New DBA Inventory – Server Disk Info

This is a multi-part series on my newly created DBA Inventory system. The main page with a table of contents to link to all the posts is located here

The previous post discussed Server Details, things like Memory, CPU’s, Cores, BIOS, Operating System details using WMI Calls. This next post is another poll of Server level (Operating System) type detail… Disk Info.

This Powershell “poller” grabs disk info such as the Drive Letter, the Disk Model, the Partition, a Description, if it’s a Primary Partition, the Volume Name, if it’s SAN attached, if it’s a Mount Point, Disk Size, Disk Free Space, and a Serial Number. It stores all of this in a history table by an “Audit Date”. That table is named “DiskInfo”!

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[DiskInfo](
	[ServerName] [varchar](256) NOT NULL,
	[DiskName] [varchar](256) NOT NULL,
	[AuditDt] [datetime] NOT NULL,
	[Model] [varchar](256) NULL,
	[DiskPartition] [varchar](256) NULL,
	[Description] [varchar](256) NULL,
	[PrimaryPartition] [bit] NULL,
	[VolumeName] [varchar](256) NULL,
	[Drive] [varchar](128) NULL,
	[SanAttached] [bit] NULL,
	[MountPoint] [bit] NULL,
	[DiskSizeMB] [bigint] NULL,
	[DIskFreeMB] [bigint] NULL,
	[SerialNumber] [varchar](128) NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_DiskInfo] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
	[ServerName] ASC,
	[DiskName] ASC,
	[AuditDt] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON, FILLFACTOR = 90) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

The powershell itself actually only queries my Helper Database installed on every instance – named DBATools. Each instance has a job that runs nightly to get the local disk information. I had originally worked on a centralized script that polled via WMI but it was slow and cumbersome to run in my environment. This is much faster. So the central polling script is here, and it’s pretty simple.

[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.SMO")

if (Get-PSSnapin -Registered -Name SqlServerCmdletSnapin100 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue )
{
	Add-PSSnapin SqlServerCmdletSnapin100 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	Add-PSSnapin SqlServerProviderSnapin100 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	import-module "C:\DBATools\dbatoolsPost2008.psm1"  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
elseif (Get-Module sqlps -ListAvailable -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
{
	Import-Module sqlps #-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	import-module "C:\DBATools\dbatoolsPost2008.psm1"  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}	
else
{
	import-module "C:\DBATools\dbatoolsPre2008.psm1"  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}

Import-Module "C:\DBATools\DBATOOLSCommon.psm1"

$dbaToolsServer = "CS-SQL-INFRAMONITORING-US-DEV-001"
$inventoryDB = "Inventory"

Function GetDiskInfo ($serverName, $sourceDB, $altCredential, $runDt)
{

	$DiskInfo = New-Object System.Data.DataTable
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("ServerName", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("DiskName", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("AuditDt", "System.DateTime")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("Model", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("DiskPartition", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("Description", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("PrimaryPartition", "System.Int32")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("VolumeName", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("Drive", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("SanAttached", "System.Int32")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("MountPoint", "System.Int32")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("DiskSizeMB", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("DiskFreeMB", "System.String")
	[void]$DiskInfo.Columns.Add("SerialNumber", "System.String")

	$sqlQuery = "
		SELECT [ServerName]
			  ,[DiskName]
			  ,[AuditDt]
			  ,[Model]
			  ,[DiskPartition]
			  ,[Description]
			  ,[PrimaryPartition]
			  ,[VolumeName]
			  ,[Drive]
			  ,[SanAttached]
			  ,[MountPoint]
			  ,[DiskSizeMB]
			  ,[DIskFreeMB]
			  ,[SerialNumber]
		  FROM  [DiskInfo]
	"

	if ($altCredential -ne $null) {
		write-host "Using Alt Credentials!"

		$user=$altCredential.UserName
		$pass = $altCredential.GetNetworkCredential().Password
		$splat = @{
			UserName = $user
			Password = $pass
			ServerInstance = $serverName
			Database = $sourceDB
			Query = $sqlQuery
		}
		$diskQuery = Invoke-SqlCmd @splat 
	} else {
		$diskQuery = QuerySql $servername $sourceDB $sqlQuery 60000
	}
	foreach ($row in $diskQuery)
	{
			$newRow = $DiskInfo.NewRow()
			$newRow["ServerName"] = $row.Servername
			$newRow["DiskName"] = $row.DiskName
			$newRow["AuditDt"] = [DateTime]$runDt
			$newRow["Model"] = $row.Model
			$newRow["DiskPartition"] = $row.DiskPartition
			$newRow["Description"] = $row.Description
			$newRow["PrimaryPartition"] = $row.PrimaryPartition
			$newRow["VolumeName"] = $row.VolumeName
			$newRow["Drive"] = $row.Drive
			$newRow["SanAttached"] = $row.SanAttached
			$newRow["MountPoint"] = $row.MountPoint
			$newRow["DiskSizeMB"] = $row.DiskSizeMB
			$newRow["DiskFreeMB"] = $row.DiskFreeMB
			$newRow["SerialNumber"] = $row.SerialNumber
			$DiskInfo.Rows.Add($newRow)
	}

