As we close out the year, I decided to drop this post here and maybe inspire a few of you to write in 2025. This post looks at some examples of how I capture ideas for later and jot notes that turn into these blog posts.
Everything is an idea
Let me start with how I look at the world. I was in a meeting with some of our solution engineers and Kathi Kellenberger. Kathi was showing how to get started with the Redgate Monitor PowerShell API, which is something relatively few of our customers use. However, it’s very powerful and as she started, I noticed a few things.
- She pointed out how to download and load the module
- She showed how to make a basic connection
- There was a section on adding tags to a list of servers
- There was a section on reading in a CSV with server names and settings
- There was a section on changing settings for alerts based on the csv
In this list, there are 4 blog posts at least. Here is what sketched out. Each of these sections is the draft title of a blog post with the items I captured inside.
Getting Started
purpose of PoSH with RGM
download module
get an auth token
make basic connection with your monitor server
Get data from a query
Adding Tags to a Server
check sample scripts
Pick group of servers, get group list from
load csv, loop, applying tag to group
Load CSV
Basic PoSh
Load CSV, show how fields are represented
loop through different rows
Change Settings from PoSh
Get list of servers and settings in csv
load and loop through
alter alert setting for server based on csv
Summary
Those are light sketches, but they capture the idea. I’ve got 4 draft posts now that I can flesh out when I have time. While I was doing this, I grabbed a couple screenshots as well, which help me remember the context of what I saw.
This is the way I grab lots of ideas when they occur to me, without worrying about finishing these right now. From these descriptions, I can build a larger blog post, in this case, a series that I’ll add to my other Redgate Monitor posts.
Try grabbing ideas for tools, fixes, patches, changes, etc. during your workday. Drop them in a folder somewhere, use Open Live Writer, Word, whatever. Then when you’re looking to blog or improve you career or fix something, you’ll have a list.