In this post, I am sharing one PowerShell function to find all system admin roles of the SQL Server.

This function helps to those DBAs who are working with PowerShell. Using this function DBAs can easily list out all System Admin roles of a particular database.

Below is a script to create a function:
The DBA has to pass server name as input parameter.

function Find_SystemAdmin_Role ($servername)
{
   $ServerVar="$servername"
   $ServerVar=New-Object "Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server" "$ServerVar"
   $ServerRole = $ServerVar.Roles | where {$_.Name -eq 'sysadmin'}
   $ServerVar
   $ServerRole.EnumServerRoleMembers()
}

Script to call this function:

Find_SystemAdmin_Role "ServerName_DBRND"

In this post, I am going share scripts to take all database and log backups using SQL Server PowerShell.

Using T-SQL, we can also take all databases backup using one single script, but some of the Database Administrators like to perform this kind of task using PowerShell because sometimes it is much faster and it is executing from outside of the SQL Server.

SQL Server 2012 cmdlet introduced a new command to take database backups and the command name is “Backup-SqlDatabase”.

Execute below command in PowerShell to get the help of “Backup-SqlDatabase”:

help Backup-SqlDatabase -full

PowerShell script to take all database backups:
Generating file name with the date.

$BackupDate = Get-Date -Format MMddyy
foreach($database in (Get-ChildItem)) { 
$dbName = $database.Name
$bakFilePath = "C:\temp\" + $dbName + "_" + $BackupDate + ".bak"
Backup-SqlDatabase -Database $dbName -BackupFile $bakFilePath -Initialize }

PowerShell script to take all database log backups:
Generating file name with the date.

$BackupDate = Get-Date -Format MMddyy_hhmm
foreach($database in (Get-ChildItem)) {
$dbName = $database.Name
$trnFilePath = "C:\temp\" + $dbName + "_" + $BackupDate + ".trn"
Backup-SqlDatabase -Database $dbName -BackupAction Log -BackupFile $trnFilePath -Initialize}

In the previous articles, I have shared basic about the SQL Server PowerShell (sqlps) and how we can navigate SQL Server instance data using PowerShell.

SQL Server 2012: Working with the PowerShell Environment

In the SQLPS module, there are different commands available to extensively work with SQL Server.
The cmdlet command type contains most of the commands of SQLPS.

The Invoke-SQLCMD is also one command to execute T-SQL in PowerShell.
Here, I am sharing some of the examples of Invoke-SQLCMD to execute T-SQL in PowerShell.

First, list of all commands of SQLPS:

Get-command –module SQLPS

Check SQL Server Version:

Invoke-SQLCMD "select @@version;"

Check Default database name:

Invoke-SQLCMD "select db_name();"

Execute SELECT statement:

Invoke-SQLCMD -Query "SELECT *FROM dbo.tbl_TestSnapshot;" –Database "dbrnd"

Execute SELECT with PowerShell Variable:

$MyVar = "Anvesh"
Invoke-SQLCMD -Query "SELECT *FROM dbo.tbl_TestSnapshot WHERE Name = '$($MyVar)';" –Database "dbrnd"

In the previous article, I have shared basic detail about the working with the Windows PowerShell for the SQL Server.

SQL Server 2012: Working with the PowerShell Environment

Using sqlps PowerShell provider, you can easily navigate all files of SQL Server Instance like any other file system.

When Database Administrator requires to navigate or search different objects of a Database, PowerShell is much faster than T-SQL.
At single window DBA can navigate all different objects and file of a Database Server and it saves the time of Database Administrator to write a multiple T-SQL for accessing database instance information.

First start, PowerShell by right clicking on database in SSMS.

In that root path, you can execute [dir] command to get a list of all SQL Server Folders.

Using [cd], you can select any folder like below, I have selected Databases folder.

Execute [dir] for Databases.

Using [cd..], you can go back to a particular folder and can select a new folder.
In below example, I have selected Logins folder.
You can easily get all the available Logins by execution [dir] on that folder.

Another example is to list out all tables of a particular database.
select Databases -> Database -> Tables.

The initially PowerShell integrated with SQL Server 2008 as mini-shell with limited options.
Now the Microsoft launched fully functional PowerShell with SQL Server 2012.

The PowerShell is a powerful scripting shell for administrators and developers to automate different tasks of the SQL Server.

PowerShell is becoming more central to the Windows management model and can provide a common framework for managing all the different servers in a Microsoft Windows infrastructure.
PowerShell can manage Windows, SQL Server, SharePoint and others.

PowerShell is one of the good alternatives to manage SQL Server and it is one kind of bridge between SQL Server and Operating System(OS) to accessing and managing system and network resources.
Unlike T-SQL, PowerShell can access resources that are outside of SQL Server.
PowerShell is also capable to use advanced .NET functions which are not available in T-SQL.

PowerShell can also run T-SQL queries using Invoke-Sqlcmd.
But the syntax and script coding of the PowerShell is very difficult to learn for non-developers.

The sqlps is an additional module to configure Windows PowerShell for the SQL Server.
It supports different types of cmdlets including like: Invoke-Sqlcmd, Add-SqlAvailabilitiyDatabase, Join-SqlAvailabilityGroup, Backup-SqlDatabase, Restore-SqlDatabase.

How to open PowerShell from the SSMS?

You can directly open windows PowerShell from the SSMS.
You can right click on any object and open the PowerShell window and it opens directly under the Windows SQL Server disk location.