Execute script in Task Scheduler (XP)

[ErikJan]

I'd like to run a (Win32) command-line program (actually RoboCopy) on certain times.

To do that, I'd like to create a (VBS?) script that sets-up task scheduler automatically. How do I set this up? The user is always the same and always logged-on.

If at all possible I'd like to see if I can reduce the process priority of the RoboCopy task to just a little below normal to avoid to much interference with running processes.

Any ideas on if and how I could tackle this one?

Erik Jan

[JohnGray]

Congratulations on choosing RoboCopy!

How many times per day do you want to run this copy? If only a few, it might be easiest just to set up a number of copy jobs which differ only in the date. Depending on the complexity of the ROBOCOPY, you will either be wanting to run ROBOCOPY itself, or a BATch file which contains the ROBOCOPY command and assorted other stuff.

For examples, this is what I schedule to run once a day, to copy all changed files on C: to my external hard disk on E:
<pre>@echo off
cls
echo +----------+
echo I CopyCtoE I ROBOCOPY all new/changed directories and files from C: to E:
echo +----------+ and delete from E: all newly-deleted files from C:

:: check that we have the correct source disk

dir c: | find "JohnGray_C" > nul
if errorlevel 1 echo %~n0 Wrong source volume & goto :eof

:: check that we have the correct target disk

dir e: | find "MaxtorExt_E" > nul
if errorlevel 1 echo %~n0 Wrong target volume & goto :eof

setlocal

:: generalised DATE and TIME routine for NT4/W2K/WXP and all Regional Settings
:: %yy% will contain four digits, 20nn;
:: %mm%, %dd% and time variables %hr%, %mn%, %sc% and %th% contain two digits
if "%date%A" LSS "A" (set toks=1-3) else (set toks=2-4)
for /f "skip=1 tokens=2-4 delims=(-)" %%a in ('echo.^|date') do (
for /f "tokens=%toks% delims=.-/ " %%e in ('date /t') do (
for /f "tokens=5-8 delims=:., " %%i in ('echo.^|time') do (
(set %%a=%%e) & (set %%b=%%f) & (set %%c=%%g) & rem create yy, mm, dd
(set hr=%%i) & (set mn=%%j) & (set sc=%%k) & (set th=%%l)
rem note the variable names for Time: hr, mn, sc, th
)))
if 1%yy% LSS 200 (set yy=20%yy%) & :: ensure 4-digit years in %yy%
if 1%hr% LSS 20 (set hr=0%hr%) & :: ensure 2-digit hours in %hr%

set source=C:
set target="E:RoboCopy of C drive"
if not exist E:RoboLogs*.* MD E:RoboLogs

set log=E:RoboLogsRBC_%yy%%mm%%dd%_%hr%%mn%.log
set opts=/mir /np /r:0 /w:2

:: log to console if there is a passed parameter
if /i "%1"=="Y" echo %~n0: ROBOCOPYing %source% to %target%...
if /i "%1"=="Y" echo %~n0: logging to %log%...
set start=%time%
if /i "%1"=="Y" echo %~n0: Started at %start%

robocopy %source% %target% %opts% > %log%

set ended=%time%
echo/ >> %log%
echo/ >> %log%
echo Started at %start% >> %log%
echo Ended at %ended% >> %log%
echo Errorlevel %errorlevel% from ROBOCOPY >> %log%

:: bypass the log to console if there is no passed parameter
if .%1==. endlocal & goto :eof
echo %~n0: Ended at %ended%
ping -n 11 127.0.0.1 > nul

endlocal</pre>


John

[ErikJan]

Thanks for the feedback John, great batch-file!

My batch file is simple (and done) however; it needs to be executed only once/day. As said, I'd be looking for two things

1. How can I set-up the task

i.s.o. doing that manually, I thought of having a script that would copy the files -like Robocopy.exe etc.- to the HD and that would set-up the task-scheduler automatically. Now the copying part, I've done before using a small VBS script; 'programming' the task-scheduler would be new to me


2. Can I make RoboCopy run at lower priority.

Personally, I thought this cannot be done when I call RoboCopy from a BAT-file; in stead I think this should be converted to VBS too in order to control that. My bat-file is basically just the call to RoboCopy, so that shouldn't have to be a big deal. Still I don't know how to tackle this too


Appreciate further help ;-)

Erik Jan

[JohnGray]

Personally, not knowing VBS, I would just do Start -> Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks and click on Add Scheduled Tasks. A wizard walks you though (some of) the options, and once completed you can double-click on the newly named job and check through the four tabs. I can't see any about altering the priority, though, but since file copy tasks are not CPU-intensive, I wouldn't even bother with thinking about it! There may be slight snags about what you put in the RunAs box, but first things first...

Perhaps consider this as a New Learning Experience?

John

[ErikJan]

Thanks,

But I'll have to repeat this for 50+ systems (...) that's why I was looking to automate the install.

Wrt priority of the task; I agree that copying might not be CPU intensive; on the other hand, the systems are involved in real-time data-acquisistion AND the #files to be copied might run in the hundreds each day...

