Scheduled Tasks

We appreciate you may have some functionality which needs to be scheduled at a given interval. We support Scheduled Tasks on all our hosting plans in both ranges.

SQLServer Scheduled Tasks

If you have a stored procedure that you wish to execute at a given interval, then we can schedule your sql using the SQLServer Job Scheduler. There is no charge for this service and your batch job will be setup to run under your alias dbo owner sql account. Please note we cannot execute batch jobs which require sa privileges.

Windows Scheduled Tasks

The following types of jobs can be scheduled using the Windows 2000 scheduled tasks facility. Due to the security implications, all scheduled tasks must be reviewed by Database Power and there is therefore a charge for this service.

• .bat or .cmd command files (£40 per hour).
• .vbs scripts (£40 per hour).
• Visual Basic programs (£60 per hour).

In order to protect other users of the shared servers, the following review guidelines exist.

• Send only your source code. It must be in ZIP format. Do not send your EXE's as we will only install EXE's that we compile.
  
  
• Your source code must be documented in English. Trust us, it will cost you more to leave it undocumented.
  
  
• Typically we can complete the first review in under 2 hours, whilst subsequent reviews are under an hour, provided your source code is well documented.  All code comments must be in English.
  
  
• Make sure your loops exit properly and that you discard variables and objects to the memory pool when finished with them.
  
  
• Excessive use of resources is the number one cause of tasks to fail our inspection. Keep in mind that you are in a shared hosting environment and you are sharing resources with other applications.
  
  
• When you make changes to your tasks, only send the changed files or we will have to review the entire project over which will increase your costs.
  
  
• Any task can be removed from a shared server if we suspect the task is effecting the server and is having a detrimental effect on the server and other customers.

Please Note: the smallest scheduling frequency is 1 hour for the Professional range and 15 minutes for the Corporate Range. If you require a smaller frequency or require a program to be run constantly (e.g. as an NT service), then you wil require a dedicated server.