Setting Timer Jobs at on-premises SharePoint 2010, 2013, 2016, or 2019 using PowerShell

Note: The Timer Jobs only work with on-premises SharePoint and not SharePoint Online, as is a cloud-based version, the architecture and management of timer jobs are handled by Microsoft, and the end user do not have direct access to create or install custom timer jobs.

As a SharePoint Admin, there are a lot of cleaning, indexing, trigger workflow, and maintenance tasks that have to be performed periodically, in such a case you can make use of a timer job that can help run background processes on one or more SharePoint servers farms at a scheduled task periodically.

You can setup a timer job in SharePoint using PowerShell, by following the below steps:

Step 1:

Develop a custom timer job assembly and package it as a DLL file. The code within the assembly defines the behavior and tasks of your timer job.

Step 2:

Next, open the SharePoint Management Shell with administrative privileges.

Step 3:

Execute the following command to add the SharePoint snap-in, which provides the necessary cmdlets for managing SharePoint objects through PowerShell:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

Step 4:

Create your timer job using the below code.

$jobName = "CustomTimerJob"
$timerJob = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPJobDefinition($jobName, (Get-SPServiceApplication | where {$_.TypeName -eq "Your_Service_Application_Type"}))

Step 5:

Set the scheduler

$timerJob.Schedule = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSchedule.Hourly

Step 6:

Now execute the below command to add the timer job to the SharePoint farm:

$timerJob.Update()

Step 7:

Finally run the scheduler,

$timerJob.RunNow()

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Rakesh is a seasoned developer with over 10 years of experience in web and app development, and a deep knowledge of operating systems. Author of insightful How-To articles for Code2care.

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