Monthly Archives: February 2017

SQL VNext sp_configure on Windows and Linux with dbatools

Posted on by

This weekend I set up some SQL vNext virtual machines, two on Windows and one on Linux so that I could test some scenarios and build an availability group.

IMPORTANT NOTE :- The names of dbatools commands with a Sql prefix WILL CHANGE in a later release of dbatools. dbatools will use Dba throughout in the future as the sqlserver PowerShell module uses the Sql prefix

I used PowerShell version 5.1.14393.693 and SQL Server vNext CTP 1.3 running on Windows Server 2016 and Ubuntu 16.04 in this blog post

I set up one Windows box with some changes to the default configuration, these are for my lab only.

Min Server Memory to 2Gb
Max Server Memory to 6Gb
Remote Admin Connections to 1
Backup Compression to 1
Ad Hoc Distributed Queries to 1

I can do this in PowerShell by creating a SQL SMO Server object using Connect-DbaSqlServer from dbatools and then altering the Configuration Properties values and calling the Alter() method

$WinSQl1 = 'SQLvNextN1'
$win1 = Connect-DbaSqlServer -SqlServer $WinSQl1
$win1.Configuration.Properties['DefaultBackupCompression'].ConfigValue = 1
$win1.Configuration.Properties['MinServerMemory'].ConfigValue = 2048
$win1.Configuration.Properties['MaxServerMemory'].ConfigValue = 6144
$win1.Configuration.Properties['RemoteAccess'].ConfigValue = 1
$win1.Configuration.Properties['OptimizeAdhocWorkloads'].ConfigValue = 1
$win1.Configuration.Alter()

I can see the change by using the Get-DbaSpConfigure from the popular PowerShell module dbatools. I like to output to Out-GridView (Alias ogv at the CLI)

$WinSQl1 = 'SQLvNextN1'
Get-DbaSpConfigure -SqlServer $WinSQl1 | ogv

1 SPConfig ogv.PNG

Out-GridView can filter in the top bar and it works very quickly. It is a very useful tool

2 - ogv filter.gif

You can also rearrange the columns and use the Add Criteria button to filter your results

3-spconfig-ogv

You can use Export-SQLSpConfigure to export the configuration to a .sql file which is useful for DR or documentation purposes. There is also a corresponding Import-SqlSpConfigure command

$WinSQl1 = 'SQLvNextN1'
$WinConfigPath = 'C:\Temp\Winconfig.sql'
Export-SqlSpConfigure -SqlServer $WinSQl1 -Path $winConfigPath
notepad $winConfigPath

4 - Export-SQLSpConfigure.gif

Chrissy LeMaire b | t showed a neat trick when we were in Utrecht to compare the configuration of two servers

$WinSQl1 = 'SQLvNextN1'
$WinSQl2 = 'SQLvNextN2'
$Win1SPConfigure = Get-DbaSpConfigure -SqlServer $WinSQl1
$Win2SPConfigure = Get-DbaSpConfigure -SqlServer $WinSQl2
$propcompare = foreach ($prop in $Win1SPConfigure) {
[pscustomobject]@{
Config = $prop.DisplayName
'Windows Node1 setting' = $prop.RunningValue
'Windows Node2 Setting' = $Win2SPConfigure | Where DisplayName -eq $prop.DisplayName | Select -ExpandProperty RunningValue
}
}
$propcompare | ogv
So when we compare the two Windows SQL nodes we can see that at this point there are differences in the configuration
5-compare-configures

 

Now we can copy the configuration from SQLvNextN1 to SQLvNextN2 using the Copy-SqlSpConfigure command

$WinSQl1 = 'SQLvNextN1'
$WinSQl2 = 'SQLvNextN2'
Copy-SqlSpConfigure -Source $WinSQl1 -Destination $WinSQl2

6 - Copy Configurations.gif

and we can see that those configurations are now the same for those two servers by comparing them like before.

7 - compare configurations.PNG

We can use Get-DbaSpConfigure with Linux servers as well but we need to use SQL authentication like so (No, I don’t know why I used two v’s!)

