More DMO

In my previous article (Intro to DMO), I
described how to use DMO to connect to SQL Server and do some basic tasks, such
as performing a backup. This article will introduce some additional methods
that are very useful when automating administrative tasks. All code has been
tested on SQL 2000, but should work fine with SQL 7.

ExecuteImmediate Method

The ExecuteImmediate gives
you the ability to execute T-SQL or stored procedures from within your DMO
script. If you use ExecuteImmediate as a method of a database object, you get
the same effect as if you had executed a “Use Database” in QueryAnalyzer. You
can also use ExecuteImmediate as a method of the server object, in which case the
database is always the master. Assuming you’ve already
established a connection to your server, this sample code will update
statistics on all objects in all databases.

Dim oServer       
‘As SQLDMO.SQLServer

Dim oDatabase     
‘As SQLDMO.Database

Set oServer =
CreateObject("SQLDmo.SqlServer")

oServer.LoginSecure = True

oServer.Connect "(local)"

 

For Each oDatabase In oServer.Databases

‘2=SQLDMOExec_ContinueOnError

oDatabase.ExecuteImmediate "sp_updatestats", 2

Next

 

‘clean up

oServer.DisConnect

Set oServer = Nothing

 

ExecuteWithResults Method and the QueryResults
Object

ExecuteWithResults works
just like the ExecuteImmediate method, except you have to assign the results of
the method to a QueryResults object. The QueryResults is my least favorite
object. Instead of returning an ADO recordset, or at least a true object that
would support for/each interation, it is essentially an array. To make matters
worse, you have to use different methods to retrieve column values depending on
the column datatype. Still, it is good enough for most admin tasks and allows
you to work solely within DMO without having to have any knowledge of other
object models.

 

Dim oServer
‘As SQLDMO.SQLServer

Dim oDatabase
‘As SQLDMO.Database

Dim oResults
‘As SQLDMO.QueryResults

Dim lCount
‘As Long

Dim sMessage
‘As String

Dim SQL
‘As String

Dim J
‘As Long

 

Set oServer =
CreateObject("SQLDmo.SqlServer")

 

oServer.LoginSecure = True

oServer.Connect "(local)"

 

SQL = "Select Name from SysUsers where
IsSQLRole=0 order by Name"

 

For Each oDatabase In oServer.Databases

Set
oResults = oDatabase.ExecuteWithResults(SQL)

sMessage
= "Users for database: " & oDatabase.Name & Chr(13) &
Chr(10)

For J = 1
To oResults.Rows

sMessage
= sMessage & oResults.GetColumnString(J, 1) & Chr(13) & Chr(10)

Next

sMessage
= sMessage & "There are " & oResults.Rows & "
users"

Set
oResults = Nothing

MsgBox
sMessage

Next

 

‘clean up

oServer.DisConnect

Set oServer = Nothing

 

Script Method

Think of the scripting
options available in Enterprise Manager. You can reproduce them all in DMO,
plus some! In this example I’m creating one script per database containing all
of it’s views. I’m using the appendtofile flag so that each time I script an
object, it doesn’t overwrite the previous script. The primaryobject flag is the
one that tells DMO to generate the DDL for the object.

This example also makes use
of the CommandShellImmediate method – which directly corresponds to xp_cmdshell.
Take a look also at the nested loops, the outer one for the databases, the
inner for the views – objects make this kind of looping incredibly easy.

Dim oServer
‘As SQLDMO.SQLServer

Dim oDatabase
‘As SQLDMO.Database

Dim oView
‘As SQLDMO.View

 

Set oServer =
CreateObject("SQLDmo.SqlServer")

 

oServer.LoginSecure = True

oServer.Connect "(local)"

 

‘this deletes previous versions of scripts – use
with care!

oServer.CommandShellImmediate "Delete
C:DMO_Views*.sql"

 

‘loop through each view in each database, creating
one script per database

‘to create all of the views

For Each oDatabase In oServer.Databases

For Each
oView In oDatabase.Views

‘SQLDMOScript_AppendToFile=8192

‘SQLDMOScript_ObjectPermissions=2

‘SQLDMOScript_ToFileOnly=64

‘SQLDMOScript_PrimaryObject=4

oView.Script 8192 + 2 + 64 + 4, "C:DMO_Views_" &
oDatabase.Name & ".sql"

Next

Next

 

‘clean up

oServer.DisConnect

Set oServer = Nothing

 

Msgbox "Done."

 

ListAvailableSQLServers
Method

This method returns a
NameList object – a collection object in which the members are not strongly
typed. In order to iterate the collection using the for/each syntax, you can
use a variable of type variant for the member object. In this example I’m
showing how you can retrieve the number of databases for each SQL Server that
is visible on the network.

Dim oApp
‘As SQLDMO.Application

Dim oServer
‘As SQLDMO.SQLServer

Dim oDatabase
‘As SQLDMO.Database

Dim oNames
‘As SQLDMO.NameList

Dim oName
‘As Variant

 

Set oApp =
CreateObject("SQLDMO.Application")

Set oNames = oApp.ListAvailableSQLServers()

 

For Each oName In oNames

Set
oServer = CreateObject("SQLDmo.SqlServer")

oServer.LoginSecure = True

oServer.Connect oName

MsgBox
"There are " & oServer.Databases.Count & " databases for
server " & oName

oServer.DisConnect

Set
oServer = Nothing

Next

 

‘clean up

oApp.Quit

Set oApp = Nothing 

 

Wrap Up

Remember, you can use DMO
from any COM compliant language. Swynk reader Gregg Murray writes:

 

"You can create great administrative web pages that
tell you lots of info about a multitude of jobs, servers, disk space warnings,
etc… All on one freeform ASP page.  This gives you the ability to create
really friendly "dashboards" that can help you perform common
administrative tasks from a web page!  Ideal alternative to Enterprise
manager, especially when you need to administer your SQL servers over a 28.8
modem connection on RAS!" 

Excellent point! I haven’t
yet used DMO with ASP, but as soon as I read that I thought of a project at
work that would be perfect for using the two together – I’ll let you know how
it goes in a future article.

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