Questions[scheduling](server)

We have a number of Windows Scheduled tasks that run on one Server 2008 Webserver (not R2) which is in a cluster.

We recently moved from an original webserver Cluster to a new webserver Cluser (Server 2008 - not R2).

The new webserver (in the cluster) running the Windows Tasks is setup the same as on the original we believe.

BUT we now find that on the new Windows Server the Windows Task Scheduler seems to want to instantly start each task three times.

If we set the option to queue up a new task we get:

Event ID 324 Task Scheduler queued instance "{9a1a8411-b042-45ff-8e6b-89874df230d7}" of task "\Client Reporting" and will launch it as soon as instance "{2bcc3df6-ea3b-4453-90c2-75b8b1946388}" completes.

If we set the option to stop an existing task we get:

Event ID 323 Task Scheduler stopped instance "{e685a910-b32b-414e-85fd-96bbe54314a2}" of task "\Client Reporting" in order to launch new instance "{4db66265-1f51-4ede-8535-ac7c3cb5c4c1}" .

Ticked settings:

• Allow task to be run on demand.

• Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed.

• Stop the task if running for longer than 1 hour.

• If the running task does not end when requested force it to stop.

• Start the task only if the computer is on AC power.

• Stop the task if the computer switches to battery power.

Selected option: If the task is already running - stop the existing instance.

Note: We moved the tasks from one server to another in the cluster to see if it the Task Scheduler on the particular server we'd picked causing the problem. Same behaviour.

Could it be something to do with the build of the new servers?

We have very similar tasks set up on another server cluster that work OK without all this multiple starting. Comparing those tasks to the ones here - there does not seem to be anything obviously different in terms of settings available to us through the options within the Task Scheduler.

Trigger: The task is scheduled to be triggered daily, once an hour - and to be stopped if it exceeds this time.

Action: Runs a .bat file.

What could be causing this/where we can look to see what logic is causing the tasks to start multiple times in this way?

I have an in-house Perl script that is in great need of refactoring. In the interest of not reinventing the wheel, I'm looking to see if an open-source equivalent to it exists, and I'm having trouble finding one.

The script runs as a daemon on all hosts, and allows me to do things like:

1. Run ProcessA on Host1.
2. On Host2, once ProcessA has finished successfully on Host1, run ProcessB.
3. On Host1, once ProcessB has finished successfully on Host2, run ProcessC.

It's not rocket science by any means, but I can't seem to find anything out there that replicates that functionality. RunDeck comes close, but I don't see where that can manage process workflows across different hosts.

Does anyone here have anything that I should look into?

Using Windows Server's Active Directory and Group Policy, is there a way to roll out an MSI file at a scheduled time, like midnight?

What is the difference between renice and chrt commands in Linux?

I have written a php script to check if there are any new files in a folder and, if any new files exist, upload them to a server. These files can be quite large. I want to run this script frequently-let's say every 5 min-as a scheduled task so that the files get moved to the server as soon as possible. However, once the script is already attempting to upload a file, I do not want it to be run again, as I am afraid the second instance will overwrite the file that is already being uploaded to the server.

How can I run the script as a scheduled task unless the script is already running?