Problem getting execution status of a SQL Agent Job

I’m having trouble retrieving the execution status of a job – perhaps someone can help me.

I have a stored proc (on SQL 2005) that dynamically creates and executes a SQL Agent Job. The stored proc first has to check whether the job exists. If it already exists and is not active then I simply reuse the existing job. However if the job exists but is currently executing then I need to create a new job because there can be multiple instances of the program that the job runs. My problem is how to check whether the job is currently executing. I tried using sp_help_job as shown below but the rowcount seems to return 1 even when there are no jobs executing!

Exec msdb.dbo.sp_help_job

@.job_aspect = 'JOB',

@.execution_status = 0,

@.job_name = @.JobName

If @.@.rowcount > 0 Begin

…

End

I then tried this code…

If (select count(*) from msdb.dbo.sysjobs j

left outer join msdb.dbo.sysjobhistory h on j.job_id = h.job_id where name = @.JobName and

h.step_id = 1 and

run_status = 4) > 0

Begin

…

End

… but it doesn’t seem to pick up records even when the job is currently executing.

How can I, in T-SQL, get the execution status of the job?

I have the same issue. When I began to dig into sp_help_job, I noticed a call within the procedure to build a temp table:

exec master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs 1, {insert job owner here}

This procedure outputs a 'Running' field that will return a 1 if it the job is running, or otherwise a 0. This is not complete code for you, but should get you pointed in the right direction. I am going to build a temp table with this XP and filter on the job ID to return the status.

|||sp_help_jobactivity is the sp that should give status of jobs in SQL2005. See BOL for more info on this SP.sql