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T-SQL Tuesday(#tsql2sday) #26 – Lazy Restore Commands

I missed out on T-SQL Tuesday #25 (Tips ‘n Tricks) on the first go around, so I’m glad that with #26 I get another crack at it. Mine is pretty simple, but has saved me a lot of time when doing database restores. Whether I’m getting a database back online or (more likely) moving a database to another instance, I don’t want to be bothered for digging around to get my restore going.

As a DBA, I am two things:

  1. I hate using the GUI. Clicking through countless windows is for the birds and I would much rather type three commands than click ‘Next’ three times.
  2. I’m lazy. So those three commands? I write them once and save ‘em to a file so I can run them over and over and over….etc. Automation FTW!

So, restores. We all do them and they can get irritating. I know one of the most annoying things is relocating the files with MOVE when you’re bringing the database up on a different server. This is why a lot of folks use the GUI, because SQL Server can handle that behind the scenes and, if you really want, you can script it out. Well I’ve got another way.

You know you can RESTORE WITH FILELIST to get the database files within a backup. Why not take that a step further and capture it in a table? Then, once it’s in a table, we can use a little bit of SQL coding to give us a template to generate our restore command. Take a look:

--Turn off annoying rowcount
SET NOCOUNT ON

--Some variables
declare @v_restore varchar(1000)
declare @v_backup varchar(1000)
declare @v_sql varchar(max)
declare @datadir varchar(1000)
declare @logdir varchar(1000)

--Set backup file location, database name
set @v_backup = 'C:\demo\test.bak'
set @v_restore='Test_demo'
set @datadir = 'C:\Restore\Data'
set @logdir = 'C:\Restore\Log'

--Storage table

declare @restorelist table
(LogicalName nvarchar(128)
,PhysicalName nvarchar(260)
,Type char(1)
,FileGroupName nvarchar(128)
,Size numeric(20,0)
,MaxSize numeric(20,0)
,Fileid tinyint
,CreateLSN numeric(25,0)
,DropLSN numeric(25, 0)
,UniqueID uniqueidentifier
,ReadOnlyLSN numeric(25,0)
,ReadWriteLSN numeric(25,0)
,BackupSizeInBytes bigint
,SourceBlocSize int
,FileGroupId int
,LogGroupGUID uniqueidentifier
,DifferentialBaseLSN numeric(25,0)
,DifferentialBaseGUID uniqueidentifier
,IsReadOnly bit
,IsPresent bit
,TDEThumbprint varchar(100)) –-Be careful, this last field (TDEThumbprint) isn’t in 2k5

--Capture the file list
insert into @restorelist
exec('RESTORE FILELISTONLY FROM DISK='''+@v_backup+'''')

--Build your restore command
select @v_sql = 'RESTORE DATABASE '+@v_restore+' '+char(10)+'FROM DISK=''' +@v_backup+ ''''+ CHAR(10)+'WITH '
select @v_sql = coalesce(@v_sql,'')+'MOVE '''+logicalname +
''' TO '''+CASE when type='L' then @logdir else @datadir end +'\'+ right(physicalname,charindex('\',reverse(physicalname))-1)+''',' + char(10)
from @restorelist

--display the restore command, trim trailing comma and char(10)
print substring(@v_sql,1,LEN(@v_sql)-2)

So that’s a lot of stuff! Well, not really. If you look at it, most of the script is taken up defining the file list table. Change your variables at the top, run the script, and copy the output into another window…BAM! There’s your restore command. And if it’s not perfect, you only need to make one or two changes to the output to clean it up.

This is not the only sproc output you can capture. The biggest lesson from this trick is you should think about other system stored procedures and look for opportunities where you can grab outputs to make your life easier. Help yourself look like a hero and get more sleep by taking advantage of what’s in SQL.

Thanks to Dave Howard(b|t) for offering folks a second chance to share for T-SQL #26!

Monday Scripts – Adding database roles in bulk

As DBAs we’re in charge of granting access for our databases. Typically we can handle this using active directory groups and SQL Server Management Studio, but this can turn in to a pretty cumbersome and tedious task as the number of databases we have to manage grows. Currently, it’s not unusual for a user to ask me for read permissions on a server that has 20+ databases.   Since it doesn’t really make sense for me to add that user manually to each database on the server (both for time and the likelihood that it will create an error), I’ve created this script for adding a user to the same roles in every user database across a server.

/*Get Database Cursor*/
declare recscan cursor for
select name
from sys.databases
where name not in ('master','tempdb','model','msdb')

/*declare variables*/
declare @db varchar(100)
declare @sql varchar(4000)
declare @user varchar(100)
declare @roles varchar(max)
declare @role varchar(50)
declare @winuser bit
declare @message varchar(max)

/*string parsing variables*/
declare @strpos int
declare @strlen int
set @strpos = 0

/*Set user name and roles to be assigned, comma separated string.
@winuser defines if user is windows(1) or not(0).*/

set @winuser = 0
set @user = <INSERT USER NAME>/*User name, such as DOMAIN\msfal for windows or report_reader for direct db login*/
set @roles =<Comma list of roles>/*i.e.'db_datareader,db_datawriter'*/

/*create server login*/
Print 'Creating user ['+@user+'] on server...'
if @winuser = 1
begin
	set @sql= 'USE [master] CREATE LOGIN ['+@user+'] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]'
end
else
	set @sql= 'USE [master] CREATE LOGIN ['+@user+'] WITH PASSWORD = '''+@user+'!123'''
exec(@sql)

/*Cycle through DBs to assign roles.*/
open recscan
fetch next from recscan into @db
while @@fetch_status = 0
begin
	/*Add user if user does not exist in database.*/
	print 'Adding ['+@user+'] to ['+@db+']...'
	set @sql = 'USE ['+@db+'] CREATE USER ['+@user+'] FOR LOGIN ['+@user+']'
	exec(@sql)

	/*Parse role string and assign each role to the user.*/
	Print @db + char(10) + '****************************'
	while @strpos < LEN(@roles)
	begin
		select @strlen = case when charindex(',',@roles,@strpos) = 0 then LEN(@roles)-@strpos+1 else charindex(',',@roles,@strpos) -@strpos end
		select @role = SUBSTRING(@roles,@strpos,@strlen)

		print char(9)+'Adding '+@user+' to '+@role+' role in '+@db+'...'
		set @sql = 'USE ['+@db+'] EXEC sp_addrolemember N'''+@role+''', N'''+@user+''''
		exec(@sql)
		select @strpos = case when charindex(',',@roles,@strpos) = 0 then LEN(@roles) else charindex(',',@roles,@strpos) + 1 end
	end

print char(10)
fetch next from recscan into @db
set @strpos = 0
end

/*clean up cursor*/
close recscan
deallocate recscan

The script itself may look intimidating, but really it breaks down into 3 steps:

1 – Create the user as a server login
Then, for each database
2 – Create the user within the database
3 – Assign the user to the each role within the passed list of roles.

To use this script, all you need to do is set @user to the name of your user, set @winlogin to 1 or 0 if your user is an Active Directory login or not, then insert a comma separated list of roles you want to add the user to. Note, you’re not restricted to the default roles, you can use custom created roles in the script. Just make sure the role exists.

The only other item of interest here is the code section that parses through the role array. Take a look at it if you’re looking for away to split a string into its component parts using T-SQL.

Feel free to download the script here.