SQLServerCentral Article

Introduction to SQL-DMO

,

SQL-DMO (Distributed

Management Objects) provides a programmatic (COM) interface to SQL Server.

It’s a great tool for automating routine tasks – far more flexible than

T-SQL in most cases. In this article I’ll demonstrate several uses of DMO that

will give you a starting point for building your own solutions. I’ll be using

VB Script for these examples, but you can use any language that supports COM.

Code has been tested on SQL 2000, but should work fine in SQL 7.

 

I like to use VB to code

my DMO scripts, then convert to VB Script. If you use this method, a few things

to remember:

  • Set a reference to Microsoft SQL-DMO so

    you get Intellisense

  • Use CreateObject instead of New when

    creating your objects– VB Script doesn’t support New

  • Use the variant model functions (CHR,

    UCASE, etc) instead of the ones optimized for strings (CHR$,UCASE$) – VB

    Script doesn’t support the string versions

  • Convert constants to their actual values

  • Remove all data typing. A handy trick is

    to just comment out the type declaration, so you can more easily read the code

    and you can always uncomment them if you dump the code back into VB to make

    changes.

If you’re just using

Notepad to write your scripts, add a few lines at a time and test. Use Msgbox to

help you debug and trace your program flow. Scripts should be saved with the

standard .VBS extension – you can execute them by double clicking.

Example #1 – How many

databases do you have?

This shows how to connect

to SQL running on your local machine, display the number of databases, then

disconnect.

Dim oServer

 

'get a reference to the DMO object

(sqldmo.dll)

Set oServer =

CreateObject("SQLDmo.SqlServer")

 

'use a trusted connection

oServer.LoginSecure = True

oServer.Connect

 

'this displays the count – should be the

same count you’d get doing

'select count(*) from master..sysdatabases

MsgBox oServer.Databases.Count

 

'always clean up when you’re done

oServer.DisConnect

Set oServer = Nothing  

Example #2 – How much

space is available in each database?

This script cycles through

each database and returns the free space in megabytes. Note that this time I’m

specifying the server to connect to rather than relying on the default behavior

of connecting to the local machine.

Dim oServer

Dim oDatabase

Dim sResults

 

Set oServer =

CreateObject("SQLDmo.SqlServer")

 

oServer.LoginSecure = True

 

'this time Im specifying which server to

connect to

oServer.Connect "Andy"

 

'this will return the name of each database

along with the total free

'space in megabytes. The Chr(9) is a tab,

the chr(13) and the chr(10) map

'to carriage return and line feed

respectively

For Each oDatabase In oServer.Databases

   

sResults = sResults & oDatabase.Name & Chr(9) &

oDatabase.SpaceAvailableInMB & Chr(13) & Chr(10)

Next

 

'show the answer - could easily send using

xp_sendmail if we wanted

MsgBox sResults

 

oServer.DisConnect

Set oServer = Nothing

Example #3 – Update Statistics if Auto Update is Disabled

You aren’t restricted to

just reading information, you can make changes or take action as well. In this

example I’m going to update the statistics for any database that has the auto

update option disabled. At the end I’m adding some additional text to the

sResult variable to make the display a little more informative.
 

Dim oServer

Dim oDatabase

Dim sResults

 

Set oServer =

CreateObject("SQLDmo.SqlServer")

 

oServer.LoginSecure = True

 

'this time Im specifying which server to

connect to

oServer.Connect "Andy"

 

'if auto update stats is turned off, update

the statistics and return a list of those

'databases

For Each oDatabase In oServer.Databases

    If oDatabase.DBOption.AutoUpdateStat = False Then

        sResults =

sResults & oDatabase.Name & Chr(13) & Chr(10)

       

oDatabase.UpdateIndexStatistics

    End If

Next

 

'here Im making the output a little fancier

If sResults <> "" Then

    sResults = "Statistics were updated for the following databases:

" & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & sResults

Else

    sResults = "No databases had auto update statistics turned

off."

End If

MsgBox sResults

 

oServer.DisConnect

Set oServer = Nothing

Example #4 – Backup All Databases

Dim oServer

Dim oDatabase

Dim oBackup

Dim sBAKFilePath

 

'change this to where ever you want

to place your backup files, no trailing

'backslash, we add it below

sBAKFilePath = "C:\Backup"

 

'we need a backup object in addition

to the sqlserver one

Set oServer =

CreateObject("SQLDmo.SqlServer")

Set oBackup =

CreateObject("SQLDmo.Backup")

 

oServer.LoginSecure = True

oServer.Connect "(local)"

 

'this will do a full backup of every

database except TempDB to a file (not a

'device

For Each oDatabase In

oServer.Databases

    If

UCase(oDatabase.Name) <> "TEMPDB" Then

       

oBackup.Database = oDatabase.Name

       

'remove any previous backup - same as using T-SQL with init

       

oBackup.Initialize = True

       

'dynamically create the name of the backup file

       

oBackup.Files = sBAKFilePath & "\" &

oDatabase.Name & ".bak"

       

'set the action property as needed

       

'0 = Full backup

        '1 =

Differential

        '2 =

Specified files only

       

'3 = Log backup

       

oBackup.Action = 0

       

oBackup.SQLBackup oServer

    End If

Next

 

'clean up

Set oBackup = Nothing

oServer.DisConnect

Set oServer = Nothing 

Deploying Your Scripts

Once you’ve gotten your

code to work successfully, there are several ways to put it to work:

  • Leave it in a VBS file (or

    compile into an executable) to be run manually on as needed basis.

  • Add it as a step to SQL job – select

    ActiveX Script as the step type. Keep in mind that the size of the step is

    limited to about 3200 chars (the size of the command column in sysjobsteps).

  • Schedule the VBS/EXE to run as a

    OS scheduled task or as a SQL job of type CmdExec.

If you play to run your

code on the server, comment out or remove any lines that use Msgbox, otherwise

your script will be stalled waiting on the user to click OK. Even worse, if you

run the script as a SQL Agent ActiveX Script job, the message box will be

suppressed so the server operator cannot see it, but the job will still be

waiting on user input.

One other technique you

may find useful is to include ‘Print’ statements in your script. These will

fail when you test your script in VB or VB Script, but when run under SQL Agent

the output of the print statement will be entered into the job history. Example

#1 might be modified as follows:

          Replace       

MsgBox

oServer.Databases.Count

          With            

Print

“Count=” & oServer.databases.count

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