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Rob Sewell
Rob was a SQL Server DBA.
Now he just helps people with Powershell, Azure, Automation, and Data.
He is a Cloud and Data Center MVP and a Data Platform MVP, an officer for the PASS DevOps Virtual Chapter, co-leader of Data South West and PSConfEU organiser.
He is a proud supporter of the Data and Powershell communities.
He has a fabulous beard
Posts by Year
2021
Tooling for TSql2sDay
Tooling for TSQL2sDay
2020
Using PowerShell to Automate StreamLabs OBS and Show Your Webcam in PowerPoint
It started with a tweet
#tsql2sday #130 - Automate your stress away - Getting more SSIS Agent Job information
Automation T-SQL Tuesday was started by Adam Machanic (blog|twitter) is hosted by a different person each month. The host selects the theme, and then the blo...
The first page with GitHub Pages
Last night I started the experiment that has been in my head for a while now, to move from SQL Dba With A Beard to RobSewell.com
Creating Azure SQL Database AAD Contained Database Users with an SPN using PowerShell, Secrets Management, Azure Key Vault, and dbatools
Following on from my posts about using Secret Management Good bye Import-CliXml and running programmes as a different user, I have another use case.
Notifying a Teams Channel of a SQL Agent Job result
Following on from yesterdays post about creating an overview of SQL Agent Job Results and sending it to a Teams channel, I was given another challenge
Sending a SQL Agent Job results overview to a Microsoft Teams Channel
Microsoft Teams is fantastic for collaboration. It enables groups of people, teams if you like to be able to communicate, collaborate on documents, hold meet...
Using Secret Management module to run SSMS, VS Code and Azure Data Studio as another user
Following on from my last post about the Secret Management module. I was asked another question.
Good Bye Import-CliXML – Use the Secrets Management module for your labs and demos
Don’t want to read all this? There are two dotnet interactive notebooks here with the relevant information for you to use. https://beard.media/dotnetnoteboo...
Surprised and Honoured and Proud
I have always been extremely proud to be a Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP, and lucky enough to be involved with both the PowerShell community as well as...
Running Jupyter Notebooks as Agent Jobs
Azure Data Studio is a great tool for connecting with your data platform whether it is in Azure or on your hardware. Jupyter Notebooks are fantastic, you can...
Use Jupyter Notebooks to Help People on StackOverFlow
I am sat in the PowerShell Saturday in Hamburg. You can see me on the right of this picture writing [my previous blog post!](https://blog.robsewell.com/net-p...
.NET PowerShell Notebooks – Using Pester
My last post had a lot of information about the new .NET PowerShell notebooks including installation instructions.
New .NET Notebooks are here – PowerShell 7 notebooks are here.
Data Science folk used Notebooks for documentation and to show re-runnable research. Azure Data Studio included this notebook functionality and added SQL ker...
2019
How to fork a GitHub repository and contribute to an open source project
I enjoying maintaining open source GitHub repositories such as dbachecks and ADSNotebook. I absolutely love it when people add more functionality to them.
Dynamically Creating Azure Data Studio Notebooks with PowerShell for an Incident Response Index Notebook
Now that Azure Data Studio has PowerShell Notebooks and there is a PowerShell Module for creating notebooks. I have been asked, more than once, what is the p...
Create a PowerShell Notebook for Azure Data Studio with PowerShell
The latest update to the ADSNotebook PowerShell module I blogged about here now enables the creation of PowerShell notebooks with PowerShell.
Create Azure Data Studio SQL Notebooks with PowerShell
At PASS Summit today I gave a presentation about SQL Notebooks in Azure Data Studio for the DBA. I demo’d the PowerShell module ADSNotebook.
My current VS Code Extensions and using a workspace file
I have been asked a couple of times recently what my Visual Studio Code extensions are at the moment so I thought I would write a quick post and also look at...
PowerShell Notebooks in Azure Data Studio
The latest release of the insiders edition of Azure Data Studio brings the first edition of PowerShell Notebooks!
Getting SQL Server installation date with PowerShell using dbatools
Most of my writing time at the moment is devoted to Learn dbatools in a Month of Lunches which is now available but here is a short post following a questio...
MEAP MEAP – #dbatoolsMoL – Live Book edition
It’s been a busy time!
