Powershell: Find all SQL Server instances per ser server? - sql-server

Question

Strictly speaking, the question is, I use this solution and it works, but is there a better way?
With the following caveats.
1) I don't want to do a network wide search for SQL instances, I am interrogating known SQL servers, but I want to grab the instance names on each.
2) The code assumes Microsoft will never change the display name for the SQL Server Service.
function getSQLInstance ([string]$SERVER) {
$services = Get-Service -Computer $SERVER
# Filter for SQL services
$services = $services | ? DisplayName -like "SQL Server (*)"
# Remove MSSQL$ qualifier to get instance name
try {
$instances = $services.Name | ForEach-Object {($_).Replace("MSSQL`$","")}
}catch{
# Error if none found
return -1
}
return $instances
}
getSQLInstance "YOUR_SERVER"

Answer 1

Rather than re-invent the wheel, take a look at how SQL Power Doc discovers instances on a server. Which, from looking at NetworkScan.psm1, appears to be very similar to your approach:
$ManagedComputer.Services | ForEach-Object {
if (($_.Name).IndexOf('$') -gt 0) {
$InstanceName = ($_.Name).Substring(($_.Name).IndexOf('$') + 1)
$IsNamedInstance = $true
$ManagedComputerServerInstanceName = $InstanceName
} else {
$InstanceName = $null
$IsNamedInstance = $false
$ManagedComputerServerInstanceName = $_.Name
}
Or, just use SQL Power Doc and point it at specific server names to collect this and more data about the instances.