	#$diskInfo	

	try
	{
		if ($DiskInfo.Rows.Count -gt 0) {
	
			$cn = new-object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection("Data Source=$dbaToolsServer;Integrated Security=SSPI;Initial Catalog=$inventoryDB");
			$cn.Open()
			$bc = new-object ("System.Data.SqlClient.SqlBulkCopy") $cn
			$bc.DestinationTableName = "DiskInfo"
			$bc.WriteToServer($DiskInfo)
			$cn.Close()
		}
	}
	catch [System.Exception]
	{
		$errVal = $_.Exception.GetType().FullName + " - " + $_.FullyQualifiedErrorID
		Write-Host "Insert Error Error $serverName"
		Write-Host $errVal
		$errCount ++
	}
}


###########################################################################################
#
#		MAIN
#
###########################################################################################

$startDate = get-date
$runDt = Get-Date -format "yyyy-MM-dd HH:00:00"

#Get-ClusteredDiskInfo "NAT317DBS" $runDt
#EXIT

$sqlQuery = @"
		SELECT [InstanceName] = ID.InstanceName, 
			[DBAToolsDB] = DD.DatabaseName,
			[UName] = AC.Uname,
			[PWord] = AC.PWord
		FROM InstanceDetails ID
		LEFT OUTER JOIN DatabaseDetails DD
			ON ID.InstanceName = DD.InstanceName
		LEFT OUTER JOIN [AltSqlCredentials] AC
			ON ID.InstanceName = AC.instancename
			and AC.[SourceServerNetBIOS] = (SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('ComputerNamePhysicalNetBIOS'))
		WHERE ID.Retired = 0
		AND ID.LicenseOnly = 0
		AND DD.DatabaseName like 'DBATools%'
"@

$clusteredServers = QuerySql $dbaToolsServer $inventoryDB $sqlQuery 60000

foreach ($instance in $clusteredServers)
{
	$instanceName = $instance[0]
	$sourceDB = $instance[1]
	$user = $instance[2]
	$pass = $instance[3]

	$altCredential = $null
	if (-not(([DBNull]::Value).Equals($user)) ) {
		write-host "Found alt credential for $instanceName"
		$pass = $pass|ConvertTo-SecureString 
		$altCredential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PsCredential `
			-ArgumentList $user, $pass
	}

	$instanceName
	GetDiskInfo $instanceName $sourceDB $altCredential $runDt
}

$endDate = get-date
$sqlQuery = "INSERT INTO MonitoringJobStatus 
		(JOBNAME, STATUS, STARTDT, ENDDT, RANGESTARTDT, RANGEENDDT, ERROR)
		VALUES
		('DISKINFO','C','$startDate', '$endDate', '', '', '')"



QuerySql $dbaToolsServer $inventoryDB $sqlQuery 60000

exit

This query gets the list of instances to poll and also introduces the concept of a SQL Login credential that’s stored as a Secure String to use a SQL Login to connect rather than the AD Credential (for servers not joined to the domain).

$sqlQuery = @"
		SELECT [InstanceName] = ID.InstanceName, 
			[DBAToolsDB] = DD.DatabaseName,
			[UName] = AC.Uname,
			[PWord] = AC.PWord
		FROM InstanceDetails ID
		LEFT OUTER JOIN DatabaseDetails DD
			ON ID.InstanceName = DD.InstanceName
		LEFT OUTER JOIN [AltSqlCredentials] AC
			ON ID.InstanceName = AC.instancename
			and AC.[SourceServerNetBIOS] = (SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('ComputerNamePhysicalNetBIOS'))
		WHERE ID.Retired = 0
		AND ID.LicenseOnly = 0
		AND DD.DatabaseName like 'DBATools%'
"@

The function GetDiskInfo just creates a new data table, queries the local DBATools..DiskInfo table and uses the credentials if they exist. It then bulk uploads that data into the Inventory table.

The local DiskInfo table is identical, its just in the DBATools database on every instance. So let’s look at the Powershell script that’s on each local server as part of the DBATools installation.

#
#	GetDiskSanInfo.ps1
#	
#	This script determines for SAN that is attached whether 
#	it is a mount point and whether it is replicated.
#
#	DiskExt.exe is used to determine which physical disk a mount point resides on.
#	inq.wnt.exe is used to determine whether a given SAN volume is replicated.
#
#	The dbo.DiskInfo table in DBATools is updated with this information. From
#	there the DB Inventory service will read it and update the DBInv database.
#

if (Get-PSSnapin -Registered -Name SqlServerCmdletSnapin100 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue )
{
	Add-PSSnapin SqlServerCmdletSnapin100 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	Add-PSSnapin SqlServerProviderSnapin100 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	import-module "C:\DBATools\dbatoolsPost2008.psm1"  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
elseif (Get-Module sqlps -ListAvailable -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
{
	Import-Module sqlps -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	import-module "C:\DBATools\dbatoolsPost2008.psm1"  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}	
else
{
	import-module "C:\DBATools\dbatoolsPre2008.psm1"  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
Import-Module "C:\DBATools\DBATOOLSCommon.psm1"

