Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Administration with Windows PowerShell™

Chapter 9. WMI Provider for Configuration Management

Since the release of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft has included two WMI providers for SQL Server: the WMI Provider for Configuration Management to manage SQL Server services and network connectivity, and the WMI Provider for Server Events, to manage SQL Server events. This chapter illustrates how to access the SQL Server 2008 WMI providers using Windows PowerShell, and how to perform administrative tasks using the WMI Provider for Configuration Management. The WMI Provider for Server Events is explained in detail in Chapter 10.

The WMI Provider for Configuration Management is a published layer that is used with the SQL Server Configuration Manager snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and the Microsoft SQL Server Configuration Manager. By writing a Windows PowerShell script, you can connect to the Configuration Manager and take advantage of all the services it provides.

In this chapter, you will learn how to manage SQL Server services, client and server protocols, and server aliases, both locally and remotely, using Windows PowerShell and the WMI Provider for Configuration Management. As you know, the Configuration Manager can be used to manage only local SQL Server instances. Therefore, the approach introduced in this chapter is far more flexible.

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Managing SQL Server services

• Managing client network protocols

• Managing SQL Server client aliases

• Managing server network protocols ...