SharePoint Timer Service Delays

Timer job plays a very vital role in the SharePoint environment as so many task’s, jobs, schedules as well as workflows are depend on it.

Bottom line (important one):

1.    Clearing the timer job history

2.    Recycling the timer service

3.    Workflows

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 uses the Windows SharePoint Services Timer V4 (SPTimerV4) service to run most system tasks.

How you will conclude that the timer jobs are not working as expected?

Here is the list:

o   Alerts are not working

o   Workflow: either not running / taking a long time to update

o   Updates to the farm configuration are not synchronized to the local server.

Make sure / Resolution:

a)   Start-> Run -> services.msc -> will open the services console.

b)   Press ‘S’ in the list of services and it will show you the list of SharePoint Services

c)    Right click on ‘SharePoint Timer Service” and Restart it.

d)   Ensure- it gets started successfully. If not then use the following way

e)   Start ->Run- >cmd ->it will open the console window -> net start sptimerv4

f)     If the service does not start, ensure the following parameters are correct:

g)    It should be a domain user account and is a member of the following:

·         dbcreator fixed SQL Server role

·         securityadmin fixed SQL Server role

·         db_owner fixed database role for all databases in the server farm

h)   If the account has sufficient permissions, confirm the password by typing the password for the account, retyping the password in the Confirm password box, and then clicking OK.

If the workflows are taking long time to complete then please change the frequency:

stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname "job-workflow" -propertyvalue "every 1 minutes between 0 and 59" -url http://webapplication

For more information, please see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc424970.aspx. The default value is "every 5 minutes between 0 and 59"