Powershell – Curated SQL

Extracting SSMS 21 and 22 Saved Connection Data

Published 2025-11-24 by Kevin Feasel

Vlad Drumea wants to keep some connections:

In this post I demo a PowerShell script that can be used to extract and decrypt SSMS 21 and 22 saved connection information.

This script builds on the one for importing saved connections from SSMS 21 to SSMS 22.
Instead of importing, it looks for any SSMS 21 and 22 related config folders, extracts the relevant connection data, decrypts it and saves it in clear text.

Click through for a link to the script, as well as an explanation of what is happening.

Using the trap Statement in Powershell

Published 2025-11-11 by Kevin Feasel

Patrick Gruenauer plays his trap card:

In PowerShell, error handling is a crucial aspect of writing robust and reliable scripts. One of the powerful features to manage errors gracefully is the trap statement. The trap statement allows you to define a block of code that runs whenever a terminating error occurs in your script. This can be particularly useful for logging errors, cleaning up resources. Let’s dive in.

Read on to see how it works. My preference would be to use try/catch blocks instead of trap statements, but it is interesting to see it there.

“The Parameter is Incorrect” with Copy-DBACredential

Published 2025-11-03 by Kevin Feasel

Jack Corbett diagnoses a problem:

I was working with a client to do an upgrade/migration from SQL Server 2016 to SQL Server 2022, and this client assigns non-default ports to SQL Server. As part of the process, I had to create a credential on one node and needed it on the other node, so I went to the handy Copy-DBACredential dbatools cmdlet, but it didn’t work.

Read on for the troubleshooting process and the ultimate issue.

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Migrating from PSCore 6 to PowerShell 7.5

Published 2025-10-31 by Kevin Feasel

Adam Bertram lays out what has changed:

You adopted PowerShell Core 6 early. You moved scripts to .NET Core. You dealt with the compatibility issues. Now Microsoft wants you to upgrade again.

Here’s why it matters: PowerShell Core 6 is no longer supported. Your scripts still run, but you’re missing security patches, performance improvements, and features that make PowerShell 7.5 worth the upgrade.

The good news? Moving from Core 6 to 7.5 is easier than the jump from Windows PowerShell. Most scripts work unchanged. But “most” isn’t “all,” and the differences matter.

Read on to see what will break when moving from PowerShell Core 6 to PowerShell 7.5.

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Error Handling in Powershell with ErrorAction

Published 2025-10-07 by Kevin Feasel

Patrick Gruenauer decides to continue:

Error handling is an important part of scripting and automation, and PowerShell provides robust tools for managing errors efficiently. One of the key features for error management in PowerShell is the ErrorAction parameter. This blog post will dive into the ErrorAction parameter, explaining its usage and providing practical examples to illustrate its usage.

Read on to see the five available options and a pair of examples.

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The Readability Benefit of Splatting in Powershell

Published 2025-09-18 by Kevin Feasel

David Seis simplifies the code a bit:

Have you ever written a PowerShell command so long that it stretched across the screen? Or had to update a script and hunt through a long parameter list to change a single value? Splatting solves that problem by letting you pass multiple parameters to a command using a single variable.

Read on for some examples, including a good example of how to make similar cmdlet calls easier to read.

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Installing Older PowerShell Modules with Dependencies

Published 2025-09-17 by Kevin Feasel

Andy Levy needs an older version of dbatools:

I don’t recall where this came up (probably in SQLSlack), but I had a need to install an older version of dbatools to test something related to loading the dbatools.library library/dependency.

Read on to see how Install-Module won’t quite cut it because it doesn’t bring in the older versions of dependencies. But there is an alternative.

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Building Storage Tiers with Pure Storage in Powershell

Published 2025-09-05 by Kevin Feasel

Anthony Nocentino creates a medallion storage layout:

In modern IT environments, not all workloads require the same level of storage performance, protection, or cost. Some applications need high performance with aggressive data protection, while others are perfectly fine with lower performance in exchange for cost savings. This tiered approach to storage service delivery is fundamental to efficient infrastructure management.

In my previous post on Fusion, I took an application-centric approach, showing how to deploy SQL Servers using Fusion. Let’s switch gears now and learn how to define a storage service catalog. In this post, I’ll demonstrate how to build a complete storage service catalog using Pure Storage Fusion Presets, offering Bronze, Silver, and Gold tiers with optional replication. We’ll see how to leverage different array types (FlashArray //X and FlashArray //C) to optimize both performance and cost across your fleet.

Read on for a link to the code, as well as more information on how it works.

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Installing SQL Server Instances via dbatools

Published 2025-08-13 by Kevin Feasel

David Seis digs into another dbatools cmdlet:

As DBAs we install SQL Server for various reasons regularly. If you could save time for each installation for more critical tasks, would you?

In this blog post, we will audit the dbatools command Install-Dbainstance. I will test, review, and evaluate the script based on a series of identical steps. Our goal is to provide insights, warnings, and recommendations to help you use this script effectively and safely. Install-Dbainstance is a powerful tool to automate the install and configuration of a new SQL Server instance. It works well in scenarios that require frequent deployments of SQL Server instances.

You can definitely automate installation of SQL Server without the cmdlet, but the dbatools team does a good job of laying out what’s possible that you might not necessarily get just from the config script that the SQL Server installer spits out (and uses when you next-next-next your way to success).

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Three Years of PSBlitz

Published 2025-07-31 by Kevin Feasel

Vlad Drumea looks back:

In case you’re not familiar with it, PSBlitz is a PowerShell script that outputs SQL Server health and performance diagnostics data to either Excel or HTML, and saves execution plans and deadlock graphs as .sqlplan and .xdl files.

It’s based on modified non-stored procedure versions of Brent Ozar’s SQL Server First Responder Kit and Erik Darling’s sp_QuickieStore.
Along with some other custom scripts I’ve put together.

You can get more details about its capabilities and usage from my PSBlitz GitHub repo.

Read on to learn about the origin story of PSBlitz, some of the major changes that have taken place over the past three years, and a bit more on the tool.

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Category: Powershell