To adjust some of the properties of a SQL Server Reporting Services instance , for example, how long the execution logs are retained, or whether or not you display meaningful error messages to the user, you have to do the following:

• go into SQL Server Management Studio,
• connect to the SSRS instance, then
• right-click on the instance name and
• select Properties from the drop-down menu

However 9 times out of 10 when I do this (in my defence, I don’t do it very often….) I find that properties is greyed out, despite having logged on as a privileged user.

The ‘fix’ for this is fairly straightforward - you have to run SSMS with ‘Run as Administrator’ i.e. right-click on the SSMS icon or menu option and opt to ‘Run as Administrator’

I got the following error from a Powershell script I wrote to run SQLExress backups on a remote server.

The script runs on a Standard Edition server as a SQL Agent job. It creates and then runs a T-sql script on the remote server to backup all the databases to a folder on the remote server.

The error occurred when I migrated the job from a Windows 2003 server running SQL 2008 R2 to a Windows 2012 Server running SQL 2012

Message
A job step received an error at line 18 in a PowerShell script. 
The corresponding line is "invoke-sqlcmd -outputsqlerrors $True -ServerInstance $ServerInstance -QueryTimeout 3600 -InputFile d:\dbawork\admin\bin\sp_BackupDatabases.sql > $SqlOutputLog". 
Correct the script and reschedule the job. 
The error information returned by PowerShell is: "Cannot perform operation because operation "ReportWrongProviderType" is invalid. Remove operation "ReportWrongProviderType", or investigate why it is not valid.

The problem was that the Powershell didn’t like the log output being re-directed to a UNC path.

So I changed this:

$SqlOutputLog =  "\\server1\d$\sql_backup\remote_backups\log\" + $ServerInstance.replace("\", "_") + "_sql_output.log"
invoke-sqlcmd -outputsqlerrors $True -ServerInstance $ServerInstance -QueryTimeout 3600 -InputFile d:\dbawork\admin\bin\sp_BackupDatabases.sql > $SqlOutputLog

to this

$SqlOutputLog =  "d:\sql_backup\remote_backups\log\" + $ServerInstance.replace("\", "_") + "_sql_output.log"
invoke-sqlcmd -outputsqlerrors $True -ServerInstance $ServerInstance -QueryTimeout 3600 -InputFile d:\dbawork\admin\bin\sp_BackupDatabases.sql > $SqlOutputLog

i.e. I changed ‘\\server1\d$’ to ’d:'

I’m not sure what the root cause here was, to be honest. If time ever allows I’ll do some investigation.

This allows you to see veeam backups for a specified server over the last week.

The code

Enter-PSSession yourveeamserver 
Add-PSSnapin VeeamPSSnapIn 
Get-VBRBackupSession | ? JobName -like "*yourtargetserver*" | ? endtime -gt $(get-date).adddays(-7) | 
    select jobname, jobtype, creationtime, endtime, result, state | sort-object -property jobname, endtime | 
    ft -AutoSize 

Explanation

Explaining this a little…..

This line ‘remotes’ to the veeam server. Getting Powershell remoting set-up is another subject. I’d recommend the Powershell help topic about_remote_troubleshooting, if it doesn’t ‘just work’.

Enter-PSSession yourveeamserver 

This loads all the veeam cmdlets into memory

Add-PSSnapin VeeamPSSnapIn 

This line depends on your Veeam job having the name of the server you’re interested in, in the title. You can run a command to show which job backs up which database. I’ll perhaps post that soon.

