Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler
The Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler is a Windows service that runs on Team Foundation Server application-tier servers. The Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler service provides a general scheduling mechanism for Team Foundation Web services.
The Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler Service
Some Team Foundation services have repeating tasks. For example, administrators might want to schedule builds on a nightly basis. To accomplish this, build services must be able to set up an automatically scheduled event in the registration database. The Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler service, also known as TFSServerScheduler, provides a single Windows-based service to schedule repeating tasks on Team Foundation servers. The service runs through the registration database, identifies all Team Foundation Server Web services that have scheduled events, and schedules these tasks.
Instances
There should be only one instance of the Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler service running on any Team Foundation Server application-tier server. The service runs under the abbreviated name TFSServerScheduler, and by default runs under the service account that you specified when you installed Team Foundation Server. To view the status of the Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler service on an application-tier server, click Start, click Administration Services, click Services, and then browse to TFSServerScheduler.
Assumptions and Limitations
The Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler service runs continuously on Team Foundation Server application-tier servers. Administrators should not need to manually stop or start this service except during system recovery. For example, you must stop Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler before you restore databases. The Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler service should restart automatically when a server is restarted.
Administrators will not directly configure the Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler. Tasks that need to be scheduled are configured directly in individual Team Foundation components, such as Team Foundation Build. When an event is added or deleted, the Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler service automatically reconfigures the tasks scheduled in the registration database.
Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler will only log one instance of any given error until that error is resolved and a success message is recorded in the Event Log, or until the TFSServerScheduler service is manually restarted. If you want to monitor the Event Log for that error message, you must first stop and restart the service.
Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler is not designed to be an all-purpose scheduling mechanism. It is not designed to provide scheduling granularity beyond day of the week, hour of the day, and minute of the day. Most administrators will not need to schedule tasks beyond this level of granularity.
See Also
Tasks
Troubleshooting Team Foundation Server Performance Counters
How to: Assign a New Account to a Team Foundation Server Service