SharePoint publishing timer jobs woes

I hit a problem where the content management’s scheduling feature were not working. I am able to set the start and end publishing dates, but there’s no changes when the time comes to publish/unpublish the pages. Apparently this is due to missing timer job definition for the particular web application that is hosting the particular site collection.

The job does not exist in the first place because the web application were created without creating the publishing/collaboration site collection from the GUI. Instead, I’ve added the restored content DB that was build on another SharePoint box and added it directly into the web application. If I were to create a publishing/collaboration site collection, the site provisioning process would have added the missing three jobs for content scheduling, and two more jobs for handling variations.

Therefore, to get the jobs back on the web application, I have to:

1. Create a new web application

2. Create a new site collection, choosing the correct site collection template (either publishing or collaboration)

3. Ensure the jobs are created by checking it from Central Admin à Operations à Timer jobs definitions. Also check whether it runs every minute.

4. Remove the content db of the newly created site collection

5. Add the restored content db

Additional observations: If the existing web application with the restored content database already missing the job definitions, removing the content database and creating a new publishing/collaboration site collection on top of it WOULD NOT solve the problem. Strangely, the job definitions are created, but it just wouldn’t execute as defined by the minute frequency. Thus, best bet is to delete the web application and start all over again.

Janne Mattila’s blog has more detail on this issue.

Update: I tried to make the same steps as mentioned above on another enviornment, and it didn't work. I even tried to schedule a publishing start date for a new content page on the brand new blank collaboration site template, just to be sure. The page on the blank collaboration site works, but it just wouldn't work once I restore my deployment content DB. I've inspected the timer job status and discovered that the timer job last run date/time was stopped at the instance when I change the web application's content DB to the deployment content DB.

Long story short, I found MS KB942989 mentioning the problem of missing timer jobs, but not on timer job stop executing. However, it indicates that a post-SP1 hot fix could fix the problem. I've downloaded, applied to all WFE and index server, and that solves the problem magically!

More information on the hot fix at MS KB942989.