Starting the Scheduler at a specific time (approximately) - Extend It! ( Programming in VS2005 & 2008, ASP.Net 2.0 )

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6/17/2008 12:23 AM

	Olivier Jooris
18 posts
www.bitconsultancy.be

Starting the Scheduler at a specific time (approximately)

Hi All,

The DNN Scheduler is not as well know as the other modules, maybe because it is not that easy to use?

Is it not possible to configure it in a way that you can enter the hour that a job must start? (I rahther run heavy jobs when there are less users working)

I know, due to the way IIS works, that you can not rely on the exact time a job was run and that you need a request before the site (and its jobs) wakes up and realy does something.
BUT: i think it must be possible to say you want a job running at 11h at night. Of course this will not happen until someone does a request to the site, and even if someone was, the chance that it is at excactely 11h will be very small.

To Solve the 'i need a request' issue you can use tools like smartping ( http://help.smartertools.com/SmarterPing/v1/Default.asp ), which periodacely pings the sites you want. (you need a server to run this on which is online 24/24) , So if you let this ping every 10 minutes, and you can configure the job to run at 11h than it will start 11.10h at the latest.

This is a very acceptable solution for most schedule applications.

So here's the real question: Is the core-team considering this enhancement? Or is is this already possible in some way (using the standard framework)
(I'll be glad to help on this topic)

6/24/2008 2:26 AM

Accepted Answer

	Olivier Jooris
18 posts
www.bitconsultancy.be

Re: Starting the Scheduler at a specific time (approximately)

Modified By Olivier Jooris on 6/24/2008 5:29:13 AM)

Yesterday i attended the SDN Event in Holland, and got the solution from Leigh Pointer:

in host settings -> Scheduler Mode: Timer Mode --> this starts a timer in a new thread and does not need a request (so this task, once started) runs independetly from your website.

If you dont want to do this and leave te scheduler mode at request, you kan keep open an internet explorer window, and surf to the page keepalive.aspx (this refreshes regularely, you only have to keep it open)
This keeps your site alive, and make sure that the scheduled task will be run.

The actual task:

You schedule the task every minute
In your scheduled task, you can write a test on a specific time, solving my issue. (if its 11h start task, else nothing) (you could even put this time in the schedule settings) ("maintain scheduler" settings is a module you have to make yourself)

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