Get-VBRBackupSession | ? JobName -like "*yourtargetserver*" | ? endtime -gt $(get-date).adddays(-7) | 
    select jobname, jobtype, creationtime, endtime, result, state | sort-object -property jobname, endtime | 
    ft -AutoSize 

This shows all the users with ‘dba’ in their username. Obviously you could leave out the filter clause altogether to get a complete list of AD users

Get-ADUser -Filter {samaccountname -like "*dba*"} -SearchBase "dc=mycomp,dc=co,dc=uk" |
    select samaccountname, name


samaccountname                                                      name   
--------------                                                      ----   
dba_john                                                            John Hollins
dba_terry                                                           Terry Dixon

You have to ActiveDirectory Powershell module loaded

• Go to your media library and switch to the ‘List View’

• Then under ‘Screen Options’ bump up the ‘Number of items per page’ to a big number

• Right click to ‘View Page Source, then save it somewhere on your computer

• Run the following in PowerShell

foreach ($line in select-string filename .\upload.php | Sort-Object -Property line ) {
    $line.line.split(">")[3].split("<")[0]
}

This gives you a list that looks like this:

• Go to your media library and switch to the ‘List View’

• Then under ‘Screen Options’ bump up the ‘Number of items per page’ to a big number

• Right click to ‘View Page Source, then save it somewhere on your computer

• Run the following in PowerShell

foreach ($line in select-string filename .\upload.php | Sort-Object -Property line ) {
    $line.line.split(">")[3].split("<")[0]
}

This gives you a list that looks like this:

The output from this is unlovely, but it does the trick for the time being.

$DatabaseUsers = dir Sqlserver:\sql\$ServerName\$InstanceName\databases\$DatabaseName\Users
foreach ($User in $DatabaseUsers) {
    "==$User=="
    $User.EnumRoles()
}

The output looks like this

==[Company\service_account]==
RSExecRole
db_owner
==[Company\user1]==
RSExecRole
db_owner
db_accessadmin
db_securityadmin
db_ddladmin
db_backupoperator
db_datareader
db_datawriter
==[user2]==
==[user3]==
RSExecRole
db_owner
db_ddladmin
db_datareader
db_datawriter

I’ve started knocking up a function to return the last few lines of a sqlserver errorlog.

This is a little way from being finished….but I’ve already found it quite handy

function get-sqlerrorlog { 

  [CmdletBinding()]	
  Param( 
      [String] [alias("computer")] $ComputerName,
      [Int] [alias("lines")] $NumberOfLines = 5
  )

  write-verbose "Running function $([string]$MyInvocation.MyCommand.name)"
  
  Write-verbose "`$ErrorLogFolder: $ErrorLogFolder"

  $ErrorLogFolder = dir sqlserver:\sql\$ComputerName 

  # Todo: need to work out how it works more > 1 named instance. This just picks 1st
  [string]$ErrorLogFolder = $($ErrorLogFolder | select -first 1).errorlogpath
  Write-verbose "`$ErrorLogFolder: $ErrorLogFolder"

  $ErrorLogFolder = $ErrorLogFolder.replace(':', '$')
  Write-verbose "`$ErrorLogFolder: $ErrorLogFolder"

  $ErrorLogFolder = '\\' + $ComputerName + '\' + $ErrorLogFolder
  Write-verbose "`$ErrorLogFolder: $ErrorLogFolder"

  # Todo: it might be that the get-content could be speeded up by retrieving less lines
  # Todo: seperate this bit out into seperate function ?  
  get-content "$ErrorLogFolder\ERRORLOG" | select -last $NumberOfLines                                                                
 
}
set-alias gsel get-sqlerrorlog

Markdown support in Notepad is fab….it would be fab-ber if it supported the backtick code syntax, and if it had a keyboard shortcut to switch between Formatted and Syntax view

First I built a list of files

FileList=dir -recurse C:\temp\folderx -Attributes !Directory | 
    ? name -notlike '*exe' | 
    ? name -notlike '*dll'| select fullname

Then for each one, record the name to a log file, edit it and prompt for and store a comment

foreach ($F in $Filelist) {
    $F.Fullname >> commentlog.txt
    $File = $F.Fullname
    C:\Progra~2\vim\vim74\gvim.exe $File
    $Comment = read-host "Changes made to $File"
    $comment >> commentlog.txt
}

This is fairly trivial…and I’ve no idea if ‘aliasee’ is a real word or not, but I found this quite useful today:

get-alias | select ResolvedCommand, name | sort -property resolvedcommand

On my laptop, this gives:

