A partial list of documented properties is available
at office.microsoft.com/en-us/winsharepointadmin/HA011608451033.aspx.
There are many SharePoint timer jobs that
you can view using the Operations tab from
SharePoint Central Administration. You can
also see the frequency of each job, but Central
Administration provides no way to change this
frequency or the time of day that the timer
job runs. As I mentioned earlier, some jobs
are controlled via a configurable property, but
others are controlled via their own operation.
For example, there are operations for controlling
when the information management
expiration policy runs (setpolicyschedule)
and when profile synchronization occurs (setsearchandprocessschedule).
These operations
take a “recurrence string” as a parameter (e.g.,
“every 10 minutes between 0 and 59” or “daily
at 13:00”). Therefore, if you need to kick off a
task immediately, you use Stsadm to tweak its
schedule. To find out what the syntax for using
these recurrence strings are, look at the Help for
setcontentdeploymentjobschedule.
Using Stsadm to Automate Tasks
Because Stsadm is a simple command-line
utility, you can further simplify its use by wrapping
it in a script or command file that can take
parameters. You can also use the Windows Task
Scheduler to schedule common tasks you perform
with Stsadm. For example, you can schedule
regular backups of particular site collections
by placing the appropriate backup operations in
a command file and scheduling the file to run at
the appropriate times.
You can also leverage the output from some
Stsadm operations. A simple example here
is the enumsites operation that I mentioned
earlier and its companion operation enumsubwebs.
These output XML files are convenient
fodder for many Web Parts. Therefore, if you
schedule a task that enumerates your sites and
directs the output of that task to a central file,
you can use that file as input to a Web Part to
display your up-to-date list of sites in a Web Part
page.
Leverage the Command-Line to
Extend SharePoint’s Web-Based
Management
Stsadm is the SharePoint administrator’s
friend. Whether you want to automate standard
operations or perform tasks that are not so common,
you can turn to Stsadm. If you haven’t
already done so, I urge you to fire up that command
prompt and see what Stsadm can do for
you.