Bill Ramos on SQL Server

New Manageability White Papers for SQL Server 2008

2009-06-12T22:48:17Z

TechNet Books Online just published three whitepapers - check them out!

SQL Server 2008 Management Data Warehouse: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd939169.aspx
SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd938891.aspx
Understanding and Using PowerShell Support in SQL Server 2008: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd938892.aspx

DAT315 – Session Review for SSMS Tips & Tricks Session

2009-05-15T19:37:41Z

One of the attendees of my TechEd session “DAT315 - Manageability Series: Uncover Hidden Secrets of T-SQL Scripts with Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio” suggested that I post the list of demos that I did for the session so that they could remember the ah-ha moments. Here we go.

Object Explorer Details (OED)

The property pane below the list of objects can be expanded to show more properties.
Right click on the column header in OED to add columns. Columns can be sorted. Settings stored for each object type.
When you copy selected rows, the headers are included. the example was to sort tables by row count, copy the top 10 items, paste in Excel. In Excel, press Alt+F1 to chart the result.
Navigate as you type works in OED based on the sorted column. The same works in Object Explorer – just need to include the schema name. Use the Filter command to focus on a set of objects you are working with.
Use the Search command in the toolbar area of OED to look for object names. If you are in a database, search looks for all objects with the matching name. Use LIKE expressions. If you start the search at the server level, search works across all databases. The Stop command halts the search.

Shell Tips

Customize the toolbar through Tools | Customize or right click on toolbar and choose Customize command. Move toolbar buttons like Debug, Stop, and Parse to the end of your toolbar so that you don’t click them by accident.
While in customize, take commands like Edit.SelectAll, and Edit.Delete and drag them on to the toolbar to duplicate the old Query Analyzer Erase button.
Showed off the Go to Find Combo box for Find, Help, and Commands.
Use Dynamic Help command to show help for commands based on keywords the cursor is on with the T-SQL editor window.

Solutions and Projects

Create Projects for your scripts. You can use multiple projects per solution to organize your work.
Set the Connect for your project to use as the default connection for scripts in your project.
Bookmarks allow you to save positions within your scripts for marking TODO areas or places of interest. You can create folders to organize your bookmarks within your solution. Use the Edit | Bookmark command set to see the keystrokes. Bookmarks are saved with the solution.
Use Templates to store your standard scripts of interest. Each user has their own folder that you could push changes to using SMS. Use the Ctrl+Shirt+M command to replace template parameters that look like:
<object_name, datatype, default_value>
Showed how you can change the default template for the New Stored Procedure command by going into the Program Files directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\SqlWorkbenchProjectItems\Sql\Stored Procedure.
Modify the SQLFile.sql file in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\SqlWorkbenchProjectItems\Sql to add text to New Query windows.

Editor Tips

Change the color of the Editor status bar to help prevent you from executing the wrong query against a production server. Use the connection properties for Registered Servers, or the Connection properties in the Connection dialog for OE or Editor windows to change the color.
Use Tools | Options for Fonts & Colors to change the size of your tooltip. You can also change the size of the results in grids, etc.
To Block Select text, use Alt+Mouse moving. With the keyboard, use Shift+Alt+ArrowKeys
Delete leading Whitespace for a line of text or selected lines of text with Ctrl+K, Ctrl+\ combo.
Use the spitter control at the upper right corner of the text editor window to split your file just like MS Word. You can also use the Window | Split command to do the same. Window | Remove Split to do just as the command states.
Easily add a new line below the current line – regardless of cursor position in the line using Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Add a line above the current one using Ctrl+Enter.
Move a line down using Alt+Shift+T. Sorry – no command to move the line up.
Using Ctrl+I to incrementally search for text in the editor. It finds as you type. When you found what you are looking for, use F3 to Find Next and Sift+F3 to find previous. Search term goes into the Go to Find combo.
If you collapse regions in you text and can’t find it using the Find command, make sure you set the search option Find in Hidden text.
Use Ctrl+J with intellisense to replace one column with another. Use object aliases to make finding items easier.
You can set options like – turn off Intellisense when working against a stressed production server – by using the Tools | options setting for the T-SQL Editor.

