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I have SQL Server 2008 Developer edition installed on my laptop. It has many jobs, and stuff, so I was just wondering, if I install SQL Server 2008 Express edition on my client, would it be able to execute jobs? And if so, does it do it normally like the developer edition or do I have to execute/perform some other action with it.

The main thing is that, in my database, I have this maintenance plan, that does 3 things:-

  1. Takes a full backup every month
  2. Takes a diff. backup every 15 days
  3. Takes a log backup every 15 days.
  4. Rebuilds all indices every 2 months.

So, mainly I am concerned with this, my developer edition can do this, but if I install express edition on client, would it be able to do it to or not? If so, do I have to configure something special?

One more thing, if my database (the one, that has this maintenance plan I wrote in above paragraph) is myData.mdf, and lets say in visual studio I create a setup project for my application, and bootstrap SQL Server Express with it (by clicking Download prerequisites from the same location as my application in Prerequisites Dialog Box) and assuming that my myData.mdf was in Data folder in my application, and is outputted with the project each time. Would these jobs/maintainence plans persist in my database, like all tables and stored procedures, or would they be removed?

marc_s
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Razort4x
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    SQL Server Express does **NOT** have the SQL Agent - so you **cannot** have SQL jobs running. That's just one of the limitations you have to live with – marc_s Aug 16 '12 at 16:42
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    The jobs/maintainence plans ARE NOT defined in your database so the mdf will not contain those. – banging Aug 16 '12 at 17:04

3 Answers3

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Take a look to this article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms365248(v=sql.100).aspx

In the Section: SQL Server Features that Are Not Supported in SQL Server Express

It says:

"SQL Server Agent and SQL Server Agent Service"

There are some alternatives that you can use to do backups. For example: http://sqlbackupandftp.com/. They offer a free version with some limitations.

If you want to use Windows Scheduled Tasks and SQL Script, take a look to this: How can I schedule a daily backup with SQL Server Express?

Community
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Pablo Claus
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Express Edition doesn't do it, but it would be trivial to write some scripts to do those tasks and have the Windows Task Scheduler run them for you.

As far as the second part goes, the easiest way to find out would probably be just to try loading it into SQL Express and see what happens.

Jim
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    No need to try to find out the second part. The jobs are defined in the msdb system database. – banging Aug 16 '12 at 17:07
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Take a look at Ola Hallengren's solution at http://ola.hallengren.com

It can be used with the windows task scheduler as in his FAQ - "You can use cmd files and Windows Scheduled Tasks instead" at http://ola.hallengren.com/frequently-asked-questions.html

sqltomato
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