Introduction

Timer Service

A SharePoint Farm requires a mechanism to run tasks necessary to provide its services. These tasks include updating components of the Farm such as servers and services and updating data and configuration in Farm databases. To run these tasks, SharePoint provides its own scheduled tasks management service, manifested as Timer Service instances installed on every SharePoint server in the Farm.

Consider a scenario where you need to restart the SharePoint timer service in all the servers in the Farm. the manual work can be time consuming and PowerShell becomes handy here.

The following piece of code restarts the SharePoint timer service in the SharePoint Farm:
  1. Function RestartTimerServiceInSPFarm([Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm]$farm)
  2. {
  3. Write-Host ""
  4. foreach($server in $farm.Servers)
  5. {
  6. foreach($instance in $server.ServiceInstances)
  7. {
  8. # If the server has the timer service then stop the service
  9. if($instance.TypeName -eq $timerServiceInstanceName)
  10. {
  11. [string]$serverName = $server.Name
  13. Write-Host "Stop " $timerServiceName " service on server: " $serverName -fore yellow
  15. $service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "DisplayName='$timerServiceName'"
  16. $serviceInternalName = $service.Name
  17. sc.exe \\$serverName stop $serviceInternalName > $null
  19. # Wait until this service has actually stopped
  20. write-host "Waiting for '$timerServiceName' service on server: " $serverName " to be stopped" -fore yellow
  21. do
  22. {
  23. Start-Sleep 1
  24. Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewLine "."
  25. $service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service-Filter "DisplayName='$timerServiceName'"
  26. }
  27. while ($service.State -ne "Stopped")
  28. write-host " '$timerServiceName' service on server: " $serverName " stopped successfully" -fore green
  32. Write-Host "Start " $timerServiceName " service on server: " $serverName -fore yellow
  34. $service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "DisplayName='$timerServiceName'"
  35. $serviceInternalName = $service.Name
  36. sc.exe \\$serverName start $serviceInternalName > $null
  38. # Wait until this service starts running
  39. write-host "Waiting for " $timerServiceName " service on server: " $serverName " to be started" -fore yellow
  40. do
  41. {
  42. Start-Sleep 1
  43. Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewLine "."
  44. $service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service-Filter "DisplayName='$timerServiceName'"
  45. }
  46. while ($service.State -ne "Running")
  47. write-host $timerServiceName " service on server: " $serverName " started successfully" -fore green
  48. write-host ""
  49. #break;
  50. }
  51. }
  52. }
  54. Write-Host ""
  55. }
Complete Code
  1. $LogTime = Get-Date -Format yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm
  2. $LogFile = ".\SPTimerServiceRestartPatch-$LogTime.rtf"
  4. # Add SharePoint PowerShell Snapin
  7. if ( (Get-PSSnapin -Name Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null ) {
  8. Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell
  9. }
  11. $scriptBase = split-path $SCRIPT:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path -parent
  12. Set-Location $scriptBase
  14. write-host "TESTING FOR LOG FOLDER EXISTENCE" -fore yellow
  15. $TestLogFolder = test-path -path $scriptbase\Logs
  16. if($TestLogFolder)
  17. {
  18. write-host "The log folder already exist in the script location" -fore yellow
  19. $clearlogfolder = read-host "Do you want to clear the log folder (y/n)"
  20. if($clearlogfolder -eq 'y')
  21. {
  22. write-host "The user choosen to clear the log folder" -fore yellow
  23. write-host "Clearing the log folder" -fore yellow
  24. remove-item $scriptbase\Logs\* -recurse -confirm:$false
  25. write-host "Log folder cleared" -fore yellow
  26. }
  27. else
  28. {
  29. write-host "The user choosen not to clear the log files" -fore yellow
  30. }
  31. }
  32. else
  33. {
  34. write-host "Log folder does not exist" -fore yellow
  35. write-host "Creating a log folder" -fore yellow
  36. New-Item $Scriptbase\Logs -type directory
  37. write-host "Log folder created" -fore yellow
  38. }
  40. #moving any .rtf files in the scriptbase location
  41. $FindRTFFile = Get-ChildItem $scriptBase\*.* -include *.rtf
  42. if($FindRTFFile)
  43. {
  44. write-host "Some old log files are found in the script location" -fore yellow
  45. write-host "Moving old log files into the Logs folder" -fore yellow
  46. foreach($file in $FindRTFFile)
  47. {
  48. move-item -path $file -destination $scriptbase\logs
  49. }
  50. write-host "Old log files moved successfully" -fore yellow
  51. }
  53. start-transcript $logfile
  55. $global:timerServiceName = "SharePoint 2010 Timer"
  56. $global:timerServiceInstanceName = "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Timer"
  58. # Get the local farm instance
  59. [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm]$farm = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm]::get_Local()
  60. Function RestartTimerServiceInSPFarm([Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm]$farm)
  61. {
  62. Write-Host ""
  63. foreach($server in $farm.Servers)
  64. {
  65. foreach($instance in $server.ServiceInstances)
  66. {
  67. # If the server has the timer service then stop the service
  68. if($instance.TypeName -eq $timerServiceInstanceName)
  69. {
  70. [string]$serverName = $server.Name
  72. Write-Host "Stop " $timerServiceName " service on server: " $serverName -fore yellow
  74. $service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "DisplayName='$timerServiceName'"
  75. $serviceInternalName = $service.Name
  76. sc.exe \\$serverName stop $serviceInternalName > $null
  78. # Wait until this service has actually stopped
  79. write-host "Waiting for '$timerServiceName' service on server: " $serverName " to be stopped" -fore yellow
  80. do
  81. {
  82. Start-Sleep 1
  83. Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewLine "."
  84. $service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "DisplayName='$timerServiceName'"
  85. }
  86. while ($service.State -ne "Stopped")
  87. write-host " '$timerServiceName' service on server: " $serverName " stopped successfully" -fore green
  91. Write-Host "Start " $timerServiceName " service on server: " $serverName -fore yellow
  93. $service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "DisplayName='$timerServiceName'"
  94. $serviceInternalName = $service.Name
  95. sc.exe \\$serverName start $serviceInternalName > $null
  97. # Wait until this service starts running
  98. write-host "Waiting for " $timerServiceName " service on server: " $serverName " to be started" -fore yellow
  99. do
  100. {
  101. Start-Sleep 1
  102. Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewLine "."
  103. $service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "DisplayName='$timerServiceName'"
  104. }
  105. while ($service.State -ne "Running")
  106. write-host $timerServiceName " service on server: " $serverName " started successfully" -fore green
  107. write-host ""
  108. #break;
  109. }
  110. }
  111. }
  113. Write-Host ""
  114. }
  116. RestartTimerServiceInSPFarm $farm
  118. write-host ""
  119. write-host "SCRIPT COMPLETED" -fore green
  121. stop-transcript
Execution Procedure

Step 1: Download and copy the script to the SharePoint server.
Step 2: Navigate to the script path.
Step 3: Execute the script.



Conclusion

Thus this article explains how to restart the SharePoint timer service using a PowerShell script.