We’re excited to announce that Toad for SQL Server has been awarded Gold for Best Development Tool in SQL Server Magazine’s – Editor’s Best and Community Choice awards.

The editors were quick to point out that “Developers and DBAs get a lot of bang for the buck with this [Toad for SQL Server] comprehensive toolset. Quest Toad is a great set for administrators or developers with crossover responsibilities.”

We recently released version 4.6 of Toad for SQL Server which includes these new features that DBAs and database developers are sure to welcome:

• Advanced Group Execute – execute SQL against multiple database instances, intelligently group results, and save query and SQL Server connections for later execution
• Connection Colors – optionally color code connection tabs to provide a visual indication of the type of server to which you are connected
• Trace Management – see a list of running traces on the SQL Server instance, examine bound events and filters, and optionally pause or stop traces
• Pre-Defined SQL Formats – select a pre-defined SQL formatting template or create your own to quickly format your code based on company standards
• DBA Query Code Snippets – execute interesting queries from our included set of DBA Code Snippets that cover: Backup & Restore, Jobs, Server Information, SQL Activity, Table and Index information including fragmentation, and Trace Activity
• And more…

Combine that with our outstanding set of included features:

• SQL Tuning –performance tuning with automated optimization and benchmarking
• Compare and Sync  –compare and synchronize servers, schemas, and data to easily identifying differences between environments / databases
• SQL Script Recall – a time-saving feature designed to automatically capture and eliminate the need to retype commonly used SQL statements
• Transaction Log Reader — audit and recover data and schema stored in transaction log files by undoing or redoing any operation and reconstructing transactions
• Job Manager – an Outlook-style management console for SQL Server Agent Jobs and Windows Tasks
• Debugger – debug T-SQL scripts and stored procedures
• IntelliSense –simplify T-SQL script creation through our configurable keyword auto completion feature
• Version Control –integrates with your Visual Source Safe (VSS), Concurrent Version System (CVS), Subversion, and Team Foundation Server (TFS) version control systems
• Reporting, Charting, and Pivot tables 

Quest LiteSpeed for SQL Server can read transaction log files (LDFs), transaction backups (TRNs) and the online transaction log – including transactions that haven’t even been backed up yet.  Learn how in this video by Brent Ozar:

Toad for SQL Server also has this transaction log reader built-in, too!

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.

After restoring a database from production to development, we often need to copy SQL Server logins too.  But how do we keep their passwords and their SIDs?

Toad does that. Connect to the source SQL Server in Toad and click the Migrate Security button in Connection Manager:

Migrate Security in Toad for SQL Server

The Migrate Security wizard starts and asks which logins you’d like to copy.  It gives you a script that you can copy/paste, or just tell Toad which server you’d like to run it against.  This works with SQL Server 2000, 2005, and 2008.