I've been developing an application that displays graphs on a website by reading from a SQL Server. Since some of the tables are very large, my SQL scripts take a couple minutes to execute, so I devised a plan to get around this by having a job execute on a monthly basis. I have my T-SQL scripts that process the data and other scripts to create and display the graphs, so the hard part is done. The problem I'm having is creating a scheduled job in SQL Server 2005 (cant upgrade since it's a work computer).
I've been having a great deal of trouble as it seems I don't have the stored procedures installed necessary to create a job or schedule. For example, when I ran:
USE TEST1 ;
GO
EXEC sp_add_job
#job_name = N'MY_FIRST_JOB2' ;
GO
EXEC sp_add_jobstep
#job_name = N'MY_FIRST_JOB2',
#step_name = N'Set database to read only',
#subsystem = N'TSQL',
#command = N'SELECT * FROM [TEST1].[dbo].[BACK1]',
#retry_attempts = 5,
#retry_interval = 5 ;
GO
I received errors saying the stored procedures sp_add_job and sp_add_jobstep could not be found. I tried putting [dbo] before the stored procedures and it didn't help. When I checked my Programmability -> Stored Procedures -> System Stored Procedure folder, there were a lot but none for jobs or scheduling! Interestingly, when I ran
SELECT * FROM [sys].[procedures];
I got nothing, not a single row other than the column headers.
When I tried using the interface in SQL Server Agent, I'm able to create a job and set the schedule but it's not executing. When I open the job, the last executed box doesn't always update even though it should have executed. Furthermore, in the view history/logs, only a few of my attempts appeared (all errored out) for different reasons, some were due to permission even when I set the user to NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM.
This brings me to 2 questions:
1) Is there a way I can download these stored procedures?
2) Is there any other way I can do this? I have access to SQLExpress but since it doesn't have scheduling and the SQL Server Agent, I opted out and chose the easier route.
I've been at this for a while and am at wits end.
The problem is that the stored procedures you are referencing are not part of the database. All of the job related system stored procedures are in the msdb database.
An example of a proper call would be:
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_job
#job_name = N'MY_FIRST_JOB2';
Related
We have a SQL Server Agent job that runs every hour. Twice a month, the server is rebooted for Microsoft patching. The reboot is done by a different department, so we only know that it will occur during a 4 hour window on a specific day. When the server comes back up, is there a way to make any jobs that didn't start during this time frame autostart?
To my knowledge, there is no "built-in" way. But maybe you could do another job, that checks the last restart date of SQL Server.
SELECT sqlserver_start_time FROM sys.dm_os_sys_info
Then, if it detects that the server was restarted not long ago, it could check when your job ran last time.
select j.job_id, name, last_run_date, last_run_time, last_run_outcome, last_run_duration
from msdb.dbo.sysjobs as j (NoLOCK)
inner join msdb.dbo.sysjobservers as s (NOLOCK) on s.job_id = j.job_id
where enabled=1
And if necessary, tell SQL to start the job immediately
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_start_job N'YourJobName'
The sp_procoption system stored procedure can be used to run one (or multiple) user defined stored procedures upon the SQL Server service starting. A stored procedure must be created in the master database to be used by this system SP. You can then create a stored procedure that queries the msdb tables for specific (or any as described in your post) jobs that are inactive and then use sp_start_job to run the associated job. The scan for startup procs server configuration option must be enabled to use sp_procoption, however executing this stored procedure automatically enables this which you can verify using sp_configure. An example of adding a stored procedure to execute when the SQL Server service starts via sp_procoption is below.
USE [master]
EXEC SP_PROCOPTION #ProcName = 'uspCheckInactiveJobs', #OptionName = 'startup', #OptionValue = 'on';
I am facing a very weird issue where a stored procedure runs very slowly via SSIS package (run via SQL Agent job) compare to if I run it manually in SSMS.
Via the job, it takes ~2 hours, where manually running it takes only 30 seconds!
Exact same stored procedure and run on the same server.
This is the structure of the flow in the SSIS package:
The stored procedure's name in question is BR_SHP_Timekeeper_Costs.
The Execute SQL Task with the same name uses ADO.NET connection manager and run:
EXEC BR_SHP_Timekeeper_Costs #p1, #p2
As you can see also, this task is "chained" by precedence constraint so that it will run on its own, i.e. won't be contending with other tasks.
