Snapshot Isolation level

OK, I've just a minute to put this up but I have used PowerShell to help someone with a problem. It wasnt the only way and may not have been the simplest way but it certainly work. A question was posted on www.ServerFault.com asking "How can I tell if Snapshot Isolation is turned on?", my reaction was to see if PowerShell could tell me what the Snapshot Isolation setting was on my SQL databases.

The easiest way to get to PowerShell from SSMS is to right click in the Object Explorer and then choose the PowerShell link in the menu. this opens a PowerShell window at the level that you clicked. Simply typing in

get-childitem|select name, snapshotisolationstate

returns the information that you want for the server you are connected to. Simple, quick and useful. Maybe this PowerShell thing has its uses for a SQL database administrator after all?!

Please be sure to read the code disclaimer page before you use any code in this blog.

PowerShell - my first steps

So I asked this question on ask.sqlservercentral.com/questions and the concensus of opinion seems to be that PowerShell should be in my future. I have a few books that I am deciding between but have downloaded some eBooks and have installed some new applications. It was a real hassle getting PSv2 installed as it seems to conflict with PSv1. I have downloaded PowerShell Analyzer from Shell Tools and it works very well. Rather than just the PS command line you get a full IDE that gives a lot of support to a person new to PS.

As a small nugget of what I have covered so far have this little section of Powershell code:

Get-Process *sql* Select-Object name, CPU, virtualmemorysize

This will bring a list of processes on the local machine that have "sql" in their name, their CPU usage and the virtualmemory they are using.
Which for me tells me this:

Name	CPU	VirtualMemorySize
----	---	-----------------
RedGate.SQLBackup.UI	184.125	272957440
RedGate.SQLPrompt.TrayApp	3.6875	187170816
SQL Response Client	413.03125	223125504
SQLAGENT	48.1875	138895360
sqlbrowser	0.046875	14163968
sqlservr	2198.96875	1570562048

neat huh?