$scriptPath = split-path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition

$dbaToolsServer = "CS-SQL-INFRAMONITORING-US-DEV-001"
$SQLName = $args[0]
if ($SQLName -ne $null)
{ $dbaToolsServer = $SQLName }

if (Get-Module FailoverClusters -ListAvailable -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
{  
	Import-Module FailoverClusters	
	$clusterName = GET-Cluster
	$physicalName = $clusterName.Name.toUpper()
} else {
	$physicalName = (hostname).toUpper()
}


$runDt = Get-Date -format "MM/dd/yyyy HH:00:00"

# this is the table that will hold the data during execution
$serverDisk = New-Object System.Data.DataTable
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("ServerName", "System.String")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("DiskName", "System.String")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("AuditDt", "System.DateTime")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("Model", "System.String")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("DiskPartition", "System.String")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("Description", "System.String")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("PrimaryPartition", "System.Boolean")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("VolumeName", "System.String")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("Drive", "System.String")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("SanAttached", "System.Boolean")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("MountPoint", "System.Boolean")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("DiskSizeMB", "System.Int64")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("DiskFreeMB", "System.Int64")
[void]$serverDisk.Columns.Add("SerialNumber", "System.String")
                
# WMI data
$wmi_diskdrives = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_DiskDrive
$wmi_mountpoints = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Volume -Filter "DriveType=3 AND DriveLetter IS NULL AND NOT Name like '\\\\?\\Volume%'" | Select $WMI_DiskMountProps
                
$AllDisks = @()
$DiskElements = @('ComputerName','Disk','Model','Partition','Description','PrimaryPartition','VolumeName','Drive', 'SanAttached', 'MountPoint', 'DiskSize','FreeSpace','DiskType','SerialNumber')
                foreach ($diskdrive in $wmi_diskdrives) 
                {
                    $partitionquery = "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive.DeviceID=`"$($diskdrive.DeviceID.replace('\','\\'))`"} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition"
                    $partitions = @(Get-WmiObject -Query $partitionquery)
                    foreach ($partition in $partitions)
                    {
                        $logicaldiskquery = "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition.DeviceID=`"$($partition.DeviceID)`"} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition"
                        $logicaldisks = @(Get-WmiObject -Query $logicaldiskquery)
                        foreach ($logicaldisk in $logicaldisks)
                        {
				$newRow = $serverDisk.NewRow()
				$newRow["ServerName"] = $physicalName
				$newRow["DiskName"] = $logicalDisk.Name
				$newRow["AuditDt"] = [DateTime]$runDt
				$newRow["Model"] = $diskDrive.Model
				$newRow["DiskPartition"] = $partition.Name
				$newRow["Description"] = $partition.Description
				$newRow["PrimaryPartition"] = $partition.PrimaryPartition
				$newRow["VolumeName"] = $logicalDisk.volumeName
				$newRow["Drive"] = $diskDrive.Name
				$newRow["SanAttached"] = if ($diskdrive.Model.StartsWith("NETAPP")) { $TRUE } else { $FALSE }
				$newRow["MountPoint"] = $FALSE
				$newRow["DiskSizeMB"] = [math]::truncate($logicalDisk.Size / 1MB)
				$newRow["DiskFreeMB"] = [math]::truncate($logicalDisk.FreeSpace / 1MB)
				$newRow["SerialNumber"] = $diskDrive.serialNumber
				$serverDisk.Rows.Add($newRow)
                        }
                    }
                }
                # Mountpoints are weird so we do them seperate.
                if ($wmi_mountpoints)
                {
                    foreach ($mountpoint in $wmi_mountpoints)
                    {
				$newRow = $serverDisk.NewRow()
				$newRow["ServerName"] = $physicalName
				$newRow["DiskName"] = $mountpoint.Name
				$newRow["AuditDt"] = [DateTime]$runDt
				$newRow["Model"] = 'Mount Point'
				$newRow["DiskPartition"] = $DBNULL
				$newRow["Description"] = $mountpoint.Caption
				$newRow["PrimaryPartition"] = $FALSE
				$newRow["VolumeName"] = $mountpoint.Caption
				$newRow["Drive"] = [Regex]::Match($mountpoint.Caption, "(^.:)").Value
				$newRow["SanAttached"] = $TRUE
				$newRow["MountPoint"] = $TRUE
				$newRow["DiskSizeMB"] = [math]::truncate($mountpoint.Capacity / 1MB)
				$newRow["DiskFreeMB"] = [math]::truncate($mountpoint.FreeSpace / 1MB)
				$newRow["SerialNumber"] = $DBNULL
				$serverDisk.Rows.Add($newRow)
                    }
                }

$sqlCmd = "Select name from sys.databases where name like 'DBATools%'"
$dbatoolsDBName = QuerySql  $dbaToolsServer "master" $sqlCmd 

