This article demonstrates how to trigger an SSRS subscription to email a report from an Execute SQL Task using SQL Server Agent and the ReportServer.dbo.AddEvent stored procedure.  Read more...

SQL Server Agent is a Microsoft Windows service that allows a DBA to automate administrative tasks. SQL Server Agent can run jobs, monitor SQL Server, and process alerts. The SQL Server Agent service must be running before any jobs scheduled to execute automatically can be run  Read more...

Often times we are tasked with having to programmatically come with a list of durations per SQL Server Agent Job to trend the run times and order the results by date. Unfortunately it's not always easy in the way the data is stored in the system tables in the MSDB database. This tip explains how to use the system tables to get the data into the correct format for dates and job durations.  Read more...

It is often recommended that system tables should not be updated directly. Presenting a case in point built around nightly job configuration in order to demonstrate the possible issues with updating system tables directly.  Read more...

Examines the scale-out capabilities of SQL Server Agent, using the MSX/TSX subsystem. This capability allows you to run jobs on multiple systems and consolidate the job results/history onto a single server.  Read more...

How maintenance plans are used as SQL Server Agent jobs to automate standard system tasks. This article will also lay out some suggested jobs that should be on virtually all SQL Server systems.  Read more...

Examines the proxy subsystem, which allows job steps to impersonate another user account in order to perform tasks as a user other than the SQL Server Agent service account. This is especially useful when you want jobs to run as lower privileged users of your SQL Server.  Read more...

Security is a confusing topic to many, especially when it comes to understanding what rights are needed to monitor and use SQL Server Agent. This article will examine the rights and roles used for SQL Server Agent, as well as the security context requirements for jobs.  Read more...

Is there an easy/automated way to get information on SQL Server Agent jobs instead of connecting to each server and manually getting the information through the SSMS GUI?  Read more...

One common usage of SQL Server Agent historically has been the ability to shell out to the operating system and run command line programs, using SQL Server Agent primarily as a job scheduler. This article will examine the pros and cons of using the SQL Server 2008 & 2008 R2 Powershell subsystem versus the CmdExec subsystem to perform tasks in the Operating System.  Read more...

The Job Activity Monitor is the system administration tool to run jobs, view job history, and enable/disable jobs. This article will also review some of the stored procedures run by the Job Activity Monitor that you can also use directly to do your own custom job monitoring.  Read more...

How to configure and optimize job steps. Topics such as process flow between steps, security, and more details of the job subsystems are examined.  Read more...

This article covers how to use robocopy with SQL Server Agent to copy database backup files to another server.  Read more...

How to interpret and configure the SQL Server Agent error logs. Critical information about SQL Server Agent is sent to this error log, so knowing how to find it and how to interpret information in the log will save you valuable troubleshooting time.  Read more...

Examines the database mail system configuration in depth. You will learn how to configure database mail to work with SMTP mail systems, and get some troubleshooting tips.  Read more...

How to be notified when a job succeeds or fails, or be notified when a SQL Server performance condition is met.  Read more...

I work in a fairly large and unwieldy SQL Server shop. Our environment is the wild west. I have DBAs and Developers on my team that create SQL Server Agent Jobs all of the time and there is never an operator setup to email anyone based on a failure condition. I know the right solution here is to "tame the wild west" by locking down the environment and setting up a change management process, but I think that is a topic for another day. Can you give me some idea of how to identify the new recently created SQL Server Agent Jobs and Jobs without an operator setup to email us for a failure condition? I would like to receive emails when either of these conditions occur. Check out the solution to this tip to learn how.   Read more...

Read more...

SQL Server Agent is a Microsoft Windows service that allows a DBA to automate administrative tasks. SQL Server Agent can run jobs, monitor SQL Server, and process alerts. The SQL Server Agent service must be running before any jobs scheduled to execute automatically can be run  Read more...

SQL Server Agent is a Microsoft Windows service that allows a DBA to automate administrative tasks. SQL Server Agent can run jobs, monitor SQL Server, and process alerts. The SQL Server Agent service must be running before any jobs scheduled to execute automatically can be run  Read more...