ResolvedCommand                Name
---------------                ----
Add-Content                    ac
Add-PSSnapin                   asnp
Clear-Content                  clc
Clear-History                  clhy
Clear-Host                     cls
Clear-Host                     clear
Clear-Item                     cli
Clear-ItemProperty             clp
Clear-Variable                 clv
Compare-Object                 diff
Compare-Object                 compare
Connect-PSSession              cnsn
Convert-Path                   cvpa
Copy-Item                      cp
Copy-Item                      copy
Copy-Item                      cpi
Copy-ItemProperty              cpp
Disable-PSBreakpoint           dbp
Disconnect-PSSession           dnsn
Enable-PSBreakpoint            ebp
Enter-PSSession                etsn
Exit-PSSession                 exsn
Export-Alias                   epal
Export-Csv                     epcsv
Export-PSSession               epsn
ForEach-Object                 foreach
ForEach-Object                 %
Format-Custom                  fc
Format-List                    fl
Format-Table                   ft
Format-Wide                    fw
Get-Alias                      gal
get-cal                        cal
Get-ChildItem                  dir
Get-ChildItem                  ls
Get-ChildItem                  gci
Get-Command                    gcm
Get-Content                    cat
Get-Content                    gc
Get-Content                    type
get-functions                  getf
Get-History                    history
Get-History                    ghy
Get-History                    h
Get-Item                       gi
Get-ItemProperty               gp
Get-Job                        gjb
Get-Location                   pwd
Get-Location                   gl
Get-Member                     gm
Get-Module                     gmo
get-os                         gos
Get-Process                    gps
Get-Process                    ps
Get-PSBreakpoint               gbp
Get-PSCallStack                gcs
Get-PSDrive                    gdr
Get-PSSession                  gsn
Get-PSSnapin                   gsnp
Get-Service                    gsv
Get-Unique                     gu
Get-Variable                   gv
Get-WmiObject                  gwmi
Group-Object                   group
help                           man
Import-Alias                   ipal
Import-Csv                     ipcsv
Import-Module                  ipmo
Import-PSSession               ipsn
Invoke-Command                 icm
Invoke-Expression              iex
Invoke-History                 r
Invoke-History                 ihy
Invoke-Item                    ii
Invoke-Locate.ps1              locate
Invoke-NullCoalescing          ??
Invoke-RestMethod              irm
Invoke-WebRequest              wget
Invoke-WebRequest              iwr
Invoke-WebRequest              curl
Invoke-WmiMethod               iwmi
Measure-Object                 measure
mkdir                          md
Move-Item                      move
Move-Item                      mv
Move-Item                      mi
Move-ItemProperty              mp
New-Alias                      nal
New-Item                       ni
New-Module                     nmo
New-PSDrive                    mount
New-PSDrive                    ndr
New-PSSession                  nsn
New-PSSessionConfigurationFile npssc
New-Variable                   nv
Out-GridView                   ogv
Out-Host                       oh
Out-Printer                    lp
Pop-Location                   popd
powershell_ise.exe             ise
Push-Location                  pushd
Receive-Job                    rcjb
Receive-PSSession              rcsn
Remove-Item                    rmdir
Remove-Item                    del
Remove-Item                    rd
Remove-Item                    rm
Remove-Item                    erase
Remove-Item                    ri
Remove-ItemProperty            rp
Remove-Job                     rjb
Remove-Module                  rmo
Remove-PSBreakpoint            rbp
Remove-PSDrive                 rdr
Remove-PSSession               rsn
Remove-PSSnapin                rsnp
Remove-Variable                rv
Remove-WmiObject               rwmi
Rename-Item                    rni
Rename-Item                    ren
Rename-ItemProperty            rnp
Resolve-Path                   rvpa
Resume-Job                     rujb
Select-Object                  select
Select-String                  sls
Set-Alias                      sal
Set-Content                    sc
set-debug                      db
Set-Item                       si
Set-ItemProperty               sp
Set-Location                   sl
Set-Location                   chdir
Set-Location                   cd
Set-PSBreakpoint               sbp
Set-Variable                   sv
Set-Variable                   set
Set-WmiInstance                swmi
Sort-Object                    sort
Start-Job                      sajb
Start-Process                  start
Start-Process                  saps
Start-Service                  sasv
Start-Sleep                    sleep
Stop-Job                       spjb
Stop-Process                   kill
Stop-Process                   spps
Stop-Service                   spsv
Suspend-Job                    sujb
Tee-Object                     tee
Trace-Command                  trcm
Update-LocateDB.ps1            updatedb
Wait-Job                       wjb
Where-Object                   where
Where-Object                   ?
Write-Output                   write
Write-Output                   echo

