Quest gets a lot of requests from our LiteSpeed customers asking how they can better understand what SQL Servers are on the network and where they have LiteSpeed deployed. Quest has two products that can help customers get answers to both of these questions:

• Quest Discovery Wizard for SQL Server 3.0 Beta
• Toad for SQL Server 4.6

Discovery Wizard for SQL Server is our freeware SQL Server discovery tool. If you do not have a comprehensive list of SQL Servers in your environment, you can use the Discovery Wizard to check your network for installed instances of SQL Server. If you already have a comprehensive list of instances registered in Toad for SQL Server, you can skip to the next section.

The Discovery Wizard uses a variety of scan methods to search for SQL Servers by Domain or IP Address, including:

• Domain searching using NetEnum discovery
• Domain searching using Active Directory
• IP Scan using Network Registry
• IP Scan using WMI
• IP Scan using Login Attempt
• IP Scan using TCP Connection

Select the scan method (Domain or IP Address), enter the domains and/or IP Address ranges, check the appropriate scan types, and click the Start button.

The Discovery Wizard maintains a list of login credentials for each discovered instance. Right-click on instance and select the Test Connection option to enter the login credentials and then select the Collect Data option to query the instance. Once this is done, you’ll see a list of all the interesting SQL Server and Operating System information as well as the installed LiteSpeed version:

If you don’t have a comprehensive list of SQL Server instances, this is a good place to start. But you can do even more when you combine the results of the Discovery Wizard with the Toad for SQL Server 4.6 Group Execute functionality.

Group Execute is a feature of Toad that allows a user to easily run a query across multiple SQL Server instances. Using this feature, we can query each instance for LiteSpeed licensing information, and then review these results in Toad or export to Excel.

First things first. If you used the Discovery Wizard to find your instances, you can easily export them to Toad using the “Export to Toad for SQL Server” option on the main menu.

This feature creates a compatible Toad Connection file which you can then import into Toad using the Import function on the Toad Connection Manager:

Once your connections are imported into Toad, connect to any instance, open an Editor window, and select the Group Execute tab on the left (default location). If you don’t see it, right-click in the Editor and select the “Show Group Execute” function.

First check the “Enable Group Execute” option in the Group Execute tab. Second, select the instances you want to check for LiteSpeed. In order for Group Execute to work, you must save login credentials for each connection so Toad can automatically connect, so make sure this information is entered in the connection properties before proceeding.

Now we’ll write a simple query to check for LiteSpeed on each instance. This T-SQL batch executes the LiteSpeed Licensing extended stored procedure if it is installed in the master database:

IF EXISTS (

  SELECT 0

  FROM master..sysobjects where name = N'xp_sqllitespeed_licenseinfo')

EXEC master.dbo.xp_sqllitespeed_licenseinfo

GO

Let’s save the file before executing. Use the default TEF file format. This Toad file format saves both the selected connections and the SQL statement in a single file to make it easier to execute in the future.

Last step is to execute the SQL. Toad automatically connects to each instance and runs the query. If there is a connection or execution problem, the Status column next to each connection will indicate there was an error. Simply click on the Messages tab for more detail about the issue and try and correct.

The results are combined into a single grid for easy review. You’ll notice a “Connection” column in the output. This allows you to see which SQL Server each row of results belongs to. Looking at the Evaluation column, you can determine the type of license:

• 0 = a permanent license that does not expire
• 1 = a license that is only good for a specified number of days, like the built-in 15 day trial key (see the Evaluation Days columns)
• 2 = A license that expires on a specific date (see the Expires column)

If you prefer working in Excel, simply right-click the results and select the Quick Export to Excel option.

You now have a repeatable way to not only discover your installed SQL Servers, but also check to see where you have LiteSpeed deployed.

Some SQL Server instances are set up with the username SA and a blank password.  In other shops, previous DBAs used easy-to-guess back door accounts to make management easier.  To secure your environment, you can use Quest’s free Discovery Wizard to look for common usernames and passwords.  In this short video, we show you how to get started.

How many SQL Servers are in your datacenter?  Find out fast with Quest’s free Discovery Wizard.  In this short video, we show you how to get started.

Keep track of your ever-changing SQL Server inventory with Quest’s free Discovery Wizard.  In this short video, we show how to set a baseline and find out when servers have been added, removed or changed.

Quest’s free Discovery Wizard tool helps you discover and report on your SQL Server instances.  One of the things it checks is for the installed version of Quest LiteSpeed for SQL Server.  If you need to find out where LiteSpeed is installed, watch this short tutorial video to learn how.