What I noticed was that during the execution of the package (via SQL Agent), when it hits that task, I could see lots of CXPACKET wait type in Activity Monitor and CPU is running 97-99%.
FYI, the server has 8 vCPU with MAXDOP is set to 0 and Cost of Parallelism Threshold is set to 5
So far, I have tried / investigated / found out the following:
There is only 1 cached execution plan for this stored procedure and it is used by both the SSIS and SSMS (manually running the stored procedure)
Created a dummy SQL Agent Job running T-SQL - EXEC BR_SHP_Timekeeper_Costs. The job was completed in ~30 seconds.
Created a dummy SSIS package which only contains a Execute SQL Task and runs the same stored procedure using ADO.NET connection manager. Then run it via a new SQL Agent Job. Completed in ~30 seconds.
What else can I check here?
Any ideas why this happens? I've been scratching my head for a week or so..
Maybe you could try assigning the parameters #p1 and #p2 to two variables defined in the stored procedure and then use these variables instead of the parameters. For example:
ALTER PROCEDURE BR_SHP_Timekeeper_Costs
#p1 int,
#p2 int
AS
declare #_p1 int, #_p2 int
set #_p1 = #p1
set #_p2 = #p2
....
....
select column1, column2 from table t where t.p1 = #_p1
....
....
This workaround, in some cases, could accelerate the execution.
Hope it helps you!
I have a job set up in SQL Server called "Retreat Update". It is a job that the SQL Server Agent runs every 45 minutes. Is there a SELECT statement or a system stored procedure that I can execute to determine if the job is currently running or if its idle?
I think you can use sp_help_job to see the status of the jobs on the server. You can see more information on it here.
From my search on SQL Help, try...
EXEC dbo.sp_help_job #Job_name = 'Retreat Update'
I've got a SQL job that is set up to run sp_send_dbmail and attach the results of a stored procedure as a csv file to the email. This job was running up until a week and a half ago.
Full disclosure: I made a change to the stored procedure around that time. The stored procedure was previously looking at a table in one linked server and is now looking at a table in another linked server.
I am able to take the code out of the job and run it successfully in a query window, I'm also able to execute the stored procedure successfully in a query window without the sp_send_dbmail call. Additionally, the job executes on schedule and reports success, and I see no error messages in the job history. I've included the code that is in the job to run the procedure and send mail below:
USE msdb
GO
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
#profile_name = 'SMail',
#recipients = 'xxxx#example.com',
#query = 'EXEC [REP01].[Mktg_Reporting].[dbo].DailyC2C',
#subject = 'Daily Call History',
#query_result_separator=',',
#query_result_no_padding=1,
#query_result_header=0,
#attach_query_result_as_file = 1,
#exclude_query_output=1,
#query_attachment_filename='Calls.csv';
I didn't change any of this code since I created the job, I only made the change in the stored procedure so that it looked at a different linked data source. Any kind of assistance is appreciated.
Edit: I also checked the sysmail_mailitems table and found no messages queued for the current day each time I run the job manually, wanted to make sure I included that detail.
I just looked a little bit deeper into this, Pondlife was on the right track regarding a permissions issue. I looked a bit deeper after my initial reply to him and realized that the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM user was not set up to properly access the linked server. I've since fixed the problem.
Is it possible to set up somehow Microsoft SQL Server to run a stored procedure on regular basis?
Yes, in MS SQL Server, you can create scheduled jobs. In SQL Management Studio, navigate to the server, then expand the SQL Server Agent item, and finally the Jobs folder to view, edit, add scheduled jobs.
If MS SQL Server Express Edition is being used then SQL Server Agent is not available. I found the following worked for all editions:
USE Master
GO
IF EXISTS( SELECT *
FROM sys.objects
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[MyBackgroundTask]')
AND type in (N'P', N'PC'))
DROP PROCEDURE [dbo].[MyBackgroundTask]
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE MyBackgroundTask
AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with SELECT statements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;
-- The interval between cleanup attempts
declare #timeToRun nvarchar(50)
set #timeToRun = '03:33:33'
while 1 = 1
begin
waitfor time #timeToRun
begin
execute [MyDatabaseName].[dbo].[MyDatabaseStoredProcedure];
end
end
END
GO
-- Run the procedure when the master database starts.
sp_procoption #ProcName = 'MyBackgroundTask',
#OptionName = 'startup',
#OptionValue = 'on'
GO
Some notes:
It is worth writing an audit entry somewhere so that you can see that the query actually ran.