$DBAToolsDB = $dbatoolsDBName[0]

$sqlCmd = "TRUNCATE TABLE dbo.DiskInfo"
QuerySql $dbaToolsServer $DBAToolsDB $sqlCmd 

# create the connection for the bulk loads
$connString = "Data Source=$dbaToolsServer; Initial Catalog=$DBAToolsDB; Integrated Security=True; Application Name=GetSanDiskInfo.ps1; "
$sqlConn = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection $connString
$sqlConn.Open()
try
{
	# upload the table to DBATools
	$bulkCopy = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlBulkCopy($sqlConn)
	$bulkCopy.DestinationTableName = "dbo.DiskInfo"
	$bulkCopy.WriteToServer($serverDisk)
}
catch [System.Exception]
{
	$errVal = $_.Exception.GetType().FullName + " - " + $_.FullyQualifiedErrorID
	Write-Host "Bulkcopy Error"
	Write-Host $errVal
	$errCount ++
}

Very similar as it creates a data table for each disk row. It also imports FailoverClusters to get the cluster name (in the case of a cluster, it stores all the disks under the Cluster Name) It then queries via WMI out to WIN32_DiskDrive and then to Win32_Volume. The filter on the Win32_Volume limits to just mount points via -Filter “DriveType=3 AND DriveLetter IS NULL AND NOT Name like ‘\\\\?\\Volume%'”.

It then uses some WMI Magic of “ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive} by device ID” to get partitions, and another “ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition} by device ID” to get the logical disks. This is the part that really slowed down running this from a centralized location, and forcing me to run it locally on each server.

I do some assumptions here, with the SanAttached value, if the Drive model starts with “NETAPP”, I assume it’s SAN Attached. I only have Netapp arrays in the company, so I can make that assumption. I’m sure there would be additional models, for EMC, 3Par, Dell, etc… but this works for my environment today.

I do a separate loop to load Mountpoints into the data table, and always assume they are SAN Attached.

So, if you’re astute, you’ll notice or think to yourself, if I have multiple instances on the same server, each of those DBATools databases will have a DiskInfo table and the same information in it. And then my centralized polling powershell will pull those and load them into the Inventory database…. but that table has a Primary Key on the ServerName, DiskName, and AuditDt. And you’re right it is the physical server name, or in the case of a cluster, the Virtual Computer Name of the Cluster. What I do is discard the duplicates – who needs them? Why write a bunch of logic to check for it, and not poll it, or whatnot, let the Constraint of the Clustered Primary Key do the work and disallow dupes. For example, I have one two node “active/passive” cluster that has seven instances on it. Each instance has a DBATools database, and each instance runs the local powershell script and loads the disk info for the cluster into each of the seven DBATools databases. The centralized polling script connects to each of those seven instances and attempts to load the same data seven times. It discards six of them – big deal, as long as I get one that’s all that matters…. I now have a list of all disks, volumes, mount points, total space and free space for every server that I have in my Inventory, and I have it every day. I can now trend growth rate at the server / disk layer over time.

Here’s the sample data from a single cluster of mine, with six instances on it (I group instances on a drive letter with three mountpoints under it, one for User Database Datafiles, one for User Database Tran Logs, and one for System DB’s / instance root). Just think of the trending and PowerBI charts you could make with a year’s worth of data from every SQL Server in your environment!

Another developer gift

Just found this one, looks like it was dropped in right around the time I started at the company.

ALTER procedure [dbo].[usp_Get_RowCount] 
@pStructureRowCount	nvarchar(500),
@pRowCount int output

as

set nocount on
	
Declare
@SQLStatement varchar(500)

set @SQLStatement = 'Select count(*) From ' + @pStructureRowCount

create table #tempRowCount (----Temporary table created for storing related to current Database
StrucRowCount bigint,
)

insert into #tempRowCount exec(@SQLStatement)

select @pRowCount = StrucRowcount from #tempRowCount

Windows Updates affected SQL Server?

I had read about the issues with the SQL Agent “Is Alive” checks spamming event logs on clustered SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2008 R2 SP instances… and since I have three sets of 2 Node clusters running multiple instances including 2012, 2008R2 and 2008, after reading about that a few months back, I checked my servers. None of them were spamming the logs. They all have (change that to HAD now that I’ve upgraded) SQL 2012 RTM, SQL 2008 R2 SP2, and SQL 2008 SP3. Not a one of them ever had the “dreaded” LooksAlive or CheckServiceAlive entries with Event ID 53 from [sqagtres]. Here’s one connect article that shows some more details and which versions are fixed with what CU’s. http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/737820/sql-2012-cluster-checkservicealive-spams-application-event-log

Anyway, so, none of the clusters in my environment have any history of Event ID 53 for SQL Agent. Last night, the System Administrator applied some Windows Updates (I don’t have a “test” SQL Cluster, but all these updates were applied on our Test SQL Servers prior to last night). After the Windows updates were applied, my event logs on ONE server started being spammed with the Agent Alive checks. WTF? I thought this was a SQL Agent bug?

