skreebydba

In my last post, I showed how to define a policy using Policy-Based Management (PBM). In this post, I will show how to evaluate this policy. While a policy can be evaluated against a single instance of SQL Server, PBM is especially powerful when used with Central Management Server. For more information about setting up Central Management Server, see my previous post on the topic.



To begin evaluating your policy, open the Registered Servers tab in Management Studio and expand the Central Management Servers node. Right-click on the server group you want to evaluate and select New Policy. In the example, I will be using the 2005-2008 group.



In the Evaluate Policies dialog, click the lookup button next to the Source box.



Click the radio button next to Server and enter the name of the instance where you defined your policy. Click OK.



You should see your policy in the Policies list. To evaluate it, check the checkbox next to the policy and click Evaluate. Central Management Server will connect to each of the instances defined in the selected server group and will evaluate the policy, returning the results in the Target Details pane.



In my example, a number of databasesfailed the test. As a result, a red X is displayed next to the policy name in the Results pane. The Target Details pane will show the status for each database. I've obscured the results, to protect the innocent (and my job), but the Server column contains the name of the instance connected to and the Target column contains the following: SQLSERVER:\SQL\<Machine Name>\<Instance Name>\Database\<Database Name>.



Clicking the View link next to a failed database will show you the reason for the failure. In this case, the PAGE_VERIFY setting for the database is set to NONE. That, in technical terms, is real bad! Fortunately, Policy-Based Management gives us an easy method of fixing all databases in violation of the policy.



To apply the policy against all databases in violation, check the checkbox next to the policy name in the Results pane. This will select all of the databases in violation. If you want to apply the policy to a subset of the violators, you can select those manually in the Target Details pane. Once you've selected the databases you want to apply the policy to, click the Apply button.



Management Studio warns you that you are going to make changes to the databases in violation of the policy. If you are sure that this is what you want to do, click Yes.



Central Management Server will connect to the instances containing databases in violation of the policy and change the PAGE_VERIFY setting to CHECKSUM. When it completes, you should see a green check mark next to the policy name in the Results pane, as well as green check marks next to all databases in the detail pane. If so, congratulations, you've successfully evaluated and applied your policy and PAGE_VERIFY is set to CHECKSUM for all databases.

These posts have demonstrated how to define and evaluate a Policy-Based Management policy with a single condition. There are many other facets and conditions that can be evaluated. You can get more information on Policy-Based Management at Books Online. And if you are really interested in learning more, I recommend Pro SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management.

Policy-Based Management provides a powerful tool for evaluating and standardizing your environment. I hope this introduction is helpful to you.