Idera

The SQL admin toolset has officially left the building. We are extremely excited that the toolset is now available for purchase. The response from YOU has been huge and extremely valuable. Our inbox has been flooded with wonderful comments and bug reports. Our guys have been cranking away these last few weeks trying to address every problem reported. And because of your help, the toolset is extremely solid and ready for you to move it into production at your company!

Thanks again for all of your great support. Keep the comments coming through our support channel and we will keep improving the tools for you. We will be adding more tools and creating more toolsets so send us your favorite idea for a tool you would like us to develop. Check out the new support page at http://www.idera.com/ecommSupport to get customer support and to provide your feedback.

Special Discount available only for a few more days

To reward you for being an early user of the SQL admin toolset, we are offering you the opportunity to purchase the SQL admin toolset at the special price of $195 per user. This is a $300 discount off the regular price of the product. You can buy as many copies as you want at this price! If you would like to take advantage of this price, visit www.idera.com/purchase or click on the Buy Now link on the upper right hand corner of the Launchpad. Act now as this is a limited time offer that expires on July 1st, 2008.

How do I upgrade to the official release?

If you already have a beta goto Download Upgrade. If you are just discovering the toolset, follow the download link  at http://www.idera.com/Products/SQLadmintoolset/ to get a free trial copy.

Key Features and Bug Fixes (in the GA version)

• Space Analyzer - Our mailbox was full with this one. This tool kept reporting larger drives as having a negative size. This has been fixed and the tool now correctly reports the size of drives.
• Multi Query - The last beta of this tool didn't show results combined across the individual servers in many cases. Now it does!
• Multi Query - The query editor has been upgraded to show syntax coloring, line numbers, highlight modified lines and to handle queries bigger then 64K in size.
• Patch Analyzer - Fixed the Index out of Range error that would occur on non-US installations.
• Space Analyzer - The final version of this tool now reports on space usage of both user and system databases.  This was another popular feedback item.
• SQL Discovery - A lot of work was done on the scanning engine of SQL discovery. You wil find that stealth mode finally works and that the results returned from this tool are no longer inconsistent from run to run.
• Login Copy - The login copy utility has been extended to copy Windows logins in addition to SQL Server logins.
• Password Checker - The beta version of the tool did not handle passwords created in older versions of SQL Server correctly and reported them as blank passwords. This has been corrected.
• Multi Query - The multi query tool now supports the use of the GO statement within your queries.

 

We are in the homestretch! After several months of teasing you with a few tools at a time, I am happy to say that this latest drop of the beta contains every single one of the 24 tools that make up the SQL admin toolset. This will be our final beta drop and we will be releasing the production code in a couple weeks. Take a quick peek and send us your comments so we can get them addressed in the final version. I would like to thank each of you for your great feedback during this beta period. It has enabled us to add key improvements to the tools as well as knock out a bunch of bugs to help make this thing solid.

Right up front I want to apologize for a little confusion that this build is going to cause. As marketing reviewed all the tool names, it was decided to rename several of them to try to clarify their purpose as we were getting some feedback that the old names were confusing people. So we cleaned up the names. The one that is going to cuase the most headache is that we renamed Server Ping to Connection Check while renaming Server Check to Server Ping. Good luck with this!

Buy Now and get a special discount price just for beta participants

The final release of the Idera SQL admin toolset will become available in just a few weeks. As a token of appreciation for your help during the beta cycle, we are offering you the opportunity to purchase the SQL admin toolset at the special price of $195 per user. This is a $300 discount off the regular price of the product. You can buy as many copies as you want at this price! If you would like to take advantage of this price, visit www.idera.com/purchase or click on the Buy Now link on the upper right hand corner of the Launchpad. Act now as this is a limited time offer that expires on July 1st, 2008.

How do I get the upgrade?

If you already have an earlier beta goto Download Upgrade. If you haven't registered for the beta goto Beta Registration to get a copy.

New tools (and with these 5 we are up to 24!) 

     Multi Query - Execute SQL queries against multiple SQL Servers and databases. Use a query to gather information against a set of servers and databases for comparison or easily run one command to perform the same update across a collection of SQL Servers. 

