This post started after I created a function for dbatools, was resurrected when talking to Chrissy LeMaire ( blog | twitter ) then died down again afterwards. At this stage, I figure I publish it now or I’ll never finish it.
2 fricking hours…
I’m a Junior DBA, and as one, I get given the graft work.
For me that meant manually checking the backups. Every single file of every single database of every single server, every single day…plus whatever other jobs and alerts had come in overnight.
As you can imagine, it took a while (OVER 2 HOURS!!!) and since my youth, I had leveled-up from ‘laziness’ to ‘efficiency’, so I wanted a better option.
I had heard about PowerShell as a language before and wanted to check out if it was possible to use it to help me out.
So I opened up my PowerShell ISE, rested my fingers on the keyboard and…nothing.
So I checked out solutions online, and it was there that I found dbatools.io!
They had everything – or what I thought was everything since they have an issues page in github with over 100 items – so one Friday night I downloaded their tools at home and started getting familiar with them. (I know, rock star lifestyle that I have).
Monday morning, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and filled with coffee, I sit down at my computer, open up PowerShell to start my graft work, and in 2 minutes I was finished.
2 fricking minutes…
With that, I was hooked; Twitter account, followed, Slack channel, signed in, anything and everything I could do to learn more about this wonderful life-saving (I figure time is life ergo this was life-saving) tool I was in!
But it wasn’t enough… they had given to me and I had no method to repay them.
Then one day, I asked a question on PowerShell help and one of their members Constantine Kokkinos ( blog | twitter ) helped me, and we got chatting.
He gave me an enhancement request to look at and I spent 3 days looking, poking and prodding it until finally I gave up and did a replace to fix it.
I then proceeded to try and push my entire computer into their Git repository but CK laughed and help me fix that too.
Then, from nowhere from my point of view, Chrissy LeMaire said she like it and, like that, it was in!
I’ve done more stuff since then, one more enhancement that wasn’t accepted (no worries) and a command that was accepted (that I am ashamed about since I think it’s not good enough), but I am constantly thankful for the work that they do and the knowledge that they impart.
2 commits later…
I know, I know, here I am trying to wax lyrical about dbatools when I’ve only done 2 commits.
What can I say, I’ve slowly gotten busier and busier to the point that I’m trying to schedule my days to fit everything in (if you had told me earlier that I would become a “not enough hours in the day” guy…).
Does this mean that my love for dbatools has weaned? Not in the slightest! I’m still impressed every single time that I look in (seeing as that is every day, I’m spending a lot of my time being impressed) and I’m still trying to get back to it.
2 things left to say…
- To anyone hesitant about getting started with dbatools, whether that is helping out or using them, I urge you not to be.
They are welcoming, warm, and inviting people who are happy to receive help from anyone willing to give it. - I’ll eventually get around to fixing that issue Chrissy, I swear 🙁