Debugging

Demonstrated the 3 part series that I blogged about. Start with “Basic Debugging”

SSMS Start-Up Options and Activity Monitor

Demonstrated how to change your Startup options to launch Activity Monitor each time you start SSMS.
Demonstrated how to use Activity Monitor to track down queries with missing indexes. See blog entry “Not more excuses of missing indexes with Activity Monitor in SQL Server 2008”
Demonstrated how to use Activity Monitor to track down blocking queries.

Multi-Server Query Execution

From registered servers, run queries against any folder. Status bar is in a different color and shows how many servers will execute the query.
Configure output options to include Server name and Login name in the results using Tools | Options for Multi-Server queries.
Demonstrated using the template file by dragging the ChangeSAPassword template into a blank multi-server query editor. Here is the script example.

-- Change SA password across servers
USE [master]
GO
ALTER LOGIN [sa] WITH PASSWORD='<Password_String, sysname, SAPassWord>';
GO
SELECT name, sid, modify_date
FROM sys.sql_logins
WHERE name = 'sa';
GO

Use the Ctrl+Shift+M key to replace the SA password.

Thank you everyone who attended the session.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server,TechEd,SSMS

PowerShell Script Examples from DAT314

2009-05-14T05:36:42Z

I’d like to thank everyone who attended my TechEd session today titled “Manageability Series: Microsoft SQL Server Automation on Steroids, Including PowerShell Support”. Sean McCown – SQL MVP – and all around DBA – creator of the Midnight DBA videos available at: http://midnightdba.itbookworm.com/ – was kind enough to stop by after the session to point out how the SQLPS shell doesn’t support plug-ins. Chad Miller’s SQLPSX library of useful scripts for working with SQL Server will work with the SQLPS shell – you just might not get all the functionality. Your best bet is to configure the standard PS shell as Michiel Wories describes in his blog post at: “SQL Server PowerShell is Here!”.

Here is a list of the PowerShell script examples that I demonstrated in my session that Buck Woody provided to me.

# TechEd PowerShell Overview examples for DAT314
# Originally from Buck Woody http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/default.aspx

# Show Databases not backed up in a day
DIR "SQLSERVER:\SQL\SQL1\SQL2K8\Databases" |
where-Object {((get-date)-($_.LastBackupDate)).days -gt 1} |
sort-Object -Property LastBackupDate |
select-Object Name, RecoveryModel, LastBackupDate

# Server Discovery
$machine_name = "SQL1"
get-wmiobject -class win32_service -computer $machine_name |
where { $_.name -like 'MSSQL*' -and $_.Description -like '*transaction*'} |
select name |
ConvertTo-HTML -title "Services" -head "<link rel='stylesheet' href='styles.css' type='text/css' />" |
Out-File C:\ServiceNames.html

# Show all services and their states using WMI
$strComputer = "."
$tab = [char]9
$colItems = get-wmiobject -class "Win32_Service" -namespace "root\cimv2" -computername $strComputer | sort "State"
foreach ($objItem in $colItems) {write-host $objItem.State $tab $objItem.Name}

#Write to the log:
$log = New-Object System.Diagnostics.EventLog
$log_type = "Application"
$source = "ApplicationName"
$message = "Message To Enter Go TechEd"
$eventid = 12347
$type = "Information"
$log.set_log($log_type)
$log.set_source($source)
$log.WriteEntry($message,$type,$eventid)
#Read the log:
get-eventlog application | Where-Object {$_.EventID -eq 12347}
get-eventlog application | Where-Object {$_.source -eq "ApplicationName"}
#Clear the event log
Get-EventLog -list | % {$_.Clear()}

# Accout Group names using WMI
$groups = Get-WmiObject –computerName SQL1 Win32_Group
$groups | %{$_.Name}

# Simple Yes and No
$s = 'Welcome to Powershell - You Like?'
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
$d = [Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show($s, "Windows Form", [Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons]::YesNo, [Windows.Forms.MessageBoxIcon]::Question)
$d -eq [Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::Yes

#--------------------------------------------
# SQLPSX - SQL Server PowerShell Extensions
# By Chad Miller
# http://sqlpsx.codeplex.com/
# Set of useful CMDLETs that use SMO objects
#--------------------------------------------
# View some of the commands
Get-Command *et-Sql* | Select Name

