One common pain point for SharePoint administrators is the Windows SharePoint Services Timer Service, also known as OWSTIMER.EXE. The Timer Service is responsible for executing several processes that are part of the product. A few of the more well-known processes are the search crawl refresh, recycle bin processing and the workflow processes. Also, the Timer Service is the process that SharePoint uses to push web.config modifications and solutions to all front end servers in the farm.

Two specific issues that are related to the Timer Service are its memory consumption and limited user interface. The Application Extension Download for SharePoint (AED for SharePoint) from Barracuda is designed to help system administrators deal with these issues. The download can be found in the Premium Content section of the Mindsharp web site. (The utility is free, but you will need to provide your name and email.)

Timer Operations Syntax

Restart Timer

stsadm -o restarttimer
{ -farm | -server <server name>;<server name> }
[-exclude <server name>;<server name>]
 
Restarts the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service
on servers in the farm.
 
Use the -farm parameter to restart the service on all servers
in the farm that have the service installed.
 
Use the -server parameter to specify the servers on which to
restart the service.
 
Use the -exclude parameter in conjuction with -farm to restart
the service on all servers except those listed.
 

Enumerate Timer Jobs

stsadm -o enumtimerjobs
[-view {service | webapp}]
[-service <service name>]
[-webapp <web application url>]
[-schedule]
 
Displays the Timer Job Definition information.
 

Start Timer Job

stsadm -o starttimerjob
{ -service <service name> | -webapp <web application url> }
-job <job name>
 
Forces a one-time execution of the specified job.