PowerShell in SQL Notebooks in Azure Data Studio
I have done a lot of writing in the last few months but you see no blog posts! My wonderful friend Chrissy and I are writing “dbatools in a Month of Lunches”...
Azure SQL Linux VM – configuring SQL, installing pwsh and connecting and interacting with dbatools
In my posts about using Azure Devops to build Azure resources with Terraform, I built a Linux SQL VM. I used the Terraform in this GitHub repository and crea...
Using the same Azure DevOps build steps for Terraform with different Pipelines with Task Groups to build an Azure Linux SQL VM
In my last post I showed how to build an Azure DevOps Pipeline for a Terraform build of an Azure SQLDB. This will take the terraform code and build the requi...
Using Azure DevOps Build Pipeline Templates with Terraform to build an AKS cluster
In the last few posts I have moved from building an Azure SQL DB with Terraform using VS Code to automating the build process for the Azure SQL DB using Azur...
Building Azure SQL Db with Terraform using Azure DevOps
In my last post I showed how to create a Resource Group and an Azure SQL Database with Terraform using Visual Studio Code to deploy.
Building Azure SQL Db with Terraform with Visual Studio Code
I have been using Terraform for the last week or so to create some infrastructure and decided to bring that knowledge back to a problem that I and others suf...
Adding a Folder of Scripts to GitHub with Azure Data Studio
In my last post I showed how to add a folder of scripts to GitHub using Visual Studio Code.
Generating a Workload against AdventureWorks with PowerShell
For a later blog post I have been trying to generate some workload against an AdventureWorks database.
Persisting databases with named volumes on Windows with docker compose
With all things containers I refer to my good friend Andrew Pruski. Known as dbafromthecold on twitter he blogs at https://dbafromthecold.com
Whats a SQL Notebook in Azure Data Studio?
Azure Data Studio is a cross-platform database tool for data professionals using the Microsoft family of on-premises and cloud data platforms on Windows, Mac...
#DataInDevon – Getting up to speed with PowerShell or spend a day with one of four other MVPs :-)
Saturday 27th April is Global Azure Bootcamp day
Using Docker to run Integration Tests for dbachecks
My wonderful friend André Kamman wrote a fantastic blog post this week SQL Server Container Instances via Cloudshell about how he uses containers in Azure to...
2018
How I created PowerShell.cool using Flow, Azure SQL DB, Cognitive Services & PowerBi
Last weekend I was thinking about how to save the tweets for PowerShell Conference Europe. This annual event occurs in Hanover and this year it is on April 1...
How to write a PowerShell function to use Confirm, Verbose and WhatIf
In my last blog post I showed how to run a script with the WhatIf parameter. This assumes that the commands within the script have been written to use the co...
How to run a PowerShell script file with Verbose, Confirm or WhatIf
Before you run a PowerShell command that makes a change to something you should check that it is going to do what you expect. You can do this by using the Wh...
Pester 4.2.0 has a Because…… because :-)
I was going through my demo for the South Coast User Group meeting tonight and decided to add some details about the Because parameter available in the Peste...
Using the AST in Pester for dbachecks
TagLine – My goal – Chrissy will appreciate Unit Tests one day 🙂
2014
Twas 2 Days Before Xmas or Thank you SQLFamily
Twas 2 days before Xmas & all through the office, not a creature was stirring not even old Maurice. With merriment going on outside of his window There s...
Giving Back – #TSQL2sday
T-SQL Tuesday, which was started by Adam Machanic (blog|twitter) and is now starting its 6th year, is hosted by a different person each month. The host sele...
Making a Change Log Easier With PowerShell
Having a Change Log is a good thing. A quick and simple place to find out what has changed on a server and when. This can be invaluable when troubleshooting,...
A look at the SQL Assessment Intelligence Pack in Operational Insights
Operational Insights is a service that has been added in preview to Azure. It enables you to collect, combine, correlate and visualize all your machine data ...
Changing Delay Between Responses for SQL Alerts with Powershell
So you have read that you should have alerts for severity levels 16 to 24 and 823,824 and 825 on SQLSkills.com or maybe you have used sp_blitz and received t...
Generating T-SQL Randomly with Powershell
I have a lab on my laptop running various servers so that I can problem solve and learn and recently I wanted to add several months of data into a database. ...