# With SQLPSX
$server = Get-SqlServer 'SQL1\DEMO1'

# With SMO
#Connect and run a command using SMO
[reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo")
$sqlServer = new-object ("Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server") "SQL1\DEMO1"

# Get server processes
$server.EnumProcesses() | Format-Table

$db = Get-SqlDatabase 'SQL1\SQL2K8' AdventureWorks
Get-SqlUser $db | Format-Table

Get-SqlLogin $server | select members

Technorati Tags: SQL Server,TechEd,PowerShell

Welcome to TechEd 2009

2009-05-11T06:37:18Z

This is my first TechEd in a long time. The last time I spoke at a TechEd was back in 1997 in Japan! I have three sessions this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday that talk about how to get the most out of our manageability suite of tools in SSMS.

If you happen to be at TechEd this year, stop by the Technical Learning Center at the DAT area and say hello. I’ll be on Twitter as well @billramo talking about #teched.

Technorati Tags: TechEd

SQLPSX from Chad Miller

2009-05-07T06:19:10Z

I’ve been playing around Chad Miller’s SQL Server PowerShell Extensions – SQLPSX 1.5 on CodePlex getting ready for my TechEd session Manageability Series: Microsoft SQL Server Automation on Steroids, Including Powershell on Wed 5/13.

Chad has developed huge library of Powershell cmdlets, functions, and scripts that hit the key scenarios for SQL Server DBAs. All of the functions that Chad developed can be accomplished using the SMO object model calls, but Chad’s functions exposes them like you would expect to see them in PowerShell.

For example, once you install his library along with using either the SQL PowerShell shell or a PowerShell 1.0 shell referencing the SQL snapins – see Running SQL Server PowerShell – you can mix and match functionality.

For example, take his example of running DBCC CheckDB for a database.

#Get a database object and set to a variable
$db = get-sqldatabase 'SQL1\DEMO1' pubs

#Run a checkdatabse
invoke-sqldatabasecheck $db

That’s all it takes – no need to use the SMO object model. You can use a command like this to run DBCC CheckDB against all databases:

cd SQLSERVER:\SQL\SQL1\DEMO1\Databases
dir | invoke-sqldatabasecheck

This is all very cool and something that I’ll be presenting in my TechEd session. Be sure to check out SQLPSX and Chad’s excellent blog.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server,PowerShell,TechEd

Transact-SQL Debugger for SQL Server 2008 – Part 3

2009-04-12T22:39:43Z

In part 3 of working with the debugger, I’ll talk about how to set breakpoints and the trick to setting them in stored procedures and triggers.

This 3 part series covers:

Basic debugging
Configure remote debugging & best practices
Debugging triggers and stored procedures with breakpoints

The trick with setting breakpoints in called stored procedures and triggers is that they need to be set within the temporary file that the debugger creates for the object.

In this scenario, I’m going to call the HumanResources.uspUpdateEmployeeHireInfo stored procedure in the 2005 version of AdventureWorks. This stored procedure updates two tables: Employee and EmployPayHistory both in the HumanResources schema. The goal of the example is to set a breakpoint in the trigger for the Employee table and then show how the debugger catches it the next time through.

The obvious thing that you would try is to Modify the trigger and then toggling the breakpoint [F9] on the line you want to stop at. The problem is that the debugger has no context. so the approach shown below won’t work.

What you need to do is step into the stored procedure or trigger you want to break on and set the breakpoint in the temp file the debugger creates.

Let’s step through the example starting with the script to call the stored procedure.

I’ve toggled the breakpoint to demonstrate how breakpoints can be set in a script of batch statements. When U press [ALT]+[F5] twice to start and continue debugging, you’ll see the debug stops at the break point in the script.

You will now want to Step Into the stored procedure with [F11]. The debugger loads up the stored procedure into a new editor window and stops at the first executable line.

Notice in the Call Stack window that procedure name is followed by (SQL1\SQL2K8.AdventureWorks) indicating the server instance and database name context for the debugging session. If you hover over the statement, you will see a tool top showing the parameters with values called and the current line.

Step into [F11] again moves to the BEGIN TRY statement. [F11] again to the BEGIN TRANSACTION statement. One more [F11] positions you on the UPDATE statement for the Employee table.

Step into [F11] the UPDATE statement causes the debugger to load the update trigger for the Employee table.

