SQL SERVER – SQL Agent – Job Start Whenever the CPUs Become Idle

4 years ago

Today let see a quick question which I was recently asked by a customer of Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check about SQL Agent and Job starting whenever CPU Become Idle.

SQL SERVER - SQL Agent - Job Start Whenever the CPUs Become Idle sqlagents-800x193 — Become Idle

SQL Server Agent is one of the most important tools for DBA. We use it for pretty much everything from Index rebuilding, database backup, database consistency check, etc. When we try to configure the job schedule we have quite a lots of options but one option was really confusing to my client it said – Start Whenever CPUs Become Idle. So the question which I received was what actually decides that CPU is ideal or not.

Well, the answer is pretty simple actually and let us understand with the help of SQL Agent only.

First of all – go to the SQL Agent Node in SQL Server Management Studio. Over here, right-click and go to Properties.

Next, go to Advanced Options.

Over here, you will notice a configuration section for Idle CPU Conditions. Check the box next to that option.

Checking the option will enable two further options: Average CPU Usage Falls Below and And Remains Below This Level For. Configure these two values to quality your server in the CPU Idle state.

I usually keep the values at the default value unless there is a need to change them.

Here are a few additional blog posts which are on the same topic as what we discussed in this blog post:

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)