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Category: Powershell

Beware Manually Edited SQLPS Files

Published 2016-05-06 by Kevin Feasel

Cody Konior makes mention of an issue if you’ve manually edited your SqlPSPostscript.ps1 file:

The SQLPS module has been slow to load for years now and has finally been fixed in the April 2016 release. But most of us couldn’t wait a few years and edited the SqlPSPostscript.ps1 file that sits in the module directory.

If you’ve done this on one of the SSMS previews (not SQL 2014 as it’s in a different directory) and then upgraded to the April preview though you’ll be missing something, two things actually, being aliases for the renamed Encode-SqlName and Decode-SqlName, which won’t get put into your modified SqlPSPostScript.ps1 file. And so if you use these your older scripts may break.

There’s an easy fix, though, so all’s well.

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Comparing Paths With Powershell

Published 2016-05-06 by Kevin Feasel

Derik Hammer introduces us to Join-Path:

It is obvious that the Join-Path method is easier to remember and faster to type. I use this method every time that I compare paths, even if they are full paths with file names.

The output of the Join-Path cmdlet can seem odd when using full paths but the comparison still functions properly.

This is pretty neat. The normal use of Join-Path is to combine a path with a filename to create a file path, but I like this usage of the cmdlet.

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Remote Server Installation Using Powershell

Published 2016-05-05 by Kevin Feasel

Slava Murygin gives tips on using Powershell and task scheduler to schedule remote SQL Server installations:

Finally I’ve nailed down that topic and hopefully that will be my last post dedicated to SQL Server installations on Windows Core.

In this post I will show how it is easy to install SQL Server from a remote computer without remoting to a server, without any GUI, just by using simple command line.

I admit that setting up installation as a scheduled task on the remote machine is not something that ever came to mind before.

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Azure SQL Database Management With Powershell

Published 2016-05-05 by Kevin Feasel

Mike Fal shows a few administration steps with Azure SQL Database, including resetting an admin password:

Walking through this, we just need to create a secure string for our password and then use the Set-AzureRmSqlServer cmdlet and pass the secure string to -SqlAdministratorPassword argument. Easy as that and we don’t even need to know what the previous password was. With this in mind, I also want to call out that you can only change the password and not the admin login name. While this is not such a big deal, be aware that once you have an admin login name, you are stuck with it.

Mike promises that his next blog post won’t take a month to publish.  Here’s hoping he’s right.

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Deploying Dacpacs

Published 2016-05-03 by Kevin Feasel

Richie Lee shows two different methods of automating Dacpac deployment:

DacFx, or to give it it’s full title, the Data-tier Application Framework “is a component which provides application lifecycle services for database development and management for Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Databases“. Essentially, it is another method we can use to manage our Dacpacs. However instead of using the external process SQLPackage and initiating it via cmdline you can use C# or PowerShell to manage Dacpacs. In fact, SQLPackage uses the “Microsoft.SqlServer.Dac.dll” itself. You can verify this by going and deleting the dll and trying to run sqlpackage via command line…. or you can just take my word for it.

Read on for the Powershell script Richie uses.

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Scripting SQL Server Objects With Powershell

Published 2016-04-28 by Kevin Feasel

Sander Stad provides a script to export SQL Server objects using Powershell:

Scripting SQL Server objects manually through the SQL Server Management Studio can be a tedious task. Last week I published a script to export database objects with PowerShell. I wanted to take this a little further and create a solution to export SQL Server objects as well.

Because this would be a nice addition to the PSSQLLibmodule, this function is also included in the library from today.

I haven’t tried using this cmdlet yet, but it does look handy.

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Powershell + Bash

Published 2016-04-26 by Kevin Feasel

Max Trinidad shows how to integrate Powershell with Bash in Windows 10:

If it worth knowing that in order to get Bash, it’s a feature you need to installed it first. The following is the series of steps I use to enabled and install Bash on my desktop. And, after enabling Bash, I started using it under the PowerShell Console.

Apropos of this, I read a very interesting article by Alex Clemmer yesterday on how terrible the Windows command line is.  Powershell and Bash are way, way better for pretty much any purpose, other than perhaps experiencing masochism.

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Powershell Remoting

Published 2016-04-25 by Kevin Feasel

Andrew Pruski demonstrates Powershell remoting:

Hey guys, differing from usual this is a quick post on setting up powershell remote sessions. I know you can remotely connect to powershell sessions using the Server Manager that comes with Windows Remote Administration Tools but it’s a bit of a clicky process and I like to eliminate using the mouse as much as possible.

Disclaimer! I’m not a scripter, there are probably much better ways of doing this but I’ll show you the way I set it up and how to fix any errors you may come across.

If you’re using Remote Desktop to connect to servers, especially for regular actions, you should definitely check out Powershell remoting.

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New Powershell Cmdlets Proposed

Published 2016-04-11 by Kevin Feasel

Aaron Nelson has proposed breaking up SQLPackage.exe into at least three cmdlets:

SQLPackage.exe – Needs to be made into at least 3 cmdlets

SQLPackage.exe – Needs to be made into at least 3 cmdlets (and possibly more; we have added ideas for additional cmdlets below). The first 3 cmdlets that need to be made into are:

  • Export-SqlDatabase

  • Import-SqlDatabase

  • Compare-SqlDatabase

This seems reasonable and would help maintain databases.

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SQLPS Fixed

Published 2016-04-04 by Kevin Feasel

Chrissy LeMaire and Aaron Nelson have succeeded; Microsoft has fixed the three issues with SQLPS:

In my previous blog post “Can We Get These 3 SQLPS Issues Fixed before SQL Server 2016 RTMs?“, Aaron Nelson and I asked the SQL and PowerShell community to help upvote 3 SQL Connect items. The items addressed three problems with SQL Server’s PowerShell module, SQLPS.

  • It took 3-5 seconds to load
  • It changed the present working directory when loaded
  • It produced approved verb warnings when loaded

Today, Microsoft responded, letting everyone know that the issues were addressed in SQL Server Management Studio March 2016 Refresh.

Given the reputation Connect has in the community, I’m glad to see these issues get fixed.

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