T-SQL Tuesday #186 – Managing SQL Server Agent Jobs

The T-SQL Tuesday invite for May 2025 comes from Andy Levy. Andy asks us to write about managing and/or monitoring SQL Server Agent jobs. Click on the T-SQL Tuesday logo to read the full invite.

These aren’t the most technical SQL Server Agent job topics, but two that came to mind were managing who jobs belong to and making sure the right steps are followed when jobs are removed.

Who Do Jobs Belong To?

One aspect I’d like to improve on in handling jobs is including the team or solution a job belongs to when naming the job. Does the job belong to Solution A or Solution B? Is a development team owning the job, or is a database team managing the job? It’s nice to have this type of information defined in the job name so you can narrow your focus where needed.

If a support team needs to troubleshoot a failing ETL job over the weekend, and they see the job name is SolutionA_ETL_Refresh, then they’ll have a better idea of who to contact.

Disable, Don’t Delete (Yet)

When it comes to cleaning up jobs, it may sound obvious, but remember that you can disable jobs and don’t have to outright delete them. If you think a job is no longer needed or hasn’t run for a lengthy period of time, I’m more comfortable disabling it for a while longer before removing it. If it turns out that the job is still needed, it’s much easier to re-enable than to recreate.

Sure, if you’re positive a job was needed for a temporary project or reason, or if the job is one you owned and know it’s safe to delete, then by all means get rid of it.

But if there’s even a hint of doubt, disable it and wait until you know for sure.

This especially goes for jobs that may only run once a month or on a longer schedule but are critical to those who rely on them. A job may not have run for 3 weeks, but if it’s a job that runs every 4 weeks and it doesn’t run on that 4th week, there will be complaints. You should be noting the schedule on the job anyway, but the point still stands.

Simple but Valuable

Having clearly defined job owners now can prevent finger-pointing later if something goes wrong. Making sure you take a measured approach to cleaning up jobs that are no longer needed can prevent angry customers and needing to recreate a deleted job in a rush. These are a few small steps that can save you headaches later.

Thanks for reading!