ptg 474 CHAPTER 16 SQL Server Scheduling and Notification You can further define an alert response by using the Options page of an alert’s Properties window (see Figure 16.19). You can include an alert’s error text in the operator notification message on this page. This alert error text provides further details about why the alert was fired. For example, if you have an alert that is triggered by changes to database options, the alert error text would include the actual option that was changed. You can also define additional notifica- tion text that is included when the message is sent. This message could include directives for the operators or additional instructions. Finally, you can define the amount of time that the alert will wait before responding to the alert condition again. You do this by using the Delay Between Responses drop-downs (Minutes and Seconds) to set the wait time. This capability is useful in situations in which an alert condition can happen repeat- edly within a short period of time. You can define a response delay to prevent an unneces- sarily large number of alert notifications from being sent. Scripting Jobs and Alerts SQL Server has options that allow for the scripting of jobs and alerts. As with many of the other objects in SQL Server, you might find that it is easier and more predictable to gener- ate a script that contains the jobs and alerts on the server. You can use these scripts to FIGURE 16.19 Alert options. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 475 Scripting Jobs and Alerts 16 reinstall the jobs and alerts or deploy them to another server. You can right-click the job or alert you want to script and choose a scripting option to generate the T-SQL for the individual object. You can also select the Job or Alerts node to view the Object Explorer Details that lists all the objects. You can also display the Object Explorer Details through the View menu or by selecting it as the active tab. When Object Explorer Details is selected, you have the option of selecting one or more jobs to script. You can select multi- ple jobs by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the jobs you want to script. Figure 16.20 shows a sample Object Explorer Details for jobs, with several of the jobs selected for scripting. To generate the script, you simply right-click one of the selected jobs and select the Script Job As menu option to generate the desired type of script. NOTE With SQL Server 2008, you can also filter the jobs you want to script by using the filter- ing capabilities that are available on the Object Explorer Details. For example, you can filter on jobs whose names contain specific text. After you filter the jobs, you can script the jobs that are displayed. The filtering options and the capability to selectively script jobs are particularly useful in environments in which many jobs and alerts exist. FIGURE 16.20 Script generation for jobs. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 476 CHAPTER 16 SQL Server Scheduling and Notification Multiserver Job Management Multiserver job management allows you to centralize the administration of multiple target servers on a single master server. The master server is a SQL Server instance that contains the job definitions and status information for all the enlisted target servers. The target servers are SQL Server instances that obtain job information from the master server and continually update the master server with job statistics. Multiserver job management is beneficial in SQL Server environments in which there are many instances to manage. You can establish jobs, operators, and execution schedules one time on the master server and then deploy them to all the target servers. This promotes consistency across the enterprise and can ease the overall administrative burden. Without multiserver job management, administrative jobs must be established and maintained on each server. Creating a Master Server The first step in creating a multiserver environment involves the creation of a master server. SQL Server 2008 provides the Master Server Wizard, which simplifies this task. You launch the Master Server Wizard by right-clicking the SQL Server Agent node in the Object Explorer and selecting Multi Server Administration and Make This a Master. The Master Server Wizard then guides you through the creation of an operator to receive multiserver job notifications and allows you to specify the target servers for SQL Server Agent jobs. Figure 16.21 shows the Master Server Wizard screen that allows you to add information related to the master server’s operator. The operator created on the master server, named MSXOperator, is the only one that can receive notifications for multiserver jobs. FIGURE 16.21 The Master Server Wizard. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 477 Event Forwarding 16 The Master Server Wizard also validates the service accounts that the SQL Server Agent uses on the target servers. These accounts are typically Windows domain accounts that are in the same domain as the master server. The service accounts are important because the target servers utilize Windows security to connect to the master server and download jobs for the SQL Server Agent. The validation process and security considerations are simplified if the master server and target servers are run with the same domain account. Enlisting Target Servers The Master Server Wizard allows you to enlist one or more target servers. Enlisting a target server identifies it to the master server and allows the master server to manage the administration of its jobs. You can also enlist additional target servers after the wizard completes. You do