At this point, we can now set a breakpoint [F9] on the UPDATE statement for the trigger.

In the breakpoint window for this example, you’ll notice something interesting.

You’ll see that the debugger is actually showing the object_id for the trigger name. This way the the debugger can keep track of the breakpoint for future sessions.

For now, lets press [ALT]+[F5] to let the debugger continue. Lets test out the breakpoint for the trigger.

First toggle off the breakpoint [F9] in line 11 of the calling script. Then press [ALT]+[F5] to start the debugger. You’ll see that the breakpoint is still present in the Breakpoint Window.

One more continue [ALT]+[F5] stops right where you want!

Let’s finish the debug session with the Continue command [ALT]+[F5].

At this point, I should point out that breakpoints are persisted with the database solution/project. If you didn’t have solution, any breakpoints you defined will go away when you close SSMS. To learn more about solutions, you can refer to the help topic – Using Solution Explorer.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server Mangement Studio,SQL Server 2000,Transact-SQL Debugger

Transact-SQL Debugger for SQL Server 2008 – Part 2

2009-04-12T07:02:13Z

This blog will go over what you need to know for setting up your environment for remote debugging along with best practices and other things to consider when using the debugger in SSMS.

This 3 part series covers:

Basic debugging
Configure remote debugging & best practices
Debugging triggers and stored procedures with breakpoints

The debugger consists of 2 components. The server component is installed with the sqlservr.exe. The client component is installed as part of SSMS. When SSMS and the instance you want to debug are on the same system, there is nothing configure. You do however need to login to the instance as a member of the sysadmin role.

If you need to debug a remote instance, you need to enable the program and port exceptions using the Windows Firewall Control Panel application on both computers.

On the computer that is running the instance of the Database Engine, in Windows Firewall, specify the following information:

Add TCP port 135 to the exceptions list.

Add the program sqlservr.exe to the exceptions list. By default, sqlservr.exe is installed in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.InstanceName\MSSQL\Binn, where InstanceName is MSSQLSERVER for the default instance, and the instance name for any named instance.

If the domain policy requires network communications to be done through IPsec, you must also add UDP port 4500 and UDP port 500 to the exception list.

With the server instance taken care of, you now need to take care of SSMS on the client.

On the computer that is running SQL Server Management Studio, in Windows Firewall, specify the following information:

Add TCP port 135 to the exceptions list.
Add program ssms.exe (SQL Server Management Studio) to the exceptions list. By default, ssms.exe is installed in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE.

You are now ready to launch SSMS for remote debugging.

It is highly recommended that Transact-SQL code be debugged on a test server, not a production server, for the following reasons:

Debugging is a highly privileged operation. Therefore, only members of the sysadmin fixed server role are allowed to debug in SQL Server.
Debugging sessions often run for long periods of time while you investigate the operations of several Transact-SQL statements. Locks, such as update locks, that are acquired by the session might be held for extended periods, until the session is ended or the transaction committed or rolled back.

That’s it for part 2.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server management Studio,SQL Server 2008,Transact-SQL Debugger

Transact-SQL Debugger for SQL Server 2008 – Part 1

2009-04-12T02:22:16Z

In my next series of blog posts, I’ll explore the Transact-SQL Debugger for SQL Server 2008. This feature only works against database instances of SQL Server 2008. If you need to use a debugger for SQL Server 2005, you’ll have to use the Visual Studio Professional SKU or better. Please refer to the MSDN topic on How to: Enable SQL Server 2005 Debugging.

This series will cover:

Basic debugging
Configure remote debugging & best practices
Debugging triggers and stored procedures with breakpoints

The Transact-SQL debugger in SQL Server Management Studio enables you to find errors in Transact-SQL scripts, stored procedures, triggers, and functions by observing their run-time behavior. You can start the debugger when you are using the Database Engine Query Editor window. By using the Transact-SQL debugger, you can do the following:

Step through the Transact-SQL statements in the editor line by line, or set breakpoints to stop at specific lines.
Step into or over Transact-SQL stored procedures, functions, or triggers that are run by the code in the editor window.
Watch the values that are assigned to variables, and observe system objects such as the call stack and threads.

