Re: WinDoze NT Automation Question

Others have mentioned AT and WinAT, and it is the standard NT solution for these problems. However, a number of people have, over the years, reported problems with using it with perl scrips and/or batch files -- go to MS's support site and look at article Q142432 for an example. For a sample, go to Activestate's mail archives and search on this subject -- I believe, if my memory serves me correctly, that someone even noted why it fails.

From my own personal experience, I'd recommend using the newer "Scheduled Tasks" application, which, if I recall alright, is installed with IE 5.5. We've used it here for the last year to run perl-based reports that access over 1000+ servers, and perl scripts that died with AT (even after proper usernames were set) run fine with Scheduled Tasks

Also recommended by others (although I've never used it mysely) is cron.pl

----Asim, known to some as Woodrow.

Comment on Re: WinDoze NT Automation Question

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Re: Re: WinDoze NT Automation Question by clemburg (Curate) on Apr 25, 2001 at 12:33 UTC
I have used the "at" command to run automated jobs with perl scripts for long times (years) in different environments. I have not seen any problems with the "at" command itself, as long as it is used with the originally installed NT scheduling service, and not the Task Scheduler (which is the newer variant of the Scheduling Service, offers a GUI, and is installed by default by a variety of MS programs, not the least newer Internet Explorer versions and the BackOffice Suite). There are definitively many problems with using the "at" command in conjunction with the Task Scheduler. Don't do that. Use either "at" and the default NT scheduler, or the Task Scheduler. Reasons for using "at" are the usual reasons for using the command line (you can use automization for job setup, run automated deploy scripts, manipulate things easily from remote, etc.). Reasons for using the Task Scheduler mainly boil down to having a GUI and having no installation problems, since nearly all new packages for MS Server will install the Task Scheduler. Christian Lemburg Brainbench MVP for Perl http://www.brainbench.com	[reply]

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Re: Re: WinDoze NT Automation Question
by clemburg (Curate) on Apr 25, 2001 at 12:33 UTC

I have used the "at" command to run automated jobs with perl scripts for long times (years) in different environments.

I have *not* seen any problems with the "at" command itself, as long as it is used with the *originally installed NT scheduling service*, and *not* the Task Scheduler (which is the newer variant of the Scheduling Service, offers a GUI, and is installed by default by a variety of MS programs, not the least newer Internet Explorer versions and the BackOffice Suite).

There are *definitively many problems* with using the "at" command in conjunction with the Task Scheduler. Don't do that. Use either "at" and the default NT scheduler, or the Task Scheduler.

Reasons for using "at" are the usual reasons for using the command line (you can use automization for job setup, run automated deploy scripts, manipulate things easily from remote, etc.).

Reasons for using the Task Scheduler mainly boil down to having a GUI and having no installation problems, since nearly all new packages for MS Server will install the Task Scheduler.

Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com

[reply]