Here’s the list of Updates applied last night. KB2799494, KB2789645, KB2251487, KB2790655, KB2538243, KB890830, KB2790113, KB2789642, KB2797052, KB2687441, KB2596672, KB2778344, KB2645410, KB2792100, KB2538242.

AgentAliveSpam

On Monday (since I’ve worked enough this damned weekend already), I’m going to go through the other two clusters and compare Updates that were installed, and base levels of SQL Server. Off hand, I think that both of the other Clusters were running SQL 2012 SP1 already.

Oh, another odd data point for me to consider… I was getting these LooksAlive entries in the event logs for the SQL 2008 instance!

Finally, a parting thought. Installing CU3 for SQL Server 2008 R2 at 2AM (or was it 3AM, damned DST!) on a Sunday morning, I really liked that I had to implement a work around to get the POS CU3 installed. Yeah, the old “Rename the C:\Windows\System32\perf-*-sqlagtctr.dll” file to allow the installer to upgrade your SQL Server bug. Thanks for that MS.

Extended Properties as a Run Book?

Perhaps Run Book isn’t the right terminology, but it’s close. So, in my environment we are a manufacturer of large equipment. We do have a centralized IT organization, but it seems to be more focused on keeping the lights on and trying to catch up on what the business purchases off the shelf or even what some groups have developed on their own.

One thing I’ve struggled with in the past two years, since this company has no defined processes (no ITIL or anything similar) and little to no documentation, has been in capturing what databases are where, who is the “Business Owner”, what the application is, and such. I’ve also started implementing DNS aliases for connection strings so that we can be more portable when moving applications, especially COTS systems where we might not have the understanding to change a set of connection strings. As you may know, I have a number of Powershell scripts that capture the specifics of the servers, instances, database properties, file locations, etc. One thing that these cannot grab are the applications and business representatives. Sure, with my two years of knowledge, I can look at a database server, look at an instance name, look at the name of the database and make a good guess at what it does, where it runs, who I should contact if there are problems or changes are planned… but when onboarding someone new, it would take an incredible amount of time for that new person to build up the same intimacy with the environment.

Previously, the approach was to take the Excel document output from the Database Properties script and add a column with “Owner” which sometimes had a name I could place with it.

Today I received a request for a new blank database via email from a quasi-developer in another location. This person is not in IT but has developed a number of supporting type applications for the local users at his manufacturing site. I thought to myself, I have all the details in this email from the requestor, maybe we should just embed this email to the excel document. But I’m lazy, and this is a very loose requirement, I could be busy, I could be in a procrastination mood and put off the follow up documentation for… well,,, ever. Next, I thought, we have a web based in-house developed tool for requesting services from IT. So I thought, hey, I could make it a requirement that a ticket be created for any new Database needed, and then just copy the ticket number into the spreadsheet. Blah, same thing, when I’m off creating a DB in SSMS, I don’t really want to have to open a spreadsheet on our SharePoint site to update that… still too manual and loose.

So, I thought, why not make it part of the “Create database” process to copy the details from the request ticket into Extended Properties inside the database. What I came up with was setting up four Key, Value pairs to start with. A Description which contains some details of the what the database is used for. An AppOwner key with the requestor name or whomever is identified as the owner. A Ticket key with the number from the request. The final required one is the ConnectionString which contains the DNS alias name created for the application to use. I kind of like it, it’s tidy and neat, and it stays with the database if I restore to a new server. The only maintenance might be to change the AppOwner if they change roles or leave the company.

I’m going to modify my above referenced powershell script to include grabbing these keys and values from every database when I run it. I’ve also been noodling a type of “Self Service portal” where power users like the requestor above can hit a web page form that would then kick off an approval work flow and I could then choose the server to deploy to and the database create and all the above documentation would be created on the fly. That would be really neat, the only flaw would be organizational changes.

In short, I’m going to make it a requirement than any new database request be filled out with our services request system, and require a description of the application just for paperwork reasons… it’s much easier to run a web based report than search a DBA’s PST file for auditing purposes. I’m going to have the DBA team start using the Extended Properties for the database to hold that. I’m going to “Extend” my powershell script to grab those properties for our documentation purposes. I may or may not work on a Provisioning Portal… I might be getting too far ahead of the rest of the IT organization here.

My Generic Event Notifications for SQL Servers

While reading a blog post regarding using server DDL triggers to capture a “CREATE DATABASE” and fire an email to the DBA, I thought that coupling a trigger to sp_send_dbmail and an external executable wasn’t a great idea. I decided that there must be a better way to capture that important event. For me, this would really only occur in a development server where the developers often have enhanced rights to the dev servers. Production is pretty tight. However, my heart is always broken when a developer runs up and asks me to restore an accidentally dropped database on the Dev server, only for me to find out that the same developer created that database without telling me. My backup packages don’t dynamically grab all the online databases when it runs, so if they add a database and don’t tell me, it don’t get backed up.