     Job Mover - Copy or move jobs between SQL Servers or create copies of jobs within a SQL Server. This tool makes it easy to perform tasks such as moving jobs created in test environments to production environments. 

     Space Analyzer - View the disk space usage on your SQL Server host computers either by disk drive or by database.   

     Server Statistics - View all kinds of information about your SQL Servers. Point this tool at one or more SQL Servers and see such information as number of objects on the SQL Server. 

     Partition Generator - View the current partitioning of your database and easily change the partitions to better organize the disk files. 


Issues upgrading from previous CTP Builds

In this build we have changed the installation of the toolset so that shortcuts, registry entries and saved files now target all users of the machine instead of the current logged in user. This means that options saved in previous versions of the toolset will not be available after the upgrade.

    Missing Server Groups - Due to the changes made to the toolset installer user mode, server group definitions will be lost when upgrading from a previous version. To restore your server group definitions, copy the ServerGroups.xml file from the current user's application data to the All Users folder. Example: Copy the file from C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Idera\SQL admin toolset to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Idera\SQL admin toolset.

    Shut down Server Check Before Upgrading - Because the Server Check tool has been renamed in this release, install will not automatically shut down the process if it is currently running. Therefore, you will need to manually close this program before performing the upgrade. This especially applies if this tool has been minimized to the system tray as the tool will continue to run even after the upgrade is complete.

    Server Ping Monitored Servers - Server Ping will not retain the list of monitored servers defined when the tool was named Server Check. You will need to launch the Server Ping tool and redefine the list of servers to watch after the upgrade is complete.

Key Features and Bug Fixes (in build 49)

• Tool Name Changes - The names of several of the tools in previous CTP releases caused confusion over the purpose of the tools. So we have renamed a few of the tools to help clear up some of the confusion for new users. This may cause a little more confusion for those of you familiar with the old names but we hope that the names are better in the long run.
  • Server Ping - renamed to Connection Check since it helps diagnose connection problems.
  • Server Check - renamed to Server Ping as this tool periodically pings your SQL Servers to let you know if they are still running.
  • Login Mover - renamed to Login Copy since it just copies logins between SQL Servers, it doesn't delete the original logins.
  • Super Search - renamed to Object Search to help show that this tool searches for objects by names while SQL Search searches the SQL contained within SQL Server objects.
• Browsing Servers - The list of servers included when browsing server lists now includes servers registered in SQL Server Management Studio or Enterprise Manager.
• Install now targets All Users - Previous versions of the toolset installed only for the current user. This meant that when logging in as a different user or using the Run As command, the tools didn't not work appropriately.  By installing for all users, the tool options such as server groups are shared for all users and the tools are available on the Start Menu for all users.
• Server Selection - Tools that allow you to pick from between a server or a server group now remember whether they were last run against a server or server group and set the default choice accordingly. In previous versions, the tools always started with a default selection type of servers even if you had last run the tool against a server group.
• Backup Status and Mirrored Databases - The Backup Status tool will no longer flag mirrored databases as needing a backup. 
• Backup Status and Full Backups Only - In previous versions, the Backup Status tool just looked to see if any backup type had been done recently. Now the tool has an option saying that you want to verify based only on whether a full backup on each database has been done recently.
• Login Copy - The login copy utility has been extended to copy Windows logins in addition to SQL Server logins.

Known Issues

The following is a list of known issues for this release of the admin toolset. We will be working to address these issues in upcoming releases. But we want to get the new stuff to you now!

General

1.       SQL Server 2008 - The final version of the SQL admin toolset will fully support SQL Server 2008. In this build, some of the tools in the CTP may not function correctly at this time while some will display a message that SQL Server 2008 is not supported.
2.       The tools in the SQL admin toolset do not provide a way to run under alternate Windows credentials. We suggest that you use the Windows "Run As" capability for this purpose. We are considering adding that functionality in the future to the toolset. 

SQL Discovery

1.       The display of discovered SQL Servers is not updated until the discovery process is complete. This can make it look like the tool is not discovering any SQL Servers as the list remains blank until the entire process is complete
2.       SQL Discovery may have inconsistent results on some networks where different sets of SQL Servers are discovered with each run.
3.       After running a discovery operation, the SQLDiscovery.exe process may be left open in memory, even after the tool has been closed. If this situation is encountered, it is safe to terminate the process.

