date comparison fails when the two reports were produced or parsed differently. A report format change between the dates is the usual hidden difference.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Find the exact timestamp strings Bacula emitted for the skipped jobs and teach the parser those formats instead of letting it drop unparsable rows silently: Bacula mixes formats across console, log, and catalog outputs and locales. Make any unparsable record a loud parsing failure, then reprocess the affected reports so previously skipped failed jobs are triaged.

agent's parser broke on bacula timestamp format and skipped failed jobs

Use this when

• An agent summarises Bacula jobs but failed jobs are missing from its reports.
• Skipped jobs cluster on certain dates, locales, or output sources such as bconsole versus log files.
• Parser logs show date or time conversion warnings that were treated as non fatal.

Not for this skill when

• The jobs are absent from the Bacula catalog and console as well. That is a director or catalog problem, not parsing.
• The agent parses correctly but its success classification is wrong. That is a status mapping problem.

Steps

1. Recover the skipped set: list jobs for the period directly from Bacula with bconsole or the catalog, including job identifiers, levels, statuses, and start times, and diff that list against the jobs the agent reported. Verify: every skipped job is named with its identifier and status, and the failed ones are flagged for triage
2. Extract the raw timestamp text for the skipped jobs exactly as the parser received it, from the same source the parser reads, whether that is bconsole output, a job log, or a catalog export. Note day and month order, month names or numbers, separators, time zone markers, and any leading text. Verify: the raw strings for skipped and parsed jobs are shown side by side and the format difference is visible
3. Fix the parser with explicit formats: add the observed Bacula variants as named patterns tried in order, handle locale month names deliberately rather than by host locale, and normalise parsed times to one time zone with the source zone recorded. Verify: unit examples built from the raw skipped strings now parse to the correct times
4. Make failure loud: any record the parser still cannot parse must be counted, logged with its raw text, and surfaced as a parsing failure in the run summary, never skipped silently or defaulted to the current time. Verify: a test record with a deliberately corrupt timestamp appears in the summary as unparsed, and the run does not report full success
5. Reprocess the backlog: rerun the fixed parser over the retained reports or catalog exports for the whole affected period, and triage every newly surfaced failed job through the normal backup failure process. Verify: agent job counts now equal the Bacula catalog counts per day, and all surfaced failures have a triage outcome
6. Add a reconciliation check to every run: compare parsed job count and failed job count against a direct Bacula count for the same window, and alert on any mismatch before the summary is sent. Verify: a simulated dropped record triggers the mismatch alert in a test run

Why it happens

Bacula does not emit one timestamp format. Console listings, job termination messages, log files, and catalog queries each format dates differently, and formats shift with version, locale, and whether the output came from bconsole, the director log, or a database export - day first versus month first, abbreviated month names, two or four digit years, and times with or without seconds and zone information all occur. A parser written and tested against one source, or one locale, will throw a conversion error on the other variant. If that error is caught per record and coded as skip, the agent produces a clean looking report from an incomplete set, and because failed jobs are no more likely to parse than successful ones, whole failures vanish randomly. The bug is therefore two bugs: a fragile format assumption, and a silent skip that converted a parsing defect into missing operational truth.

Variants and edge cases

skips happen only around month boundaries

Day and month order ambiguity is the usual cause: a date that parses under the wrong order for most of the month fails or mis-sorts when the day exceeds twelve. Pin the order from the Bacula source configuration, add boundary examples to the parser tests, and check for silently misordered jobs as well as skipped ones.

only jobs from one director or locale are skipped

Month names and separators follow the locale of the emitting host. Parse with an explicit locale map for month names from each source, and record the source host with each record so a new locale is detected as a new format, not as missing jobs.