My first thought was Extended Events. I don’t know much about them, I’ve heard the abstracts and read the rumors, but I haven’t had call to work with them. If I remember correctly, it seemed there was a way to capture the CREATE Database event, but then I was stuck with a data record of the event, and not a handy way to email it to me. Searching for Extended Events Send Email took me quickly to a Johnathan Kehayias awesome answer on the MSDN forums explaining that, no, there’s no real plumbing between Extended Events and the Service Broker. His second answer in the same discussion linked to his blog which is fountain of knowledge and an article explaining Event Notifications vs Extended Events. From there, I saw a link to another article in his blog. Sounded pretty darn close to what I wanted.

That lead to my current version of a generic Event Notification system which I am currently testing on a number of servers. It’s actually a combination of procedures from Jonathan’s articles and Sergey Maskalik’s article. Sergey’s error handling and timeout on the Waitfor along with cleanup of the Conversation Handles coupled with Jonathan’s shredding of the XML message body seems to be a work of art to me. I added in some of my own magic to ensure XACT_ABORT was on, some COALESCE’s to ensure a null value wasn’t concatenated over valid values, and setting this up in a “utility” database and setting “TRUSTWORTHY ON” to allow the execution of sp_send_dbmail in MSDB.

We’ll start with the guts needed to set up and wire up the Service Broker and Queues, Services, and Routes. It’s pretty boiler plate, with the added commands to turn on the Service Broker and set TRUSTWORTHY.

NOTE: Jonathan has visited and brought up a very valid and real security risk. In my approach, I take a utility database and set TRUSTWORTHY=ON to it. Please visit and read Raul Garcia’s article on the risks of the TRUSTWORTHY bit. At the time of my writing this, the database that I deploy this solution to is already restricted to the DBA team and anyone with Sysadmin privileges. In this case, all those principals already have enough access to do what this setting allows without any other work, so I feel the risk in my environment is low. For a more secure solution, I strongly recommend a careful review of your situation, and indeed using certificates to sign the procedures to allow cross-database execution.

USE [master];
go

-- SET EVERYTHING UP WITH THE SERVICE BROKER
--  We could also do this when creating the DatabaseBackup database
--  as part of the initial package run, or update.
--  Trustworthy allows a stored proc in the current database
--   execute SP_SEND_DBMAIL in msdb

ALTER DATABASE DatabaseBackup SET ENABLE_BROKER;
go
ALTER DATABASE DatabaseBackup SET TRUSTWORTHY ON;
go


USE DatabaseBackup
GO

-- Drop the notification if it exists
IF EXISTS ( SELECT  *
            FROM    sys.server_event_notifications
            WHERE   name = N'CaptureDBAEvents' ) 
    BEGIN
        DROP EVENT NOTIFICATION [CaptureDBAEvents] ON SERVER;
    END

-- Drop the route if it exists
IF EXISTS ( SELECT  *
            FROM    sys.routes
            WHERE   name = N'DBAEventRoute' ) 
    BEGIN
        DROP ROUTE [DBAEventRoute];
    END

-- Drop the service if it exists
IF EXISTS ( SELECT  *
            FROM    sys.services
            WHERE   name = N'DBAEventService' ) 
    BEGIN
        DROP SERVICE [DBAEventService];
    END

-- Drop the queue if it exists
IF EXISTS ( SELECT  *
            FROM    sys.service_queues
            WHERE   name = N'DBAEventQueue' ) 
    BEGIN
        DROP QUEUE [DBAEventQueue];
    END

IF EXISTS ( SELECT * 
			FROM MASTER.sys.event_notifications
			WHERE name = N'CaptureDBAEvents' )
	BEGIN
		DROP EVENT NOTIFICATION [CaptureDBAEvents] ON SERVER
	END

--  Create a service broker queue to hold the events
CREATE QUEUE [DBAEventQueue]
WITH STATUS=ON;
GO

--  Create a service broker service receive the events
CREATE SERVICE [DBAEventService]
ON QUEUE [DBAEventQueue] ([http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQL/Notifications/PostEventNotification]);
GO

-- Create a service broker route to the service
CREATE ROUTE [DBAEventRoute]
WITH SERVICE_NAME = 'DBAEventService',
ADDRESS = 'LOCAL';
GO

-- Create the event notification to capture the events
CREATE EVENT NOTIFICATION [CaptureDBAEvents]
ON SERVER
WITH FAN_IN
FOR CREATE_DATABASE, DROP_DATABASE, CREATE_LOGIN, DROP_LOGIN, CREATE_USER, DROP_USER, BLOCKED_PROCESS_REPORT, DEADLOCK_GRAPH, ADD_ROLE_MEMBER, ADD_SERVER_ROLE_MEMBER
TO SERVICE 'DBAEventService', 'current database';
GO

Right above, while creating the EVENT NOTIFICATION, you can see the event types I have. I decided that while it’s great to have AutoGrowth events sent, that in our current environment, this might be more noise than there is value for, so we have left that out for now. Sure there’s a lot more audit events that I could hit up too, but I felt that the ROLL MEMEBERSHIPS, USER and LOGIN work and the DATABASE create and drop were a great start. Also the DEADLOCK_GRAPH was just a nice freebie.

