As always, the scripts in this post can also be found on our Git Hub repo, https://github.com/SQLUndercover/UndercoverToolbox/blob/master/CatagoryControlledAgentJobs.sql
Agent jobs, they can be a right pain to manage when you’re running availability groups.
The problem is that they’re just not AG aware, this means that if you failover our AG, more often than not you’re going to end up with a ton of jobs failing on your old primary because they’re no longer able to access the database, or worse they’ll succeed when you really don’t want them to.
There are a couple of ways that I see this commonly tackled,
- Manually go through and (dis/en)able the jobs as needed.
- Have code in the job to detect if the server is a primary or secondary, running the following code if appropriate.
Now to me, no 1 feels like far too much work and something that I really don’t want to be worrying about after a failover.
No 2 is also one that I don’t like, it just feels a little messy to me and can make if awkward if we want to move the code to a different server that may not have AGs or possibly if the AGs that it does have are named differently.
What’s the Alternative?
This got me thinking, is there a better way?
One thing I thought about was job categories, they’re something that people rarely use so could we utilise those?
My idea was to use the job category to determine if a job should run or not and I came up with a number of categories…
Execute On Primary Only: <AG Name> – Only execute the job if the server is primary for the specified AG.
Execute On Secondary Only: <AG Name> – Only execute the job if the server is secondary for the specified AG.
Execute All Nodes – Execute regardless of primary or secondary
Execute On Disabled – Job is always disabled.
Once the categories for the jobs have been set an agent job runs on regular intervals, enabling or disabling the jobs as appropriate.
Create Categories
The below script will create the job categories.
--create job categories
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#Cats') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE #Cats
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#Cmds') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE #Cmds
--create temp tables
CREATE TABLE #Cats
(CatName VARCHAR(35))
CREATE TABLE #Cmds
(Cmd VARCHAR(4000))
--insert category prefixes
INSERT INTO #Cats
VALUES ('Execute On Primary Only: '),
('Execute On Secondary Only: '),
('Execute On All Nodes: ')
--fetch all ags and build up category names
INSERT INTO #Cmds
SELECT 'EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_category @class=N''JOB'', @type=N''LOCAL'', @name=N''' + CatName + name + ''''
from sys.availability_groups, #Cats
INSERT INTO #Cmds
SELECT 'EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_category @class=N''JOB'', @type=N''LOCAL'', @name=N''' + CatName + 'All AGs'''
from #Cats
INSERT INTO #Cmds
VALUES ('EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_category @class=N''JOB'', @type=N''LOCAL'', @name=N''Execute On Disabled''')
--cursor for commands
DECLARE CmdCur CURSOR FOR
SELECT Cmd
FROM #Cmds
DECLARE @Command VARCHAR(4000)
OPEN CmdCur
FETCH NEXT FROM CmdCur INTO @Command
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
EXEC (@Command)
FETCH NEXT FROM CmdCur INTO @Command
END
CLOSE CmdCur
DEALLOCATE CmdCur
Create the Agent Job
The below creates the enable\disable stored procedure and agent job
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------Create Enable\Disable Proc----------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USE master
GO
--create maintenance schema is not already exists
CREATE PROC EnableDisableJobs
AS
BEGIN
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#JobList') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE #JobList
CREATE TABLE #JobList
(JobId UNIQUEIDENTIFIER,
AGName SYSNAME,
ReplicaName SYSNAME,
AGRole VARCHAR(120),
AGName_Cat VARCHAR(120),
State_Cat VARCHAR(120),
IsEnabled BIT,
EnableFlag BIT)
--get status of AGs and job parameters
INSERT INTO #JobList (JobId,AGName,ReplicaName,AGRole,AGName_Cat,State_Cat,IsEnabled)
SELECT sysjobs.job_id AS JobId,
AGs.name AS AGName,
Replicas.replica_server_name AS ReplicaName,
ReplicaStats.role_desc AS AGRole,
CASE
WHEN syscategories.name = 'Execute On Disabled' THEN 'All AGs'
ELSE SUBSTRING(syscategories.name,CHARINDEX(':',syscategories.name,0) + 2,LEN(syscategories.name))
END AS AGName_Cat,
CASE
WHEN syscategories.name = 'Execute On Disabled' THEN 'Disabled'
ELSE REPLACE(SUBSTRING(syscategories.name,12,CHARINDEX(':',syscategories.name,0) - 12),' Only','')
END AS State_Cat,
sysjobs.enabled
FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs
JOIN msdb.dbo.syscategories ON syscategories.category_id = sysjobs.category_id,
sys.availability_groups AGs
JOIN sys.availability_replicas Replicas ON AGs.group_id = Replicas.group_id
JOIN sys.dm_hadr_availability_replica_states ReplicaStats ON ReplicaStats.replica_id = Replicas.replica_id
