This presentation gives an introduction to evaluating a daily checklist against 100+ instances of SQL Server while you get a cup of coffee. It will be given at SQLRally 2011

1. Evaluate your Daily Checklist against 100+ instances of SQL Server while you get a cup of coffee John Sterrett (@JohnSterrett) http://johnsterrett.com/go/PBM 5/12/2011

2. Thank you Attendees & Sponsors

3. Titles are set to 34 pt, ArialClick to edit Master title style Level 1 text is 28 pt Arial Level 2 text is 24 pt Arial Level 3 text is 20 pt Arial Level 4 text is 20 pt Arial Level 5 text is 20 pt Arial Session Title 3

4. I am not an expert but I stayed at a Holiday Inn once…. Founder of WVPASS (SQL UG) I reside in Wheeling, WV (Pittsburgh, PA) Work for Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP Responsible 100+ Instances of SQL Server Responsible for PeopleSoft About Me….

5. My Story…. BackupsCorruptionFailed mission critical SQL Jobs Failed Jobs Low Disk Space Urgency Process improvements Continuing education Projects Index Management Performance Tuning Pittsburgh Pirates winning the world series Everything else… Importance Comes from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

6. Do you have a daily checklist? What is your daily checklist? Full backups Transactional Log backups Free space SQL Agents are enabled SQL Agent jobs succeeded How do you evaluate your daily checklist? Central Management Server (CMS) Policy Based Management (PBM) Daily Checklist Questions

7. Daily Checklist

8. Daily Checklist?

9. Daily Checklist?

10. Job Notifications…..

11. Trust but verify….. Is the SQL Agent enabled for all servers? Does email operator exist for all jobs? Is the operator the same across all servers? Is Database Mail enabled for all servers?

12. I prefer notifications and….

13. Similar to local server group except it’s a repository for your team. Group database servers Environment Version Location Apply scripts against all servers in a group Not all checklist items can be validated with PBM Can use SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Central Management Server (CMS)

14. Which version of SQL should I use?

15. MSDB is used to store servers and groups Servers – msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_registered_servers_internal Groups – msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_server_groups_internal CMS Internals

16. CMS Security Security – ServerGroupAdministratorRole role can manage the central management server. ServerGroupReaderRole role is required to connect to a central management server. Windows Authentication of the individual servers is used to execute t-sql and policies.

17. First look at CMS

18. Create Configuration Management Server Create Groups Register Servers Execute scripts against a group Find missing backups Find failed SQL Agent Jobs Check SQL Agent Service is enabled DEMO

19. CMS itself cannot automate query execution. CMS only supports windows authentication Query results are ordered by server name Cannot include host server (Unless you use 127.0.0.1 or add port number) Query executes for all listed servers. (Includes duplicates) CMS Gotchas!

20. Leverage PowerShell to automate CMS Aaron Nelson – SQL University PowerShell Week

21. DEMO! Automate CMS with PowerShell

22. Policy-Based Management is a system for managing one or more instances of SQL Server 2008 (* BOL). Some facets allow you to enforce standards with “On-Change – Prevent” Can import and export policies Apply changes when evaluation fails Policies can run against SQL 2000 & 2005 Policy-Based Management (PBM)

23. Prevent things from happening Apply changes Automate validation of checklists Checklists are prone to human error. Server configurations can change over time. Daily checklist items we will validate SQL Agent is enabled SQL Agent Jobs Full backups Transactional Log backups Free Space I use CMS & PBM to do two things…

24. Targets facets conditions policy categories server restrictions PBM Concepts and Terms

25. PBM Example – Page Verify http://www.littlekendra.com/2011/01/25/pageverify/

26. On Demand Executed by user or powershell scripts On Schedule Uses SQL Agent On Change – Prevent Uses DDL Triggers * Nested Triggers should be enabled On Change – Log Only uses event notification For More: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510667%28SQL.100%29.aspx Evaluation Modes

28. Schema

29. Stored Procedure

30. Table Options

31. User Defined Function

32. User Options

33. View Options

35. Policy Alerts * On demand cannot be enabled so there are no alerts.

36. Views in MSDB database and dbo schema syspolicy_policies syspolicy_conditions syspolicy_system_health_state syspolicy_categories syspolicy_policy_category_subscriptions syspolicy_policy_execution_history syspolicy_policy_execution_history_details syspolicy_object_sets syspolicy_target_sets For more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510742.aspx PBM Views

37. PBM - ExecuteSQL The ExecuteSql() function can be used against any facet and it'll be executed once for each target in the target set. The proxy account is called ##MS_PolicyTsqlExecutionLogin## used for scheduled jobs http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlpbm/archive/2008/07/03/executesql.aspx

38. Cannot modify or create facets Policies fail to read mount points as separate locations ExecuteSQL only supports @ObjectName and @SchemaName Reporting is very limited out of the box On Change-Prevent is limited Best Practice Policies may not be best practice for your shop. Gotchas!

39. Create a Category Import Policies Export Policies Create Policy Evaluate Policy On-Demand Scheduled On Change – Prevent On Change – Log Apply Policy Evaluate Policy on Multiple Servers using CMS View Policy History PBM Demo!

40. http://epmframework.codeplex.com/ EPMF leverages Central Management Server Policy-Based Management PowerShell XML SQL Server Reporting Services Reporting - EPM Framework

42. Show EMPF… DEMO!

43. All reference material can be found at http://johnsterrett.com/go/PBM Books On Line Administering Servers by Using Policy-Based Management Book Pro SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management White Papers Enterprise Policy Management Framework with SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management Web www.mssqltips.com Where you should go from here?

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46. THANK YOU! For attending this session and PASS SQLRally Orlando, Florida Sponsored by Dell Session Code | Session Title 40