For reasons that aren’t necessarily relevant, I wanted to use Remote Desktop to visit a list of servers¹. I tried doing this:

foreach ($S in "server01", "server02, "server03") { 
    mstsc /f /V:$S
}

This works….but it immediately starts rdp sessions to each of the servers. This is fine in this example, where there are only 3 servers, but in real life I’ve got a list of twenty or so and I don’t really want to open 20-odd rdp sessions at once.

What I did instead to force it do the rdp’s sequentially was this:

foreach ($S in "server01", "server02, "server03") { 
    mstsc /f /V:$S
    $ThrowAway = read-host "Hit Return"
}

This was the Powershell code I used to create the all the podcasts I’ve ever tweeted about post.

I downloaded the tweets from Twitter itself - I think there was a link somewhere within ‘Settings’

The .csv file looks like this:

So the code is:

$PodTweets = Import-Csv c:temptweets.csv | ? text -like "*podcast*"

$TweetsAsHtml = foreach ($P in $PodTweets)
{
#   write-output $P.timestamp.Substring(0,10)

   # Splitting the tweet text into words to allow for the processing of urls
   $TweetTextAsArray = $P.text.split(" ")

   $TextWithLink=""

   foreach ($Word in $TweetTextAsArray)
   {
        if ($Word -like "http:*")
        {
            # if there is an expanded_url, then use that instead
            if ($P.expanded_urls -ne "")
            {
                $Word = $P.expanded_urls

                # for some reason the expanded url is sometimes repeated in the download
                if ($Word -like "*,*")
                {
                    $Word = $Word.split(",")[0]
                }
            }

            # re-format the URL as a link
            $Word = "`<a href=`"$Word`"`>$Word`<`/a`>"
        }
        $TextWithLink = "$TextWithLink$Word "


    }

    # create an object and output that
    $properties = @{'TweetDate'=$P.timestamp.Substring(0,10);
                    'TweetText'=$TextWithLink}

    $ReformattedTweets = New-Object -Type PSObject -Prop $properties

    write-output $ReformattedTweets

}

$TweetsAsHtml | fl | out-file -encoding ascii -FilePath x.txt -width 1000

This almost speaks for itself…but it might be worth noting that:

• I’m only interrogating the latest file here

• it’s a teeny bit cumbersome - I would probably function-alize it

• the big advantage here compared to the GUI is you can cut-and-paste it really easily

dir sqlserver:sql\the_server_name
$logs.readerrorlog(0) |
  where logdate -gt ([datetime]::ParseExact('25/02/2015 07:27:36',"dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss",$null))  |
  select processinfo, text |
  ft -a -wrap

I hadn’t noticed this before.

If you do a dir listing of the databases for an instance within the Powershell Sqlserver provider, it doesn’t show the system databases

PS C:powershell> dir SQLSERVER:\SQL\my_pcinst2012\databases

Name                 Status          Recovery Model CompatLvl Collation                      Owner
----                 ------          -------------- --------- ---------                      -----
AdventureWorks2012   Normal          Simple               110 SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS   matty
TSQL2012             Normal          Full                 110 Latin1_General_CI_AS           matty

To get a listing for the system databases you can do the following. I would imagine there’s a better way (perhaps some equivalent to ls -a?)…but I can’t think of it at the minute¹

PS C:powershell> foreach ($DB in ("master", "msdb", "model", "tempdb")) {gi SQLSERVER:\SQL\my_pcinst2012\databases\$DB }

Name                 Status          Recovery Model CompatLvl Collation                      Owner
----                 ------          -------------- --------- ---------                      -----
master               Normal          Simple               110 Latin1_General_CI_AS           sa
msdb                 Normal          Simple               110 Latin1_General_CI_AS           sa
model                Normal          Simple               110 Latin1_General_CI_AS           sa
tempdb               Normal          Simple               110 Latin1_General_CI_AS           sa

This is extracted from Adam Pritchard’s Markdown Cheatsheet.

