Evaluate your Daily Checklist against 100+ instances of SQL Server while you get a cup of coffee

Transcription

1 Evaluate your Daily Checklist against 100+ instances of SQL Server while you get a cup of coffee John Sterrett (@JohnSterrett) 4/27/2011

2 About Me. I am not an expert but I stayed at a Holiday Inn once. I reside in Wheeling, WV (Pittsburgh, PA) Work for Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP Responsible 100+ Instances of SQL Server Responsible for PeopleSoft

3 Daily Checklist Do you have a daily checklist? What is your daily checklist? Full backups Transactional Log backups Free space SQL Agents are enabled SQL Agent jobs succeeded How do you evaluate your daily checklist? Central Management Server (CMS) Policy Based Management (PBM)

4 Daily Checklist Do you have a Daily Checklist? 30% Yes No 70%

5 Daily Checklist? What do you check in your daily checklist? Full Backups succeeded 12% 19% 8% 5% 17% 20% 19% Transactional log backups succeeded SQL Services are running SQL Agent jobs succeeded Disks have free space Data and Log files have free space Other

6 Daily Checklist? How do you evaluate your daily checklist? 9% 9% 3% 9% 28% 21% 21% Policy-Based Management and/or Central Management Server 3rd Party Tool It's a manual process We don't have a process to evaluate daily checklists I don't know how to evaluate a daily checklist SQL Agent Notifications and/or Alerts

7 Job Notifications..

8 Trust but verify.. Is the SQL Agent enabled for all servers? Does operator exist for all jobs? Is the operator the same across all servers? Is Database Mail enabled for all servers?

9 Central Management Server (CMS) Similar to local server group except it s a repository for your team. Group database servers Environment Version Location Apply scripts against all servers in a group Not all checklist items can be validated with PBM Can use SQL Server 2008 R2 Express

10 Which version of SQL should I use?

11 CMS Internals MSDB is used to store servers and groups Servers msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_registered_servers_internal Groups msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_server_groups_internal

12 CMS Security Security ServerGroupAdministratorRole role can manage the central management server. ServerGroupReaderRole role is required to connect to a central management server. Windows Authentication of the individual servers is used to execute t-sql and policies.

13 First look at CMS

14 CMS Gotchas! CMS itself cannot automate query execution. CMS only supports windows authentication Query results are ordered by server name Cannot include host server (Unless you use or add port number) Query executes for all listed servers. (Includes duplicates)

15 DEMO Create Configuration Management Server Create Groups Register Servers Execute scripts against a group Find missing backups Find failed SQL Agent Jobs Check SQL Agent Service is enabled

16 Leverage PowerShell to automate CMS Aaron Nelson SQL University PowerShell Week

17 DEMO! Automate CMS with PowerShell

18 Policy-Based Management (PBM) Policy-Based Management is a system for managing one or more instances of SQL Server 2008 (* BOL). Some facets allow you to enforce standards with On-Change Prevent Can import and export policies Apply changes when evaluation fails Policies can run against SQL 2000 & 2005

19 I use CMS & PBM to do two things Prevent things from happening Apply changes Automate validation of checklists Checklists are prone to human error. Server configurations can change over time. Daily checklist items we will validate SQL Agent is enabled SQL Agent Jobs Full backups Transactional Log backups Free Space

20 PBM Concepts and Terms Targets facets conditions policy categories server restrictions

21 PBM Example Page Verify Page Verify Policy Database Target Database Performance = true Condition SQL Server 2005 or newer Server Restriction On Schedule Evaluation Mode

22 Evaluation Modes On Demand Executed by user or powershell scripts On Schedule Uses SQL Agent On Change Prevent Uses DDL Triggers * Nested Triggers should be enabled On Change Log Only uses event notification For More:

23 On-Change Evaluation. Not all facets support On-change. On Change Log (17) On Change Prevent (12) Application Role Asymmetric Key Database Role Endpoint Login Options Multipart Name Resource Pool Schema Stored Procedure Table Options User Defined Function User Options View Options Workload Group

24 Where can I find policies? Best Practices SQL Server 2008 Feature Packs C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Policies\DatabaseEngine\1033 Interwebs Blogs Bing or Google

25 Policy Alerts Message Number Evaluation Mode On change prevent when policies are enabled for automatic evaluation On change prevent when the policy is on demand On Schedule On change Log * On demand cannot be enabled so there are no alerts.

26 PBM Views Views in MSDB database and dbo schema syspolicy_policies syspolicy_conditions syspolicy_system_health_state syspolicy_categories syspolicy_policy_category_subscriptions syspolicy_policy_execution_history syspolicy_policy_execution_history_details syspolicy_object_sets syspolicy_target_sets For more:

27 PBM - ExecuteSQL The ExecuteSql() function can be used against any facet and it'll be executed once for each target in the target set. The proxy account is called ##MS_PolicyTsqlExecutionLogin## used for scheduled jobs /03/executesql.aspx

28 Gotchas! Cannot modify or create facets Policies fail to read mount points as separate locations ExecuteSQL only Reporting is very limited out of the box On Change-Prevent is limited Best Practice Policies may not be best practice for your shop.

29 PBM Demo! Create a Category Import Policies Export Policies Create Policy Evaluate Policy On-Demand Scheduled On Change Prevent On Change Log Apply Policy Evaluate Policy on Multiple Servers using CMS View Policy History

30 Reporting - EPM Framework EPMF leverages Central Management Server Policy-Based Management PowerShell XML SQL Server Reporting Services

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32 DEMO! Show EMPF

33 Where you should go from here? All reference material can be found at Books On Line Administering Servers by Using Policy-Based Management Book Pro SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management White Papers Enterprise Policy Management Framework with SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management Web

34 Notes (hidden) Some speakers may use this slide for hidden notes Please delete if you prefer not to use Please note you are also able to use notes section for each slide Session Title 34

35 Please Complete the Evaluation Form Pick up your evaluation form: In each presentation room Drop off your completed form Near the exit of each presentation room At the registration area Sponsored by Dell Session Title 35

36 THANK YOU! Sponsored by Dell For attending this session and PASS SQLRally Orlando, Florida 36 Session Code Session Title