Evaluate your Daily Checklist against 100+ instances of SQL Server while you get a cup of coffeeJohn Sterrett (@JohnSterrett)

http://johnsterrett.com/go/PBM

5/12/2011

Thank you Attendees & Sponsors

• I am not an expert but I stayed at a Holiday Inn once….

• Founder of WVPASS (SQL UG)• I reside in Wheeling, WV (Pittsburgh, PA)• Work for Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

– Responsible 100+ Instances of SQL Server– Responsible for PeopleSoft

About Me….

My Story….

Urgency

Importance

BackupsCorruptionFailed mission critical SQL Jobs

Process improvementsContinuing educationProjectsIndex ManagementPerformance Tuning

Pittsburgh Pirates winning the world series

Everything else…

Failed JobsLow Disk Space

Comes from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

• 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)

Daily Checklist Questions

Daily Checklist

46%

54%

Do you have a Daily Checklist?

YesNo

Daily Checklist?

20%

19%

17%

19%

11%

8%5%

What do you check in your daily checklist?

Full Backups succeeded

Transactional log backups succeeded

SQL Services are running

SQL Agent jobs succeeded

Disks have free space

Data and Log files have free space

Other

Daily Checklist?

6%

17%

13%

13%

40%

6%4%

How do you evaluate your daily checklist?Policy-Based Management and/or Central Manage-ment 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 eval-uate a daily checklist

SQL Agent Notifications and/or Alerts

I built my own tool

Job Notifications…..

Trust but verify…..

• Is the SQL Agent enabled for all servers?• Does email operator exist for all jobs?• Is the operator the same across all servers?• Is Database Mail enabled for all servers?

I prefer notifications and….

• 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

Central Management Server (CMS)

Which version of SQL should I use?

• MSDB is used to store servers and groups• Servers –

msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_registered_servers_internal

• Groups – msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_server_groups_internal

CMS Internals

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.

First look at CMS

• 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

DEMO

• 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

127.0.0.1 or add port number)• Query executes for all listed servers. (Includes

duplicates)

CMS Gotchas!

Leverage PowerShell to automate CMS

• Aaron Nelson – SQL University PowerShell Week

DEMO!

• Automate CMS with PowerShell

• 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

Policy-Based Management (PBM)

• 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

I use CMS & PBM to do two things…

• Targets • facets• conditions• policy• categories• server restrictions

PBM Concepts and Terms

Page Verify Policy

Database Target

Database Performance Facet

@PageVerify = true Condition

SQL Server 2005 or newer Server Restriction

On Schedule Evaluation Mode

PBM Example – Page Verify

http://www.littlekendra.com/2011/01/25/pageverify/

• 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: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510667%28SQL.100%29.aspx

Evaluation Modes

• 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

On-Change Evaluation….

• Resource Pool• Schema• Stored Procedure• Table Options• User Defined Function• User Options• View Options• Workload Group

• Best Practices– SQL Server 2008 Feature Packs– C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\

Policies\DatabaseEngine\1033

• Interwebs– http://www.mssqltips.com/category.asp?catid=89– Blogs– Bing or Google

Where can I find policies?

Message Number Evaluation Mode

34050 On change – prevent when policies are enabled for automatic evaluation.

34051 On change – prevent when the policy is on demand

30452 On Schedule

34053 On change – Log

Policy Alerts

* On demand cannot be enabled so there are no alerts.

• 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: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510742.aspx

PBM Views

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

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlpbm/archive/2008/07/03/executesql.aspx

• Cannot modify or create facets• Policies fail to read mount points as separate

locations• ExecuteSQL only supports @ObjectName and

@SchemaName • Reporting is very limited out of the box• On Change-Prevent is limited• Best Practice Policies may not be best practice

for your shop.

Gotchas!

• 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

PBM Demo!

• http://epmframework.codeplex.com/• EPMF leverages

– Central Management Server– Policy-Based Management– PowerShell– XML– SQL Server Reporting Services

Reporting - EPM Framework

• Show EMPF…

DEMO!

• All reference material can be found at http://johnsterrett.com/go/PBM

– 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• www.mssqltips.com

Where you should go from here?

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 38

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

Session Title 39

Sponsored by Dell

THANK YOU!

For attending this session and PASS SQLRally Orlando, Florida

Session Code | Session Title 40

Sponsored by Dell