Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Unleashed- P54 ppsx

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.. CHAPTER 16 SQL Server

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-FIGURE 16.19 Alert options

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

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

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)

ptg 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

FIGURE 16.22 Configuring event forwarding

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

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Administering SQL

Server 2008 with

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

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

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://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/

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