Next, the guts of this, an Stored Procedure that is generic enough to handle different Event Types and shred as much of the XML as possible into a friendly email message. Right, who doesn’t like a mailbox full of raw XML in the morning? 🙂 Note, the final ELSE in the shredding and Email Body building, so if we decided to add a Event Type, we will always just email off the XML until things are fixed.

USE DatabaseBackup
GO

-- Drop the procedure if it exists
IF EXISTS ( SELECT * 
			FROM sys.procedures
            WHERE   name = N'ProcessEvents' ) 
    BEGIN
        DROP PROCEDURE [ProcessEvents];
    END
GO

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ProcessEvents]
WITH EXECUTE AS OWNER
AS    
	SET XACT_ABORT ON;
    DECLARE @eventType VARCHAR(128);
	DECLARE @messagetypename NVARCHAR(256);
	DECLARE @ch UNIQUEIDENTIFIER;

    DECLARE @serverName VARCHAR(128);
    DECLARE @postTime VARCHAR(128);
    DECLARE @databaseName VARCHAR(128);
    DECLARE @duration VARCHAR(128);
    DECLARE @growthPages INT;   
	DECLARE @userName VARCHAR(128);
	DECLARE @loginInfo VARCHAR(256);
	DECLARE @SID VARCHAR(128);

    DECLARE @messageBody XML;
	DECLARE @emailTo VARCHAR(50);
	DECLARE @emailBody VARCHAR(MAX);
	DECLARE @subject varchar(150);

	SET @emailTo = '<DBA TEAM EMAIL HERE>@gmail.com;   

	WHILE (1=1) 
	BEGIN         
		BEGIN TRY                
			BEGIN TRANSACTION               
				WAITFOR (                        
					RECEIVE TOP(1)    
					@ch = conversation_handle,                                                            
					@messagetypename = message_type_name,                                
					@messagebody = CAST(message_body AS XML)                        
					FROM DBAEventQueue              
				), TIMEOUT 60000;             
				IF (@@ROWCOUNT = 0)              
				BEGIN                     
					ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;                       
					BREAK;                
				END                
				IF (@messagetypename = 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQL/Notifications/EventNotification')                
				BEGIN  
					--  Get the common information 
					SELECT @eventType = COALESCE(@messagebody.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/EventType)[1]','varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN'),
						@serverName = COALESCE(@messagebody.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/ServerName)[1]','varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN'),
						@postTime = COALESCE(CAST(@messagebody.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/PostTime)[1]','datetime') AS VARCHAR),'UNKNOWN');
					 
					SELECT  @emailBody = 'The following event occurred:' + CHAR(10) 
						+ CAST('Event Type: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @EventType + CHAR(10)
						+ CAST('ServerName: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @ServerName + CHAR(10) 
						+ CAST('PostTime: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @PostTime + CHAR(10);
                    
					-- Now the custom XML fields depending on the Event Type
					IF (@EventType like '%_FILE_AUTO_GROW')
					BEGIN
						SELECT @duration = COALESCE(@messagebody.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/Duration)[1]','varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN'),
							@growthPages = COALESCE(@messagebody.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/IntegerData)[1]', 'int'),'UNKNOWN'),
							@databaseName = COALESCE(@messagebody.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/DatabaseName)[1]','varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN');
                    
						SELECT @emailBody = @emailBody
							+ CAST('Duration: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @Duration + CHAR(10) 
							+ CAST('GrowthSize_KB: ' AS CHAR(25)) + CAST(( @GrowthPages * 8 ) AS VARCHAR(20)) + CHAR(10)
							+ CAST('DatabaseName: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @DatabaseName + CHAR(10);
					END
					ELSE IF (@EventType like '%_DATABASE')
					BEGIN
						SELECT @userName = COALESCE(@messageBody.value('/EVENT_INSTANCE[1]/LoginName[1]', 'varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN'),
							@DatabaseName = COALESCE(@messagebody.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/DatabaseName)[1]','varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN');
					
						SELECT @emailBody = @emailBody 
							+ CAST('User: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @userName + CHAR(10)
							+ CAST('DatabaseName: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @DatabaseName + CHAR(10);
					END
					ELSE IF (@EventType like '%_LOGIN')
					BEGIN
						SELECT @userName = COALESCE(@messageBody.value('/EVENT_INSTANCE[1]/LoginName[1]', 'varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN'),
							@loginInfo = COALESCE(@messageBody.value('/EVENT_INSTANCE[1]/ObjectName[1]', 'varchar(256)'),'UNKNOWN'),
							@SID = COALESCE(@messageBody.value('/EVENT_INSTANCE[1]/SID[1]', 'varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN');
					
