Fellow developers are often surprised at how much I use command line and xp_cmdshell. The reason for this is two fold:
- It saves a lot of time because it means that you don’t always have to remote on to the server to view debugging information or execute local commands. e.g. Is XYZ service running? Who’s logged on to the box? Run that SSIS package.
- You can view results from a different security context which is often the key for successfully debugging connectivity issues.
I always keep a script just for the purpose which I consider to be an essential part of any database developer/DBA toolkit. This is a selection of tasks that crop up again and again and will often save you a lot of time. Especially if you use xp_cmdshell.
This post list a selection of tasks that come up again and again together with the necessary command lines to speed up the process!
1. Who’s remotely logged on to the server?
How many times do you try to log on to a remote server to administer it, only to find there is someone already logged on. The command you need to run from a windows server is:
QUERY SESSION /SERVER:MY-SERVER-NAME
The result will look something like this:
SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE
rdp-tcp#32 Don.Duck 0 Active rdpwd
rdp-tcp 65536 Listen rdpwd
console 2 Conn wdcon
rdp-tcp#26 Mick.Mouse 1 Active rdpwd
Daffy.Duck 4 Disc rdpwd
2. I need to kick off an inactive (or active) session
So you’ve discovered from the step above that there is a disconnected session (id 4) on the server and want to reset it:
RESET SESSION 4 /SERVER:MY-SERVER-NAME
3. What AD groups do I belong to?
Why does your colleague have access to something, but you don’t? What group membership does the service account have? A simple way to get a list of Group memberships:
gpresult > c:\outputfile.txt
And another way, but this one truncates the groupnames so if your organisation uses a long naming convention, it can be tricky:
net user /DOMAIN Mick.Mouse
4. What about local group membership?
net localgroup ADMINISTRATORS
5. What services are running on your server?
tasklist /svc
This will output a list something like:
Image Name PID Services
========================= ======== ============================================
System Idle Process 0 N/A
System 4 N/A
smss.exe 376 N/A
csrss.exe 432 N/A
winlogon.exe 460 N/A
services.exe 508 Eventlog, PlugPlay
lsass.exe 520 HTTPFilter, Netlogon, PolicyAgent,
ProtectedStorage, SamSs
6. Stop service XYZ?
NET STOP XYZ
7. Start service XYZ?
NET START XYZ
There are obviously many more useful commands than this. What do you use on a regular basis?
Cheers
Frank