dbatools 1.0. The tools to break down barriers.

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Version 1.0 is coming…

20th June 2019 and dbatools will release version 1.0

Now, I don’t remember how I started with dbatools.
I know that I was a Junior DBA at that stage and I was experimenting with PowerShell.

After being initially introduced to PowerShell when it was only Version 2, and dismissing it for something that wouldn’t catch on in a Windows environment (I never said that I was prophetic!), I was ready to attone for my actions and dive deep into this wonderful scripting language.

They say that the way to improve is to do and I was looking for a project that interweaved PowerShell with SQL Server.
I can only assume that was when dbatools found me.

Now some time has moved on and things have moved on as well.
PowerShell has released verison 7 on pre-release, I’ve taken a position as a Production DBA, and dbatools are about to release version 1.0!

In that time, I’ve learned that dbatools, more than just a PowerShell module, helps break down barriers that exist in organisations.

Barrier to learning…

This may come across as a bit banal, something that has been thrown around a lot, and something that you have all heard been said before but there are so many new things out there for data professionals.

How are we supposed to keep up-to-date with developments, how are we supposed to keep abreast of the latest technologies, how are we supposed to drink from the water hose of learning if we are not taking advantage of the automation that dbatools brings?

I cannot imagine a data professional taking advantage of containers, spinning up a few, and then saying

Hold on, I have to connect SSMS to the container to restore a database on it now. Oh wait, I have to copy and paste the backup file over first. Then I have to make sure permissions are there and correct and…yeah you need to wait.

Not me

Imagine it! Imagine the speed and progress taking place.

• Find an image: docker search and its done!
• Download it: docker pull and its done!
• Create the container: docker create and its done!
• Deploy the database: “ah hold on guys, this is going to take at least an hour...”

The flow is cut.
Its speed-bumped; road blocked by a data professionals lack of automation.

dbatools can help you, it has the commands. Restore-DbaDatabase, Copy-DbaLogin, and the work is done!

It is not that there is no time to learn the new technologies, it is not using automation to give yourself time to learn.

Use dbatools, push the speed-bump down the pipeline, and leverage that new found time to learn to become more valuable!

Barriers in roles…

DevOps is the union of people, process, and products to enable continuous delivery of value to our end users

Donovan Brown

Now imagine trying to implement DevOps in a organisation where the people are siloed?

There is no collaboration, no communication because people don’t have the knowledge or the tools to provide support to anyone else.

Developers have to wait for the DBA each time they want to restore a database on a dev environment.

Operations can’t troubleshoot an issue on the database because they don’t have the permissions or the know-how to connect to an instance.

Middle management have to go to every single instance to run the same query for information about their SQL Server estates.
RDP, SSMS, New Query, Paste, Run over and over and over again.

dbatools empowers these people.

Tools can be written using dbatools that restores a masked database for developers. This can be logged and as open or as restrictive as you want.

Operations can use Install-DbaWhoIsActive and Invoke-DbaQuery to check out issues on an instance without having the bother the DBA first.

Middle management can be given a script to query all the servers from Get-DbaRegServer and Invoke-DbaQuery to run what they want. What was once a multitude of mouse clicks can be reduced to the running of a single file.

Everything logged, everything known, and everyone empowered.

dbatools breaks down these barriers…

dbatools is about to publish version 1.0 but this does not mean that the work stops.

There are knowledge seekers to help, Issues to troubleshoot, Feature Requests to pour over, Documentation to create and update, Tests to write and verify.

Do not be put off; version 1.0 is something to celebrate, not something to be intimidated by.

Join in!
Learn, laugh, and lend a hand.
Version 1.0 is released but, thankfully, numbers don’t stop at 1.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Winston Churchill