WHERE syscategories.name LIKE 'Execute On%'
AND Replicas.replica_server_name = @@SERVERNAME
--remove rows where AGs don't match
DELETE FROM #JobList
WHERE AGName != AGName_Cat
AND AGName_Cat != 'All AGs'
--set EnableFlag
UPDATE #JobList
SET EnableFlag = CASE
WHEN State_Cat = 'Disabled' THEN '0'
WHEN State_Cat = 'All Nodes' THEN '1'
WHEN AGrole = State_Cat THEN '1'
WHEN AGrole != State_Cat THEN '0'
END
--create alter job statements and cursor through them
DECLARE CmdCur CURSOR STATIC FORWARD_ONLY FOR
SELECT DISTINCT 'USE msdb EXEC sp_update_job @job_id = ''' + CAST(JobId AS VARCHAR(50)) + ''', @Enabled = ' + CAST(EnableFlag AS CHAR(1))
FROM #JobList
WHERE IsEnabled != EnableFlag --ignore jobs that don't need an enable state change
OPEN CmdCur
DECLARE @Cmd VARCHAR(8000)
FETCH NEXT FROM CmdCur INTO @Cmd
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
EXEC (@cmd)
FETCH NEXT FROM CmdCur INTO @Cmd
END
CLOSE CmdCur
DEALLOCATE CmdCur
END
GO
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------CREATE ENABLE\DISABLE AGENT JOB----------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/* ==Scripting Parameters==
Source Server Version : SQL Server 2012 (11.0.5634)
Source Database Engine Edition : Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition
Source Database Engine Type : Standalone SQL Server
Target Server Version : SQL Server 2012
Target Database Engine Edition : Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition
Target Database Engine Type : Standalone SQL Server
*/
USE [msdb]
GO
/****** Object: Job [_Enable\Disable Jobs] Script Date: 6/26/2018 10:26:57 AM ******/
BEGIN TRANSACTION
DECLARE @ReturnCode INT
SELECT @ReturnCode = 0
/****** Object: JobCategory [Execute On All Nodes: All AGs] Script Date: 6/26/2018 10:26:57 AM ******/
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT name FROM msdb.dbo.syscategories WHERE name=N'Execute On All Nodes: All AGs' AND category_class=1)
BEGIN
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_category @class=N'JOB', @type=N'LOCAL', @name=N'Execute On All Nodes: All AGs'
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
END
DECLARE @jobId BINARY(16)
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_job @job_name=N'_Enable\Disable Jobs',
@enabled=1,
@notify_level_eventlog=0,
@notify_level_email=0,
@notify_level_netsend=0,
@notify_level_page=0,
@delete_level=0,
@description=N'enable or disable agent job dependant on the job''s category',
@category_name=N'Execute On All Nodes: All AGs',
@owner_login_name=N'sa', @job_id = @jobId OUTPUT
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
/****** Object: Step [enable or disable jobs] Script Date: 6/26/2018 10:26:57 AM ******/
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep @job_id=@jobId, @step_name=N'enable or disable jobs',
@step_id=1,
@cmdexec_success_code=0,
@on_success_action=1,
@on_success_step_id=0,
@on_fail_action=2,
@on_fail_step_id=0,
@retry_attempts=0,
@retry_interval=0,
@os_run_priority=0, @subsystem=N'TSQL',
@command=N'EXEC EnableDisableJobs',
@database_name=N'master',
@flags=0
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_id = @jobId, @start_step_id = 1
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobschedule @job_id=@jobId, @name=N'5 minutes',
@enabled=1,
@freq_type=4,
@freq_interval=1,
@freq_subday_type=4,
@freq_subday_interval=5,
@freq_relative_interval=0,
@freq_recurrence_factor=0,
@active_start_date=20180626,
@active_end_date=99991231,
@active_start_time=0,
@active_end_time=235959
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver @job_id = @jobId, @server_name = N'(local)'
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
COMMIT TRANSACTION
GOTO EndSave
QuitWithRollback:
IF (@@TRANCOUNT > 0) ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
EndSave:
GO
This is a solution that I’ve found works really well, I’d love to hear how other people have approached this problem.
Thanks for reading 🙂
SQL Undercover 
To not lose track of which jobs are really active at the moment i´ve implemented this as first job step which checks if the current server is primary or secondary and if so, it stops the job.
DECLARE @ReplicaRole nvarchar(10)
DECLARE @hostrole as nvarchar(10)
DECLARE @AG_Name nvarchar(50)
DECLARE @job as nvarchar(200)
DECLARE @sql as nvarchar(250)
SET @ReplicaRole = ‘SECONDARY’ — ‘PRIMARY’
SET @AG_Name = ‘Name_of_AG’
SELECT @hostrole = ar_state.[role_desc]
FROM (( sys.availability_groups AS ag JOIN sys.availability_replicas AS ar ON ag.group_id = ar.group_id )
JOIN sys.dm_hadr_availability_replica_states AS ar_state ON ar.replica_id = ar_state.replica_id)
WHERE ar.[replica_server_name] = @@SERVERNAME AND and ag.[name] = @AG_Name
— STOP JOB if local = @ReplicaRole
IF (@hostrole = @ReplicaRole)
BEGIN
SELECT @job =[Name] FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs
WHERE [Job_ID] = $(ESCAPE_NONE(JOBID))
SET @sql = ‘msdb.dbo.sp_stop_job N’ + quotename(@job, ””)
EXEC (@sql)
END
LikeLike