Executing the Plan

Now that a plan has been built, the next step will be to execute the plan. For a maintenance plan to execute, SQL Server Agent needs to be running. It is likely at this point in the book that it is not, as it will be defined to start manually rather than automatically. This default exists for security reasons so that jobs cannot be built, deployed, and then executed on your server without your prior knowledge. You may find that some corporations keep SQL Server Agent stopped until required. It is possible to start SQL Server Agent within Management Studio for ad hoc starts of the process, or you can start the service from Administrative Tools within the Control Panel. It is also possible to start SQL Server Agent via a command prompt, ther....