dbatools

SQL Query Stats via Powershell

Andy Levy
Sometimes, work tasks and questions that come up in the SQL Server Community Slack coincide. A couple weeks ago, DrData asked With SET STATISTICS IO ON, is there really no way to show the TOTALS at the bottom? There are some nice tools like StatisticsParser but it sure would be nice to see the totals of all values right at the bottom, especially when there are many tables. The task at hand in the office was a need to do the same thing, but with SET STATISTICS TIME ON.

dbatools Required Filesystem Access for Database Restores

Andy Levy
The Problem While performing an instance migration this spring, I happened upon something I didn’t expect in dbatools. It should have been a simple backup/restore copy of the databases, with the backup files residing on a fileshare on the destination server after being copied there. I kept getting a warning that the backup files I was attempting to restore couldn’t be read, and the restores (via Restore-DbaDatabase) wouldn’t execute. I checked permissions on the server over and over again.

Community Tools Month 2022 - dbatools

Andy Levy
The Prompt In July, Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) asked us to make September Community Tools Awareness Month. In September, I want you to improve community knowledge about one free tool that you rely on every week in order to get your job done. I’m sure it will come as no surprise to readers of this blog, but I’m going to select the amazing PowerShell module dbatools. dbatools Is for Everyone Despite what the name may imply, dbatools is a valuable toolkit for anyone who needs to interact with SQL Server.

Lesson Learned From Multi-Threading with dbatools

Andy Levy

Over the summer, I spent some (a lot of) time working on updates to a script at work which runs multiple processes in parallel. Everything seemed to work OK for a while, but then everything broke. It broke right around the time dbatools 1.1 dropped, so I started thinking that something must have changed there. As it turns out, it was entirely my fault and I hope this post will help you avoid the same trap.

Followup for the Kansas City SQL Server User Group

Andy Levy
I had a great time speaking at the Kansas City SQL Server User Group on Thursday, February 18th. The more I present my Backup Basics with PowerShell and dbatools session, the more I enjoy it. And each time, I’ve learned something new myself. In one of the demos I show how Restore-DbaDatabase selects and restores the most recent backup of a database when pointed at a directory holding several backups of a single database.

Upgrading Ola Hallengren's Maintenance Solution with dbatools

Andy Levy
While presenting Backup Basics with PowerShell and dbatools at ONDT, I mentioned a caveat with the -ReplaceExisting switch for Install-DbaMaintenanceSolution. This switch drops all of the objects installed by the Maintenance Solution, including the CommandLog table. If you use that table to produce evidence that the various maintenance tasks are being performed on a regular basis or use it to track performance of those tasks over time, dropping that table presents a problem.

Slides & Demos for Backup Basics with PowerShell & dbatools

Andy Levy
I had the honor of presenting a new session, Backup Basics with PowerShell and dbatools, at the first Ohio North Database Training meeting this evening. Thank you to the group leaders for the opportunity and to everyone who attended. Because this was both a brand new session and an attempt at a new way of delivering the presentation, I had a couple tech glitches but things went pretty well once they were understood and ironed out.

New-DbatoolsQuestion | Invoke-DbatoolsDiscussion -Platform Github

Andy Levy
Chrissy LeMaire (blog | twitter) pinged me earlier this week to tell me about Github Discussions. It’s a new feature of Github which is similar to Stack Exchange, but much more focused - it’s just for your project/repository! Get help, start discussions, share tips & tricks. She’s enabled this feature for the dbatools repository and it’s open for business. Go check it out and start posting questions, answers, or both!