Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Powershell

Goodbye, SQLPS

Published 2018-01-29 by Kevin Feasel

Max Trinidad notes that SSMS 17.4 gets rid of the SQLPS module:

After SSMS Version 17.4 was release back in December, SQLPS module is no longer available. So, if you try to use the “Start PowerShell” from any of the database object, you’ll get the message “No SQL Server cmdlets found…” popup message.

And good riddance.  Even in 2008, the SQLPS method of dealing with Powershell was obsolete, as Powershell modules were supposed to be snap-ins rather than independent shells.  The SQL Server Powershell module is a major improvement in that regard.

Comments closed

Make Your Powershell Cmdlets Hypothetical

Published 2018-01-25 by Kevin Feasel

Rob Sewell shows you how to implement Confirm, Verbose, and WhatIf parameters in Powershell cmdlets:

I have done this before because if the file does not exist then Set-Content will create a new file for you, but with this function I can check if the file exists first with the ValidateScript before running the rest of the function.

As you can see I add variables from my PowerShell code into the “The Item” and “The Change”. If I need to add a property of an object I use $($Item.Property).

So now, if I want to see what my new function would do if I ran it without actually making any changes I have -WhatIf added to my function automagically.

It’s easy to do and makes your code that much better.

Comments closed

CYA Parameters In Powershell

Published 2018-01-23 by Kevin Feasel

Rob Sewell describes a class of Powershell parameters designed to keep you from doing something awful on accident:

If you wanted to see what would happen, you could edit the script and add the WhatIf parameter to every changing command but that’s not really a viable solution. What you can do is

this will set all commands that accept WhatIf to use the WhatIf parameter. This means that if you are using functions that you have written internally you must ensure that you write your functions to use the common parameters

Once you have set the default value for WhatIf as above, you can simply call your script and see the WhatIf output

WhatIf is a great parameter and when developing cmdlets, you should add in support.

Comments closed

What’s Happing In Azure Data Factory Right Now?

Published 2018-01-22 by Kevin Feasel

Melissa Coates has a couple Powershell scripts to figure out which pipelines are currently running in Azure Data Factory v1:

This is a quick post to share a few scripts to find what is currently executing in Azure Data Factory. These PowerShell scripts are applicable to ADF version 1 (not version 2 which uses different cmdlets).

Prerequisite: In addition to having installed the Azure Resource Manager modules, you’ll have to register the provider for  Azure Data Factory:

#One-time registration of the ADF provider
#Register-AzureRmResourceProvider -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.DataFactory

Click through for the Powershell snippets.

Comments closed

Storing Credentials For Containers

Published 2018-01-18 by Kevin Feasel

Andrew Pruski shows how to store a credential using Powershell and pass it into a Docker container:

I work with SQL Server in containers pretty much exclusively when testing code and one of my real bug bears is that SQL Server in containers does not support Windows authentication (unless you’re using Windocks).

So when I’m working I find it quite annoying to have to specify a SA username & password when I want to connect.

OK, I can use Get-Credential, assign to a variable, and then reference that in a connection string but I want something a bit more permanent especially as I always use the same password for all my containers

Read on for Andrew’s method, and check out Rob Sewell’s method in the comments.

Comments closed

Using Powershell To Deploy Perfmon Collectors

Published 2018-01-18 by Kevin Feasel

Raul Gonzalez has a bonus post in his Perfmon data series:

As I said, when it’s time to deploy the solution explained in my previous posts to a number of servers it might get very tedious, specially if we have servers running multiple instances, since each have different counter names because the instance name is part of that name, and if we create one template, that won’t apply to all cases, so a lot of manual intervention.

So I decided to do what I like the most and got to write some queries that combined with some powershell will do the job for me.

Read on for the script and more information.

Comments closed

Getting dbatools To Version 1.0

Published 2018-01-17 by Kevin Feasel

Simone Bizzotto explains what it’s going to take to get dbatools up to version 1.0:

We’re looking for contributors to help us finally reach version 1.0. Currently, we are on par with Gmail’s beta schedule: a whopping 4 years. But, we’re almost there and need your help finalizing our changes. If you’re interested in helping us bring 1.0 alive, we identified four areas with 5 primary contacts on the SQL Server Community Slack:

  • Standardize param names (@wsmelton)
  • Create tests for existing functions (@cl and @niphlod)
  • Review existing function documentation (@alevyinroc or @gbargsley)
  • Prepare for 1.0 with “code style” (Bill of Health, more on that later)

As you can see, a few of us are the main reference (on GitHub and Slack, mostly) for each area.

Read the whole thing and, if you’ve found dbatools to be helpful in the past, see if there’s anything you can do to help them out a little in return.

Comments closed

Flexible Active Directory Account Lookup In Powershell

Published 2018-01-15 by Kevin Feasel

Jana Sattainathan builds a flexible AD lookup cmdlet in Powershell:

Now, the problem is that I have to lookup the AD User account for each of these users to add to the AD group “CrisisManagement_ReadOnly_Group”. Although I still use the AD module command Get-ADUser to lookup names, I have to do so one name at a time like this:

Get-ADUser -Filter ‘(name -like “*David*”) -and (name -like “*Smith*”)’

The above method is tedious and time consuming, especially if it is a long list of users. I would rather paste the list that the sender sent me as is into a PowerShell command and auto-magically add the corresponding accounts to the AD group. If we are unable to find an user, report it as an error.

Click through for the code and more.

Comments closed

Powershell Core On Server Core

Published 2018-01-15 by Kevin Feasel

Max Trinidad shows how to install Powershell Core on Windows Server Core:

In the following Virtual machine scenario, I got one Server Core with Active Directory (Build 16299) and Windows 10 (Build 16299) joined to my new domain. Both Build 16299.
On my Windows client I create a shared folder named “SharedFiles”, where I copy over the latest MSI version of PowerShell Core “PowerShell-6.0.0-win-x64.msi”.

Then, on the Server Core I’m going to create a map drive to my Windows client shared folder to then run the MSI installation from Windows PowerShell Console.

He also shows how to uninstall Powershell Core, should you wish.

Comments closed