this by right-clicking the SQL Server Agent node of the target server and then selecting Multi Server Administration and then Make This a Target. Doing so launches the Target Server Wizard, which guides you through the addition of another target server. The Target Server Wizard performs some of the same actions as the Master Server Wizard, including the following: . It ensures that the SQL Server versions on the two servers are compatible. . It ensures that the SQL Server Agent on the master server is running. . It ensures that the Agent Startup account has rights to log in as a target server. . It enlists the target server. Creating Multiserver Jobs After setting up the master and target servers, you can create jobs on the master server and specify which target servers they should run on. Periodically, the target servers poll the master server. If any jobs defined for them have been scheduled to run since the last polling interval, the target server downloads the jobs and runs them. When a job completes, the target server uploads the job outcome status to the master server. Event Forwarding Event forwarding is another multiserver feature that allows a single SQL Server instance to process events for other servers in your SQL Server environment. This involves the desig- nation of an alerts management server to which other servers can forward their events. You enable the alerts management server by right-clicking the SQL Server Agent node and selecting Properties. When the Properties pages appears, you click the Advanced page (see Figure 16.22). Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 478 CHAPTER 16 SQL Server Scheduling and Notification To configure event forwarding, you select the Forward Events to a Different Server option on the Advanced page. You can then select the SQL Server instance you want as the alerts management server by using the Server drop-down. The servers shown in the drop-down are those that have been registered in SSMS. If the server you want does not appear in the drop-down, you need to choose Registered Servers from the View menu and ensure that the server is registered. You can choose to forward unhandled events, all events, or only a subset of the events. The default is to send all unhandled events, but you can customize this for your needs. You can further limit the messages that are forwarded by specifying the severity level that the message must have in order to be forwarded. For example, you can configure the servers to forward only fatal error messages that have a severity greater than or equal to Level 19. In this scenario, you could define alerts on the alerts management server that respond to these fatal errors and notify operators that specialize in their resolution. You need to consider a number of trade-offs when using event forwarding. You need to weigh the benefits of central administration and a lack of redundancy against the disad- vantages of having a single point of failure and increased network traffic. The available network bandwidth, number of servers involved in event forwarding, and stability of the alerts management server are some of the key factors you need to think about in making your decision. FIGURE 16.22 Configuring event forwarding. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 479 Summary 16 Summary The SQL Server Agent in SQL Server 2008 delivers a powerful set of tools to make your administrative life easier. It provides automation in the form of jobs, operators, and alerts that help you deliver a consistent and healthy database environment. After you have set up the appropriate automation with the SQL Server Agent, you can rest assured that you have been proactive in managing your database environment. PowerShell is another tool to help with your automation needs. This new tool, that was integrated into SQL Server 2008, provides a powful command-line facility you can use to access SQL Server objects. This tool is discussed in Chapter 17. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg This page intentionally left blank Download from www.wowebook.com ptg CHAPTER 17 Administering SQL Server 2008 with PowerShell . Overview of PowerShell . PowerShell Scripting Basics . PowerShell in SQL Server 2008 . Step-By-Step Examples Windows PowerShell is Microsoft’s next-generation scripting language. More and more server-based products are being released with various levels of support for this scripting language. This chapter provides an overview of what Windows PowerShell is and describes some of the basic features of Windows PowerShell that SQL Server 2008 users should find useful. It also presents examples that demonstrate the use of these features with SQL Server 2008. SQL Server 2008 includes additional features to support PowerShell. The chapter also presents step-by-step examples showing how to use Windows PowerShell for various OS and database tasks. What’s New with PowerShell The integration of Windows PowerShell into the SQL Server environment is new to SQL Server 2008. The PowerShell scripting language has been around for some time, but it was not installed with prior versions of SQL Server or inte- grated into the SQL Server environment. With SQL Server 2008, it is installed, and there are now means for easily accessing SQL Server objects via this powerful scripting shell. The SQLPS utility is at the crux of the new PowerShell inte- gration in SQL Server 2008. SQLPS is a command-line shell that loads and registers SQL Server snap-ins that provide access to SQL Server via PowerShell. There is no need to manually reference or load the SQL Server libraries, which is Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 482 CHAPTER 17 