Is Journey builder generating automations for each journey created?

Question

When retrieving automations running on my platform, I have noticed some automations named like journeys and ending with a ISO formatted date. Those automations cannot be found in the automation studio interface though. Could someone help explaining what they are,how important are and if they could safely be deleted. (They are active in the backend)

Answer 1

Indeed, when retrieving automations in a BU through the API, there seems to be one for journey with an auto-generated name. It's a bit more specific, see below.

I faintly remember them being visible some time in the past on the UI, as was a Data Extension per Journey - this has since been changed. Could be wrong about the automation here, but that's anyway anecdotal.

What's clear is that the retrieved automations each have the name of the journey + timestamp at the end, and can be clearly identified by the static <Description>Event Definition Automation</Description>

It stands to reason (and I confirmed by a test) that these automations are present for each Journey Entry source of type "Data Extension".

I verified that they are not created for an Entry source of type "API Event" or Transactional Journeys.

So pretty clearly, these automations are what's behind the "schedules" in a journey entry source. As an API Entry Source or transactional API entry source has no schedule >> no automation.

Should you delete them? Probably not, if you want the respective journey to function; also, they aren't visible to anyone except API-savvy admins, so what's to gain.

Reproduction - retrieve via SOAP API.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:a="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing" xmlns:u="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">
    <s:Header>
        <fueloauth xmlns="http://exacttarget.com">tokentokentoken</fueloauth>
    </s:Header>
    <s:Body xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
        <RetrieveRequestMsg xmlns="http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI">
            <RetrieveRequest>
                <ObjectType>Automation</ObjectType>
                <Properties>Name</Properties>
                <Properties>Description</Properties>
                <Properties>CustomerKey</Properties>
                <Properties>IsActive</Properties>
                <Properties>ScheduledTime</Properties>
                <Properties>Status</Properties>
                <Filter xsi:type="SimpleFilterPart">
                    <Property>IsActive</Property>
                    <SimpleOperator>equals</SimpleOperator>
                    <Value>true</Value>
                </Filter>
            </RetrieveRequest>
        </RetrieveRequestMsg>
    </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Results:

one normal SQL automation, one journey:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:wsa="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">
    <env:Header xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
        <wsa:Action>RetrieveResponse</wsa:Action>
        <wsa:MessageID>urn:uuid:a36fe60a-b4be-4fc0-a650-adf00d5db75e</wsa:MessageID>
        <wsa:RelatesTo>urn:uuid:3cfc37c8-6069-4eaa-ac4c-7d09016866ae</wsa:RelatesTo>
        <wsa:To>http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing/role/anonymous</wsa:To>
        <wsse:Security>
            <wsu:Timestamp wsu:Id="Timestamp-1e720aae-b784-41d7-a800-fae7701bc7de">
                <wsu:Created>2022-02-02T07:55:08Z</wsu:Created>
                <wsu:Expires>2022-02-02T08:00:08Z</wsu:Expires>
            </wsu:Timestamp>
        </wsse:Security>
    </env:Header>
    <soap:Body>
        <RetrieveResponseMsg xmlns="http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI">
            <OverallStatus>OK</OverallStatus>
            <RequestID>e36eb20b-2493-490e-a9fe-16bc68ed4f78</RequestID>
            <Results xsi:type="Automation">
                <PartnerKey xsi:nil="true" />
                <ObjectID xsi:nil="true" />
                <CustomerKey>someNormalAutomation</CustomerKey>
                <Name>XXXXX</Name>
                <Description />
                <IsActive>true</IsActive>
                <Status>2</Status>
            </Results>
            <Results xsi:type="Automation">
                <PartnerKey xsi:nil="true" />
                <ObjectID xsi:nil="true" />
                <CustomerKey>8b71df4a-6060-49cd-xxxx-yyyyyyyyy</CustomerKey>
                <Name>aJourneyName - 2022-01-24T110411.173</Name>
                <Description>Event Definition Automation</Description>
                <IsActive>true</IsActive>
                <Status>2</Status>
            </Results>
        </RetrieveResponseMsg>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>