Last updated: 2026-07-02

Agent Jobs Manager

A cross-platform GUI for SQL Server Agent. Browse jobs, view execution history, run and stop jobs, and manage operators, alerts, proxies, and error logs — from macOS, Windows, or Linux. (Agent Jobs Manager is in beta.)

What is the Agent Jobs Manager?

SQL Server Agent is the job scheduler built into SQL Server — it runs T-SQL, PowerShell, and other steps on a schedule, raises alerts, and notifies operators. The Agent Jobs Manager is Jam SQL Studio's graphical front end for it: a dashboard for monitoring jobs, a full editor for creating and changing them, and dedicated views for operators, alerts, proxies, Agent properties, and error logs. It targets SQL Server connections (Agent is a SQL Server feature); the underlying architecture is provider-based so other engines could be added, but SQL Server Agent is what it manages today.

Getting started

Requirements

• SQL Server Standard, Enterprise, or Developer edition — Express Edition does not include SQL Server Agent, and the manager shows a banner saying so.
• SQL Server Agent must be running — if the Agent service is stopped, the manager surfaces a "not running" banner instead of an empty grid.
• An msdb role — the manager reads your effective role and adapts (see Permissions below).

How to open the Agent Jobs Manager

1. Connect to a SQL Server instance in Jam SQL Studio
2. Open More → DBA → Agent Jobs from the main toolbar, or
3. Right-click the SQL Server Agent node in the Object Explorer (or its Jobs / Alerts / Operators / Proxies / Error Logs sub-folders) and choose Open Job Scheduler, or
4. Open the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P) and run Agent Jobs Manager

The manager opens as a workspace tab titled Agent Jobs: <connection>.

Jobs dashboard

The dashboard lists every Agent job in a sortable grid. Columns, left to right:

• Status — an icon showing the current execution state (idle, executing, failed, succeeded)
• Job Name
• Last Run — timestamp and outcome of the most recent execution
• Duration — how long the last run took
• Next Run — when the job is next scheduled
• Category — the job's category (e.g., Database Maintenance)
• Enabled — a Yes/No badge

Click any column header to sort. A search box and a status filter (All / Running / Failed / Succeeded / Disabled) narrow the list.

Summary cards

Above the grid, five cards give an at-a-glance rollup: Total Jobs, Running, Failed (24h), Succeeded (24h), and Disabled.

Auto-refresh

The toolbar auto-refresh selector offers Off (default), 10s, 30s, and 60s. Refresh is paused automatically while a job is executing so a mid-run poll can't disturb the live status, then resumes when the run finishes. Use Refresh to update on demand.

Job detail

Select a job to open its detail panel, which has five tabs: Steps, Schedules, History, Notifications, and General.

Steps

The ordered list of job steps with each step's subsystem, command, and on-success / on-failure flow, so you can read the job's branching logic.

Schedules

Every schedule attached to the job, with the raw frequency integers from msdb.dbo.sysschedules decoded into plain English — for example, "Occurs every 1 week(s) on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 02:00:00".

History

A timeline of past executions. Each run shows start time, duration, and outcome (Succeeded, Failed, Retried, Cancelled); expand a run to see per-step durations and error messages. Filter by:

• Date range — Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, or a Custom from/to range
• Status — All, Failed Only, or Succeeded Only

A summary strip shows success rate, failure count, average duration, and a duration trend.

Notifications and General

Notifications shows which operators are notified on success, failure, or completion and by which channel. General shows job metadata: owner, category, description, dates, and the job ID.

Running, stopping, and controlling jobs

Right-click any job in the grid for its actions (each gated by your permissions):

• Run Now — start the job immediately
• Run from Step… — for multi-step jobs, start at a chosen step
• Stop Job — replaces Run Now while a job is executing; a confirmation dialog warns about mid-execution termination
• Enable / Disable — toggle the job's enabled state
• View Details / View History / Edit Job / Delete Job

Toast notifications confirm when jobs start, stop, and complete.

