Run background job in cloud service at specific interval of time everday (similar to mobile azure service scheduler)

Question

I have a scenario where I need to run a background job in azure cloud service which is exactly similar to mobile azure services scheduler which I am looking for in cloud service.

I need to get some data from azure sql database, create a csv report and mail it to client. This should happen everyday at some particular point of time in a day.

If its there please provide some samples

Answer 1

Hi,

This is the below code snippet I found which relates to your requirement from " How to run Background Tasks in ASP.NET "

using System;

using System.Threading;

using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace WebBackgrounder.DemoWeb

{

    public class SampleJob : Job

    {

        public SampleJob(TimeSpan interval, TimeSpan timeout)

            : base("Sample Job", interval, timeout)

        {

        }

        public override Task Execute()

        {

            return new Task(() => Thread.Sleep(3000));

        }

    }

}

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Shirisha Paderu

Answer 2

HI Shirisha Paderu,

How to we schedule the time like i want to run everyday at 12am something like mobile azure services scheduler...

Answer 3

Hi,

As far as I know, you can use Azure Scheduler to do this too, you just need to expose an endpoint, and then call this endpoint in scheduler. Please see the videos below.

#http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Azure-Friday/Azure-Scheduler-101-Kevin-Lam-explains-how-to-schedule-stuff

#http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Cloud+Cover/Episode-127-Windows-Azure-Scheduler

Best Regards,

Jambor

---

We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
Click HERE to participate the survey.

Answer 4

Hi Sharathm1,

As you have specifically mentioned about the cloud services, there are two ways to do it

Option 1. Write a custom logic in your web role on run method which will be running continuously and will get executed after the time span which you provide.

Something like

public override void Run()
{
  while (true)
  {
     //Custom logic

     //Make the thread sleep for e.g. 1 day
     Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromDays(Convert.ToDouble(1)));
  }
}

Option 2. Deploy a dedicated worker role and add above logic to it's on run method.

Now about which one you want to use and when?

It all depends on the usage and needs. i.e. Option 1 is not very much recommended but few folks use it, just to save the cost and avoid spinning up a new worker role. This should be used only when the scheduled function is not CPU intensive and number of users accesing your web role instance are minimal.

The second is the most recommended way to do it - i.e. spin up a dedicated worker and you are done. it will not only provide you the ease of maintenance but also will avail a lot of infrastructure for you where in you can perform all other background CPU / Memory intensive tasks in future without affecting your web role instances.

---

Bhushan | http://www.passionatetechie.blogspot.com | http://twitter.com/BhushanGawale