SQL Server 2008 marks the first release for SQL Server that includes PowerShell support. This is just the beginning of a trend for all Microsoft Server products now that PowerShell is part of their Common Engineering Criteria beginning in fiscal year 2009. I just spent the past week or so experimenting with PowerShell and SQL Server, first using SMO directly and then using the snapins that are part of SQL Server 2008.
I’m still testing the waters in many places but so far I’m pretty happy with the PowerShell support in SQL Server 2008. Back when they first announced support, it didn’t sound all that impressive but now that I’ve dug in and started using it myself I’ve found that it is much more than I thought it would be. SQL Server 2008 is still in CTP, so there are still bugs and still changes coming, but overall this looks like a nice addition to PowerShell, and one that should get even better through service packs as time goes on.
While working with the SQL provider and cmdlets I put together my first-attempt at a SQL Server PowerPack for PowerGUI. This PowerPack is pretty lightweight at this point, allowing you to browse through the SQL Server instances you have, add connections to other servers, open tables and views and view their contents, as well as a few other miscellaneous things. It requires the SQL Server 2008 client tools, however it seems to work fine with SQL Server 2005 (and presumably SQL Server 2000 since it uses SMO and WMI under the covers) once you have the SQL Server 2008 client tools installed. You can download the PowerPack here.
Over the next little while I will be continuing to enhance this PowerPack, so if you work with SQL Server and PowerShell and have any feedback or enhancement requests for this PowerPack, please let me know through comments, email (see my about page), or the PowerGUI forums.
Thanks,
Kirk out.
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Poshoholic 