Chapter 1, Getting Started with SQL Server and PowerShell explains what PowerShell is, and why you should consider learning PowerShell. It also introduces PowerShell V3 new features, and explains what needs to be in place when working with SQL Server 2012 and PowerShell.

Chapter 2, SQL Server and PowerShell Basic Tasks demonstrates scripts and snippets of code that accomplish some basic SQL Server tasks using PowerShell. We start with simple tasks such as listing SQL Server instances, and creating objects such as tables, indexes, stored procedures, and functions to get you comfortable while working with SQL Server programmatically.

Chapter 3, Basic Administration tackles more administrative tasks that can be accomplished using PowerShell, and provides recipes that can help automate a lot of repetitive tasks. Some recipes deal with instance and database properties; others provide ways of checking disk space, creating WMI alerts, setting up Database Mail, and creating and maintaining SQL Server Jobs.

Chapter 4, Security provides snippets that simplify security monitoring, including how to check failed login attempts by parsing out event logs, or how to administer roles and permissions.

Chapter 5, Advanced Administration shows how PowerShell can help you leverage features such as Policy Based Management (PBM) and encryption using PowerShell. This chapter also explores working with SQL Server Profiler trace files and events programmatically.

Chapter 6, Backup and Restore looks into different ways of backing up and restoring SQL Server databases programmatically using PowerShell.

Chapter 7, SQL Server Development provides snippets and guidance on how you can work with XML, XSL, binary data, and CLR assemblies with SQL Server and PowerShell.

Chapter 8, Business Intelligence covers how PowerShell can help automate and manage any BI-related tasks—from rendering SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports, to deploying the new SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) 2012 ISPAC files, to backing up and restoring SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cubes.

Chapter 9, Helpful PowerShell Snippets tackles a variety of recipes that are not SQL Server specific, but you may find them useful as you work with PowerShell. Recipes include snippets for creating files that use timestamps, analyzing event logs for recent system errors, and exporting a list of processes to CSV or XML.

Appendix A, SQL Server and PowerShell CheatSheet provides a concise cheatsheet of commonly used terms and snippets when working with SQL Server and PowerShell.

Appendix B, PowerShell Primer offers a brief primer on PowerShell fundamentals.

Appendix C, Resources lists additional PowerShell and SQL Server books, blogs and links.

Appendix D, Creating a SQL Server VM provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and configure the virtual machine that was used for this book.

Windows Server 2008 R2

SQL Server 2012 Developer

Visual Studio 2010 Professional

Windows Management Framework 3.0 (includes PowerShell 3.0, WMI, and WinRM)

This book is written for the SQL Server database professional (DBA, developer, BI developer) who wants to use PowerShell to automate, integrate, and simplify database tasks. A little bit of scripting background is helpful, but not necessary.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."

A block of code is set as follows:

$instanceName = "KERRIGAN"  
$managedComputer = New-Object 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Wmi.ManagedComputer' $instanceName

#list server instances
$managedComputer.ServerInstances 

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

$instanceName = "KERRIGAN"  
$managedComputer = New-Object 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Wmi.ManagedComputer' $instanceName
#list server instances
$managedComputer.ServerInstances 

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

PS C:\>. .\SampleScript.ps1 param1 param2 
PS C:\>C:\MyScripts\SampleScript.ps1 param1 param2

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen".

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