Slides of my session on SharePoint 2010 Timer Jobs at SPSDC 2013 in Room 5182A at 12:45 PM. Location: Microsoft Chevy Chase 5404 Wisconsin Ave Chevy Chase, MD 20815

1. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Presented By: Prashant G Bhoyar
Building Solutions using
SharePoint Timer Jobs
08 June 2013

2. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Who am I?

3. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
About today’s Session
• Raise your hand if something is not clear
• Sharing is Caring
• Ask Questions
• Let the learning begins…

4. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
What Will We Cover Today?
• What are Timer Jobs?
• Common business scenarios for Timer Jobs
• Timer Job architecture
• Developing Timer Jobs
• Various approaches to registering Timer Jobs
• How to Test/Debug Timer Jobs
• Common issues and fixes for Timer Jobs
• Timer Jobs best practices
• When not to use them

5. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

6. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
What are Timer Jobs?
• Perform much of backend work to maintain farm
• Run on one or more server at scheduled time
• Run periodically and independent of the users
• Offload long running processes from web front end server
• Run code under higher privileges

7. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
What are Timer Jobs?
• To Summarize,

8. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Examples of Timer Jobs in
SharePoint
• Clean up Old Sites
• User Profile Sync
• Solution Deployment
• Search Index
• Various other Automations/Long Running operations

9. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

10. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Timer Jobs Vs Scheduled Tasks
Scheduled Tasks Timer Jobs
-Create Console App
-Schedule it using Windows Tasks Scheduler
-Easy to setup
-Create Custom Timer Job
-Register in SharePoint
-No reporting available
-Need to implement custom logging
-Can track status, history, change the schedule,
start/stop using Central Admin.
-Need direct access to SharePoint Servers (Not
easy to get)
-Request special account to run the Scheduled
Tasks
-Timer Job runs under SharePoint Timer Job
Account
-Load Balancing is not available -Load balancing is available
-Console Application -Full Access to SharePoint API (SPSite,
SPWebApplication)

11. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Timer Jobs in SharePoint Farm
• Central Admin -> Monitoring ->Review Job Definitions

12. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Timer Jobs in SharePoint Farm
• Windows SharePoint Services Timer Service(SPTimerV4) run Timer Job
• Service must be enabled and running in each server
• Start –Administrative Tools -> Services
• The timer job executes under OWSTIMER.exe

13. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

14. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Create Custom Timer Jobs
• Visual Studio -> Empty SharePoint Project
• Deploy as Farm Solution

15. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Architecture of Timer Jobs
• Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPJobDefinition : Timer
Jobs are created and executed by using this class
• Three Constructors
• Default (No Parameters):
• For internal use
• Others :
• Job Name
• Job Lock Type
• Web Application or Service

16. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Architecture of Timer Jobs
• Parameters of SPJobDefinition Constructor
Name Description
Name Name of the Job
Service An instance of the SPService class that owns this job. Only the servers
where the service, represented by the SPService object, is running can run
this job.
WebApplication Parent WebApplication
Server An instance of the SPServer class associated with this job. Pass null if this
job is not associated with a specific server.
lockType An SPJobLockType value that indicates the circumstances under which
multiple instances of the job can be run simultaneously.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh528519(v=office.14).aspx

17. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Architecture of Timer Jobs
• SPJobLockType values
Value Description
None No locks. The timer job runs on every machine on which the
parent service is provisioned.
ContentDatabase Job runs for each content database associated with the job's web
application.
Job Only one server can run the job at a time.

18. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Architecture of Timer Jobs
• Override the Execute method of the SPJobDefinition class and
replace the code in that method with the code that your job
requires.
• The targetInstanceId maps to the Guid of the Current content
database while the timer job is running

19. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Configuration Options for Custom
Timer Jobs
• OWSTimer.Exe.Config (Not Recommended)
• Need to modify manually in each server
• External Files : (For Example config.xml)
• SharePoint Lists:
• SharePoint Object Property Bag

20. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

21. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Typical Timer Job Life Cycle

22. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

23. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Two options:
• Declarative by using SharePoint Feature
• Pros: Easy to deploy and maintain
• Cons: Difficult to develop
• Programmatically using Server side object model
• Pros : Flexible, Easier to Develop
• Cons : Difficult to deploy and maintain
Deployment and Registration of
Custom Timer Jobs

24. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
SPSchedule Class Types
Deployment and Registration of
Custom Timer Jobs
Name Description
SPMinuteSchedule Runs the job every x number of minutes. This class can be used to
schedule jobs for periods of time other than hour, day, week, month,
or year. For example, to run a job every 11 days, use this class and set
its Interval property to 15840 minutes.
SPHourlySchedule Runs the job every hour.
SPDailySchedule Runs the job daily.
SPWeeklySchedule Runs the job weekly.
SPMonthlySchedule Runs the job monthly.
SPYearlySchedule Runs the job yearly.

25. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Option 01 : Declarative by using SharePoint
Feature
• Add Feature
• Add code to register
Timer Job in the
FeatureActivated
• Add code to delete
Timer Job in the
FeatureDeActivating
Deployment and Registration of
Custom Timer Jobs

26. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Option 02 : Programmatically using Server side object model
• Create Console Application/Power Shell Script
• Add code to register Timer Job
• Add code to delete Timer Job
Deployment and Registration of
Custom Timer Jobs

27. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

28. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
• Attach the debugger to “OWSTIMER.EXE”
• Debug -> Attach to Process
Debug Custom Timer Jobs

29. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
• Check the History To see when the timer job ran last time
Debug Custom Timer Jobs

30. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

31. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
• Change the Schedule using Central Admin
• Change the Schedule using PowerShell Commands
• $timerJob = Get-SPTimerJob -Identity "SPSDC2013
TimerJob01"
• Start-SPTimerJob $timerJob
• Easiest : Write Console Application to debug business logic
Expedite Debugging

32. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

33. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
PowerShell Commands
• To retrieve all available timer jobs
• Get-SPTimerJob cmdlet
• To set the schedule
• $timerJob = Get-SPTimerJob -Identity "SPSDC2013
TimerJob01"
• Set-SPTimerJob -Identity $timerJob -Schedule "Every 4
minutes between 0 and 59“
• To Start a Timer Job
• $timerJob = Get-SPTimerJob -Identity " SPSDC2013
TimerJob01 "
• Start-SPTimerJob $timerJob

34. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
DEMO

35. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Developing Custom Timer Jobs
• Set up the solution
• Add a class and Inherit from SPJobDefinition
• Override Execute Method
• Write Business Logic
• Register Timer Jobs

36. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar

37. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Common Issues and Fixes
• Redeployment : IISRESET and ReStart Timer Services
• Debugging takes lot of time :Use Console Application to debug
the business login during development
• Always implement Exception Handling
• SPContext is NOT AVAILABLE. Never use it in Timer Jobs.
• If you use SiteCollection Feature to register timer job,
activate/deactivate using PowerShell
• If SPJobLockType is set to ContentDatabase, timer job will get
fired multiple times depending on number of Content Databases

38. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Best Practices
• Always implement Exception Handling
• SPContext is NOT AVAILABLE. Never use it in Timer Jobs.
• Avoid using OSTTIMER.EXE.Config to store configuration entries
• In production restart the Timer Services using command
• “Get-SPTimerJob job-timer-recycle | Start-SPTimerJob”
• Use Console Application to debug the business login during
development

39. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
When not to use Timer Jobs?
• OOTB Options are available
• Content/Data needs to be updated synchronously
• Simple data processing that can be easily handled with Event
Receivers

40. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
LessComplexity
Is Timer Job Right Choice?
• Yes if,
• OOTB options are not available
• Data update/Operation can wait
• Complex time-consuming processing logic
• Would like to restrict certain activities at specific time

41. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
References
Appendix/Resources
MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh528519(v=office.14).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc678870(v=office.12).aspx
http://www.andrewconnell.com/Creating-Custom-SharePoint-Timer-Jobs
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc406686.aspx

42. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Thanks to our sponsors!

43. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
SharePint!!!

44. #SPSDC @PGBhoyar
Questions? Feedback? Contact me:
 Twitter: @PGBhoyar
 Blog: http://pgbhoyar.wordpress.com (limited contents)
 Email: pgbhoyar@gmail.com
Thank You
Organizers, Sponsors and You for Making this
Possible.