Category Archives: PowerShell

Installing SQL Server using PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC)

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Note: DSC can only be run if you have at least Windows Management Framework 4.0 and if your operating system is at least Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2.

The PowerShell team has released the xSQLPs module as part of the Desired State Configuration (DSC) Resource Kit. xSQLPs contains xSqlServerInstall, which you can use as a starting script when installing SQL Server via PowerShell and DSC. Download the module here.

This is what I needed to do to install SQL Server using DSC and the xSQLPs module. Many of these steps are from the xSQLPs documentation page.

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PowerShell V5 (WMF 5.0) Preview: OneGet and PowerShellGet

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The most recent Windows Management Framework (WMF) 5.0 Preview, the November 2014 preview, provides a glimpse of many improvements you can expect when PowerShell V5 is released.

A couple of the most noticeable additions are OneGet and PowerShellGet. If you have experience in *nix, these two new features are very similar to apt-get or yum or RPM. It allows you to connect to web-based package repositories, and install them.

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Microsoft Second Shot through May 31, 2015

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Microsoft Second Shot is back for 2015! If you’re planning to upgrade your Microsoft certifications (MCSE, MCSA, MCSD), you might want to take advantage of this insurance. You will be eligible for a free retake (if you don’t pass the first time) if you take your exam between January 5, 2015 and May 31, 2015.

Check all the details here:

https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/second-shot.aspx

By the way, Microsoft has switched to Pearson as a testing provider. You may find that testing centres could be scarce in some locations at first, hopefully that picks up soon!

 

PowerShell Deep Dives

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I contributed a chapter in Manning’s PowerShell Deep Dives book. All proceeds for this book go to Save the Children foundation.

powershell deep dives  save the children

Here is a quote of the description of the book from the Manning website:

PowerShell Deep Dives is a trove of essential techniques and practical guidance. It is rich with insights from experts who won them through years of experience. The book’s 28 chapters, grouped in four parts (Administration, Scripting, Development, and Platforms), were hand-picked by four section editors: Jeffery Hicks, Richard Siddaway, Oisín Grehan, and Aleksandar Nikolić.

Whether you’re just getting started with PowerShell or you already use it daily, you’ll find yourself returning to this book over and over.

powershell deep dives authors

SQL Server 2012 with PowerShell V3 Cookbook

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So 2012 has been a really hectic year for me so far. But… my book is out!

Packt Book 1

About This Book

  • Provides over a hundred practical recipes that utilize PowerShell to automate, integrate and simplify SQL Server tasks
  • Offers easy to follow, step-by-step guide to getting the most out of SQL Server and PowerShell
  • Covers numerous guidelines, tips, and explanations on how and when to use PowerShell cmdlets, WMI, SMO, .NET classes or other components
  • Builds a strong foundation that gets you comfortable using PowerShell with SQL Server–empowering you to create more complex scripts that you need in your day-to-day job

Who This Book Is For

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.

Downloading Vancouver Weather Data Using PowerShell

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I’m trying to get some data I can play around with Tableau, fortunately information for Canadian climate data is available in CSV and XML from http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/. I thought I’d go fetch the Vancouver daily weather data since 1953 using PowerShell.

Here’s a few PowerShell snippets for anyone interested. I haven’t cleaned these up yet, but should be pretty functional.

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Get SQL Server 2012 SSRS Report Rendering Extensions Using PowerShell

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There are new rendering extensions supported in SSRS 2012. Welcome extensions are the OPENXML rendering formats, to be used with Word 2007/2010 (.docx) and Excel 2007/2010 (.xlsx).

To list the rendering extensions, you can use the ReportViewer from the Reporting Services Redistributable Package.
You can download from here
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6442

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.ReportViewer.WinForms, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91") | Out-Null

$ReportServer = "http://KERRIGAN:80/ReportServer"
$rv = New-Object Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ReportViewer
$rv.ProcessingMode = "Remote"
$rv.ServerReport.ReportServerUrl = $ReportServer
$rv.ServerReport.ListRenderingExtensions()

This should list all the currently supported extensions.

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