I don't understand your setup/question for #1. Please clarify, or add screen captures of your settings, or post a configuration report for the job (Right-click the job, choose "Configuration Report...", click the Save button in the top left of the window, save it as an HTM or MHT file, and upload it. The file won't be publicly visible in the forum).

I'm not sure I understand question #2 either. If you have a step that runs a program and the program returns an exit code of 255, then by default adTempus will treat that as a failure. You can send notification with a Response using the "Task Failed" event. You can also configure different Responses based on specific exit codes using the "Task completed with the specified result" event.

what is the differences between "step failed" and "task failed". I used step failed and that does work for me. and I use VB script to determine the result.

My VB script is: 

 Select Case CInt (adTempus.JobVariables("ProcessExitCode"))

 Case 0

  return True

Case Else

 return False

 End Select 

Where are you running this script? Is it a separate step in the job, or are you running it for the "Success Criteria" of the step that runs the program? Or something else?

It doesn't look like you need a script at all--the default behavior of adTempus is already to do what you're doing with the script: Just change the "Success Criteria" to "Decide based on the program's exit code" and set the criteria to "=0". If the exit code is anything other than 0, the step will be treated as a failure.

"Step Failed" and "Task Failed" are almost the same, and in your situation, as far as I can tell, they should behave the same. Task Failed happens when the task being run by the step reports a failure (based on exit code, etc.). Step Failed can happen if something fails within the step other than the task itself--such as a condition failure, etc. Generally you would want to use Step Failed to cover the most situations.

It does not work for me when I use "step fails" while "task fails" works.

I also run into another issue, I am creating a step to execute a *.cmd program which kicks off sql script. I created a response that if the script execution time reached a threshold (5mins), it will be terminated and send out notification. However, it does not seem the case, it keeps as running status.