SMO example

As mentioned before, I spend quite some time creating scripts in PowerShell for managing SQL server. Here is an example of a couple of SMO functions I have found very useful.

In the future, I'll try to post some examples that uses the functions below

We'll start by loading the correct assembly:

[void][reflection.assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo, Version=9.0.242.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91")

Or the more general "LoadWithPartialName" - that also works if you have another SMO version:

[void][reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Data.SqlClient")

Then create a function to establish a SMO connection to an SQL instance. The function below creates a smo connection, with a user defined timeout, and applicationname. Remember that it is always recommended to give meaningful names to any connectionto SQL - it can make troubleshooting much easier.

function New-SMOconnection {
    Param ($server, $applicationName= "PowerShell SMO", [int]$commandTimeout = 5)
    Write-Debug "Function: New-SMOconnection $server $connectionname $commandtimeout"
    if (test-path variable:\conn) {
        $conn.connectioncontext.disconnect()
    } else {
        $conn = new-object('Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server') $server
    }
    $conn.connectioncontext.applicationName = $applicationName
    $conn.connectioncontext.connectTimeout = $commandTimeout
    $conn.connectioncontext.connect()
    $conn
}

And a small function to remove a SMO connection once you are done with it:

function Remove-SMOconnection {
    Param ($connection)
    Write-Debug "Function: Remove-SMOconnection $connection"
    Remove-Variable -Name $connection -Scope 1
}

The above functions can be used in the following manner:

1.) Establish a SMO connection, remembering to check for errors:

$SMOconn = New-SMOconnection "MyTestServer\SQLinstance0001" "JBs Secret PowerShell App"
if ($SMOconn.connectioncontext.isopen -eq $false) {# handle error}

You now a an open SMO connection to your SQL server. If you would like to retrieve information about what version/build you SQL server is, you could use the following:

$SMOconn.Information.version

Or retrieve a list of database names:

Foreach ($database in $SMOconn.databases) { $database.name }

Remember that "Get-Member is you friend!" - you can use Get-Member (or its alias, "gm") to explore the possibilities of SMO:

$SMOconn | gm

Once you are done, remember to close the SMO connection:

Remove-SMOconnection SMOconn