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.

At my new job, I work with a lot of very smart people. I was chatting with Ben Curry, and he remarked about the troubles that a lot of administrators have with the OWSTimer.exe program. So, I wrote an extension to STSADM that will help manage this program. You can find the Adminstration Extension Download for SharePoint on the Mindsharp site.

Feedback is appreciated. Paul at barracada.net

I found a particularly interesting comment on the Technet Script Center page for Scheduled Tasks:

Note that this class can only return jobs that are created using either a script or AT.exe. It cannot return information about jobs that are either created by or modified by the Scheduled Task wizard.

A search of the .Net Framework turned up empty. As far as I can tell, schtasks.exe is the way to go if you want the end-users to be able to change the default entry…

UPDATED June 14, 2007:   I used the Task Scheduler library from Code Project. 

I want to thank the group from PointBridge for the wonderful evening. Ethan, Bert, et. al. were a pleasure to meet!

I am very excited to announce that I have joined Todd Bleeker and Bill English at Mindsharp! I will be working in the Barracuda Tools division along with Keith Richie.

Thanks to everyone at Mindsharp for this wonderful opportunity!

Todd Bleeker (who is alleged to be a cult figure in some circles) is speaking at two local events:

Building SharePoint Web Parts
Wednesday, April 18th
Chicago DotNet User Group (RSVP requested)
Microsoft Office in Downers Grove, IL

Ghosting, Master Pages, Themes, CSS, etc.
Thursday, April 19th
Chicago SharePoint User Group (RSVP required)
Microsoft Technology Center, 77 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL

It's my most wonderful time of the (hockey) year
John Buccigross, ESPN.com

And in local news - Blackhawks win draft drawing

Just shaking off the dust after completing a project.

Amanda Murphy has started writing SharePoint articles for Intranet Journal. The SharePoint series over there has slowed down since I got too busy to contribute. But with Amanda and Rob, I look forward to more great stuff!