Start a SQL Agent Job with the .NET Framework from PowerShell
As of this writing, the most recent version of the SQLServer PowerShell module (which installs as part of SQL Server Management Studio) includes cmdlets for retrieving information about SQL agent jobs, but no cmdlets for starting them.
1Get-Command -Module SQLServer -Name *job*
I recently ran into a situation where I needed to start a SQL agent job from PowerShell. The solution needed to be a tool that others could use who may or may not have the SQLServer module, SQLPS module or older SQL Server snap-in installed.
I decided to write a function to leverage the .NET Framework from PowerShell to start a SQL Server job:
1#Requires -Version 3.0
2function Start-MrSqlAgentJob {
3
4<#
5.SYNOPSIS
6 Starts the specified SQL Agent Job on the specified target instance of SQL Server.
7
8.DESCRIPTION
9 Start-MrSqlAgentJob is a PowerShell function that is designed to start the specified SQL Server
10 Agent job on the specified target instance of SQL Server without requiring the SQL Server PowerShell
11 module or snap-in to be installed.
12
13.PARAMETER ServerInstance
14 The name of an instance of SQL Server where the SQL Agent is running. For default instances, only
15 specify the computer name: MyComputer. For named instances, use the format ComputerName\InstanceName.
16
17.PARAMETER Name
18 Specifies the name of the Job object that this cmdlet gets. The name may or may not be
19 case-sensitive, depending on the collation of the SQL Server where the SQL Agent is running.
20
21.PARAMETER Credential
22 SQL Authentication userid and password in the form of a credential object.
23
24.EXAMPLE
25 Start-MrSqlAgentJob -ServerInstance SQLServer01 -Name syspolicy_purge_history
26
27.EXAMPLE
28 Start-MrSqlAgentJob -ServerInstance SQLServer01 -Name syspolicy_purge_history -Credential (Get-Credential)
29
30.EXAMPLE
31 'syspolicy_purge_history' | Start-MrSqlAgentJob -ServerInstance SQLServer01
32
33.INPUTS
34 String
35
36.OUTPUTS
37 Boolean
38
39.NOTES
40 Author: Mike F Robbins
41 Website: http://mikefrobbins.com
42 Twitter: @mikefrobbins
43#>
44
45 [CmdletBinding()]
46 param (
47 [Parameter(Mandatory)]
48 [string]$ServerInstance,
49
50 [Parameter(Mandatory,
51 ValueFromPipeLine)]
52 [string]$Name,
53
54 [System.Management.Automation.Credential()]$Credential = [System.Management.Automation.PSCredential]::Empty
55 )
56
57 BEGIN {
58
59 $Database = 'msdb'
60 $connection = New-Object -TypeName System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
61
62 if (-not($PSBoundParameters.Credential)) {
63 $connectionString = "Server=$ServerInstance;Database=$Database;Integrated Security=True;"
64 }
65 else {
66 $connectionString = "Server=$ServerInstance;Database=$Database;Integrated Security=False;"
67 $userid = $Credential.UserName -replace '^.*\\|@.*$'
68 ($password = $credential.Password).MakeReadOnly()
69 $sqlCred = New-Object -TypeName System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCredential($userid, $password)
70 $connection.Credential = $sqlCred
71 }
72
73 $connection.ConnectionString = $connectionString
74 $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
75
76 try {
77 $connection.Open()
78 Write-Verbose -Message "Connection to the $($connection.Database) database on $($connection.DataSource) has been successfully opened."
79 }
80 catch {
81 Write-Error -Message "An error has occurred. Error details: $($_.Exception.Message)"
82 }
83
84 $ErrorActionPreference = 'Continue'
85 $command = $connection.CreateCommand()
86
87 }
88
89 PROCESS {
90
91 $Query = "EXEC dbo.sp_start_job N'$Name'"
92 $command.CommandText = $Query
93 $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
94
95 try {
96 $result = $command.ExecuteNonQuery()
97 }
98 catch {
99 Write-Error -Message "An error has occured. Error Details: $($_.Exception.Message)"
100 }
101
102 $ErrorActionPreference = 'Continue'
103
104 if ($result -eq -1) {
105 Write-Output $true
106 }
107 else {
108 Write-Output $false
109 }
110
111 }
112
113 END {
114
115 $connection.Close()
116 $connection.Dispose()
117
118 }
119
120}
The job returns a Boolean. True means it started successfully and false means it failed to start:
1Start-MrSqlAgentJob -ServerInstance SQL011 -Name syspolicy_purge_history
The Start-MrSqlAgentJob
function shown in the previous code example can be downloaded from
my SQL repository on GitHub.
Update:
Thanks to Rob Sewell for pointing out that Get-SqlAgentJob
returns a SMO object which has a start method:
1Get-SqlAgentJob -ServerInstance SQL011 -Name test | Get-Member -MemberType Method
That means it can be used to start a SQL agent job:
1(Get-SqlAgentJob -ServerInstance SQL011 -Name test).Start()
2Get-SqlAgentJob -ServerInstance SQL011 -Name test
It does require that SQL Server Management Studio 2016 be installed on the machine it's being run from.
µ