timestamps parse but jobs land on the wrong day

Time zone handling, not format, is at fault: catalog times, log times, and agent times in different zones shift jobs across the reporting window edge. Normalise all times to UTC at parse time with the original zone retained, and reconcile counts over a window padded by one day on each side. Edge cases: upgraded Bacula versions can change console column layouts, so a timestamp fix can still break later if the parser depends on column positions; parse from labelled fields or catalog queries where available and keep golden examples from each source and version in the test set. Retention matters too: if raw logs rotate away before the parser is fixed, the catalog is the only place the skipped jobs can be recovered from, which argues for fixing quickly and reconciling against the catalog routinely. The standing rule for this agent is simple - counts must reconcile with Bacula itself on every run, and an unparsed record is a failed run, never a footnote.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst__idRMBH7rVBCRl1OUeH2FQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst__idRMBH7rVBCRl1OUeH2FQ

Thread query: agent's parser broke on bacula timestamp format and skipped failed jobs

TL;DR: Find the exact timestamp strings Bacula emitted for the skipped jobs and teach the parser those formats instead of letting it drop unparsable rows silently: Bacula mixes formats across console, log, and catalog outputs and locales. Make any unparsable record a loud parsing failure, then reprocess the affected reports so previously skipped failed jobs are triaged.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Fix this in the detector comparison by acting on the exact message first: align both detectors to the same start, end, and step before comparing, rerun the comparison extract with those bounds, and report the bounds alongside the result. Do not rerun the whole job unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one item, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.

when agent tried to compare detectors side by side agent failed error mismatched time ranges

Use this when

• The operation in the detector comparison fails with this exact message: when agent tried to compare detectors side by side agent failed error mismatched time ranges.
• The same failure repeats on retry with unchanged inputs.
• A review, export or check is blocked until this item completes.

Not for this skill when

• The message is a permission or outage notice from the platform. Resolve that first, then return here if this error remains.
• The operation completes and you only disagree with its output. That is a quality review, not this failure.

Steps

1. Reproduce the failure with the smallest scope that still shows it in the detector comparison, and copy the full message plus the item, user or metric involved into the run notes. Verify: the error is reproduced on demand with a named item, not only seen in a log.
2. Apply the specific fix for this error: align both detectors to the same start, end, and step before comparing, rerun the comparison extract with those bounds, and report the bounds alongside the result. Verify: both detectors score the identical window and differences reflect the models, not the ranges.
3. Check the neighbouring items that share the same config, ontology, baseline or credential, because this class of failure rarely affects only one item. Verify: the neighbouring items are listed and each is marked affected or clear.
4. Rerun the original operation in the detector comparison on the previously failing scope, watching for the same message rather than assuming success from a quiet log. Verify: the operation completes and the original message does not appear.
5. Compare the result counts, decisions or alerts against the source in the detector comparison so a silent partial success is caught before sign off. Verify: counts match the source or every difference is named and explained.
6. Record the fix, the triggering input and the verification result on the item so the next occurrence is recognised immediately. Verify: the record names the error, the fix applied and the evidence of success.

Why it happens

Detectors compared over different windows disagree because they saw different data; the mismatch looks like a model difference.

Variant phrasings

when agent tried to compare detectors side by side agent failed error mismatched time ranges

The verbatim form searchers paste from the terminal or console. Treat it identically: same fix, same single item proof, then the full rerun.

How to fix: when agent tried to compare detectors side by side agent failed error mismatched time ranges

The how-to phrasing for the same failure in the detector comparison. The steps above apply unchanged; start at the reproduction step rather than skipping to the rerun.

the detector comparison troubleshooting for this failure

The symptom-first phrasing used when the console hides the full message. Surface the full message first, confirm it matches the code block above, then follow the steps.

Compatibility: the detector comparison at current versions, plus the platform API or console the query names; no extra tooling beyond a text editor and the source system access needed to verify counts.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_BeHgX4ekR8wY1X8CcPl9XA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_BeHgX4ekR8wY1X8CcPl9XA

Thread query: when agent tried to compare detectors side by side agent failed error mismatched time ranges

TL;DR: Fix this in the detector comparison by acting on the exact message first: align both detectors to the same start, end, and step before comparing, rerun the comparison extract with those bounds, and report the bounds alongside the result. Do not rerun the whole job unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one item, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.