$linuxSQL = 'LinuxvvNext'
$cred = Get-Credential -UserName SA -Message "Linux SQL Auth"
$linuxSpConfigure = Get-DbaSpConfigure  -SqlServer $linuxSQL -SqlCredential $cred
$linuxSpConfigure | ogv

and compare the three servers like so

$WinSQl1 = 'SQLvNextN1'
$WinSQl2 = 'SQLvNextN2'
$linuxSQL = 'LinuxvvNext'
$cred = Get-Credential -UserName SA -Message "Linux SQL Auth"
<div>$Win1SPConfigure = Get-DbaSpConfigure -SqlServer $WinSQl1
$Win2SPConfigure = Get-DbaSpConfigure -SqlServer $WinSQl2
$linuxSpConfigure = Get-DbaSpConfigure  -SqlServer $linuxSQL -SqlCredential $cred
$propcompare = foreach ($prop in $Win1SPConfigure) {
[pscustomobject]@{
Config = $prop.DisplayName
'Windows Node1 setting' = $prop.RunningValue
'Windows Node2 Setting' = $Win2SPConfigure | Where DisplayName -eq $prop.DisplayName | Select -ExpandProperty RunningValue
'Linux Setting' = $linuxSpConfigure | Where DisplayName -eq $prop.DisplayName | Select -ExpandProperty RunningValue
}
}
$propcompare | ogv

and see the differences for the Linux Server

8 - Compare Linux Configs.PNG

we can export the Linux configuration using Export-SqlSpConfigure

9 - Export Linux Config.PNG

So now lets copy the configuration changes from the Windows Server to the Linux Server

10 - Copy Configuration to Linux.gif

There was some Red text there you will notice. This is because there are unsupported features in Linux as you can see in the SQL Server on Linux Release Notes The errors from the command are

Database Mail XPs to 0. Feature may not be supported.
SMO and DMO XPs to 1. Feature may not be supported.
Ole Automation Procedures to 0. Feature may not be supported.
xp_cmdshell to 0. Feature may not be supported.
Ad Hoc Distributed Queries to 0. Feature may not be supported.
Replication XPs to 0. Feature may not be supported.
contained database authentication to 0. Feature may not be supported.
hadoop connectivity to 0. Feature may not be supported.
polybase network encryption to 1. Feature may not be supported.
remote data archive to 0. Feature may not be supported.
allow polybase export to 0. Feature may not be supported.

But if we compare the configurations again, we can see that the settings we wanted have been altered successfully

11 - Compare Linux Configs again.PNG

Lets reset the configuration on the Linux server using Import-SqlSpConfigure and the Linuxconfig-backup.sql file created before any changes

12 - Import backup Linux configuration.gif

Interestingly this time we only had an error for Database Mail XPs, but as you can see below the Linux Configuration has been reset back to the original values.

13-configuration-comapre-back-to-original

Lets export the configuration from the Windows server to a file and import it onto the Linux server to see what happens

14 - Import Windows configuration to Linux.gif

Again only an error for Database Mail XPs, and we can see the configurations are again matching.

15 - Final Compare.PNG

Hopefully, this post has been of use in exploring the *SpConfigure* commands in dbatools and how you can use them to get the sp_configure output, compare it between servers, Export and import it to and from files, as well as copy it between servers for both Windows and Linux. Remember these commands have been tested from SQL 2000 to SQL vNext so they should work for you across your estate

 

Happy Automating!

 

Adding a T-SQL Job Step to a SQL Agent Job with PowerShell

Posted on by

In my last post, I explained how to alter an existing job step across many servers. I also had cause to add a T-SQL Job step to a large number of jobs as well. This is how I did it.
As before I gathered the required jobs using Get-SQLAgentJob command from the sqlserver module which you can get by installing the latest SSMS from https://sqlps.io/dl 

This code was run on PowerShell version 5 and will not run on PowerShell version 3 or earlier as it uses the where method
I put all of our jobs that I required on the estate into a variable called $Jobs. (You will need to fill the $Servers variable with the names of your instances, maybe from a database or CMS or a text file

$Jobs = (Get-SQLAgentJob -ServerInstance $Servers).Where{$_.Name -like '*PartOfNameOfJob*' -and $_.IsEnabled -eq $true}

Then I can iterate through them with a foreach loop

foreach($Job in $Jobs)

Then we need to create a new job step which is done with the following code

$NewStep = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Agent.JobStep

To find out what is available for this object you can run

$NewStep | Get-Member -MemberType Property

job-step-properties

We need to set the name, the parent (The job), the database, the command, the subsystem, the on fail action, on success action and the id for the job step.
I set the command to a variable to make the code easier to read

