Script sp_configure Output To Migrate Settings Between SQL Servers
Sometimes when setting up a new server, all you want is for it to work and be configured exactly like the old server. In some cases, the new server is almost identical in every way already. If you've worked much with SQL Server, you know very well that there are a billion switches and knobs and every time you do this, you forget at least one. I had a similar situation recently and figured I'd be lazy about it and just turned the output of sp_configure in to a script I could execute on the new server:
Script RESTORE DATABASE … WITH MOVE Stub
I think most people setup the drives on their Development servers to match their Production servers - this is so that restores go smoothly and files go where they're supposed to, things match up nicely, etc. Unfortunately, when you create a full backup all the backup file contains is the logical name of all the files - no physical paths. This means that if the database doesn't exist on the destination server yet, the engine has absolutely no idea where to put the files or what to name them.
The following script can be executed in the context of the source (original) database that was backed up to script out the MOVE statements if your plan is to put the files in the same place on the destination server.
VersionOne Nag: Reminding Us To Burn Our Points
You'll forget - we all do. After a hard day of work, the last thing that pops in to your head is "hey, I should go update this story in VersionOne before I go home." Oh no, the only thing you're thinking about is how bad traffic will be, what you're having for dinner, your trip to Seattle, which bar has the best drink specials tonight, etc. So accepting that we forget to burn points now and then, why don't we just make a script to remind us? While you're at it, might as well add a reminder for when you accidentally close a story without setting the ToDo points to zero.
Luckily, since you obviously use VersionOne (because it's the gold standard), there's an API for that:
Clone Analysis Services Partitions with PowerShell
Most of us with large Analysis Services cubes partition our cubes by month or year or some other time-based slice and we have all, at one point or another, developed some way to create partitions for new months on-demand. Often, the solution to this seems to be a C# console application or SSIS package using AMO to create a new partition based off an existing partition. The problem I see with this is that maintaining it requires opening up the project or package, making changes, re-compiling, deploying, testing, deploying to production, verifying, etc. It also requires that whoever is going to maintain it is comfortable with C#.
To simplify the maintenance and get rid of the "black box" factor that utility apps like this tend to have, I put together a PowerShell script to do the same thing and a stored procedure to call the script. Really, it doesn't matter what you use as you're most likely using an almost identical chunk of code to get your new partition created - my argument is that using PowerShell instead of C# or SSIS reduces the cost of maintenance, improves readability, and facilitates better understanding throughout your team.
Trending SQL Server Agent Job Duration by Hour
Earlier today I noticed a SQL Server Agent job taking a little longer than usual (or what I thought was longer than usual). Let's face it, we're not staring at the Job Activity monitor all day, so unless you've written a report to monitor job run times - on occasion you ask yourself "is that a normal run time for this thing?" The job I was curious about happened to be a job that runs throughout the day and should only have real work to do once or twice an hour - and it should run roughly the same amount of time on any given business day for a given hour (i.e. at 1:00 PM on any given business day, this thing should do the same amount of work).
So I came up with the following query to PIVOT the run duration on the hour the job executed:
Wouldn’t it be fun if Cubes could talk?
I didn't say "wouldn't it be useful" because after putting a test together, asking a cube questions with no context tends to return answers that it probably shouldn't have returned. In BI, it is incredibly important to understand what exactly it is you're asking for - if we just say we want "sales" and return an answer, nobody really knows what we meant by "sales." Sure, in various circles, "sales" means the same thing - but once you start talking to different areas, departments, etc - the meaning of the word starts to shift.
But I digress - asking cubes questions is still pretty fun and some of the random things it returns when you point it at your own cubes can be flat out hilarious.
Here's a few questions thrown at the Adventure Works cube in the Adventure Works DW 2008 Analysis Services database
Charting Analysis Services 2008 Trace Events
The other day I was running some Analysis Services traces for some reason or another and ran across Chris Webb's post on (Visualising Analysis Services Trace Information in Reporting Services). After looking over that post, I thought it'd be interesting to visualize various types of processing, queries, etc - basically take a trace and then graph out what happened and when. Here's a few samples of what the project yielded:
- Red: Cube Processing on a 2 Minute schedule
- Green: Cube Processing on a 1 hour schedule
- Blue: Cube Processing on a 1 hour schedule
- Black: Query Activity
Most of the activity here is from SSRS subscriptions firing around 8AM
Estimating the Size of a Table in SQL Server 2008
I have read this (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178085.aspx) article at least 6, maybe 7 times in the past - and every time I say to myself "this is ridiculous - someone has to have written a script to do this by now" and every time, I google for hours and fail to find anything. So I finally gave up and wrote something to do it. Note, I've only verified it on 100% fixed width tables. I compared its output to a 600+ million row table and it came out somewhere around 3% higher - fine with me as I'd rather over-estimate space requirements than under-estimate.
Reporting Services (SSRS/MSRS) 2008 Error: Set used with the complement operator must have all members from the same level
When you use the Not In operator in a SSRS 2008 MDX query filter to exclude a named set, it uses a the complement operator in the constructed MDX. This is fine as long as "all members [are] from the same level." Since you got this error, they are not 
You can get around this by using the Except() MDX function instead of letting SSRS use the Complement operator
In the ReportServerService log, you'll see something like this:
Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.AdomdErrorResponseException: Query (..., ...) Set used with the complement operator must have all members from the same level.
Original filter
Dimension: Time
Hierarchy: Calendar Date
Operator: Not In
Filter Expression: [Today]
New filter
Dimension: Time
Hierarchy: Calendar Date
Operator: MDX
Filter Expression: Except([Time].[Calendar Date].[Calendar Date].MEMBERS, [Today])
Determining when RESTORE DATABASE command will complete (SQL Server 2008)
Ah, I see you just started restoring that 1TB monster and now everyone wants to know when it's going to be finished, where you're at in the process, etc. Fear not, Microsoft is very good at making up fictional numbers for us to use as rough estimates! I usually add 10-20% on top of these estimates just incase the database gremlins wander by to ruin your day again. Or incase you encounter "storage issues."
SELECT percent_complete AS [PercentComplete] ,estimated_completion_time/1000.0/60.0 AS [RemainingMinutes] ,total_elapsed_time/1000.0/60.0 AS [ElapsedMinutes] ,(estimated_completion_time+total_elapsed_time)/1000.0/60.0 AS [TotalMinutes] ,DATEADD(MILLISECOND, estimated_completion_time, GETDATE()) AS [EstimatedTimeOfCompletion] ,st.TEXT AS [CommandSQL] FROM sys.dm_exec_requests r cross apply sys.dm_exec_sql_text(r.sql_handle) st WHERE command LIKE '%RESTORE DATABASE%'
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Recent Posts
- Script sp_configure Output To Migrate Settings Between SQL Servers
- Script RESTORE DATABASE … WITH MOVE Stub
- VersionOne Nag: Reminding Us To Burn Our Points
- Clone Analysis Services Partitions with PowerShell
- Trending SQL Server Agent Job Duration by Hour