The examples that I’m going to show are based on the SQL Server 2005 version of AdventureWorks that can be downloaded here. My demo for this post assumes that SSMS in debugging and instance on the same machine. I’ll cover remote debugging in Part 2. If you need to deal with remote debugging and can’t wait – check out the help topic on Configuring and Starting the Transact-SQL Debugger.

To kick things off, open the script file that you want to debug and then click on the green debug toolbar button or press [ALT]-[F5].

SSMS launches into a Debugging session by clearing aside may of your tool windows, opens the debugger specific tool windows and debugger toolbar, and displays a Yellow arrow indicating the next statement to execute.

To step through statements like two set statements in this example, press the F11 key twice. You’ll notice that the Locals is now populated with the two variables.

The next F11 action then steps into the stored procedure. If you press the Step-Over [F10], you would go right over the stored procedure and in this case – end the debugging session.

The debugger opens a special editor window for the stored procedure that you just stepped into along with hints that you don’t really want to make edits to this file.

The other thing you’ll notice is the Locals window now shows the value for the SP parameters and the Call Stack window is updated to show that you are now in the SP.

The Locals window allows you to edit values so that you can change scenarios inside of the debug session. You can use the mouse or the [CTRL]+[ALT]+[V], [L] command to navigate to the Locals window. This is a little different pattern of calling up debugger windows like [CTRL]+[ALT]+[C] for the Call Stack window because [CTRL]+[ALT]+[L] was already taken for displaying the Solution Explorer. Back to the task – now double click on the value 819 for @StartProductId and then type in 820 and press [ENTER]. You’ll see that the value changes color to Red meaning it’s been modified.

We could continue to step thru the procedure, but since this procedure only has one more command, we can press the Step Out [SHIFT]+[F11] command to complete execution in the stored procedure.

If you had additional statements in the original script DebugSPExample.sql script like this:

The debugger would set focus to the editor window and indicate in the status bar “Debugging query” to remind you that you are still debugging.

If you press [ALT]+[F5], you would complete the debugging session for this demo.

Here are the keystrokes for the debugger with the Standard keyboard setting.

Action	Standard
Start or continue debugging	ALT+F5
Stop debugging	SHIFT+F5
Step into	F11
Step over	F10
Step out	SHIFT+F11
Implement the Run To Cursor command	CTRL+F10
Display the QuickWatch dialog box	CTRL+ALT+Q
Toggle breakpoint	F9
Delete all breakpoints	CTRL+SHIFT+F9
Display the Breakpoints window	CTRL+ALT+B
Break all	CTRL+ALT+BREAK
Display the Watch 1 window	CTRL+ALT+W, 1
Display the Watch 2 window	CTRL+ALT+W, 2
Display the Watch 3 window	CTRL+ALT+W, 3
Display the Watch 4 window	CTRL+ALT+W, 4
Display the Autos window	CTRL+ALT+V, A
Display the Locals window	CTRL+ALT+V, L
Display the Immediate window	CTRL+ALT+I
Display the Call Stack window	CTRL+ALT+C
Display the Threads window	CTRL+ALT+H

That’s it for debugging basics for part 1.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server Management Studio,Transact-SQL Debugger,SQL Server 2008

SQL Server Management Studio Tips – Part 4

2009-04-11T05:58:15Z

This is the fourth in a series of posts highlighting Scott Cate’s video series of Visual Studio tricks over the last few months from Sara Ford’s blog.

As I mentioned in Part 1, many of the commands are documented in the SQL Server 2008 help topic – SQL Server Management Studio Keyboard Shortcuts.

Blog Post	Comments
#57 [Ctrl]+[J] invokes statement completion	This works best when using aliases.
#59 Resize the Statement Completion Window	A handy way to see more items where vertical size is persisted.
#61 Presenters Must Read .. Increase the Editor Tooltip Font Size	This is something that I already have in my demo environment. It’s useful for people with old eyes as well.
#62 Display parameter info for a function	Using [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[SPACE] is very handy if you missed the parameter info the first time.
#64 Keyboard Shortcut to Display Quick Info Tooltip	In SSMS, the command is a little different. You need to use [CTRL]+[K], [CTRL]+[I]
#65 Edit.WordComplete via Intellisense	This is handy typing in column names without having to display the drop down list. *[CTRL]+[Space] or [ALT]+[RIGHT]*
#66 Using Quick find in the Current Document	Calls out how you can also dock the Find tool window.
#67 Search in hidden text in the editor	Something to remember if you get in the habit of collapsing statements.