It’s what I would see as the useful bits….but of course my useful bits won’t be the same as your useful bits!

I’m installing sqlserver 2005, and it seemed to hang towards the end of the installation.

The installer hung while it was installing ‘Workstation Components, Books Online’, with the progress message being ‘Removing Backup Files’. As it happened I kicked this off at the end of the day, and it was still hanging the next morning

I checked the installer log but there was nothing very interesting

<Func Name='LaunchFunction'>
Function=Set_CommitFlag
<Func Name='GetCAContext'>
<EndFunc Name='GetCAContext' Return='T' GetLastError='0'>
Doing Action: Set_CommitFlag
PerfTime Start: Set_CommitFlag : Mon Jan 26 16:46:51 2015
<Func Name='Set_CommitFlag'>
Can I commit?
Set_CommitFlag called successfully.Committed
<EndFunc Name='Set_CommitFlag' Return='0' GetLastError='0'>
PerfTime Stop: Set_CommitFlag : Mon Jan 26 16:46:51 2015
<EndFunc Name='LaunchFunction' Return='0' GetLastError='0'>

It turned out to be very much a problem between the chair and the keyboad.

At the start of the install I’d had this warning message:

I wasn’t too worried about it - I’m installing an old version of SQL on a newer OS - but I left the warning message window open…partly so that I could investigate further later.

Anyway…as soon as I shut that warning window down, the install kicked back into life and soon completed.

I’m installing sqlserver 2005, and it seemed to hang towards the end of the installation.

The installer hung while it was installing ‘Workstation Components, Books Online’, with the progress message being ‘Removing Backup Files’. As it happened I kicked this off at the end of the day, and it was still hanging the next morning

I checked the installer log but there was nothing very interesting

<Func Name='LaunchFunction'>
Function=Set_CommitFlag
<Func Name='GetCAContext'>
<EndFunc Name='GetCAContext' Return='T' GetLastError='0'>
Doing Action: Set_CommitFlag
PerfTime Start: Set_CommitFlag : Mon Jan 26 16:46:51 2015
<Func Name='Set_CommitFlag'>
Can I commit?
Set_CommitFlag called successfully.Committed
<EndFunc Name='Set_CommitFlag' Return='0' GetLastError='0'>
PerfTime Stop: Set_CommitFlag : Mon Jan 26 16:46:51 2015
<EndFunc Name='LaunchFunction' Return='0' GetLastError='0'>

It turned out to be very much a problem between the chair and the keyboad.

At the start of the install I’d had this warning message:

I wasn’t too worried about it - I’m installing an old version of SQL on a newer OS - but I left the warning message window open…partly so that I could investigate further later.

Anyway…as soon as I shut that warning window down, the install kicked back into life and soon completed.

This was a bit of a ‘Duh!’ moment.

I use the following to ‘comment out’ chunks of Wordpress pages that I’m still working on

<?php /*
Some old rubbish that I have'nt finished working on yet
*/?>

This seemed to have ‘stopped working’.

The reason was my ‘Exec-PHP’ plugin was de-activated. I don’t remember de-activating it. I guess it’s possible that an automat(t)ic update might have done so, but I don’t know.

I haven’t been able to find a T-sql equivalent of the Oracle ‘set feedback on’, which outputs a line telling you how many rows have been effected by the last sql statement.

