How to automatically STOP SQL Server Agent when no jobs are running?

Question

I have around 40 different sql server jobs in one instance. They all have different schedules. Some run once a day some every two mins some every five mins. If I have a need to

Answer 1

I recommend creating a script that will disable your jobs. Disabled jobs still exist but will not be automatically launched by their schedules. Run this script (based on procedure sp_update_job in the msdb database) to disable jobs, wait for any currently running jobs to finish execution, then stop SQL agent. A similar script to re-enable disabled jobs would be useful. You might need to plan around jobs that are and should remain disabled.

A complete “SQL Agent shutdown” process could be fully scripted, but I question the wisdom of doing so. A bit of research implies that there is no 100% reliable way of programmatically telling if a given job is or is not running, and while there is an undocumented (where "undocumented" means "you really shouldn't be using this") system procedure for stopping and starting services, doing so from with SQL Server itself seems like a pretty bad idea.