That’s all of Scott’s great tips that also apply to SSMS.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server Management Studio,SQL Server 2008,SQL Server 2005

SQL Server Management Studio Tips – Part 3

2009-04-10T06:23:00Z

This is the third in a series of posts highlighting Scott Cate’s video series of Visual Studio tricks over the last few months from Sara Ford’s blog.

As I mentioned in Part 1, many of the commands are documented in the SQL Server 2008 help topic – SQL Server Management Studio Keyboard Shortcuts.

Blog Post	Comments
#33 Drag and Drop techniques inside the Visual Studio Editor	This post shows how you can use the Ctrl key to make a copy of text you are dragging in the editor and how to drag text into a tabbed editor window.
#34 Cut and Paste Collapsed code in Visual Studio	With SQL Server 2008 Intellisense, it’s important to know how hidden text is impacted by cut/copy/paste.
#39 Middle button support in the Visual Studio Editor	I keep forgetting you can click on the wheel of the mouse to scroll.
#41 Forward and Backward navigation in Visual Studio Editor	Only [CTRL] + [-] works for moving back, but it’s still a handy time saver. If you want to add the tool bar button to your query editor toolbar, you’ll find Navigate Backwards in the View section.
#43 Select from Cursor to last “Go Back” marker in Visual Studio	This is real handy when you are moving the cursor and realize you want to select the text. *[CTRL]+[=]* = Select from current cursor position to last Go Back marker.
#44 Delete whole word (or whitespace) at a time forward and backwards	This is real handy for deleting columns in the project list. [CTRL]+[BACKSPACE] to delete the word to the left and [CTRL]+[DELETE] to delete words to the right.
#45 Move cursor to top or bottom of screen (without scrolling)	The use of [CTRL]+{UP ARROW] or [DOWN ARROW] keys to scroll without changing the cursor location is very handy.
#47 Swapping Anchor points (THIS IS COOL!) in Visual Studio	When not getting the initial selection right – this is very handy. In SSMS, the keystroke is actually [CTRL]+[K], [A]
#56 Show Shortcut Keys in Visual Studio Toolbar Tooltips	Great aid to learn keyboard shortcuts for toolbar buttons.

On to Part 4 for tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server Management Studio,SQL Server 2008,SQL Server 2005

SQL Server Management Studio Tips – Part 2

2009-04-09T08:14:08Z

This is the second in a series of posts highlighting Scott Cate’s video series of Visual Studio tricks over the last few months from Sara Ford’s blog.

As I mentioned in Part 1, many of the commands are documented in the SQL Server 2008 help topic – SQL Server Management Studio Keyboard Shortcuts.

Blog Post	Comments
#14 Word Wrap, and Word Wrap Glyph	Toggling word wrap is handy in certain scenarios. You can also add the Toggle Word Wrap mode command to your toolbar.
#17 Keyboard Shortcut to Comment and Uncomment Code	SSMS is slightly different. You need to do [CTRL]+[K] followed by [CTRL]+[C] to comment or [CTRL]+[U] to uncomment.
#20 Create New Line; Above and Below your Current Line	This is handy because you can add the line without worrying about the current position in the line you are on. *[CTRL]+[ENTER]* = Insert Line Above (Same effect as *[HOME],[ENTER],[UP]) [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[ENTER]* = Insert Line Below (Same effect as *[END],[ENTER]*)
#21 Transpose Characters, words, and lines in the editor	This one doesn’t work completely SSMS. Just these commands work: *[CTRL]+[SHIFT]+T* = Transpose a word *[ALT]+[SHIFT]+T* = Transpose a line
#22 Delete the beginning white space for selected line(s)	Very handy way to remove indented white space with [CTRL]+[K] followed by [CTRL]+[\]
#24 Uppercase and Lowercase Keyboard Shortcuts	SSMS is a little different on this post where: *[CTRL]+[SHIFT]+U* = Make Uppercase *[CTRL]+[SHIFT]+L* = Make Lowercase

Tomorrow – Part 3

Technorati Tags: SQL Server Management Studio,SQL Server 2008,SQL Server 2005

SQL Server Management Studio Tips – Part 1

2009-04-09T07:29:10Z

Scott Cate has been publishing a video series of Visual Studio tricks over the last few months from Sara Ford’s blog. It turns out when you use the Standard keyboard scheme in SSMS under Tools | Options Keyboard, many of them work because SSMS is built on top of Visual Studio’s code base.

