Sys Admin Tales » SQL

SQL Server Management Studio Express

Tom Thrush — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:42:35 +0000

Who doesn’t love free? I certainly do. Microsoft has offered a great free version of its flagship database software, MS SQL, for quite some time now. And up until a few years ago it didn’t have a GUI front-end, but Microsoft fixed that with the release of SQL Server Management Studio Express.

Now out of the box, it typically doesn’t connect, i.e. to a WSUS or WSS Embedded, Compact or Windows Internal database. For security purposes they disable the Named Pipes protocol in MS SQL and for unknown reasons the Management Studio has difficulty connecting to the SQL instance on the local server, i.e. localhost.

To get going with the SQL Management Studio, the Named Pipes protocol needs to be enabled. Go to Start > Programs > MS SQL > Config Tools > SQL Config Mgr, then under SQL Server Network Configuration > Protocols for MSQLSERVER, double-click Named Pipes, set Enabled to Yes. Then the MS SQL Service must be restarted.

When you fire up the SQL Management Studio, use \\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query in the Server Name field, choose your Authentication and click Connect.

Free is good again.

Script Samples

Tom Thrush — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:44:10 +0000

There are times when I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for just the right syntax for a command or even the correct command to get the job done. Here are four I put to use in the last few months…

Change Printer Spooler Service Recovery options to Restart
sc failure spooler reset= 60 actions= restart/600/restart/600/restart/600

Backing up an MSDE Database
osql -E -Q “BACKUP DATABASE mdss TO DISK= ‘C:\BB_DB_Backup\mdss.bak’”

Copy Database and then Appending with Date
copy t:\plandata.mdb C:\PlanDataBackup /Y

For /F “Tokens=1-8 Delims=.:/ ” %%a In (‘Echo %Date%’) Do (Set All=%%d-%%b-%%c)
@For %%a in (“plandata.mdb”) do rename %%a “%%~na-%All%.mdb”

Deleting Old OWA Logs
forfiles -p “C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\W3SVC1″ -c “cmd /c echo del \”@FILE\” & del \”@FILE\”" -d -21

TechNet Subscription

Tom Thrush — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:14:02 +0000

Any Windows IT guy/gal worth their salt should have a TechNet subscription. The download-only version (the one to get) at $349 for the first year and $249 for annual renewal, is an incredible bargain.

As a subscriber you get a huge array of non-expiring Microsoft software covering all their operating systems (including DOS), applications, server software and early access to beta, release candidate and RTM software (I’m actually writing this on the full release version of Windows 7).

In addition there is access to free training, managed newsgroups and two FREE Support Incidents (this is worth the price of the subscription alone at $259 each).

I’m not trying to line the pockets of the Redmond empire, I just believe this is a great value for anyone working with/or training on Microsoft software; the benefits well outweigh the price.

SQL Server 2008 Express Prerequisites

Tom Thrush — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:46:40 +0000

Last week I installed SQL Server 2008 Express on Windows Server 2008 and there’s a short list of prerequisites I had to download over a slooooow link.

Hopefully this list will save someone the same pain I endured.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

Windows PowerShell 1.0

Windows Installer 4.5

It was smooth sailing after the prereqs were installed. I have to say Microsoft has done a great job as of late with their installers, they’re informative and usually include links for missing components or wizards to install features or roles. What took them so long to reach this point? It’s not like this is rocket science…or is it?