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MSSQL-AGENT-001 · SQL Agent jobs failing

Severity Confidence Permission Applies to
High Confirmed SQLAgentReaderRole on msdb SQL Server 2017+ (not Express), Azure SQL MI, RDS

What it checks

Enabled jobs in msdb.dbo.sysjobs whose last outcome (sysjobhistory, step_id = 0) failed or was canceled within the last 7 days (days: 7). The evidence also shows how many times each job failed in that window.

Why it matters

Most jobs exist to keep something running: backups, index maintenance, ETL. A failing job is often the first sign that one of those silently stopped.

Next action

EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_help_jobhistory @job_name = N'<job>', @mode = N'FULL';

Fix the failing step and configure an operator with @notify_level_email = 2 (on failure).

Limitations

  • A job that recovered (last run succeeded) is not reported, even if it failed earlier in the window.
  • Job history is capped by the Agent's history retention settings.
  • Not available on Express or Azure SQL Database, which have no SQL Agent.