We are happy to have another update for you of the toolset.  There are now 19 of the 24 tools available for your viewing pleasure and the rest are coded and in testing so you should see them soon! This drop also has new features, bug fixes and the like as a response to your great feedback. Keep that feedback coming! It is wonderful and extremely helpful to making this the product for YOU!

How do I get the upgrade?

If you already have an earlier beta goto Download Upgrade. If you haven't registered for the beta goto Beta Registration to get a copy.

New tools

1. Super Search - Search the SQL Server namespace. Specify a string and a SQL Server and Super Search will tell you all the objects on your server and within your databases whose name matches the search string.
2. Index Analyzer - This tool gathers and displays a wealth of statistics for the indexes on your SQL Server. This can help you analyze your indexes to judge their effectiveness, usefulness and whether they are built well or not. It can also help you figure out what indexes you need to add by showing statistics about tables where there are no indexes.
3. Server Check - Monitor the online status of your SQL Servers. This tool can run on the system tray and periodically check whether your SQL Servers are online or not and alert you as they change status.

Key Features and Bug Fixes (in build 42)

• Password Checker - This tool no longer displays entered or found passwords in clear text by default. You must select the "Show passwords in cleartext" to see the actual passwords found during password checking.
• Toolset Options - The minimum allowed value for connection and command timeouts was 15 seconds. This has been changed to 0 seconds with 0 meaning that there is no timeout.
• Password Checker - This tool was not finding passwords where the password was the same as the user name. This has been fixed.
• Backup Status - In previous builds, the wrong SQL credentials could be used for loading the backup history for an individual database. This occurred if you used the tool against a single SQL Server with SQL credentials and then switched to getting the Backup Status for a Server Group. This has been fixed.
• Quick Reindex - Quick Reindex will no longer timeout while gathering fragmentation information on large databases.
• Quick Reindex - Cancelling the gathering of index information now functions correctly. In previous builds, the tool would hang after being cancelled and the user would have to kill the process manually.

Known Issues

The following is a list of known issues for this release of the admin toolset. We will be working to address these issues in upcoming releases. But we want to get the new stuff to you now!

General

1.       The tools that are grayed out are not available in this release of the CTP. Future releases of the CTP will enable the functionality on those tools.
2.       Uninstalling the toolset leaves entries in the Windows registry. Those entries will need to be manually removed if a full uninstall is desired.
3.       SQL Server 2008 - The final version of the SQL admin toolset will fully support SQL Server 2008. In this build, some of the tools in the CTP may not function correctly at this time while some will display a message that SQL Server 2008 is not supported.
4.       The tools in the SQL admin toolset do not provide a way to run under alternate Windows credentials. We suggest that you use the Windows "Run As" capability for this purpose. We are considering adding that functionality in the future to the toolset.
5.       During an upgrade of the toolset, the installer may require a reboot, due to a tool process not closed properly before the installation started. If this situation is encountered, a reboot will be required in order to complete the upgrade. We will address this situation in an upcoming release.

Login Mover

1.       Login Mover only copies SQL Server logins and not Windows logins. Support for copying Windows logins will be available in a future build.
 

SQL Search

1.       SQL Search only allows searching one SQL Server at a time. Support for searching multiple SQL Servers and Server Groups will be available in a future build.

SQL Discovery

1.       The display of discovered SQL Servers is not updated until the discovery process is complete. This can make it look like the tool is not discovering any SQL Servers as the list remains blank until the entire process is complete
2.       SQL Discovery may have inconsistent results on some networks where different sets of SQL Servers are discovered with each run.
3.       After running a discovery operation, the SQLDiscovery.exe process may be left open in memory, even after the tool has been closed. If this situation is encountered, it is safe to terminate the process.

We are happy to have another update for you of the toolset . With 3 new tools in this drop, we are now up to 16 of the 24 tools out there in the wild so you should be getting a great taste of what the whole toolset will be providing. Also included of course are the usual assortment of features that you have requested and fixes for a bunch of those pesky bugs. Please keep your feedback coming! You are helping shape the toolset contents and quality as well as giving us ideas for the tools YOU would like to see delivered in the future.