						SELECT @emailBody = @emailBody
							+ CAST('User: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @userName + CHAR(10)
							+ CAST('New User: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @loginInfo + CHAR(10)
							+ CAST('New SID: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @SID + CHAR(10);
					END
					ELSE IF (@EventType like '%_ROLE_MEMBER')
					BEGIN
						DECLARE @roleName VARCHAR(128);
						DECLARE @command VARCHAR(128);
						SELECT @userName = COALESCE(@messageBody.value('/EVENT_INSTANCE[1]/LoginName[1]', 'varchar(128)'),'UNKNOWN'),
							@loginInfo = COALESCE(@messageBody.value('/EVENT_INSTANCE[1]/ObjectName[1]', 'varchar(256)'),'UNKNOWN'),
							@roleName = COALESCE(@messageBody.value('/EVENT_INSTANCE[1]/RoleName[1]', 'varchar(256)'),'UNKNOWN'),
							@command = COALESCE(@messageBody.value('/EVENT_INSTANCE[1]/TSQLCommand[1]/CommandText[1]', 'varchar(256)'),'UNKNOWN');
						SELECT @emailBody = @emailBody
							+ CAST('User: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @userName + CHAR(10)
							+ CAST('Affected User: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @loginInfo + CHAR(10)
							+ CAST('New Role: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @roleName + CHAR(10)
							+ CAST('Command issued: ' AS CHAR(25)) + @command + CHAR(10);
					END
					ELSE  -- TRAP ALL OTHER EVENTS AND SPIT OUT JUST THE XML - We can pretty it up later :)
					BEGIN
						SELECT @emailBody = CAST(@messagebody AS VARCHAR(max));
					END

					-- Send email using Database Mail
					SELECT @subject = @eventType + ' on ' + @serverName;
					EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail                
						@profile_name = 'DBA Email', -- your defined email profile 
						@recipients = @emailTo, -- your email
						@subject = @subject,
						@body = @emailBody;               
				END              
				IF (@messagetypename = 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQL/ServiceBroker/Error')            
				BEGIN                        
					DECLARE @errorcode INT;                          
					DECLARE @errormessage NVARCHAR(3000) ;                 
					-- Extract the error information from the sent message                  
					SET @errorcode = (SELECT @messagebody.value(                        
						N'declare namespace brokerns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQL/ServiceBroker/Error";                         
						(/brokerns:Error/brokerns:Code)[1]', 'int'));                  
					SET @errormessage = (SELECT @messagebody.value(                        
						N'declare namespace brokerns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQL/ServiceBroker/Error";                        
						(/brokerns:Error/brokerns:Description)[1]', 'nvarchar(3000)'));                  
					-- Log the error 
					END CONVERSATION @ch WITH CLEANUP;                             
				END
				IF (@messagetypename = 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQL/ServiceBroker/EndDialog')                
				BEGIN                       
					-- End the conversation                        
					END CONVERSATION @ch WITH CLEANUP;                
				END                                 
			COMMIT TRANSACTION;   
		END TRY        
		BEGIN CATCH             
			ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;                
			DECLARE @ErrorNum INT;                
			DECLARE @ErrorMsg NVARCHAR(3000);                
			SELECT @ErrorNum = ERROR_NUMBER(), @ErrorMsg = ERROR_MESSAGE();                
			-- log the error                
			BREAK;        
		END CATCH   
	END
GO

Finally, let’s activate the new Stored Procedure by altering the Queue. Again this is pretty boiler plate.

-- Activate the procedure with the Queue
ALTER QUEUE [DBAEventQueue]
   WITH STATUS=ON, 
      ACTIVATION 
         (STATUS=ON,
          PROCEDURE_NAME = [ProcessEvents],
          MAX_QUEUE_READERS = 1,
          EXECUTE AS OWNER);
GO

Thanks, I hope that helps anyone interested in Event Notifications.

There seem to be a lot of questions and even some misinformation popping up with regards to SQL Server 2012 licensing. Microsoft is moving away from licenses based on the number of processor in a server to figure out per/cpu licensing. They are now licensing hardware on a per/core license.

Right or wrong, agree or disagree, here’s the details as I know them. Based on a number of sources, including a meeting with my employers VAR and an internal MS licensing expert.

Per core licensing is based on “Core-Packs”. Each core-pack covers two cores, and there is a minimum purchase of two core-packs. This will be an expensive premium if one plans on building a single processor dual core machine, and you’re paying to license a minimum of four cores.

I’ve been told that the core-packs cost 50% less than current per/cpu licenses. That makes the magic number a total of 4 cores with 2012 licensing costing the same a single processor license with current license costs.

I’ve read that with 2012 licesning – in the case of virtualization if you license all the physical cores you have unlimited rights to virtual OS’s (vOS). Current day licensing with Enterprise Edition would only allow a total of 4 vOS’s per license.

Also, current customers with an EA will retain their current purchasing plan until the expiration of the EA, regardless of when that is.. if it’s Jan 1 of 2013, then all of 2012, you continue to purchase the licenses as you have. Once the EA is up, you will have to submit the number of cores in your currently licensed environment and MS will “trade” those for the equivalent number of Core-Packs. I’ve heard conflicting reports of a hard limit of 20 cores or 10 Core-Packs per server, and other reports that do not mention that limit.