How can I use invoke-sqlcmd without enabling named pipes? - sql-server

I am using a script that loads the following SQL Server 2008 R2 powershell plugins
Add-PSSnapin SqlServerCmdletSnapin100
Add-PSSnapin SqlServerProviderSnapin100
I then user invoke-sql like this:
Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query "select * from table" -ServerInstance xyz -Database abc -username xxxxxx -password yyyyyyy
I am using method to run a number of upgrade scripts on our databases. I was quite happily using this in our dev\test environments but then we I tried it in production and it turns out we have a difference in server configurations. On our prod servers named pipes are disabled for security reasons (apparently worm attacks) and our DBA's don't want to enable.
This is the error I get and research says it is a named pipes problem - starts working when I enable them too.
INFO ERROR: Invoke-Sqlcmd : A connection was successfully
established with the server, but then an error occurred during the
login process. (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 0 - No
process is on the other end of the pipe.)
Does anyone know if there is some way to switch my script so that it does not require named pipes? Or is this the built in connection method for invoke-sqlcmd and I need to change tack (if so any suggestions).

Similar to Surreal's response to use LPC (local shared memory), for TCP/IP instead of named pipes you can also specify -ServerInstance tcp:foodb

This is an educated guess. But here goes:
I think you have to "override the default" by using the registry.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229929
Now, the easiest way to do this (IIRC) is to go through your
Control Panel / ODBC Data Source / System DSN.
Add a "Sql Server". (Not the native client ones).
The most important button is the "Client Configuration" where you can pick named-pipes or tcp/ip.
Try out the DSN method, and after completing the wizard, look at the registry entries under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo
.........
You might check out this:
http://sev17.com/2012/11/05/cloning-sql-servers-to-a-test-environment/
Look for this code.
sqlcmd -S myCMServerInstance -d msdb -Q $query -h -1 -W |
foreach { Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:SOFTWAREMicrosoftMSSQLServerClientConnectTo' -Name $($_ -replace 'TEST') -Value "DBMSSOCN,$_" }
}

You can change the connection method using prefixes to the instance name as for sqlcmd. With SQL Server 2012 and Powershell 4, this works for me:
Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query $sqlQuery -serverinstance "lpc:localhost" -Database "myDatabase"

Related

Providing local variable to Invoke-Command using $using:Variablename

I'm trying to perform unattended SQL Installation using configuration file and I'm using $Using:Password to pass the variable from local machine to the invoke-command but it seems that it is not taking the credentials.
When I remove the /SQLSVCPASSWORD then it works fine.
Anything I'm missing here?
$SQLNodes = #("SQL10")
Foreach ($node in $SQLNodes ){
$Password = "Verystrongpassword"
if(Test-Connection -ComputerName $node -Count 1 -ea 0)
{
$Invoke = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $node {
$Exe = 'C:\SQLServerFull\Setup.exe'
Start-Process -FilePath $Exe -ArgumentList /ConfigurationFile="C:\Script\ConfigurationFile.INI", /SQLSVCPASSWORD=$($using:Password) -Wait -RedirectStandardOutput C:\error.txt
}
}
}
Below is the error
SQL Server 2017 transmits information about your installation experience, as well as other usage and performance data, to Microsoft to help improve the product. To learn more about SQL Server 2017 data processing and privacy controls, please see the Privacy Statement.
The following error occurred:
The SQL Server service account login or password is not valid. Use SQL Server Configuration Manager to update the service account.
Error result: -2061893563
Result facility code: 1306
Result error code: 69

Encryption PowerShell script generated by SQL Server Management Studio executes but doesn't work

