Triggers are a specific type of plug-in used by JobServer.NET. The trigger can implement a specific method for starting a defined job. While JobServer.NET includes a variety of triggers that allow for use immediately upon installation, the JobServer.NET engine can support any number of triggers. Because of the plug-in API, developers are able to create completely custom triggers of their own. The included triggers and custom triggers can be used on the same JobServer installation.

Each job definition in the JobServer.NET engine can be defined without a trigger. These types of jobs would be where the job is intended to only be run manually under direct control of an operator. Otherwise, a job definition would be able to define a trigger from any of the installed available triggers, regardless if they were included with the JobServer.NET installation or a custom trigger.

The wide selection of built-in triggers allow quick and easy creation and definition for a huge variety of jobs. One of the most used triggers is the scheduling trigger. The very flexible scheduling trigger supports a wide mixture of options for time-based triggers. These time based triggers can be based on various combinations of starting dates and time, days of the week, day of the month, as well as a number of other options. This can easily be combined with a selection of recurring options which provide a wide range of flexibility when using the scheduler.

In addition, there are a number of other types of triggers that are based on other factors, typically other external events. One of the next most often used triggers is the file watcher trigger. This trigger is used to watch a path located on the local machine, or an UNC network share or path. This trigger will start jobs based on files being created, modified, or removed, in these designated locations and can be used to perform any number of responses based on this file activity.

The above outlines just a couple of the most popular triggers, but JobServer.NET provides a number of other triggers upon installation that you are able to begin using right away. Additional event based triggers are included for basing jobs off of a number of actions. Just a few examples of some of the triggers that are already included are:
CPU utilization, Disk space usage, Memory utilization, Registry, WMI Queries and more.