Table statistics maintenance is an important part of overall SQL Server administration. DBAs understand a common cause of query performance problems...
database-tools
Upgrade Errors with 8.5
Hi, I’m new to SQLdm. I’ve been tasked to upgrade from 8.01 to 8.5. During the upgrade process I get an error stating that it...
Combining Results
All PowerShell Versions Let's assume you want to identify suspicious service states like services that are stopped although their start mode is...
Countdown Hours
All PowerShell Versions Whether it is a birthday or an important game, you may want PowerShell to tell you just how many hours it is till the event...
Using -f Operator to Combine String and Data
All PowerShell Versions Strings enclosed by double-quotes will resolve variables so it is common practice to use code like this: $name = $host.Name...
Playing WAV Sounds
PowerShell 3.0 or later To play a WAV sound file in a background process, PowerShell can use the built-in SoundPlayer class. It accepts a path to a...
System Uptime
All PowerShell Versions Windows starts a high definition counter each time it boots, and this counter will return the milliseconds the system runs:...
Finding Attached USB Sticks
All PowerShell Versions If you'd like to know whether there are currently USB storage devices attached to your computer, WMI can help:...
Metadata Overview, by Ron Huizenga
What is Metadata? The term “Metadata” arises frequently when discussing Data Architecture. In short, it is “data about data.” However,...
Test Service Responsiveness
All PowerShell Versions To test whether a particular service is still responding, use a clever trick. First, ask WMI for the service you want to...
Granting Namespace Rights to DM Service Account
community.idera.com/.../Granting-Namespace-Rights-to-Service-Account-for-SQldm-Web-Console-Services.docx Useful document describing how to grant...
WMI Device Inventory
All PowerShell Versions The WMI service can report plenty of details about the computer hardware. Typically, each type of hardware is represented by...
SQL Server – Server Node Reports for Troubleshooting
This is a guest post from Pinal Dave. For many DBAs, restless nights start when end users complain that the application using SQL Server is too...
Get Sleep and Hibernation Times
All PowerShell Versions If you want to find out whether a computer is frequently put into sleep or hibernation mode, here is a function that reads...
Monitoring Disk Queue Length
Recently, I wrote a blog post about performance counters and why the threshold depends (Performance Counters: Why It Depends). In this post, I...
Understanding Sequential Filtering
All PowerShell Versions When you parse text-based log files, or need to filter other types of information, you typically use Where-Object. Here are...
Filtering Hotfix Information
All PowerShell Versions Get-HotFix is a built-in cmdlet that returns the installed hotfixes. It has no parameter to filter on hotfix ID, though....
Getting Shutdown Information
All PowerShell Versions Windows logs all shutdown events in its System event log. From there, you can extract and analyze the information. Here is a...
Copying Command History…
All PowerShell Versions If you played with PowerShell and suddenly realize that you would actually like to keep the commands you played with, try...
Searching Files with Regular Expressions
All PowerShell Versions Get-ChildItem does not support advanced file filtering. While you can use simple wildcards, you cannot use regular...
Searching Files with Regular Expressions
All PowerShell versions Get-ChildItem does not support advanced file filtering. While you can use simple wildcards, you cannot use regular...
Executing Explain Plans Using Rapid SQL by Dan Hotka
This is a guest post from Dan Hotka, Oracle ACE Director. Learn more at his webinar Explain Plan Tips and Techniques. Hi! My name is Dan Hotka. I am...
Getting Files with Specific Extensions Only
All PowerShell versions When you use Get-ChildItem to get a list of files, you may have noticed that the -Filter parameter occasionally returns more...
Correcting ISE Encoding
All PowerShell versions When you run a console application inside the ISE editor, non-standard characters such as “ä” or...