In SSMS I tried adding encryption to columns. If I do this in the dialog box, the process works and the field is encrypted. If I try generating a PowerShell script to set the encryption, after many error messages I've finally got the code to execute without error but nothing happens in the database. This is the generated script with all the defaults and standard things and I'm running PowerShell as an administrator.
Import-Module SqlServer
# Set up connection and database SMO objects
$sqlConnectionString = "Data Source=MyPC\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;Integrated Security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Connect Timeout=30;Encrypt=False;TrustServerCertificate=False;Packet Size=4096;Application Name=`"Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio`""
$smoDatabase = Get-SqlDatabase -ConnectionString $sqlConnectionString
# If your encryption changes involve keys in Azure Key Vault, uncomment one of the lines below in order to authenticate:
# * Prompt for a username and password:
#Add-SqlAzureAuthenticationContext -Interactive
# * Enter a Client ID, Secret, and Tenant ID:
#Add-SqlAzureAuthenticationContext -ClientID '<Client ID>' -Secret '<Secret>' -Tenant '<Tenant ID>'
# Change encryption schema
$encryptionChanges = #()
# Add changes for table [dbo].[MyTable]
$encryptionChanges += New-SqlColumnEncryptionSettings -ColumnName dbo.MyTable.MyField -EncryptionType Randomized -EncryptionKey "CEK_Auto1"
Set-SqlColumnEncryption -ColumnEncryptionSettings $encryptionChanges -InputObject $smoDatabase
Any ideas why the code runs but doesn't encrypt the columns?
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/powershell/download-sql-server-ps-module?view=sql-server-2017
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/security/encryption/configure-column-encryption-using-powershell?view=sql-server-ver15
Following the instructions above with some modifications
Run PowerShell as admin
To give permissions in this session for the file to be executed
This should give correct permission
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
To install SQL Server modules so it PowerShell can access it
Install-Module -Name SqlServer -AllowClobber
View available commands in SqlServer module
Get-Command -Module SqlServer
If New-SqlColumnEncryptionSettings isn't visible, copy files from
sqlserver.21.1.18218.nupkg.zip
downloaded from
https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/SqlServer/21.1.18218
to
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\SqlServer\21.1.18218
Then run the powershell script using
.\test.ps1

How to get powershell to read a SQL Server error log

I need your help with PowerShell today. I have a SQL Server instance (on a server named VMDEV-APP11) configured as a Central Management Server (CMS) in which I have registered all my Dev/Test/Prod SQL instances and I want to use PowerShell to read the SQL Server error logs from all my servers. I have a query which retrieves all my SQL Server instances but when I pipe the output of this into a call to ReadErrorLog, I get an error.
This is the code that retrieves my list of the SQL Server instances which are registered on my CMS (note that I exclude my SQL Server 2000 instances):
Set-Location D:\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\CMS
# Define functions to query SQL Server and write data to a SQL table
. ./invoke-sqlcmd2.ps1
. ./write-datatable.ps1
Invoke-sqlcmd2 -ServerInstance "VMDEV-APP11" -Database dba -Query "select s.server_name from msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_registered_servers s, msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_server_groups g where s.server_group_id = g.server_group_id and g.name not like '2000%'"
server_name
-----------
INF-SRV14
VMDEV-APP15
NEX-SRV48
...
And this is what I thought would work and the error I actually get:
Invoke-sqlcmd2 -ServerInstance "VMDEV-APP11" -Database dba -Query "select s.server_name from msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_registered_servers s, msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_server_groups g where s.server_group_id = g.server_group_id and g.name not like '2000%'" | foreach-object { $_.server_name.ReadErrorLog() }
Error:
Method invocation failed because [System.String] does not contain a method named 'ReadErrorLog'.
At D:\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\CMS\db_errorlog.ps1:38 char:284
+ ... reach-object { $_.server_name.ReadErrorLog() }
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodNotFound
I suspect I need to convert the string returned by my query to another type of object (a server name perhaps?) in order to get the ReadErrorLog() call to work but I don't know how to do that.
Any suggestions?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ken
You're trying to invoke the ReadErrorLog() method on a DataRow column value, which is a string.
What you need to do is something like this:
Import-Module sqlps -DisableNameChecking
Invoke-sqlcmd2 -ServerInstance "VMDEV-APP11" -Database dba -Query "select s.server_name from msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_registered_servers s, msdb.dbo.sysmanagement_shared_server_groups g where s.server_group_id = g.server_group_id and g.name not like '2000%'" | `
foreach-object {
$server = $_.server_name
$logs = (get-item SQLSERVER:\sql\$server\default).ReadErrorLog()
# $logs is a DataTable so you can iterate the rows however you wish
}
This assuming all your servers are default instances, otherwise you may need to fiddle around a bit more to target specific instances.
The code I'm running on my SQL Central Management server is:
$logs = 0..6 | % { (get-item SQLSERVER:\sql\<servername>\default).ReadErrorLog($_) }
Originally, I got this to work by adding the service account that ran the PowerShell code to the local Administrators Windows group AND creating a SQL login with sysadmin privileges on the remote SQL server host. Not sursprisingly, my security officer had an issue with this. My initial attempts to reduce access resulted i the following error:
WARNING: Could not obtain SQL Server Service information. An attempt to connect
to WMI on 'NEX-SRV1' failed with the following error: SQL Server WMI provider
is not available on NEX-SRV1. --> Invalid namespace
After quite a bit of fooling around, I have what I think is the minimum security needed to read the SQL error logs. Perform the following grants on the remote server running the SQL Server database:
Local Windows Group
Add the service account to the "Distributed COM Users" group
WMIMgmt.msc
Add the service account to each of the following branches with all security options EXCEPT "Edit Security"
Root > cimv2
Root > cimv2 > ms_409
Root > Microsoft > SQLServer > ComputerManagement
SQL Server
Create a SQL login for the service account and add it to the "Security Admin" role.
After I had made these changes, I have the ability to monitor SQL Error logs from a central location without having to grant crazy levels of access to the service account.