$Command = "SELECT Name from sys.databases"

the rest of the properties I fill in inside the loop. To find out what the properties can hold I look at MSDN for a Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Agent.JobStep  The ID property is the number of the job step starting at 1 so this example will add a new job step that will be the first to run

$NewStep = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Agent.JobStep
$NewStep.Name = 'A descriptive name for the job step'
$NewStep.Parent = $Job
$NewStep.DatabaseName = 'master'
$NewStep.Command = $Command
$NewStep.SubSystem = 'TransactSql'
$NewStep.OnFailAction = 'QuitWithFailure'
$NewStep.OnSuccessAction = 'GoToNextStep'
$NewStep.ID = 1

Once the object has all of the properties all we need to do is create it and alter the job

$NewStep.create()
$Job.Alter()

and putting it all together it looks like this

$Jobs = (Get-SQLAgentJob -ServerInstance $Servers).Where{$_.Name -like '*PartOfNameOfJob*' -and $_.IsEnabled -eq $true}
$Command = "Select name from sys.databases"
foreach($Job in $Jobs)
{
$NewStep = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Agent.JobStep
$NewStep.Name = 'A descriptive name for the job step1asdfsfasdfa'
$NewStep.Parent = $Job
$NewStep.DatabaseName = 'master'
$NewStep.Command = $Command
$NewStep.SubSystem = 'TransactSql'
$NewStep.OnFailAction = 'QuitWithFailure'
$NewStep.OnSuccessAction = 'GoToNextStep'
$NewStep.ID = 1
$NewStep.create()
$Job.Alter()
}

Hopefully this will help you if you need to add a T-SQL Job Step to a large number of servers
Happy Automating

Altering a Job Step on Hundreds of SQL Servers with PowerShell

Posted on by

I flew to Utrecht last week to present with Chrissy LeMaire and Sander Stad to present to the joint Dutch SQL and PowerShell User Groups. Whilst I was sat at the airport I got a phone call from my current client. “We need to change the backup path for all of the servers to a different share, how long will it take you?”

About 5 minutes  (PowerShell is very powerful – be careful when following these examples 😉 )

We will use the sqlserver module, so you will need to have installed the latest version of SSMS from https://sqlps.io/dl

This code was run using PowerShell version 5 and will not work on Powershell version 3 or lower as it uses the where method.

Lets grab all of our jobs on the estate. (You will need to fill the $Servers variable with the names of your instances, maybe from a database or CMS or a text file)

$Jobs = Get-SQLAgentJob -ServerInstance $Servers

Once we have the jobs we need to iterate only through the ones we need to. This step could also have been done in the line above. Lets assume we are using the Ola Hallengren Solution to backup our estate

Foreach($job in $Jobs.Where{$_.Name -like '*DatabaseBackup*' -and $_.isenabled -eq $true})

Then because I have to target a specific job step I can iterate through those and filter in the same way

foreach ($Step in $Job.jobsteps.Where{$_.Name -like '*DatabaseBackup*'})

Now all I need to do is to replace C:\Backup with C:\MSSQL\Backup (in this example I am using my labs backup paths)

$Step.Command = $Step.Command.Replace("Directory = N'C:\Backup'","Directory = N'C:\MSSQL\Backup'")

And then call the Alter method

$Step.Alter()

And that is all there is to it. Here is the full script I used

$Jobs = Get-SQLAgentJob -ServerInstance $Servers

Foreach($job in $Jobs.Where{$_.Name -like '*DatabaseBackup*' -and $_.isenabled -eq $true})
{
foreach ($Step in $Job.jobsteps.Where{$_.Name -like '*DatabaseBackup*'})
{
$Step.Command = $Step.Command.Replace("Directory = N'C:\Backup'","Directory = N'C:\MSSQL\Backup'")
$Step.Alter()
}
}

In only a few minutes I had altered several hundred instances worth of Ola Hallengren Jobs 🙂

This is one of the many reasons I love PowerShell, it enables me to perform mass changes very quickly and easily. Of course, you need to make sure that you know that what you are changing is what you want to change. I have caused severe issues by altering the SQL alerts frequency to 1 second instead of one hour on an estate!! Although the beauty of PowerShell meant that I was able to change it very quickly once the problem was realised
You can change a lot of settings. If you look at what is available at a job step level
job-step-properties
Happy Automating