See my point(s) ;-)

[JohnGray]

<UL><LI>Set up the task on one machine, and check that it works as scheduled.<LI>Look for the resulting .JOB file in C:WINDOWSTasks (you may find difficulty with this, since Windows Explorer doesn't want to display the file in the expected way!).<LI>Copy the file to the corresponding directory in a second machine<LI>Check that it works as scheduled there, too<LI>If it does, copy it everywhere else...[/list]Here's the top and bottom of today's log from my ROBOCOPY job previously described......
<pre>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for Windows :: Version XP010
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Started : Tue Oct 11 09:25:25 2005

Source : C:
Dest : E:RoboCopy of C drive

Files : *.*

Options : *.* /S /E /COPYAT /PURGE /MIR /NP /R:0 /W:2

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<LOTS of STUFF about individual files omitted>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 5812 7 5805 0 0 3
Files : 105039 1209 103795 0 35 478
Bytes : 19.592 g 391.91 m 18.670 g 0 552.22 m 19.01 m
Times : 0:02:06 0:00:51 0:00:00 0:01:14

Speed : 7922511 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 453.329 MegaBytes/min.

Ended : Tue Oct 11 09:27:32 2005


Started at 9:25:25.50
Ended at 9:27:32.56
Errorlevel 11 from ROBOCOPY </pre>


John

[ErikJan]

Thanks,

That is something I'll try...

Leaves me with the priority problem... I thought / hoped that this could be done through starting RoboCopy NOT via a BAT-file but through a (VBS) script...

Anyone?

[rory]

Try something like:
<code>
Const NORMAL = 32
Const LOW = 64
Const HIGH = 128
Const BELOW_NORMAL = 16384
Const ABOVE_NORMAL = 32768

Dim strExecutable, intPriority, intProcessID

strExecutable = "C:Windowsnotepad.exe"
intPriority = BELOW_NORMAL


Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=" & _
"impersonate}!.rootcimv2")
Set objStartup = objWMIService.Get("Win32_ProcessStartup")
Set objConfig = objStartup.SpawnInstance_
objConfig.PriorityClass = intPriority
Set objProcess = GetObject("winmgmts:rootcimv2:Win32_Process")
objProcess.Create strExecutable, Null, objConfig, intProcessID
</code>

note: you will obviously need to fill in the correct path to the Robocopy program.
HTH.

[ErikJan]

Looks pretty cool <img src=/S/cool.gif border=0 alt=cool width=15 height=15>

I'll try tomorrow, thanks.

[ErikJan]

Still not working... (I think; no log is created and I KNOW files should have to be copied); this is what I have:

Const NORMAL = 32
Const LOW = 64
Const HIGH = 128
Const BELOW_NORMAL = 16384
Const ABOVE_NORMAL = 32768

Dim strExecutable, intPriority, intProcessID

strExecutable = "D:MyPath which is a bit long actuallyrobocopy.exe""cirTargetDir"" ""cestDir"" /s /b /copyall /log:RoboCopy.log /njh /ndl /nfl /nc /ns /np /TEE"

' Append /L to test only

intPriority = BELOW_NORMAL

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonat e}!.rootcimv2")
Set objStartup = objWMIService.Get("Win32_ProcessStartup")
Set objConfig = objStartup.SpawnInstance_
objConfig.PriorityClass = intPriority
Set objProcess = GetObject("winmgmts:rootcimv2:Win32_Process")
objProcess.Create strExecutable, Null, objConfig, intProcessID

[ErikJan]

My target & dest dirs have spaces, the lost space was a typo (by me when changing the names of directories in generic ones). So... with the space it still doesn't work

[ErikJan]

Finally found that the logfile was somewhere else... it's content may reveal something. I need some more time but will let you know how this ended...

[rory]

OK, let me know if it doesn't work and I'll see if I can get a trial copy of Robocopy to test against (I've never had to use this with that many arguments and switches, though in theory it shouldn't make a difference.)

[rory]

Try:
<code>strExecutable = "D:MyPath which is a bit long actuallyrobocopy.exe ""cirTargetDir"" ""cestDir"" /s /b /copyall /log:RoboCopy.log /njh /ndl /nfl /nc /ns /np /TEE"</code> (note space after .exe)
or, if your source and desination directory paths do not have spaces, just:
<code>strExecutable = "D:MyPath which is a bit long actuallyrobocopy.exe cirTargetDir cestDir /s /b /copyall /log:RoboCopy.log /njh /ndl /nfl /nc /ns /np /TEE"</code>

If that doesn't work, double check your syntax by running that directly from a command prompt.

[ErikJan]

OK, things are working and I'm almost there (as promised; I'll make the final version available here).

Let me already share some light on what has been going on... and pose yet some new questions...

* It appears (and this is probably logical); that in all path/file parts, no spaces should be present or the call would mess-up. So I've chosen to enclose all in " 's

* When one runs RoboCopy as a script; it appears that this task is not having the same authorization that one has as a user (e.g. when running as a BAT-file).
When I finally found my logfiles back, I noticed that my /COPYALL option didn't work as "You do not have the Manage Auditing user right".
Also, the "Backup and Restore files user rights" suddenly had gone.
These two made me drop the /COPYALL and the /B options

* I found out that a default log-file path could be c:windowssystem32 (don't know why; that's NOT where my RoboCopy program is)
Doesn't matter; I now specify the location of the log-file to be the same directory as the VBS script

Questions:

* Can I run the VBS as me (the currently logged on user), in stead of as default user

* Can I, in VB-script, put a message on the screen AND take that away without user interaction...??? I was thinking about generating a message saying: "Copying in progress..." and then automatically replace that by "Done" for e.g. 10 seconds (counting down??)

Any more wizards out there?

Thanks,

Erik Jan