Utilities

Scriptio available on CodePlex

Bill Graziano — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:12:35 GMT

Scriptio is a little utility I wrote when I was unhappy with the scripting features in SQL Server 2005. The biggest problem I faced was that I couldn't script a DROP and CREATE in the same file. I'm pretty sure that's finally fixed. The utility gives you all kind of scripting options now.

The source code was always available on the site but wasn't always easy to find. And there wasn't a good way for people to submit improvements. I finally migrated the code base over to CodePlex. You can download the source code or just the compiled EXE. It should also make it much easier to submit improvements.

I'm not sure what the future of this utility is. I haven't played much with the scripting features in SQL Server 2008. It is a great example of how to use SMO and the SMO scripting component.

A great big Thank You to Riccardo Spagni for prompting me to do this. He also rewrote most of the code so it looks less like something I cooked up in my spare time (which it was) and looks more like an actual application. Thanks!

Scriptio on CodePlex.

SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer Updated (Jan 2008)

Bill Graziano — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:40:43 GMT

Microsoft just updated the SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer. There are over 60 new rules included in this release. You can find more information on the SQLCAT blog.

Terminals: A Great RDP Client

Bill Graziano — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:23:10 GMT

One of the joys of being a consultant is trying to keep track of remote desktop connection information for a dozen clients. Each one has multiple servers so the combination of clients, machines, user names and passwords add up quickly. Recently I've been using Terminals to manage all my RDP connections.

This is a small open-source application that provides a wrapper for the RDP client. It allows me to securely store all my connection information for multiple machines. Connecting to any machine I work with is as easy as selecting it from the drop down list. As you can see from the screen shot the tabbed window allows multiple open RDP sessions and the ability to easily switch between them.

If you regularly use RDP (or remote desktop) I highly recommend this handy little utility. They are currently working on a 1.6 release but I'm still running the older 1.01.

ReadTrace for SQL Server 2005

Bill Graziano — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:59:42 GMT

Microsoft just released an updated Read80Trace that works on SQL Server 2005. The name is simplified to just ReadTrace. ReadTrace is a command-line utility that analyzes a SQL Server trace file and summarizes performance. The new version has a more graphical interface. The original was one of the most helpful performance tuning utilities I've ever used. I expect this one will be just as useful.

I typically use the tool to summarize performance by SQL statement. ReadTrace will "normalize" the SQL statements by replacing constants with placeholders. This lets you identify which SQL statements are using the most resources.

You can read the PSS team's blog entry or just download the utilities. There is some additional functionality for replaying traces.

Read90Trace coming soon!

Bill Graziano — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 03:20:49 GMT

Bob Ward announced in his PASS pre-conference session that Microsoft will be releasing a SQL Server 2005 version of Read80Trace in roughly 30 days. It's currently going through a security review. They're planning to call it ReadTrace instead of Read90Trace though. I don't know what this will do to my plans for more work on ClearTrace. I'll have to wait and see exactly what they release.

Scriptio 0.5.5 and Source Code

Bill Graziano — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 04:02:00 GMT

I've checked in some minor bug fixes and updated the ClickOnce install for Scriptio (only works with IE). I also uploaded a fresh copy of the Scriptio source code. I'm not planning to make any additional updates at this time. I'm spending all my time working on ClearTrace. I'm certainly open to hosting this on one of the open source sites but someone else will probably have to take over development.

Update: The ClickOnce installation is out of date and the Scriptio source code and executable are now available on CodePlex.

Using Read80Trace in a batch file

Bill Graziano — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 03:45:00 GMT

It's 4:40AM in Barcelona and I can't sleep. I never seem to figure out jet lag. I'm sure I'll be sleeping just fine by the time I leave to come home on Saturday.

Every year at the PASS Conference I find one idea that pays for the cost of the conference. One tip or shortcut that saves me so much time it justifies attending the conference. I think this year that idea is going to be automating Read80Trace. It is a fantastic little tool that aggregates and summarizes performance data on your SQL Server.

The tool reads in a trace file (or files) and stores the data in SQL Server. It also "normalizes" the SQL statements that it finds. Normalizing standardizes the SQL to eliminate formatting and specific parameter values. This lets you summarize the performance of a statement when it's run with various different parameters. After it runs it pops up a web page with the resulting data. If you're doing any performance tuning at all this is definitely a tool you need to investigate.

The downside of this is that it pops up a web page when it runs. It's a command line utility so I had hopes of automating it. I was discussing the tool with Ken Henderson during a break in the pre-conference session and told me about trace flag 18. I was able to use this command line:

read80trace -It1.trc -SL30 -E -T18

to run Read80Trace without an Explorer window appearing. The magic is in the -T18 flag. Now I can automate the capturing of performance data at night. Woo hoo!

Scriptio Update - Actually uses the SQL Server account

Bill Graziano — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:23:00 GMT

Well that was a little embarressing. When you told Scriptio to use a SQL Server account it used it to get the list of objects but not to do the actual scripting. That's fixed (0.5.4). Scriptio Install Page And on a lighter note I'm writing this from Rome. I came over a few days early to visit a friend. Of course, he had travel issues and couldn't make it back from Milan. Grrrr. I very much dislike the weather some days.

Update: Most recent install and source code: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/billg/archive/2006/06/13/10208.aspx

Scriptio Updated - Assemblies and Permissions

Bill Graziano — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 23:30:00 GMT

Scriptio is updated to allow the scripting of assemblies and permissions on the objects it scripts. Scriptio Install Page

Update: Most recent install and source code: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/billg/archive/2006/06/13/10208.aspx

Scriptio Updated - Better server and database support

Bill Graziano — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 20:39:00 GMT

Scriptio is updated to 0.5.2. This version offers better support when switching servers. It also provides a friendly error message if you choose a SQL Server 2000 server.

Update: Most recent install and source code: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/billg/archive/2006/06/13/10208.aspx