Administering SQL Server 2008 with PowerShell necessary if you launch the PowerShell environment independently using the native PowerShell (powershell.exe) utility. In SQL Server 2008, the new SQLPS utility has also been integrated into the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) environment. You can launch a SQLPS session by right-clicking on an object in the Object Explorer tree and selecting Start PowerShell. A SQLPS command window is launched with the path for that object already referenced. You can now work with the properties of that object in a command-line environment that provides options that go beyond the traditional GUI environment. The integration of SQLPS is also visible in the SQL Server Agent. You can now add PowerShell job steps to SQL Server jobs. The PowerShell commands that you can enter for the job step are the same as you would enter interactively in a PowerShell session. This new kind of job step allows you to schedule PowerShell commands and integrate PowerShell actions with other SQL Server Agent job steps. Overview of PowerShell Windows PowerShell is Microsoft’s next-generation automation and scripting language. It is built on the Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework. Windows PowerShell was first released to the public in November 2006 as version 1.0. It was released as a separate install for Windows XP and Windows 2003, and shortly after, an install for Windows Vista was made available. Since its release, Windows PowerShell has been downloaded over two million times. NOTE From this point on, we refer to Windows PowerShell simply as PowerShell. When Windows Server 2008 was released, PowerShell was provided with the operating system. To have access to PowerShell, you simply had to add the Windows PowerShell feature through the new Server Manager. NOTE Currently, PowerShell is not available on Windows Server 2008 Core because of the .NET Framework requirement. Server 2008 Core officially doesn’t support the .NET Framework. In 2008, Microsoft announced that PowerShell is now part of its Common Engineering Criteria for 2009 and beyond. This announcement basically means that all of Microsoft’s server products should have some level of PowerShell support. Microsoft Exchange 2007 was the earliest server-class product to come out with full PowerShell support. In fact, all of Exchange’s administrative tasks are based on PowerShell. The PowerShell functionality in Exchange is actually named Exchange Management Shell. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 483 Overview of PowerShell NOTE PowerShell 1.0 is installed by default when SQL Server 2008 client software or Database Services are installed. Keep in mind that PowerShell 1.0 is not the latest version available. The next version, PowerShell version 2, is available for download and is installed by default with newer operating systems such as Windows Server 2008 R2. V2 introduces a number of new features that are not covered in this chapter. NOTE The intent of this chapter is to introduce the basic concepts and functionality of PowerShell and how it integrates with SQL Server 2008. Use of more advanced features is beyond the scope of what can be covered in a single chapter. For more information on PowerShell, be sure to check out the main PowerShell address at http://www.microsoft.com/powershell and also the PowerShell team blog at http:/ /blogs.msdn.com/powershell. A number of script examples and resources are also available in the Microsoft Technet PowerShell Script Center : http://te chnet.m icrosof t.com/e n-us/sc riptcen ter/ powershell.aspx If you want to get into some of the more advanced features and capabilities of PowerShell, you may also want to check out a PowerShell-specific book such as Windows PowerShell Unleashed from Sams Publishing. Start Using PowerShell Now PowerShell supports all the regular DOS commands and can run scripts written in any other language (the script engine specific to that scripting language still needs to be used). If any kind of scripting is currently being done, there is no reason why users can’t start using PowerShell now, even if they are not using its vast functionality. Common Terminology Here are some of the common terms used when working with PowerShell: . Cmdlet—This is the name given to the built-in commands in PowerShell. Cmdlets are the most basic component within PowerShell and are used when doing anything in PowerShell. They are always of the form “verb-noun.” Cmdlets also have argu- ments called parameters, and values can be passed to these parameters. . Script—With automation comes the requirement for scripts. Using scripts is as simple as putting a single cmdlet in a file and then executing the file. In PowerShell, scripts have the extension .ps1 and can be executed or invoked by simply calling it as ./my_script.ps1. . Pipeline—This PowerShell functionality allows a series of cmdlets to be combined together using the pipe character (|). The output from one cmdlet is then piped to the following cmdlet for further processing. 17 Download from www.wowebook.com . Windows PowerShell that SQL Server 2008 users should find useful. It also presents examples that demonstrate the use of these features with SQL Server 2008. SQL Server 2008 includes additional. maintained on each server. Creating a Master Server The first step in creating a multiserver environment involves the creation of a master server. SQL Server 2008 provides the Master Server Wizard,. inte- grated into the SQL Server environment. With SQL Server 2008, it is installed, and there are now means for easily accessing SQL Server objects via this powerful scripting shell. The SQLPS utility