Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

The (Former) Complexity of PowerShell

When I first looked at PowerShell, it was v1.0, and I was in a TechEd presentation. The language seemed a mile past the VBScript I was using when T-SQL didn’t function well. The ability to access the .NET namespace, work with objects, and program with error handling was exciting. I played with the language a little, but didn’t find that many places to use it at the time.

Certainly file operations were much easier with PowerShell, and I built scripts to copy backup files around the network. AD operations were easy in PoSh. However, when I tried accessing SQL Server, I thought the code was complex. In fact, whether I was running a stored procedure, or performing a restore, the PowerShell code required was cumbersome. A good example is shown at the beginning of Aaron Nelson’s recently updated post on querying with PoSh. The complexity shown to just make a connection to PoSh made me think I should just write that kind of code in C#, with all the debugging and other software support available in Visual Studio. Building quick utilities with PoSh was something I’d like to avoid.

When I heard that SQL Server Powershell was being updated, I wasn’t too excited. I had visions of there being newer versions of cmdlets, but a similar level of effort to work with SQL Server. However, as I’ve played with the new cmdlets, along with the dbatools module, I see PoSh becoming easier to use than T-SQL in some cases. In fact, I’ve started to keep a command line window open (with ConEmu) and access that to perform lots of quick tasks that aren’t based on simple queries of data. Even a backup with Backup-SqlDatabase seems as simple as it might be in T-SQL, perhaps more so if I don’t have an SSMS connection open.

I know there can be a debate over whether you need PoSh as a DBA or you can get by with just T-SQL. I don’t want to take a side here, and no matter how you feel, if you can get work done, then you are successful. Your job depends on you being able to reliably write code to perform some task over and over. The language doesn’t matter.

My view is that I think there are cases where PoSh seems a better fit and places where T-SQL works really well. I want to improve my skills in both so that I can decide what works best in any particular situation, and feel comfortable in building a solution either way.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.6MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

January 19, 2017
Using Out-GridView To Pick Parameters–#SQLNewBlogger

Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers.

I was editing an article on PoSh and learned something cool. I can use Grid-View to surface an object in a pipeline and then change the items passed through to the next command.

Here’s how it works. Suppose I have a simple comment, like Get-SqlDatabase. I can run this and get a series of database. (command and output shown here).

Get-SqlDatabase –ServerInstance .\SQL2014

I get a bunch of data, but I don’t want all the items. For example, maybe I just want the “SimpleTalk” databases.

Get-SqlDatabase -ServerInstance .\SQL2014 | Where-Object { $_.Name -like ‘SimpleTalk*’}

I don’t want to edit this Where-Object clause all the time. I want something simple to easily fix this.

Enter Out-GridView

Instead of changing my filter, I can do this graphically. I can pipe my output to Out-Gridview, and I’ll get this.

All of my output data appears. No big deal, right? Is this useful? It sure is. Look at the filter item above. I can type in there, and my data is filtered.

How can I use this? Suppose my code is this:

PS SQLSERVER:\SQL\Plato\SQL2016\Databases> Get-SqlDatabase -ServerInstance .\SQL2014 | Out-GridView -PassThru | Backup-SqlDatabase -CompressionOption Default –Script

Here I’m getting a list of databases, passing them to Out-GridView, and then sending the results to Backup-SqlDatabase, which will return a script to back up all my databases.

I’ll run this, and then enter a filter in the grid.

I can now highlight all these rows (if that’s what I want).

This time I have an “OK” button in the lower right corner of the grid.

When I click “OK”, my filtered list is returned to the pipeline and send to the backup command.

This is a quick way to work with the parameters in your pipeline in an ad hoc way. Use Out-GridView to filter and select the rows you want to return to the rest of your script.

January 18, 2017
Quick SQL CLone Support

I have been playing with SQL Clone for a few weeks now and liking the product. I’m looking forward to using this more and more, especially for testing ideas in development. However, there are times I have questions or am unsure of how to use things.

I work for Redgate Software, so I have an in. I can certainly email developers if I need to, but we also have this:

There’s a great Slack channel where I can quickly reach developers. This comes in handy as it seems various people at Redgate pay more attention to Slack than email or other communication methods.

No, this post won’t get you on our Slack channel.

However, when opening the SQL Clone beta, I see this dashboard.

Notice the little circle in the lower right? Click it and you get this:

Apparently there’s a semi-live chat system that our developers are using. Chris is actually one of the SQL Clone developers, and he helped me solve the registry issue a few weeks ago.

That’s pretty cool. If you type something in there, it will get sent to the developers, and if they’re around, they will respond. I sent a test, with a semi-legitimate question, and see this below my text:

Given I sent the note late in the afternoon, I’m sure all developers are gone for the day. I can hide the popup, and then will see when someone responds.

Update: in the am, I got an email from the system, at the same time, I got a reply in my SQL Clone dashboard. As you can see, my question was answered.

If I click the arrow in the upper left, I can see all my conversations, which is handy if I’m trying to report or work on a few issues.

That’s pretty cool, and it’s an neat way to get quick feedback. Assuming it doesn’t take too much time away from developers actually developing the product.

I suspect we’ll get support involved here, with escalations to developers. At least, that’s what I’d do, but for now, it’s good that our developers are responding to beta users and helping them use and test the product.

January 17, 2017
Getting My Alias in #SQLPrompt

I got a tweet after my SQL Prompt formatting piece that said a user would be interested in upgrading from v5 if “as ‘Alias’” was transformed into “’Alias’ = “.

Well, in v7.3, this is in there, and I didn’t realize it. You can clearly see this in the formatting actions options, which is a place I didn’t think to look.

Does this work? It sure does. Let’s examine a query you might get from a VCS or a colleague. Suppose you’re working in the new WideWorldImporters database.

You prefer to see the actual columns returned in the result set at the front of the query, with an alias = format. That’s what I prefer as well, and so I want to have the column list shown as:

PrimaryContactFullName = p.FullName,
PrimaryContactPreferredName = p.PreferredName

A quick CTRL+K, Y and I see this.

My aliases have moved.

This is a great feature for those of you that need consistent formatting. There are other alias options if you prefer the alias at the end.

Update: I originally had this as single quoted aliases, but as pointed out, that format is deprecated, so I wouldn’t use it.

And if you want to change this back, you can have a second formatting preference that you choose to reformat code before sending it back to someone else.

Give SQL Prompt a try today.

January 17, 2017