Event Chains
Juggling multiple SQL Server jobs and Windows scheduled tasks can be challenging
Even for data pros who have mastered managing SQL Server jobs or Windows scheduled tasks, handling events across both environments can be difficult and time-consuming. When you add Windows scheduled tasks to the scenario, your job becomes even more difficult.
With Microsoft SQL Server Agent jobs, you can automate routine administrative tasks, including running Transact-SQL scripts, command-line applications, SSIS packages, SSAS commands, and queries, or replication tasks.
Identifying potential conflicts in scheduled events is difficult, especially in complex environments. For example, a specific job or task might need to run to correct a failure. Or you might need to ensure backup jobs don’t run concurrently.
Efficiently manage SQL Server and Windows events in complex environments
Event Chains in the SQL Sentry Event Calendar helps you create workflows containing SQL Server agent jobs or Windows scheduled tasks from any server you’re currently monitoring. Each event chain is a series of dependencies between events running on the same server or different servers.
There’s no limit to the length of a chain or the number of events it can contain. You can create workflows that continue conditionally based on the success, failure, or completion of the previous step in the workflow.
You only need to schedule the first node of the event chain, and the following steps will be kicked off through SQL Sentry. Whether a step takes five minutes or an hour, the next step won’t start until the previous one completes.
You have three options for setting up your event chain workflows:
- Proceed upon completion of the previous node
- Proceed upon success of the previous node
- Proceed upon failure of the previous node
These options are especially useful if you have a situation where a specific job or task needs to run to correct a failure on a node before the completion of the chain. They’re also helpful when you want to ensure jobs such as backup jobs don’t run concurrently.
Here’s what you can do with Event Chains
- Set up Event Chains within the SQL Sentry Event Calendar, so you can see all jobs and tasks in an Outlook-style calendar
- Schedule both SQL Server Agent jobs and Windows Task Scheduler tasks
- Define the workflow of events with branches dependent on the completion, success, or failure of the previous event
- Run individual event nodes on the same or different servers
- Set workflows with no limit on the length of the chain or the time it takes to execute a single job or task
“The unique offering is the graphical chaining of jobs. This is especially important when the job chain spans servers.”
Derek Knutsen
Database Administrator
American Health Network
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