Emailing Disk Space Alerting With Powershell
A DBA doesn’t want to run out of space on their servers, even in their labs! To avoid this happening I wrote a Powershell script to provide some alerts by em...
Number of VLFs and Autogrowth Settings Colour Coded to Excel with PowerShell
So you have read up on VLFs
PowerShell Snippets A Great Learning Tool
When I talk to people about Powershell they often ask how can they easily learn the syntax. Here’s a good tip
Find Out Which Indexes are on which Filegroups using PowerShell And How To Find Other Information
A short post today to pass on a script I wrote to fulfil a requirement I had.
Refreshing Availability Group Database with PowerShell
Following last weeks post on Refreshing A Mirrored Database with PowerShell I thought I would write the script to refresh an Availability Group Database.
Refreshing A SQL Mirrored Database Using Powershell
SQL mirroring is a means of providing high availability for your SQL database. It is available in Standard Edition and although the feature is deprecated it ...
Enable CLR with Powershell
I had an email last night from someone who attended my PowerShell Box of Tricks session at SQL Saturday Exeter
Listing the SQL Server SysAdmins With PowerShell
A very short blog today just to pass on this little script.
Rationalisation of Database with Powershell and T-SQL part two
In the previous post I showed the script to create an Excel Workbook, colour coded showing the last used date for all of the databases on servers in my sqlse...
Rationalisation of Database with Powershell and T-SQL part one
I have recently been involved in a project to rationalise databases. It is easy in a large organisation for database numbers to rapidly increase and sometime...
Why You Should Visit the Sponsors at #SQLSatExeter and Other Community Events
SQL Saturdays and other community events rely on sponsors and you know that you will often get entered into a raffle for a prize in exchange for your contact...
Viewing SQL Endpoint Permissions with PowerShell
A quick and simple post today as I have been very busy. I needed to list the users with permissions on mirroring endpoints today so I wrote this script and f...
2013
Using PowerShell to get Azure Endpoint Ports
A quick blog today. I was reading this blog post about How to read the SQL Error Log and I thought I would try some of the examples. I started my Azure VM us...
Dropping All Tables From A SQL Database with PowerShell
This post could also have been titled confusion with foreach or For-EachObject
Starting My Azure SQL Server VMs with PowerShell
The last post about Launching Azure VMs with PowerShell made someone ask me to explain how I start my Azure VMs normally so here goes.
What Runs on the SQL Server when you run a PowerShell script?–Question from #SQLRelay
Last week I ran a PowerShell lab at SQL Relay in Cardiff. There are still a few places available for SQL Relay week 2. Take a look here for more details and ...
Launching Azure VM After Starting With PowerShell
So this morning I decided I was going to run through this blog post on understanding query plans http://sqlmag.com/t-sql/understanding-query-plans. I logged ...
Searching for Installed Windows Update With PowerShell
Yesterdays Post Show-WindowsUpdatesLocal does enable you to search for an installed update as follows
Show Windows Updates Locally With PowerShell
I wanted to be able to quickly show the Windows Updates on a server. This came about during a discussion about auditing.
Finding Text In All Files In A Folder With PowerShell
Whilst writing my PowerShell Box of Tricks GUI I realised that I had hard-coded the path to the sqlservers.txt file in several functions and I wanted one pla...
The PowerShell Box Of Tricks GUI
When I started as a DBA at MyWork I faced a challenge. Many hundreds of databases, dozens of servers and no idea what was on where. It was remembering this s...
Add User to SQL Server Database Role with PowerShell and Quickly Creating Test Users
There is a newer up to date version of this post here using the dbatools module and the sqlserver module
Creating SQL User and adding to Server Role with PowerShell
Another post in the PowerShell Box of Tricks series.
Creating a Windows User and adding to a SQL Server Role with PowerShell
Another post in the PowerShell Box of Tricks series. In a previous post Checking SQL Server User Role Membership we showed how to check which roles users wer...
Displaying the Windows Event Log with PowerShell
The latest post in the PowerShell Box of tricks series is here.
Showing and Killing SQL Server Processes with PowerShell
Another post in the PowerShell Box of Tricks series. There are much better ways of doing this I admit but as you can do it with PowerShell I created a functi...
