I'm nearing the end of a SQL Server upgrade project, migrating from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2008 R2. The company uses SQL Server Agent to run about 150 jobs which execute DTS packages to do the work of moving data around. Now, there are any number of ways to move these jobs from one server to the other, but I wanted to be able to exclude ...

Yesterday I delivered a session on maintaining a system inventory and gathering performance data with PowerShell.  The session went well and I had great questions and I'd like to thank everyone who attended the session.  I've attached the slides and demo scripts from the session for your use. Allen

There's a lot of excitement in the SQL Server world right now, with the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) release of SQL Server 2012, and the availability of SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). My personal speaking schedule has exploded as well. Just this past Saturday I presented a session called Gather SQL Server Performance Data with PowerShell. There ...

In yesterday's post I showed you how I set up performance data gathering in an environment where I can't directly update my analysis database. Today I'll show you how I load that data into SQL Server for the analysis. First, I create tables to contain the performance counters in my analysis database. Here's what they look like: CREATE TABLE ...

In a session yesterday I was reminded of the power of a tool on every server, Logman, to manage performance data gathering. It's a pretty amazing tool, and I'm starting to get to know how much more it can do than I've even considered, but here's a simple example of what I've done so far. First things first, I'm going to leverage the SMO Server ...

In my last blog post I walked through a way to grab the duration from the EnumHistory method of the JobServer/Job object. As I worked through getting a solution in place for a client I found that the duration calculation was only part of the problem. First, when EnumHistory() is invoked, it runs the sp_help_jobhistory stored procedure. You can ...

This evening I'll be presenting a brand new session on installing and managing SQL Server 2012 with PowerShell. Here's the abstract: Windows Server 2008 introduced Server Core, the operating system without the Graphical User Interface. SQL Server 2012 is the first version of SQL Server to support Server Core. To gain the maximum efficiency from ...

I'll be presenting at the South East Michigan SQL Server User Group (SEMSSUG) tonight. The session will be Gather SQL Server Performance Data with PowerShell. We all know how important it is to keep a baseline of performance metrics that allow us to know when something is wrong and help us to track it down and fix the problem. We don't always ...

When I first learned to program, back in the fall of 1968, the first 'word' the computer I connected to said to me was 'READY'.  That summed it up neatly. The computer was ready to do work, it was just waiting for me to give it instruction. As I progressed through my knowledge of programming and my focus on providing businesses useful ...

For the last year and a half or so I've been presenting a session on how to gather perfmon data with PowerShell. Here's a link to my blog after the 2010 Tech Ed conference that has the download scripts. These scripts include the database tables and stored procedures I use to store the data for reporting. Sometimes when I'm at client sites I'm ...