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SQL Agent release notes

22​

22.5.0​

Released: 04/2026

This release hardens connection recovery behavior and upgrades the .NET Framework requirement.

Improvements​

  • Improved connection recovery. The agent now closes a broken connection and waits for SMANetCom to reconnect before retrying queued messages, preventing stale connection state from blocking new connections on reconnect.

Upgrade notes​

  • .NET Framework 4.8 is now required. The installer will install it if it is not already present on the machine.

22.4.0​

Released: 09/2025

This release improves stability of the Job Output Retrieval System (JORS).

Improvements​

  • Improved JORS request handling. The agent now validates JORS request parameters and handles malformed requests without crashing, ensuring the JORS service remains available for job output retrieval.

22.2.0​

Released: 08/2025

This release resolves a long-standing memory issue affecting high-volume environments.

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed a memory leak that caused memory usage to grow over time and required periodic service restarts. Environments processing large numbers of jobs will see stable memory consumption between restarts.

22.1.0​

Released: 07/2025

This release adds diagnostic information to ODBC and OLE DB job output.

Improvements​

  • Added connection error details to job output for Other DB (ODBC and OLE DB) jobs. When a connection fails, the error information is now written to job output, making it easier to diagnose database connectivity problems without reviewing agent logs.

22.0.0​

Released: 08/2023

This release updates the .NET Framework requirement and resolves a communication issue.

Improvements​

  • Updated .NET Framework requirement to 4.7.2. The framework is installed with the agent if it is not already present.

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where job completion status messages were not sent to SMANetCom after a network error. Jobs that completed during a network disruption now report their final status correctly when the connection is restored.

20​

20.8.0​

Released: 03/2023

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where an MS SQL Server Agent job remained in a running state after a database disconnect occurred while the agent was monitoring job status. The agent now refreshes the database connection and resumes monitoring automatically.

20.7.0​

Released: 04/2022

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where job completion was not always communicated back to OpCon when a SQL Server Agent job finished. Job statuses are now reliably reported.
  • Fixed an issue where an Oracle job failed when the Other Options field was populated. Oracle jobs with additional options now run as expected.

20.6.0​

Released: 11/2021

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where a network disruption caused the agent to flood its outbound message queue. When the agent does not receive a socket close event, it now closes the connection and listens for new requests instead of retrying indefinitely.
  • Fixed an issue where the agent did not close a dropped connection, preventing new connections from being accepted. The agent now detects stale connections and closes them correctly.

20.5.0​

Released: 06/2021

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where Windows logon sessions were not cleaned up after Windows Authentication jobs ran. The fix reduces the time required to stop the agent service in high-volume environments and reduces memory consumption by the Windows Logon Management process.

20.4.0​

Released: 06/2021

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where jobs could be lost if tracking files were locked by another process. The agent now retries file access until the lock is released, preventing jobs from being dropped from OpCon tracking.
  • Fixed a performance issue with MS SQL Server Agent job output retrieval using the SMO API. A new configuration option (UseSmoApi in the JORS Settings section of SQLAgent.ini) allows the agent to use a direct stored procedure call instead of the SMO API when set to False. The default is True.
  • Fixed a memory growth issue that occurred when multiple jobs failed during initialization. Memory is now released correctly after initialization failures.

20.3.0​

Released: 04/2021

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed a performance issue with SQL Server Agent job output retrieval. The agent now applies more precise filtering when fetching job history, significantly reducing retrieval time.
  • Fixed an issue where a fast-finishing job's status was not captured, resulting in a null reference error. The agent now handles rapid job completion correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where the agent shut down unexpectedly when restarting with jobs still in the tracking file. Restart behavior is now stable when jobs are in progress.
  • Fixed an issue where the agent stopped processing new messages after a connection was dropped and re-established. The agent now refreshes its outbound message context with the new connection.

20.2.0​

Released: 02/2021

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where a DTExec (SSIS) job could not impersonate a Windows domain user when the package was stored on an Integration Services Server (ISSERVER). Domain user impersonation now works correctly for ISSERVER packages.
  • Fixed an issue where a long schedule or job name caused an error when creating job output files. Names that exceed the file system limit are now truncated automatically.

20.1.0​

Released: 12/2020

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where agent communication to SMANetCom stopped if the agent was marked down and then up in OpCon while jobs were running. Communication resumes correctly after the agent is brought back online.
  • Fixed a tracking file locking issue that prevented the agent from communicating back to OpCon and from correctly reinitializing the connection after it was dropped. Connection handling is now reliable after reconnects.
  • Fixed an issue where the batch user running a SQL job required local administrator privileges on the agent machine in order to impersonate the job user. Batch users no longer need administrator privileges.
  • Fixed an issue where an unhandled exception in the user impersonation logic caused the agent to crash. The exception is now handled and the agent remains running.

20.0.0​

Released: 08/2020

This release adds Windows Authentication support for SSIS packages and support for Integration Services Server.

New features​

  • Added Windows Authentication support for MS SQL DTExec jobs. SSIS packages run via dtexec can now authenticate using the Windows account of the executing user rather than requiring SQL Server credentials.
  • Added Integration Services Server (ISSERVER) support for MS SQL DTExec jobs. SSIS packages stored on an Integration Services Server can now be run directly from OpCon.

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where non-ASCII characters in JORS requests caused failures. Job output retrieval now works correctly for jobs with names or paths that contain non-ASCII characters.
  • Fixed an issue where a colon in a job name caused a file not found error when fetching job output. Job names with colons are now handled correctly by the output file naming logic.
  • Fixed an issue where SQL Server Agent jobs were not tracked after an agent restart. Jobs that were running when the agent restarted are now correctly re-tracked after the agent comes back online.

18​

18.3.2​

Released: 03/2019

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed a memory leak that caused memory usage to increase each time a job ran and never decrease. Memory is now released correctly after each job completes.
  • Fixed an issue where not all failure conditions were checked after attempting to start a SQL Server Agent job. The agent now checks the full set of failure conditions before reporting job status.

18.3.1​

Released: 12/2018

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where a DataReader error caused a SQL Server Agent job to fail even when the job on the SQL Server side was still running and eventually completed successfully. The agent now correctly handles transient DataReader errors and continues monitoring the job.

18.3.0​

Released: 11/2018

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where the SQL Agent service reported a Started status when it was actually in a Running state. Service status is now reported accurately.
  • Fixed an issue where the agent accepted concurrent connections from multiple SMANetCom instances. The agent now correctly accepts only one connection at a time.
  • Fixed an issue where the agent did not close a connection properly and accepted a second connection while already connected, instead of refusing it. Connection handling now enforces single-connection behavior.
  • Fixed a null reference exception in the tracking file logic. Tracking files are now read without throwing unhandled exceptions.
  • Fixed an issue where the job output archive directory was not cleaned correctly. The archive folder is now purged on schedule as configured by ArchiveDaysToKeep.

18.1.0​

Released: 06/2018

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where jobs failed with an "Invalid type in job XML" error when the Windows regional settings on the agent machine used a non-period decimal separator. The MonitorEndOffset value is now parsed correctly regardless of the machine's regional settings.

17​

17.1.4​

Released: 07/2018

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed an issue where jobs failed with an "Invalid type in job XML" error when the Windows regional settings on the agent machine used a non-period decimal separator. This is the same fix as in version 18.1.0, backported to the version 17 line.