How do I get the upgrade?

If you already have an earlier beta goto Download Upgrade. If you haven't registered for the beta goto Beta Registration to get a copy.

New tools

1. User Clone - Use existing users as a template when you create new users. Clone users within the same SQL Server or across SQL Servers. User Clone will create the new user, set the password, copy role memberships, database and object level permissions. You can also choose between letting the tool create the new user, or to have it generate the SQL script to use in your own processes.
2. Job Editor - Job Editor allows you to view basic job properties, such as owner, enabled status, category, and last run job status across multiple SQL Servers. It also makes it easy to do bulk updates across these jobs, to perform tasks such as moving a set of jobs between categories, or changing the owner on a group of jobs.
3. Quick Reindex - View index statistics such as fragmentation levels across the indexes on a SQL Server. Makes it easy to select one or more indexes and rebuild or reorganize the indexes.

Key Features and Bug Fixes

• General - Fixed error that prevented users from running the Launchpad or any of the tools. After installing the toolset, running any tool resulted in the message "Error: Index (zero based) must be greater than or equal to zero and less than the size of the argument list." and then the tool would shut down.
• Backup Status - Fixed issue where backup status would hang and show the collecting backup status progress bar until the user was forced to kill the process.
• Backup Status - Fixed a problem where backup status was incorrectly identifying some user databases as system databases and filtering them out of the search results.
• General - Printing added to Backup Status, Password Checker, Patch Analyzer, Server Configuration and Database Configuration.
• SQL Search - This utility now supports searching the SQL contained in job steps.
• Password Checker - This tool no longer connects to each user to test the password. This means that the tool is significantly faster, does not generate login failures (which was especially annoying for many users with the SA account) and will not be impacted by password policy settings on the tested SQL Server.
• Server & Database Configuration - Changed snapshot saving to allow selecting which objects to save in the snapshot.
• Server & Database Configuration - Added scrollbar when number of objects exceeds display size.
• Database Mover - When renaming the database during the move, the tool now picks better default data file and log file names based on the new database name. In previous versions, it left the file names the same as were used for the original database.
• Database Configuration - Added collation, compatibility and SQL Server version to the set of properties collected by this tool.
• Patch Analyzer - Updated the patch file list of hotfixes and the retired status date for SQL Server 2005 SP1.
• General - Exporting to a CSV file was incorrectly putting quotes around negative numbers which could cause issues when importing into Excel.
• Install -Install now has a custom install feature so that users can install only the tools they need.

Known Issues

The following is a list of known issues for this release of the admin toolset. We will be working to address these issues in upcoming releases. But we want to get the new stuff to you now!

General

1.       The tools that are grayed out are not available in this release of the CTP. Future releases of the CTP will enable the functionality on those tools.
2.       Uninstalling the toolset leaves entries in the Windows registry. Those entries will need to be manually removed if a full uninstall is desired.
3.       SQL Server 2008 - The final version of the SQL admin toolset will fully support SQL Server 2008. In this build, some of the tools in the CTP may not function correctly at this time while some will display a message that SQL Server 2008 is not supported.
4.       The tools in the SQL admin toolset do not provide a way to run under alternate Windows credentials. We suggest that you use the Windows "Run As" capability for this purpose. We are considering adding that functionality in the future to the toolset.
5.       During an upgrade of the toolset, the installer may require a reboot, due to a tool process not closed properly before the installation started. If this situation is encountered, a reboot will be required in order to complete the upgrade. We will address this situation in an upcoming release.
6.       The SQL admin toolset requires .NET framework 2.0. If this is not installed, the tools display an error similar to "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application". The .NET framework can be obtained from the download portion of the Microsoft website.

Login Mover

1.       Login Mover only copies SQL Server logins and not Windows logins. Support for copying Windows logins will be available in a future build.
 

SQL Search

1.       SQL Search only allows searching one SQL Server at a time. Support for searching multiple SQL Servers and Server Groups will be available in a future build.