The closest thing, I think, is:

select 'Rows updated: ' + CAST(@@ROWCOUNT as varchar(10))

This seems to work:

SELECT
     'disable trigger ' + USER_NAME(trig.schema_id) + '.' +  trig.name +
     ' on ' +
     USER_NAME(tab.schema_id) + '.' + OBJECT_NAME(trig.parent_object_id) +
     char(10) +
     'go'
FROM sys.objects trig
INNER JOIN sys.objects tab
    ON trig.parent_object_id = tab.object_id
WHERE trig.type = 'TR'

It generates sql like this:

disable trigger dbo.tr_AfterUpdate on dbo.BigTable
go
disable trigger dbo.tr_BeforeUpdate on dbo.BigTable
go

This seems to work:

SELECT
     'disable trigger ' + USER_NAME(trig.schema_id) + '.' +  trig.name +
     ' on ' +
     USER_NAME(tab.schema_id) + '.' + OBJECT_NAME(trig.parent_object_id) +
     char(10) +
     'go'
FROM sys.objects trig
INNER JOIN sys.objects tab
    ON trig.parent_object_id = tab.object_id
WHERE trig.type = 'TR'

It generates sql like this:

disable trigger dbo.tr_AfterUpdate on dbo.BigTable
go
disable trigger dbo.tr_BeforeUpdate on dbo.BigTable
go

I’m not great at T-sql, and I know that cursors are unfashionable in Microsoft world, but this gives me the output I want, as below:

drop table #ReportPermissions

create table #ReportPermissions
(Path varchar(100),
 Username varchar(100),
 GrantedPermissions varchar(100))


declare
  UserWithPermissionsCursor cursor for
  select -- ,roles.[RoleID]
      rolename
      -- ,users.[UserID]
      ,username
      -- ,catalog.[PolicyID]
      ,path
  FROM [ReportServerRep01].[dbo].[PolicyUserRole],
       roles,
       users,
       catalog
where policyuserrole.RoleID = roles.roleid
and   policyuserrole.UserID = users.userid
and   policyuserrole.policyid = catalog.PolicyID
order by path, username, rolename

declare @rolename varchar(100)
declare @username varchar(100)
declare @path varchar(100)
declare @PermissionsString varchar(100)
declare @Savedusername varchar(100)
declare @Savedpath varchar(100)


open UserWithPermissionsCursor
FETCH UserWithPermissionsCursor INTO @rolename, @username, @path

WHILE 0 = @@fetch_status
BEGIN
 if (@SavedUserName = @username AND @SavedPath = @path)

    set @PermissionsString = @PermissionsString + ',' + @Rolename

 else
 begin
    -- Output the line
    insert into #ReportPermissions
    (Path,
     Username,
     GrantedPermissions)
    values
    (@SavedPath,
     @SavedUserName,
     @PermissionsString)

    -- Reinitialize variables
    set @SavedPath = @path
    set @SavedUsername = @username
    set @PermissionsString = @rolename

 end

 FETCH UserWithPermissionsCursor INTO @rolename, @username, @path

END
close UserWithPermissionsCursor
deallocate UserWithPermissionsCursor

select * from #ReportPermissions

A quick post on a quick fix.

I installed Sql Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 on the report server, then installed Oracle client 11.2.0.4.

I copied across a valid tnsnames.ora file, and verified connectivity with both sqlplus and tnsping.

However, trying to connect to one of the Oracle databases from within SSRS I got:

System.Data.OracleClient requires Oracle client software version 8.1.7 or greater

…helpfully highlighted in an angry red.

Fix is fairly straightforward - SSRS hadn’t picked up the change to %PATH% done by the Oracle install yet, so the fix was to re-start the SSRS service.

A quick post on a quick fix.

I installed Sql Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 on the report server, then installed Oracle client 11.2.0.4.

I copied across a valid tnsnames.ora file, and verified connectivity with both sqlplus and tnsping.

However, trying to connect to one of the Oracle databases from within SSRS I got:

System.Data.OracleClient requires Oracle client software version 8.1.7 or greater

…helpfully highlighted in an angry red.

Fix is fairly straightforward - SSRS hadn’t picked up the change to %PATH% done by the Oracle install yet, so the fix was to re-start the SSRS service.