Scheduled Task or Job

Introduction#

SQL Server Agent uses SQL Server to store job information. Jobs contain one or more job steps. Each step contains its own task,i.e: backing up a database.

SQL Server Agent can run a job on a schedule, in response to a specific event, or on demand.

Create a scheduled Job

Create a Job

• To add a job first we have to use a stored procedure named sp_add_job

  USE msdb ;  
  GO  
  EXEC dbo.sp_add_job  
  @job_name = N'Weekly Job' ;  -- the job name

• Then we have to add a job step using a stored procedure named sp_add_jobStep

  EXEC sp_add_jobstep  
  @job_name = N'Weekly Job',  -- Job name to add a step
  @step_name = N'Set database to read only',  -- step name
  @subsystem = N'TSQL',  -- Step type
  @command = N'ALTER DATABASE SALES SET READ_ONLY',   -- Command
  @retry_attempts = 5,  --Number of attempts
  @retry_interval = 5 ; -- in minutes

• Target the job to a server

  EXEC dbo.sp_add_jobserver  
  @job_name = N'Weekly Sales Data Backup',
  @server_name = 'MyPC\data;   -- Default is LOCAL
  GO

Create a schedule using SQL

To Create a schedule we have to use a system stored procedure called sp_add_schedule

USE msdb 
GO  

EXEC sp_add_schedule  
    @schedule_name = N'NightlyJobs' ,  -- specify the schedule name
    @freq_type = 4,   -- A value indicating when a job is to be executed (4) means Daily
    @freq_interval = 1,  -- The days that a job is executed and depends on the value of `freq_type`.
    @active_start_time = 010000 ;   -- The time on which execution of a job can begin
GO  

There are more parameters that can be used with sp_add_schedule you can read more about in the the link provided above.

Attaching schedule to a JOB

To attach a schedule to an SQL agent job you have to use a stored procedure called sp_attach_schedule

-- attaches the schedule to the job BackupDatabase  
EXEC sp_attach_schedule  
   @job_name = N'BackupDatabase',  -- The job name to attach with
   @schedule_name = N'NightlyJobs' ;  -- The schedule name
GO