Delay In Package Starting When Running From SQL Agent

Hi,

I wonder if anybody can shed any light on this problem. I have a SQL Agent job which has three steps, each step runs an SSIS package.

The job is scheduled to start at 11.00 pm, which is does successfully. However, it has been taking between 2 and 3 hours to run, which is way longer than it should.

When I've looked at the logging, I've found that the although the job starts at 11.00 pm, the first package (in job step 1) does not start executing until about 11.30. It finishes in about 5 minutes, there is then about an hour delay before the second package (in job step 2) starts. This finishes in about 10 minutes, then there is another hour delay before the third package (in job step 3) starts.

I've tried configuring the steps as SSIS jobs, and also as cmd jobs using dtexec, both exhibit the same behaviour.

Any ideas about what could be causing this delay? The packages are stored in msdb on the same server as the SQL Agent job, if that makes any difference.

Thanks,

Sam