SQL Server Agent is a component of

Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which ma ...

which schedules jobs and handles other automated tasks.'SQL Server Agent' page on Microsoft Developer Network
/ref> It runs as a

Windows service In Windows NT operating systems, a Windows service is a computer program that operates in the background. It is similar in concept to a Unix daemon. A Windows service must conform to the interface rules and protocols of the Service Control Manager ...

so it can start automatically when the system boots or it can be started manually. Typical system tasks performed include scheduling maintenance plans (such as backups), handling Reporting Services subscriptions and performing log shipping sub-tasks (backup, copy, restore & check). User tasks, such as scheduling some

T-SQL Transact-SQL (T-SQL) is Microsoft's and Sybase's proprietary extension to the SQL (Structured Query Language) used to interact with relational databases. T-SQL expands on the SQL standard to include procedural programming, local variables, vario ...

or command line statement are also common. SQLAgent has support for operators and alerts, so that administrators can be notified, e.g. by email.

References

Relational database management systems SQL Microsoft database software Microsoft server technology {{Database-software-stub