The server needs rebooting once to ensure that the script runs the first time.
A related question is: How to run a stored procedure every day in SQL Server Express Edition?
Yes, if you use the SQL Server Agent.
Open your Enterprise Manager, and go to the Management folder under the SQL Server instance you are interested in. There you will see the SQL Server Agent, and underneath that you will see a Jobs section.
Here you can create a new job and you will see a list of steps you will need to create. When you create a new step, you can specify the step to actually run a stored procedure (type TSQL Script). Choose the database, and then for the command section put in something like:
exec MyStoredProcedure
That's the overview, post back here if you need any further advice.
[I actually thought I might get in first on this one, boy was I wrong :)]
Probably not the answer you are looking for, but I find it more useful to simply use Windows Server Task Scheduler
You can use directly the command sqlcmd.exe -S "." -d YourDataBase -Q "exec SP_YourJob"
Or even create a .bat file. So you can even 2x click on the task on demand.
This has also been approached in this HERE
I'll add one thing: where I'm at we used to have a bunch of batch jobs that ran every night. However, we're moving away from that to using a client application scheduled in windows scheduled tasks that kicks off each job. There are (at least) three reasons for this:
We have some console programs that need to run every night as well. This way all scheduled tasks can be in one place. Of course, this creates a single point of failure, but if the console jobs don't run we're gonna lose a day's work the next day anyway.
The program that kicks off the jobs captures print messages and errors from the server and writes them to a common application log for all our batch processes. It makes logging from withing the sql jobs much simpler.
If we ever need to upgrade the server (and we are hoping to do this soon) we don't need to worry about moving the jobs over. Just re-point the application once.
It's a real short VB.Net app: I can post code if any one is interested.
You could use SQL Server Service Broker to create custom made mechanism.
Idea (simplified):
Write a stored procedure/trigger that begins a conversation (BEGIN DIALOG) as loopback (FROM my_service TO my_service) - get conversation handler
DECLARE #dialog UNIQUEIDENTIFIER;
BEGIN DIALOG CONVERSATION #dialog
FROM SERVICE [name]
TO SERVICE 'name'
...;
Start the conversation timer
DECLARE #time INT;
BEGIN CONVERSATION TIMER (#dialog) TIMEOUT = #time;
After specified number of seconds a message will be sent to a service. It will be enqueued with associated queue.
CREATE QUEUE queue_name WITH STATUS = ON, RETENTION = OFF
, ACTIVATION (STATUS = ON, PROCEDURE_NAME = <procedure_name>
, MAX_QUEUE_READERS = 20, EXECUTE AS N'dbo')
, POISON_MESSAGE_HANDLING (STATUS = ON)
Procedure will execute specific code and reanable timer to fire again.
You can find fully-baked solution(T-SQL) written by Michał Gołoś called Task Scheduler
Key points from blog:
Pros:
Supported on each version (from Express to Enterprise). SQL Server Agent Job is not available for SQL Server Express
Scoped to database level. You could easiliy move database with associated tasks (especially when you have to move around 100 jobs from one enviromnent to another)
Lower privileges needed to see/manipulate tasks(database level)
Proposed distinction:
SQL Server Agent (maintenance):
backups
index/statistics rebuilds
replication
Task Scheduler (business processes):
removing old data
preaggregations/cyclic recalculations
denormalization
How to set it up:
get source code from section: "Do pobrania" - To download
(enabling broker/setting up schema tsks/configuration table + triggers + stored procedure)/setting up broker things)
set up configuration table [tsks].[tsksx_task_scheduler] to add new tasks (columns names are self-descriptive, sample task included)
Warning: Blog is written in Polish but associated source code is in English and it is easy to follow.
Warning 2: Before you use it, please make sure you have tested it on non-production environment.
Using Management Studio - you may create a Job (unter SQL Server Agent)
One Job may include several Steps
from T-SQL scripts up to SSIS Packages
Jeb was faster ;)
You should look at a job scheduled using the SQL Server Agent.