Reputation: 709
I have a Windows scheduled task that runs a database import process every hour, but I'd like users to be able to kick it off out-of-schedule by hitting a button in an ASP.net dashboard (running in IIS6 on Windows Server 2003).
The following works perfectly in code-behind ...
var proc = new Process
{
StartInfo =
{
UseShellExecute = false,
FileName = @"C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe",
Arguments = "/run /tn Loader",
RedirectStandardError = true,
RedirectStandardOutput = true,
CreateNoWindow = true
}
};
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
... but only if the application pool identity is set to Local System (not ideal!). If I leave it as Network Service, the task does not start. So it is presumably a permissions issue.
Is there a way ASP.net can kick off a scheduled task on the server without running the application as Local System? If not, what good alternatives are there?
Update: if nobody on SO knows, I guess it is not possible so I will go with my idea of having my web application write requests to a database table (doubling as an audit log) and creating a second task to poll that table and kick off the main task.
Upvotes: 8
Views: 12598
Reputation:
You need an administrator user in windows. This code will help you to call the task:
var securePass = new System.Security.SecureString();
foreach (char c in "my_password")
{
pass.AppendChar(c);
}
var proc = new Process
{
StartInfo =
{
UseShellExecute = false,
FileName = @"C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe",
Arguments = "/run /tn Loader",
UserName = "myAdminUser", //NEW
Password = securePass, //NEW
RedirectStandardError = true,
RedirectStandardOutput = true,
CreateNoWindow = true
}
};
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
If your application needs to run as SYSTEM Account you can use this arguments:
If the /RU username and /RP Password parameters match the currently logged-in user, the task will run interactively (visible in the foreground).
For the system account, /RU username can be written as "", "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" or "SYSTEM", a Password is not required. The system account has full access to the local machine but has no permissions on any other machines (or mapped drives) across the Network.
Source: http://ss64.com/nt/schtasks.html
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 2401
Update your schedule task to trigger off a specific event. Then have your website log that event when the button is clicked - thus starting your scheduled task.
Ex: In my installer I create an event log source for my program, since creating the source requires administrative privileges (you can also use the command line to create the source)
if (EventLog.SourceExists("MyApp"))
{
EventLog.CreateEventSource("MyApp", "Application");
}
Then in my application, I create an event log entry when the button is clicked.
private void btnOpenOtherApp_Click (object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
var log = new EventLog
{
Source = "MyApp"
};
log.WriteEntry("Start MyOtherApp", EventLogEntryType.Information, 1337);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
...
}
}
And the task scheduler set to open MyOtherApp when the event is logged.
Upvotes: 6
Reputation: 39807
If using a 3rd party scheduler service such as Quartz.NET is not an option, and changing permissions is not allowed either (not a good idea in any case) another possibility is to to write a helper Windows service as a bridge between ASP.NET application and Windows scheduler. You would store list of tasks in a DB and a sequence of events would be something like this:
Oh and there're libraries out there (e.g. http://taskscheduler.codeplex.com/ and others) that wrap Window Task Scheduler, so you don't have to execute them directly, but rather in a nice managed way.
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 152
You can utilize the cache of ASP.NET to run schedule tasks. I personally used this and it worked like charm. Ofcourse it has some limitation (Accuracy) but you can adjust/change.
https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/07/easy-background-tasks-in-aspnet/
Regards
Upvotes: 0