Show The Last Backups On A Server with PowerShell
Another day another PowerShell Box of Tricks post Auditors, managers and bosses often want proof of following processes successfully so when they come knocki...
Checking For A Database Backup with PowerShell
Todays PowerShell Box of Tricks Post is about backups I highly recommend you go and read bookmark and come straight back Stuart Moore’s series on Backups wit...
Searching the SQL Error Log with PowerShell
Another post in the PowerShell Box of Tricks series. Here is another script which I use to save me time and effort during my daily workload enabling me to sp...
Reading Todays SQL Error Log With PowerShell
Todays post from my PowerShell Box of Tricks series is about the SQL Error Log. DBAs need to read the error log for many reasons and there are different ways...
List Databases (and Properties) on SQL Server with PowerShell
Another post in the PowerShell Box of Tricks series. Here is another script which I use to save me time and effort during my daily workload enabling me to sp...
Dropping SQL Users with PowerShell
As you may have noticed, I love PowerShell!
Creating SQL Server Database with PowerShell
This morning I have been setting up my Azure Servers in preparation for my presentation to the Cardiff SQL User Group this month.
Alter SQL Mirroring Endpoint Owner with Powershell
Whilst using my Drop-SQLLogins function, which is one of my PowerShell Box Of Tricks series, it failed to delete logins on some servers with the error
Using PowerShell to find a database amongst hundreds
As you know, I love PowerShell! I have developed a series of functions over time which save me time and effort whilst still enabling me to provide a good ser...
Checking Drive Sizes with PowerShell
I have developed a series of PowerShell functions over time which save me time and effort whilst still enabling me to provide a good service to my customers....
SQL Server Operators and Notifications with Powershell – Strange Enumerate issue fixed by @napalmgram
Alerting of issues across the SQL Server estate is important and recently I needed to audit the operators and the notifications that they were receiving. I c...
SQL login object permissions via PowerShell
As you know, I love PowerShell! I use it all the time in my daily job as a SQL DBA and at home whilst learning as well. Not only do I use PowerShell for auto...
Checking SQL Server User Role Membership with PowerShell
As you know, I love PowerShell! I use it all the time in my daily job as a SQL DBA and at home whilst learning as well. Not only do I use PowerShell for auto...
SQL Express Migration Auto Close Setting
With over 700 databases to look after at MyWork automation is high on my list of priorities. I have two PowerShell scripts which run regularly checking SQL E...
Checking for SQL Server logins with PowerShell
As some of you may know, I love PowerShell!
sp_BlitzIndex™ ouput to Excel with Powershell
I am impressed with the output from sp_BlitzIndex™ and today I tried to save it to an excel file so that I could pass it on to the developer of the service. ...
Powershell can read email & insert excel file attachment into a SQL Database
So at our SQL SouthWest User Group session last week we had sessions from Jonathan @fatherjack and Annette @Mrsfatherjack on SSRS and SSIS respectively. Dur...
Checking SQL Error Logs, Event Logs and Stopping Services with Powershell
It was patching time this week at MyWork so I thought I would share some Powershell scripts I use to speed up the process.
Add Adventure Works Database to Windows Azure VM
This has been an interesting journey. The Adventure Works database is frequently used in blogs and reference books and I wanted to install it in my Windows A...
Lessons Learnt from my first talk at SQL SouthWest
The timing was good enough that I could offer to do a talk based on my previous post on Windows Azure for my SQL User Group SQL SouthWest when Jonathan and A...
Spinning up and shutting down Windows Azure Lab with Powershell
So at SQL Bits I went to Chris Testa-O’Neill’s session on certification. This has inspired me to start working on passing the MCSE exams. My PC at home doesn...
Documenting SQL Server the easy way with Power Doc
You know how it is. Question questions questions. As a DBA you are the fount of all knowledge. You are the protector of the data after all so obviously you k...
Powershell won’t save when running as a scheduled job
Or, How SQLBits put me in touch with Laerte and solved a problem
12 Things I learnt at SQLBits XI
The quality of the speakers and sessions is exceptional http://sqlbits.com/information/Agenda.aspx
Those Pesky ‘s
Changing Domain Names in a Column
2010
Post: Chat
Abbott: Strange as it may seem, they give ball players nowadays very peculiar names.