Just about all of the commands listed in Scott’s tips can be found in the SQL Server 2008 help topic – SQL Server Management Studio Keyboard Shortcuts. Scott brings them to life in his series to reveal how these commands can make your day in SSMS just a little bit easier. If you are using the SQL Server 2000 keyboard scheme, you’ll need to look up the keystrokes in the above help topic to see if there is a change.

Here are some of the relevant video blog posts that I’ve verified in SSMS to get things going in part 1.

Blog Post	Comments
#1 Incremental Search [CTRL]+[I]	Press [Ctrl]+[I] and start typing to search as you type. *[CTRL]+[I]* = Incremental Search *[CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[I]* (Back Search) *[F3]* – Find Next [SHIFT]+[F3] – Find Previous
#2 Block or Column Select, Cut, Copy, Paste	Using [ALT] + Mouse drag for column highlighting was something I would have never thought of. *[SHIFT]+[Arrow Key]* = Select one letter or line (for up\|down) at a time *[SHIFT]+[CTRL]+[Arrow Key]* = Word Select *[SHIFT]+[ALT] +[Arrow Key]* = Block Select *[ALT]* + Mouse Drag = Column\|Block Select from mouse X,Y to new X,Y coordinates.
#4 Window Splitting in Visual Studio	Being able to split a given editor window to see multiple parts of the same file is always handy. This video post also covers over splitting tabs into groups. *[MENU]* Window\|Split
#5 Move Tool Windows Using the keyboard	Using [ALT]+[F6] is another keyboard gem for moving between docked tool windows like Object Explorer and Registered servers. The ability to move a window with [ALT] + [-] is handy. *[ALT]+[MINUS {-}]* = Show Tool Window Move Menu *[ALT]+[F6]* = Toggle Forward through all open Tool Windows *[CTRL]+[PgDn]* = Move Right through tab groups in Tool Window *[CTRL]+[PgUp]* = Move Left through tab groups in Tool Window *[SHIFT]+[F6]* = Toggle Backwards through all open Tool Windows
#6 Resize Tool Windows Using the keyboard	This is a tricky one where you need to press [ALT] and release followed by [SPACE]
#7 Keyboard Navigation to Tool Window Toolbars	I recently amazed a co-worker with this one using [SHIFT]+[ALT]. This is handy in Object Explorer’s tool window.
#8 Undocking and Redocking in and out of Floating Windows	For me, this is handy when I have Activity Monitor docked at the bottom of my screen and I want to see it in a larger window. Just Double-Click on the title bar for the docked window.
#9 Move Tool Windows to a Tabbed Document	This feature works with Tool Windows like Object Explorer Details and Activity Monitor which by default look like tabbed documents.
#10 Using and Avoiding Dock Targets	Holding down the [CTRL] key when moving dockable windows can avoid embarrassing cursing.
#11 Visual Studio Full Screen Options	[SHIFT]+[ALT]+[ENTER] to toggle full screen mode gives you maximum real estate for your T-SQL editor.

More of Scott’s tips in Part 2.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server Management Studio,SQL Server 2008

SQL Server Agent and Database Mail – Better Together

2009-03-31T06:10:14Z

This post is how to configure SQL Agent to use Database Mail for sending an email to an operator in the event a job fails. I was hoping that there was a single MSDN topic on how to do this, but no such luck. The steps are fairly straight forward, but I managed to get hung up on one of the help topics that describes the process. So I’m writing this post so others don’t fall into the same trap.

The steps that I’ll walk though to get you up and running include:

Configuring Database Mail
Configuring SQL Server Agent Mail to use Database Mail
Setting up an Operator
Adding the a notification to a job

Step 1. Configuring Database Mail, you can refer to my previous post – Using Live/Hotmail/MSN for SQL Server 2008 Database Mail or SQL MVP Pinal Dave’s post for general configuration of Database Mail.

