Beginning, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Administration

Chapter 8. Automating Administrative Tasks

"Set it and forget it!" Wouldn't it be nice if SQL Administration were that easy? Unfortunately, that's not a realistic goal for many of us. SQL Server is a product that needs regular maintenance and monitoring to ensure the health and stability of your servers. Fortunately, there are several tools available out-of-the-box to help DBAs manage and maintain their systems. Even better are the tools you can use to automate some of these processes that can also make your job easier.

Managing the SQL Servers in your organization can be a full-time job. In fact, it might be yours! Realistically, the complexities of our database systems and applications (both supported and supporting) might be overwhelming at first, but there are many ways that you can keep your system in shape. This chapter will introduce you to some of the more common tools and features that Database Administrators can leverage to take control of their servers.

• Policy-Based Management

• Database Mail

• Event Notifications

• SQL Server Agent

• SQL Server Maintenance Plans

As you begin this chapter, understand that some of what you will learn will serve as an introduction to topics that are covered in later chapters. Backups, replication, performance monitoring, and the Service Broker are just a few of the topics that can be managed or automated through many of the tools and examples that you will see in this chapter.

The examples in this chapter use the local server configured as both a Simple ...