Python is increasingly used by DBAs as a general-purpose scripting language, despite the pressure to adopt Microsoft's PowerShell. They find it easy to learn, powerful, and reasonably intuitive. Here Timothy Wiseman, a working DBA, explains the attraction of Python and gives a general introduction to the language, suitable for anyone who has been wondering whether to give it a try.
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Exchange's Recipient Update Service was important in Exchange 2000 or 2003 in order to complete the provisioning or updating of mailboxes created from an out-of-band process or from an Active Directory User. In Exchange 2007, full provisioning is automatic, but the functionality can replaced by Powershell scripting if it is required.… Read more
'Where did my mail go?' In order to answer this question, to troubleshoot mail problems and to analyse mail flow, the Exchange administrator can use message-tracking logs. Ben Lye elaborates on these essential logs and explains how you can use Powershell commands to search them for those emails that have gone adrift.… Read more
If you run a regular and comprehensive inventory of all the servers you manage, you can solve problems more quickly and answer most questions from management. If you then repeat these reports over a time period, it helps to to track trends such as disk space usage so you can spot trouble before it becomes a problem. Allen describes a PowerShell script to do the inventory.… Read more
For all of us who learn best by trying out examples, Bob Sheldon produces a PowerShell script file for SQL Server that can be used in either SQL Server 2005 or 2008, has error handling and prompts for user-input, is easily extended and, does something useful. He then explains how to run it and what each line does. Magic… Read more
Ron describes how he decided to study Powershell as a single
scripting system to automate all the common repetitive server tasks. He
concludes that time spent learning PowerShell is time well spent, and that
it can help a great deal in understanding the .NET Framework… Read more
Just when it seemed that there were were no adequate scripting systems for DBAs that could access .NET, along came two. Powershell and Python.… Read more
Francis Norton shows how to use regular expressions to fulfil some real world data validation requirements, demonstrating techniques ranging from simple number format checks, to complex string validation that requires use of regex's powerful "lookahead" feature.… Read more
Most DBAs don't have time to perform routine processes manually. Everything has to be scripted, automated and scheduled. Here, Dan Sullivan describes how a combination of PowerShell and SMO ("PowerSMO") can provide a familiar but powerful command line tool for managing common SQL Server tasks.… Read more
