Richard Waymire


Stairway to SQL Server Agent

Stairway to SQL Server Agent: Level 1: Setup and Overview

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

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2020-02-19 (first published: )

21,733 reads

Stairway to SQL Server Agent

Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 2: Job Steps and Subsystems

SQL Server Agent jobs are made up of a series of one or more Job Steps. A job step is assigned to a specific job subsystem, which identifies the kind of work the job step is going to perform. Each job step runs in a separate security context, although each job also has an owner that determines who can modify the job.

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2017-10-11 (first published: )

10,054 reads

Stairway to SQL Server Agent

Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 9: Understanding Jobs and Security

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.

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2014-04-16 (first published: )

10,824 reads

Stairway to SQL Server Agent

Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 10: Using proxy accounts with your Jobs

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.

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2012-01-25

12,945 reads

Stairway to SQL Server Agent

Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 8: Using External programs with SQL Server Agent

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.

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2011-12-28

6,973 reads

Stairway to SQL Server Agent

Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 7: Working with the SQL Server Agent Job Activity Monitor

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.

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2011-12-07

6,275 reads

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Question of the Day

Backing Up a DMK

In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?

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