Creating and editing jobs

Click New Job to open the editor, or right-click a job and choose Edit Job. The editor has four tabs: General, Steps, Schedules, and Notifications. Unsaved changes are guarded when you close.

General

Set the job name, owner, category, description, and enabled state.

Steps

Add, remove, and reorder steps. Each step has a name, a subsystem, the command to run, and per-step routing. The step subsystems are:

• Transact-SQL (T-SQL)
• Operating System (CmdExec)
• PowerShell
• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
• Analysis Services Command
• Analysis Services Query

On success and On failure each route to: go to the next step, quit reporting success, quit reporting failure, or go to a specific step. Steps that support it can also run under a Run as proxy credential.

Schedules

Attach one or more schedules, or pick an existing shared schedule from msdb. The schedule editor supports all seven SQL Server Agent frequency types:

• Once — a single execution at a specific date and time
• Daily — every N days at a set time
• Weekly — chosen days of the week with a recurrence interval
• Monthly — a specific day of the month
• Monthly (relative) — e.g., "the second Tuesday of every month"
• On Agent start — runs when SQL Server Agent starts
• On idle — runs when the CPUs become idle

Notifications

Choose who gets notified and when — on success, failure, or completion — by selecting an operator and a notification method.

Preview Script

Before saving, click Preview Script to see the exact T-SQL the manager will run. It uses the standard Agent stored procedures — sp_add_job, sp_add_jobstep, sp_add_schedule (or sp_attach_schedule for a shared schedule), sp_add_jobserver, and sp_update_job — so you can review or copy it before anything changes. Save the editor with Cmd/Ctrl+S.

Permissions and role awareness

The manager reads your effective msdb role membership and adapts the UI accordingly, so you only see actions you can actually perform:

• SQLAgentReaderRole — view all jobs and their history
• SQLAgentUserRole — manage your own jobs
• SQLAgentOperatorRole — run and manage all jobs
• sysadmin — full control, including editing Agent properties

Actions you can't perform (edit, delete, run) are hidden or disabled rather than failing with a raw permission error.

Operators, alerts, and proxies

The manager covers the full Agent ecosystem, not just jobs.

Operators

Operators are the notification contacts for SQL Server Agent. Create and edit them with email address, pager email and pager schedule, and net send address, and see which jobs and alerts notify each one.

Alerts

Alerts respond to server events and conditions. Three alert types are supported:

• SQL Server event — triggered by an error number or severity level, optionally scoped to a database and message-text pattern
• Performance condition — triggered when a performance counter crosses a threshold
• WMI event — triggered by a WMI event query

Each alert can run a response job and/or notify operators.

Proxies

Proxy accounts let non-sysadmin users run job steps under a specific credential. The proxy editor exposes 11 Agent subsystems — CmdExec, PowerShell, T-SQL, SSIS, Analysis Services Command, Analysis Services Query, Snapshot, Log Reader, Distribution, Merge, and Queue Reader — so you can grant a proxy exactly the step types it needs.

Agent properties and error logs

Agent Properties shows a read-only summary of the SQL Server Agent configuration — service status, Agent XPs, the Database Mail profile, and the fail-safe operator (editable only by sysadmin).

Error Logs browses the SQL Server Agent logs: switch between the Current log and up to 9 archived logs, search entries by keyword, filter by date range, and set an independent auto-refresh.

Object Explorer integration

SQL Server Agent appears as a top-level node in the Object Explorer with sub-folders for Jobs, Operators, Alerts, and Proxies. Right-click the node or any sub-folder and choose Open Job Scheduler to jump straight into the manager.

Agent Jobs Manager vs SSMS

SSMS remains the reference tool for SQL Server Agent, but it only runs on Windows. Jam SQL Studio brings the core Agent workflows — monitor, run, edit, schedule, and manage operators/alerts/proxies — to macOS and Linux, plus Windows. It scripts the same sp_add_job family under the hood and respects the same msdb roles, so what you do in the GUI maps directly to standard Agent T-SQL.

Frequently asked questions