June 4, 2026 at 1:14 pm
Unfortunately I'm using SSMS 22.
It didn't come with maintenance plans by default. I ran visual studio installer to install the extra components (SSIS, B1 and something else) so I could create tasks.
I can now create tasks but cannot see the toolbox to add tasks e.g. backup task. So can only create an empty plan with in SSMS. Wish I knew this earlier wouldn't have bothered getting VS installer running.
I read this is by design, maintenance tasks are being phased out.
To replace these plans with Agent jobs.
I can replace the backup/reindex tasks with TSQL scripts in SQL Agent jobs
But how to handle file maintenance e.g.
Should I use the undocumented SPs that maintenance plans use e.g.
EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'G:\SQL Backups\MaintTasks\myNewDataBase'
EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_delete_file 0,N'G:\SQL Backups\MaintTasks',N'bak',N'2026-05-28T13:51:49',1
or
do add steps in powershell/cmdshell for file handling with its difficult error handling and reporting to SQLAgent.
I'm tempted to use the undocumented SPs for reliability/ease.
I want to avoid to have packages created in some flavour of Visual Studio or other environment for what are v.simple tasks.
June 4, 2026 at 1:24 pm
https://ola.hallengren.com/sql-server-backup.html is a great, widely used solution, including cleanup of old files, driven by stored procedures that can be incorporated into jobs.
June 4, 2026 at 1:52 pm
Thank you, I had seen these scripts mentioned elsewhere.
I wanted to stay on maintenance plans because when away my IT colleague with few SQL skills has managed to fix/diagnose issues with the simple GUI of maintenance plans.
Good to see these scripts use undocumented SPs, so if I use them and they change breaking jobs everyone using the Ola scripts will break too - solutions, well its MS so workarounds will be developed but much smarter people than me.
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