How to: Create a Maintenance Plan
There are two ways to create a maintenance plan: you can create a plan using the Maintenance Plan Wizard, or you can create a plan using the design surface. The Wizard is best for creating basic maintenance plans, while creating a plan using the design surface allows you to utilize enhanced workflow.
To create or manage Maintenance Plans, you must be a member of the sysadmin fixed server role. Note that Object Explorer only displays maintenance plans if the user is a member of the sysadmin fixed server role.
To create a maintenance plan using the Maintenance Plan Wizard
In Object Explorer, expand a server, and then expand Management.
Right-click Maintenance Plans and select Maintenance Plan Wizard.
Follow the steps of the wizard to create a maintenance plan. For more information, see Maintenance Plan Wizard.
To create a maintenance plan using the design surface
In Object Explorer, expand a server, and then expand Management.
Right-click Maintenance Plans and select New Maintenance Plan.
In the New Maintenance Plan dialog box, type a name for the plan.
The Toolbox opens, and the <Maintenance Plan Name> [Design] surface opens with the default Subplan_1created. Optionally enter a description for the entire plan on the Design tab.
Double-click Subplan_1, and enter a name and description for the subplan in the Subplan Properties dialog box. Click the Subplan Schedule icon to enter schedule details in the Job Schedule Properties dialog box.
To build the subplan, drag and drop task flow elements from the Toolbox to the plan design surface to define the tasks that will be performed. Double-click tasks to open dialog boxes to configure the task options.
To define the workflow between tasks, click the task you want to occur first, hold the CTRL key down, and then click the task you want to occur second. Right-click either task, and then click Add Precedence Constraint.
To add another subplan that contains tasks run on a different schedule, click Add Subplan on the toolbar.
To add connections to different servers, click Manage Connections.
To specify reporting options, click the Reporting and Logging icon. To save more detailed information, select Log extended information. To write maintenance plan results information to another server, select Log to remote server. To view the results in the log file viewer, right-click the Maintenance Plans node or the specific maintenance plan, and then click View History.
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