Monitoring SQL Agent Job Failures with T-SQL

By Tom Nonmacher

SQL Server Agent jobs play a critical role in the daily operations of many organizations. However, despite their importance, it can be challenging to keep track of job failures, especially in larger environments where many jobs are running simultaneously. That's where T-SQL comes in handy. T-SQL, or Transact-SQL, is Microsoft's and Sybase's proprietary extension to SQL. It adds several features to the standard SQL, including transaction control, exception and error handling, and row processing, making it an excellent tool for monitoring SQL Agent Job failures.

You can use the msdb database to monitor SQL Server Agent job failures. The msdb database stores information for SQL Server Agent, and it contains a table called sysjobhistory. By querying this table, you can retrieve information about job execution, including whether a job has failed. Here's an example:

SELECT j.name AS JobName, h.step_id AS StepID, h.step_name AS StepName,
h.run_status AS RunStatus, msdb.dbo.agent_datetime(run_date, run_time) AS RunDateTime
FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs j
INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.sysjobhistory h ON j.job_id = h.job_id
WHERE h.run_status = 0 -- failed jobs

In MySQL 8.0, you can use the events table in the performance_schema database to monitor job failures. When a job fails, an event is recorded in this table. You can query this table to retrieve information about these events. Here's how you might do it:

SELECT EVENT_NAME, COUNT_STAR, SUM_ERRORS 
FROM performance_schema.events_waits_summary_global_by_event_name 
WHERE SUM_ERRORS > 0;

In DB2 11.5, you can use the SYSPROC.ADMIN_TASK_STATUS function to monitor job failures. This function returns a table with the status of all administrative tasks, including any failures. Here's an example:

SELECT * FROM TABLE(SYSPROC.ADMIN_TASK_STATUS())
WHERE STATUS = 'FAILURE';

If you're using Azure SQL or Azure Synapse, you can use the sys.dm_exec_requests dynamic management view to monitor job failures. This view contains information about each request that is currently executing within SQL Server. Here's an example of how you might use this view to monitor job failures:

SELECT session_id, status, command, start_time, database_id
FROM sys.dm_exec_requests
WHERE status = 'running' AND start_time < DATEADD(MINUTE, -30, GETDATE());

Monitoring job failures is crucial for maintaining the health and performance of your databases. By using T-SQL and the monitoring techniques described here, you can keep a close eye on your SQL Server Agent jobs and ensure that any failures are dealt with promptly. Remember, proactive monitoring is always better than reactive troubleshooting. Stay tuned to SQLSupport.org for more tips and tricks on managing your SQL databases.




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