Alternative to SQL Server Agent

  • Hi there,

    I am looking for a tool to schedule my SSIS-Packages (besides the sql agent).

    I guess everyone started with just scheduling jobs in the timeline of the sql agent

    but I more and more see my self confronted with a few problems:

    - find free time or find a slot where the new job does not influence already scheduled jobs

    - define dependencies between jobs. (Jobs 2,3,4 can start when job 1 is ready)

    - define how many jobs can run at once (maybe could be done by Resource Governor)

    For the first Problem: To find free timeslots I created an overview (24h-timeframe) of when which job starts and how long it takes in average.

    For the Seconde Problem: currently I use a SP to check if the first agent-job is ready

    but

    first there is no way to show theses dependencies and

    second the wait time is part of the runtime of the second job, so it is harder to see if a job is running long or just waiting long.

    I heard from a few people that they builded there own scheduling with an ssis-Package but it seems to be tricky as the tables you can select from msdn are not quite realtime so if your are checking e.g. how many jobs are running just when you started a new one will not be showing it right.

    So if you have any experience with other tools give me a hint

    Mitch

  • Check SQL Sentry... http://www.sqlsentry.net/event-manager/sql-server-enterprise.asp

    _____________________________________
    Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

    Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

    Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.
  • If you only need to worry about co-ordinating SQL jobs, then SQL Sentry is a very good tool. If you have to also co-ordinate between other systems we use a tool called Control-M. I won't call it good, but it is not horrible either....

    We use Control-M to schedule between Mainframe, SQL and Cobol applications running on Windows. Also co-ordinates between 4 different physical sites. Has made scheduling batch a lot easier.

  • Thanks for your quick replies.

    I am looking for coordinating jobs on one system.

    However I have a few sytems but they are and will be independent from each other.

    If I saw it right I could use this tool to coordinate a few machines?!

    Did anyone try Jams Job Scheduler? http://www.jamsscheduler.com/SQLServerAgent.aspx

    I will check those programs next week.

  • I checked the first tool (SQL Sentry).

    It is quite nice to see, what it automatically shows you about your servers but the function I am looking for are not implemented the way I wanted.

    First of all. Using the Agent-Jobs as basis is quite nice, because you can restart the jobs easily when you fixed a problem.

    However the chaning is quite rudimental (what I found out so far):

    You can chain Agent Jobs n:m but you cannot build a pool of tasks that wait for a another to finish and then start e.g. 4 at the same time and so on.

    You have to build a full chain.

    Additionally you cannot use a completed chain as dependence to start another chain.

    Meaning you want one chain to finish before the other even starts.

    To clarify what I expect I have added a ruff flow

  • Hi Mitch.fh,

    I'm a SQL Sentry employee from the support and pre-sales engineering team. Event Manager can be configured to do all of what you are looking for between our job chaining and job queuing features. I would be happy to schedule a time for a quick online demo, or a remote session to look at what you are trying to build and lend a hand. I can be reached at my forum handle @sqlsentry.net or by PM.

    -Scott Fallen

  • mitch.fh (4/20/2012)


    Did anyone try Jams Job Scheduler? http://www.jamsscheduler.com/SQLServerAgent.aspx

    We purchased JAMS Scheduler last year and we're in the midst of testing. One of the reasons we chose it was it's ability to work with different platforms. So far, it's proved to be quite good at scheduling jobs that we currently schedule with Windows Scheduler. We don't have immediate plans to use it to schedule SQL Server jobs.

    Greg

  • Anders Pedersen - Friday, April 20, 2012 9:37 AM

    If you only need to worry about co-ordinating SQL jobs, then SQL Sentry is a very good tool. If you have to also co-ordinate between other systems we use a tool called Control-M. I won't call it good, but it is not horrible either....We use Control-M to schedule between Mainframe, SQL and Cobol applications running on Windows. Also co-ordinates between 4 different physical sites. Has made scheduling batch a lot easier.

    If you're still looking, you might find real user reviews for Control-M (as well as for all the other major workload automation tools) on IT Central Station to be helpful.

    IT Central Station also wrote a report recently on what to consider when choosing a workload automation tool, based on reviews for Control-M by our community. Hopefully this can provide some more insight on what to look for when doing this kind of research. 

    Good luck!

    *Disclaimer: I work at IT Central Station

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