Difference among Azure batch, scheduler and web job and when to use what

Question

I could see primarily there are 3 options in Windows Azure to schedule jobs. Batch, scheduler and web jobs. Is there any link or video explaining what are the differences and what to use when and benefits? Thanks in advance

Answer 1

So far I didn't see anything official from azure.com or msdn, so let me take a stab.

Azure Batch - is a way to run parallel (typically compute intensive) HPC style job on the cloud. Batch pitches the value of parallel job running as a service so you don't worry about provisioning/managing large cluster. A typical scenario is, go encoding those 10K H.264 videos from 1080p to 720p - instead of spinning up 200 VMs you just configure the command line and specify the location of those 10k videos (blobs).

Azure Scheduler is a way to run recurring job at specified time. It's Windows Task Scheduler in cloud. For example, start a cloud service 8AM every weekday and shut it down at 6PM.

Azure Web Job is focusing on doing background job for Azure Website. It's working daemon web server farm in cloud. An example is - compress all images uploaded from the webpage.

Answer 2

To add to Yiding answer, Azure Scheduler and Azure WebJobs actually work together and complete each other in that sense.

Azure WebJobs will host your code/executable that is doing the work. Azure Scheduler will schedule when to run your work --> WebJob.

To start create a scheduled Azure WebJob which will create both resources.