Alternative to SQL Server Agent for running jobs on hosting service - sql

What is the alternative for running jobs when the hosting company that provides shared SQL Server services blocks access to SQL Server Agent?

All windows machines have a built in tool, "Windows Task Scheduler" which can run jobs on a schedule determined by you. Its an easy tool to learn and you probably will have to run your jobs using SQLCMD.

If you don't have access to agent, then you wont get access to Window Scheduler for sure. Request access to the agent or at least have them create a job for you that runs at a specific time. If not the alternative is pretty ugly.
1.What is purpose of the job to be run by the Agent job?
How often did you want it to run (Schedule) ?
If you can answer those two then maybe, we can have an alternative..

Related

SQL Server Agent Not Scheduling

I am running SQL Server Standard (linux) in a docker container and the Agent is not working to any schedule (recurring, one time).
The agent itself works, I have programmed a couple jobs which are completing successfully. However, the jobs do not even start when I activate the schedule meaning there isn't even an error message to review or record in the job activity monitor. Below is my configuration:
sql server job properties
I corrected the timezone issue by passing the proper environment variable, America/Toronto did not not pass properly, so I used America/New_York.

What is the purpose of the following service in oracle OracleSchedulerXE

I have a question regarding the purpose of some service in sql. What does the process, the purpose of them.
OracleSchedulerXE
OracleORADB19Home1MTSRecoveryService
OracleOraDB19home1TNSListner
OracleRemExecServiceV2
OracleServiceXE
OracleVSSWriter
I tried to find something about OracleSchedurXE but I did nt find anithing.
Thank you.
If I Google any of the service names, I get back several pages that go into detail about what they do.
OracleSchedulerXE is used by Oracle for the dbms_scheduler package that lets you schedule jobs to run inside the database.
OracleORADB19Home1MTSRecoveryService is used for interacting with the Microsoft Transaction Server. Most commonly, that is used to allow applications to manage distributed transactions that involve Oracle and other Windows services.
OracleOraDB19home1TNSListner is used for the TNS listener.
That's the process that allows users to connect to the database from remote machines.
OracleRemExecServiceV2 is a service used by the Oracle Universal Installer during installation that will be removed once you reboot after a successful install.
OracleServiceXE is the service that actually runs the Oracle database
OracleVSSWriter is a service that interacts with the Windows Volume Shadow Copy service to ensure that backups see files in a consistent state.

SQL Server Agent (SQLEXPRESS) automatically stop

I'm encountering a problem on Microsoft SQL Server. SQL Server Agent is not running, when I tried to start it and refresh the services.msc the SQL Server Agent is not running anymore. When I see the logs on event viewer. There are no errors but a message "SQLServerAgent service successfully stopped"
Here is the log.
SQLServerAgent service successfully started
SQLServerAgent service successfully stopped.
SQLEXPRESS does not include the SQL Server Agent aspect of the product.
You need to have SQL Server Standard Edition (or greater) to get the SQL Server Agent functionality.
That said, there may be other ways to achieve the results you desire. You could build a simple .NET app or PowerShell script to execute your query or stored procedure, and schedule that to execute via Windows own task scheduler. It is in many ways not as robust as SQL Server Agent, but it is also not as restrictive (you're running under a Windows process as opposed to SQL Server, so you have more options as to how the application may work).

SQL Server agent job account issue

I am using SQL Server 2008. I am confused about which account will be used when a SQL Server agent job runs. My confusions are,
SQL Server agent as a Windows Service which we could control from Windows Service Management Console, from there we could set the account to run SQL Server Agent (LocalSystem in my computer);
Could I set SQL Server agent job level account to run on?
Could I set in each step which account SQL Server agent job step will run on?
I have above confusions because 3 different account systems may be used and my concern is what is the actual account each step will run on, and I want to avoid any permisson issues (i.e. I want to make sure the account have enough permission.). Any comments or advice? Appreciate anyone could clarify the 3 levels of accounts, which makes me very confused.
thanks in advance,
George
I would typically run the SQL Server Agent jobs under the same account as your app accesses the database.
If that account is too limited in its permissions (which might be a good thing!), I would create a single account for that app and all its SQL jobs (if that's possible) and run all SQL jobs under that account.
You could potentially run each step under a different account, but I wouldn't use that in general (it just makes it really hard to know and understand what is run under which account). Only use it if you have to run a particularly sensitive step that needs a bunch of extra permissions and those permissions are only available to a particular system account or something.
The account under which the SQL Server Agent windows service runs really doesn't have an impact on what your job steps will be run under.
So it boils down to really just two accounts:
one account is needed to run the SQL Server Agent Windows service - this is a Windows account on your machine / server which needs to have enough permissions to run the service, start and stop it - either use LocalSystem, Network Service, or whatever other Windows account you have to run services with
The other account would be the account to run your SQL Server Agent steps under - that's typically a SQL Server account (which could be based on a Windows account), and it needs enough privileges inside SQL Server to do its job, e.g. it needs access to the database objects and all. I would strive to have just one account for each app that runs the SQL Server jobs - makes life a whole lot easier!
Marc
PS: To set the user to run a step under, you need to use the "Advanced" page on the Job step property dialog and select the user from a popup window:
You can create Credentials in SQL Server (use Mgt Studio, under Security). Then create a Proxy in SQL Agent to use those credentials, telling it what kind of job steps can be used by the proxy. Then you get the choice to use that Proxy in the job step itself.
So... I make accounts for various SSIS packages to run under, so that I can keep the SQL Agent Service Account low privilege, and use a proxied credential with slightly higher privilege (not admin though, just enough permission to connect to other systems, including the File System).
Rob

How to start SQL Server agent jobs automatically

I am writing PowerShell scripts to control SQL Server agent start/stop to ensure all the contained jobs runs according to defined schedule. I want to make sure that the only thing I need to do is to start the SQL Server Agent Windows Service, and then all the contained SQL Server Jobs will run automatically according to defined schedule? No need to control each job's start/stop specifically?
I am using SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2003.
thanks in advance,
George
When you start SQL Server Agent all jobs (if they are not disabled) will run automatically and it's no need to control each job. Just make sure that jobs are enabled.