SQL Discovery

1.       The display of discovered SQL Servers is not updated until the discovery process is complete. This can make it look like the tool is not discovering any SQL Servers as the list remains blank until the entire process is complete
2.       SQL Discovery may have inconsistent results on some networks where different sets of SQL Servers are discovered with each run.
3.       After running a discovery operation, the SQLDiscovery.exe process may be left open in memory, even after the tool has been closed. If this situation is encountered, it is safe to terminate the process.

Backup Status

1.       The Backup Status tool may show a error when trying to retrieve the detailed backup history for an individual database. This can show up if you are displaying the backup status of the SQL Servers in a  Server Groups. The tool is not using the authentication mode for each server in part of a Server Group, and defaults to use the authentication mode used for the last stand alone server.  If you query a single server configured to use SQL authentication, and then switch to searching a group the tool will use the SQL credentials defined for the single server.

Long Post Warning- Lots of new stuff today, so a relatively long (but hopefully interesting) post. Those with limited attention spans or who are really busy, feel free to just download the new release, play with it, provide feedback and come back to read all of this later.

 

Today we are releasing the third version of the public beta of the toolset, build 30.  Yes, 27 of them really didn't make the cut . This build contains 2 new tools, a *lot* of new features and some, ahem..., mumble, mumble, cough .....bug fixes. Most of the features in this version were a direct result of the great feedback we are getting from YOU. So please keep it coming!

What's up with those GRAYED out tools? 

Sorry, these tools are still in the shop with the team tinkering under the hood. We will be releasing them in blocks over the coming weeks. We promise to send you weekly updates to let you know when they are ready. 

 

How do I get the upgrade?

 

If you already have an earlier beta goto Download Upgrade. If you haven't registered for the beta goto Beta Registration to get a copy.

New Tools

 

Server Configuration: This  tool lets you view, compare and edit the configuration for your SQL Servers. You can do useful things like:

• Edit the configuration of a single server.
• Roll a configuration change out to a group of servers.
• Set a baseline server and compare it to a group of servers.
• Rolllout the differences to make the group match the baseline.
• Save captured configuration data to a file so you can compare it with live server(s) later to help diagnose problems. 

Database Configuration: Provides all the same capabilities for databases that Server Configuration offers for servers. Use Database Configuration to view, compare and edit configuration for databases on one SQL Server or across multiple SQL Servers.

 

New Features and Bug Fixes

• Database Mover: Added ability to specify name and location of destination database, its data and log files.
• Backup Status: Results may now be saved to a data table in addition to the previously supported save as CSV or XML.
• Inventory Reporter: Now allows printing the inventory results. This will be rolled out across most of the tools in the future.
• Password Checker: Checking account passwords will no longer clear the enforce password expiration setting on the tested account. (DOH, sorry about that folks.)
• Patch Analyzer: Added missing SQL Server 2000 and 2005 hotfixes.
• Patch Analyzer: Added ability to see all available hotfixes and service packs for each SQL Server.
• SQL Search: Save Results as XML file now generates correct XML file.
• SQL Discovery: The option to launch Password Checker using the list of discovered SQL Serves now correctly passed the list of SQL Servers to Password Checker as it is launched.
• Server Groups: Added the ability to Test Connections when specifying alternate SQL credentials for a SQL Server.
• Server Groups: Changed the SQL Server icon in the Manage Server Groups Window to provide visual representation of which SQL Servers had SQL credentials specified.
• Server Groups: Fixed various bugs such as the inability to edit new Server Groups without leaving the Manager Server Groups window and re-entering.
• Server Groups: Now imports SQL Server 2000 groups when first run in addition to importing the SQL Server 2005 group definitions that it did in earlier builds.

Other somehwat interesting behaviors and stuff

 

General

 

(1)   Grayed out Tools - The tools that are grayed out are not available in this release of the CTP. Future releases of the CTP will enable the functionality on those tools. We will be sure to let you know as they are added to the toolset.

(2)    Uninstalling - Uninstalling the toolset leaves entries in the Windows registry. Those entries will need to be manually removed if a full uninstall is desired.