Is there an equivalent of ping for checking connectivity to SQL Server?

Is there an equivalent of ping for checking connectivity to SQL Server?
I'm finding our BizTalk Admin Console that during some long operations, e.g. importing a big bindings file, the "connection" is being lost, i.e. the red box appears on the console. Eventually connectivity comes back. The SQL Server is on a different machine from BizTalk.
Also saw an issue where connection to SSO db was lost for a minute or so ... worse, this was production environment!
SQL DBA has checked and SQL is fine, showing no network issues ...
I can do a ping -t to see if anything happens to the connection between the two machines, but is there an equivalent function to check ongoing connectivity to SQL Server itself?
And if there is such a function, is there someway to automate its checking so I can have it flag any occurance of disconnect ... just sending an email to ops would be good first step
You can always use PowerShell
Add-PSSnapin SqlServerCmdletSnapin100
Add-PSSnapin SqlServerProviderSnapin100
$query = "SELECT top 1* from bts_application"
Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query $query -ServerInstance '.' -Database 'BizTalkMgmtDb'

Powershell SQL Server database restore (with CDC)

I am trying to create a Powershell script to restore database to my laptop from my desktop. I have a script which creates the backup files and have almost got the restore script working apart from a strange error I get with a CDC enabled database. What I end up with is an off-line single user database. I have to bring it back on-line and change it back to multi-user manually. Here are the relevant bits of my powershell code ...
$instance = "(local)"
$server = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server $instance
$restore = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Restore
$restore.Action = "Database"
$restore.Database = $dbname
$restore.NoRecovery = $false
$restore.ReplaceDatabase = $true
$restore.Devices.AddDevice($filename, "File")
$restore.SqlRestore($server)
I get an error message saying ...
*System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Could not update the metadata that indicates database xxxxx is not enabled for Change Data Capture. The failure occurred when executing the command '[sys].[sp_MScdc_ddl_database triggers 'drop''. The error returned was 15517: 'Cannot execute as the database principal because the principal "dbo" does not exist, this type of principal cannot be impersonated, or you do not have permission'*
and a bit further down ...
*The database has been left offline. See the topic MSSQL_ENG003165 in SQL Server Books Online.*
further down ...
Converting database 'xxxxx' from version 655 to the current version 661.Database 'xxxxx' running the upgrade step from version 655 to version 660.Database 'xxxxx' running the upgrade step from version 660 to 661.
While I can get the database back to a useable state, I would ideally like to have it completely scripted. The idea of this is that I can run the backup script on my desktop and then run the restore script on my laptop, which then restores the databases on my laptop so I have a working copy of the same database for when I need to work remotely.
Any insights would be great, even better if someone has come across and solved the same problem.
When I had to set an explicit CDC setting in a restore script, I did something like:
$script_lines = $restore.script( $server )
$script_lines += ', keep_cdc'
$script = ''
foreach ($line in $script_lines) {
$script += $line
}
$script
invoke-sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server.name -Query $script -QueryTimeout 65535

Resources