A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
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.
Leave a CommentAdam 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.
Leave a CommentPatrick 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
ErrorActionparameter. This blog post will dive into theErrorActionparameter, explaining its usage and providing practical examples to illustrate its usage.
Read on to see the five available options and a pair of examples.
Comments closedDavid 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.
Comments closedAndy 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
dbatoolsto test something related to loading thedbatools.librarylibrary/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.
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.
Comments closedDavid 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).
Comments closedIn 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.
Comments closedVlad Drumea shows off one way to get work done in Powershell:
This is a brief post containing my information about my PowerShell coding setup, IDE, extensions, etc.
I’m writing this mainly because, based on the reactions to my reddit comment, some people might not be aware of how helpful the VS Code + PS extension combo can be for PowerShell code writing.
This is the environment that I use to write PowerShell scripts such as PSBlitz, Decode-AsusRouterConfig, and my SQL Server install script.
Click through to see how Vlad gets it done. Every time I see someone using the Powershell ISE, I feel the urge to stage an intervention, as the ISE does some really weird stuff with your Powershell environment that doesn’t make it amenable to writing good scripts. This is a much better way.
Comments closedMost businesses are rotten with Excel sheets and CSV exports from various tools and as my mentor puts it “Excel is the world’s database”. The dbatools command Import-DbaCsv enables the quick load of CSV tables into SQL Server, which then opens up the world of fast transformation and use in other tools such as PowerBI, or even just having it queryable rather than just in a file somewhere.
Import-DbaCsv is for you if any part of your job is to manually manage CSV files and you want to reduce the amount of time that you take to do that processing. Even if you are not a DBA but are interested in the data field, you can use SQL Server express for free, import and transform data using PowerShell for free, and export that data into Power BI or any other tool for free. I promise it can make your manual processes better, faster, and more resilient and save you tons of time!
Read on for a review of the quite useful cmdlet.
Comments closed