(3)    SQL Server 2008 - The final version of the SQL admin toolset will fully support SQL Server 2008. In this build, some of the tools in the CTP may not function correctly at this time while some will display a message that SQL Server 2008 is not supported.

(4)    Printing - Print capability is not yet available on all the tools but will be added to most tools for the final release.

(5)    Alternate Credentials - The tools in the SQL admin toolset do not provide a way to run under alternate Windows credentials. We suggest that you use the Windows "Run As" capability for this purpose. We are considering adding that functionality in the future to the toolset.

(6) Reboot after Upgrade? - During an upgrade of the toolset, the installer may require a reboot. This is due to a tool process not closed properly before the installation started. If this situation is encountered, a reboot will be required to complete the upgrade. We will sort this out in an upcoming build.

  

SQL Search

 

(1)    SQL Search does not search the SQL in job steps for matching strings. Coming soon though.

(2)    SQL Search only allows searching one SQL Server at a time. Support for searching multiple SQL Servers and Server Groups will be available in a few builds.

 

SQL Discovery

 

(1)    The display of discovered SQL Servers is not updated until the discovery process is complete. I know, this makes it look like the tool is not discovering any SQL Servers. THis will be remedied soon. 

(2)    SQL Discovery may have inconsistent results on some networks where different sets of SQL Servers are discovered with each run. In the hopper for a future build.

(3) After running a discovery process, the SQLDiscovery.exe may be left open in memory, even after the tool has been closed. If this situation is encountered, it is safe to terminate the process. Again, in the hopper.

 

 

We are seeing a bunch of repeat questions in your feedback so here are some quick answers to some of the most frequently asked questions. Thanks again for all the great feedback!

 

Q: What is the SQL admin toolset?

A: It's 24 useful tools that help solve every SQL Server admin problem know to man<g>.

Seriously, talking to our customers, we found that many of you have spent a *ton* of time developing custom scripts to do everyday admin tasks. It was obvious that you needed a toolset designed to take care of these tasks so you could chuck your scripts and get your life back! So, we talked to customers and came up with a list of 24 tools that handled the most common tasks we heard about. We think they are pretty darned useful and will save you a bunch of time.

 

Q: Why are so many tools disabled and greyed out on the launchpad?

A: Sorry, some of the tools are still in the shop with the team tinkering under their hood to get them ready for you. We will be releasing them in blocks over the next few weeks. We'll send you a weekly update to let you know when they are ready.

 

Q: How much will it cost?

A: The SQL admin toolset will cost $495 for each machine you install it on. You can use each tool to manage as many SQL Servers as you like.  And... if you download the beta and give the team feedback using our Feedback Page we will give you a special discount price of $195 (a $300 savings) for your first copy. 24 killer tools for $195... "What's not to like" as my granny used to say.

 

Q: When will the SQL admin toolset be available for purchase?

A: You'll be able to buy the toolset sometime in June. Stay tuned for more details.

Welcome to the SQL admin toolset blog. My name is Marcus Erickson and I am the development team lead for the SQL admin toolset. I will be using this blog to share information on the tools including product news, interesting uses and new features. I will also be posting interesting comments and questions that we receive from you, the user community. Thanks to all of you who have already provided feedback on the SQL admin toolset beta.  Many of your comments and suggestions have gone straight from my Inbox into the product so please keep the information coming.

 

We are currently running a public beta of the SQL admin toolset. The beta free for anyone to download and use. The current version includes 13 of the final 24 tools for you to explore. Over the next few months, we will be releasing updates with new tools as they become available and we are heads down coding to ship the final release this summer. To get your copy of the beta, visit the download page at http://www.idera.com/Products/sqladmintoolset/registration.aspx

 

Feedback, feedback, feedback! We want your input on the tools in the SQL admin toolset. We believe the best way to build tools that are valuable to YOU is to ask YOU what features you’d like to see and how we can improve the product to meet YOUR needs…so please, keep the feedback coming.  As a show of appreciation for your participation in our beta, we’re offering an introductory price of $195 when the product is GA later this summer….That’s a $300 savings!!  To provide feedback, go to http://www.idera.com/Products/sqladmintoolset/Feedback.aspx and let us know what you think.