Step 2. This is where I got a bit confused. There is an BOL topic on Using Database Mail with SQL Server Agent on MSDN that’s a bit confusing. The first two steps in the instructions for configuring Database Mail are covered when you run through the wizard as described in Pinal Dave’s posting in step 1 above. The next two steps talk about configuring the profile and adding user permissions to a role DB role in msdb. You can skip these steps and go to step 5 – How to: Configure SQL Server Agent Mail to Use Database Mail. It lays out:

In Object Explorer, expand a server.
Right-click SQL Server Agent, and then click Properties.
Click Alert System.
Select Enable Mail Profile.
In the Mail system list, select Database Mail.
In the Mail profile list, select a mail profile for Database Mail.
Restart SQL Server Agent. The critical step!

Step 3. Setting up an operator is fairly straight forward. You can use the UI to set the Name and the E-mail name to get going. Just right click on the Operators node under SQL Server Agent and issue the New Operator command. You can also go the T-SQL route:

USE [msdb]
GO
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_operator @name=N'MyOperator',
        @enabled=1,
        @pager_days=0,
        @email_address=N'Notify.Email@MyCompany.com'
GO

Step 4. Finally, you then go to the job you want to be notified about, bring up the Properties page, and go to the Notifications page. Then complete the dialog as shown below with any additional options you would like.

Again, the T-SQL would look like this:

USE [msdb]
GO
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_name=N'syspolicy_purge_history',
@notify_level_email=2, – failed job
@notify_email_operator_name=N'billramo'
GO

SQL Agent is now configured to let you know when things don’t go right with your automated agent jobs.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server Agent,Database Mail,SQL Server 2008

Using Live/Hotmail/MSN for SQL Server 2008 Database Mail

2009-03-30T06:14:27Z

Over the weekend, I was playing around with trying to use my hotmail email account for SQL Server 2008 Database Mail. After searching, I found a promising post on the MSDN Forum under SQL Tools. In the forum posted, it was suggested that you need to use a premium account – this is not true. What you need to know is that on the account page, you need to leave the Display name and Reply e-mail fields blank for the DB Mail to successfully send emails and shown below:

For some reason, adding the Display name or Reply e-mail causes email server to reject the email with an error message that looks like this:

The mail could not be sent to the recipients because of the mail server failure. (Sending Mail using Account 1 (2009-03-27T20:50:40). Exception Message: Cannot send mails to mail server. (Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 5.7.3 Requested action aborted; user not authenticated).

Knowing the Server name for MSN,Live,Hotmail as smtp.live.com and the Port number as 25 are also helpful. With this information, you can follow the step-by-step instructions configuring DB Mail that SQL MVP Pinal Dave posted on this blog.

Technorati Tags: SQL Server Management Studio,Database Mail,Hotmail

Database Manager for IIS 7 RC Preview

2009-03-27T06:16:39Z

I recently had a chance to preview the Release Candidate of Database Manager 1.0 for IIS7. If you are looking for a very lightweight tool that is easy to install for doing basic operations against SQL Server used by your IIS applications, this tool is just for you. It’s much smaller than SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express (SSMSE) – of course that means less features.

In what Database Manager lacks in features, it makes up with a simple query editor that will run your statements in the window as a batch. The query editor has simple colorization to point out keywords to catch obvious mistakes.

What makes Database Manager nice for developers is that it connects directly to your application’s database. This way you can focus on your project instead of seeing everything possible with the server like you get with SSMSE. You can connect to additional databases within their explorer.

As you can see, the explorer only shows Tables, Stored Procedures, and Views. If you want to create other objects, you’ll need to use the query editor.

Features include:

Add, rename, drop, and edit tables

View and manage primary keys, indexes and foreign keys

Data editing

Establish connections to multiple databases

Create and execute queries

Create, alter and delete stored procedures

Create, alter and delete views

Manage stored procedures

Manage both local and remote database from your machine

IIS 7.0 Manager provides remote management capabilities with a clean firewall-friendly option for managing a remote SQL Server

Exposes a public extensibility platform that enables the development of providers to support other databases

Compatible with SQL 2008 and 2005

If you are using IIS 7.0, I recommend the Database Manager for those times you want to test out your queries for your application or make tweaks to existing objects.

The IIS team has put together a nice set of tutorials and videos on their download site at http://www.iis.net/extensions/DatabaseManager

Technorati Tags: Database Manager IIS,SQL Server 2008 Express