I was recently asked a question on restoring a database using PowerShell with the following requirements

1. Take a database backup file i.e. DatabaseName.bak
2. Derive the database name from the backup file name
3. Disconnect any user connected to the database
4. Relocate (move) the physical files to SQL Serve r instance the…

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We’ve released a minor update to SQLPSX which includes includes several bug fixes/enhancements as well as one new module. Here’s an excerpt from the release notes:

Added MySQLLib Module

Mike Shepard created a MySQL module for querying MySQL databases. This is similar in concept to the adolib and OracleClient modules. Read more

This post is my contribution to T-SQL Tuesday, hosted this month by Pat Wright (blog | twitter).

In my previous post Importing and Exporting SSIS Packages Using PowerShell I showed you how to import/export SSIS stored in MSDB to and from the file system. In this post… Read more

SQL Server PowerShell Extensions (SQLPSX) includes a set of function for working with SSIS which among other things allow you to import and export SSIS packages between the file system and msdb. The functionality is best illustrated by looking a few examples.

Creating an SSIS folder

Note: The SSIS module… Read more

The first annual Tampa IT Camp will be held on Saturday, March 19th 2011.

What’s an IT Camp?

In the spirit of Code Camps, SQL Saturdays and SharePoint Saturdays an IT Camp is an event focused on IT Pro aka system administrators. Visit http://ITCampSaturday.com/ to learn more about IT Camps. Read more

I presented a one hour session at SQL Saturday #62 in Tampa on SQL Server PowerShell Extensions (SQLPSX): “In this sesssion we will look at how the CodeProject SQLPSX can be used for real world PowerShell automation. Specific topics covered include using ADO.NET, retrieving SQL Server information, SSIS administration, Policy-Based… Read more

Operations Manager 2007 R2 ships with Operations Manager Shell which is simply a provider with associated cmdlets for working with System Center Operations Manager. The Operations Manager implementation of PowerShell uses a console file which limits reusability, however we can easily build our own Operations Manager Module…

Creating the…

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Windows 2008 R2 includes a failoverclusters PowerShell module, but you’ll probably find normal usage limiting for several reasons:

• Only works on Windows 2008 R2 clusters
• Requires the cluster service which in effect makes it difficult to run remotely except via PSRemoting
• Implements specialized data types instead of using WMI

Although… Read more

The best new management feature added to SQL Server 2008 is Policy Based Management or PBM. PBM allows DBAs to automate many of the traditional daily (or more frequent) checklists*. Although PBM is useable out-of-box there are several key features missing:

• Unable to capture results of policy evaluations…

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We’ve released a minor update to SQLPSX which includes several bug fixes as well as two new modules. Here’s an excerpt from the release notes:

Added PerfCounters Module

The PerfCounters module contributed by Laerte Junior (blog|twitter), is used for working with Windows Performance Counters, collecting and… Read more

For years we’ve been told you should use Enterprise Manager in SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server Configuration Manager in SQL 2005 or higher to change the SQL Service account. Why you may ask well, because according to the documentation Configuration Manager does “magic” stuff to re-ACL things for the… Read more

A while ago I blogged about using xp_cmdshell to execute a PowerShell script in SQL Server and return a result set. At that time I was using PowerShell V1, but now with PowerShell V2 I can clean this up a little. The improved version uses the built-in PowerShell V2 cmdlet… Read more

Windows PowerShell has the concept of execution policy that determines in which cases script and configuration files are able to run. The various execution policy settings are described in about_Execution_Policies. Run Get-Help about_execution_policies or see the online version for additional information.

The default setting for the execution policy is restricted… Read more

As part of the 2.3 build of SQLPSX I built an MSI based installer to package all 10 SQLPSX modules. The installer was created with Windows XML Installer (Wix). To build an MSI using Wix you manually edit XML files and run several command-line tool to generate the necessary files.… Read more

I run several SQL Server instances on my laptop, however I’ll keep the services shutdown to conserve resources and then start up the instance when needed. Doing this type of stuff through the GUI results in several clicks

1. Right click on SQL instance in SSMS
2. Select Service Control >> Start…

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Just in time for PASS Summit 2010, the CodePlex project SQL Server PowerShell Extensions (SQLPSX) has been updated . Here’s a rundown of what’s new in release 2.3…

Added MSI-based installer

The installer was built using the Windows Installer XML (WiX) and this was an… Read more

Ed Wilson (Blog|Twitter) aka Scripting Guy is kicking off a SQL Server week (Nov 1st 2010) with my guest blog post. The post, Use PowerShell to Collect Server Data and Write to SQL, demonstrates my number one use case for database related PowerShell activities—loading data… Read more

Symlinks are heavily used in Linux/Unix environments to provide an abstraction for file and directory locations and with the introduction of symbolic links in Vista/Win7/Windows 2008 we can take advantage of this handy little feature. One use case for symlinks in Linux scripting is to setup a link to a… Read more

During October I’ll be presenting at several online and in-person events

Orlando SQL Saturday features a full PowerShell… Read more

Last month I sat down with Blain Barton and TechNet Edge in an interview (Blain Barton Interviews Raymond James Chad Miller on PowerShell) and described a PowerShell-based solution for providing a classic centralized data dictionary of various data sources to our IT users. I’m pleased to announce I’ve… Read more