Blog Post

Tools I Use on My Jump Box

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Having recently taken a new job and introducing a number of new tools to my new coworker I thought I’d share how I setup my jump box to and keep it updated so others can benefit, and I can find it later (I did put this in our internal Confluence pages, but I do have a box in Azure for presentations). In alphabetical order because that’s the only way to make sense of things.  I’d be curious if anybody has anything they use that I should add, so please leave comments.

    • .NET 6 SDK (Download .NET 6.0 SDK (v6.0.300) – Windows x64 Installer) – This is used for .Net Juypter Interactive notebooks in Azure Data Studio and VSCode so I can run blocks of code combining with different languages in the same notebook.
    • Azure Data Studio (ADS) – Azure Data Studio to help manage Azure SQL DB, it is missing some admin stuff for on prem instances but does a lot of stuff and have a PowerShell Terminal. I like to put this in dark mode. Here is a list of extensions to install:

      • .NET Interactive Notebooks because I used Notebooks to run Glenn Alan Berry’s scripts for example and I’ve created my to store the Azure SQL Tips results.  Speaking of Azure Tips there are plenty more here.
      • Admin Pack for SQL Server – Downloads the following admin extensions like SQL Server Agent, SQL Agent Profile (boo), SQL Server Import, SQL Server dacpac.
      • Azure CLI – Lets me run Azure CLI (az) in ADS.
      • Azure Monitor Logs – Let’s connect and query Loga Analytics from ADS.
      • Central Management Servers – Note when you add the CMS server it will not appear until after you close and reopen ADS.
      • Database Administration Tool Extensions for Windows (preview) – Gives mte two features on Windows only, properties dialog box on objects and the ability to Generate Scripts on objects.
      • Jupyter – Back to being able to developer notebooks
      • Kusto – Let’s connect to an Azure Data Explorer cluster and query it use KQL.
      • Managed Instance Dashboard – I’m not currently using this at my job but if you have MIs, you comes in handy.
      • Query History – This adds a query view so you can see your past queries you ran, you know you might have forgotten and want to know.
      • PowerShell – Well everyone uses PowerShell, right?
      • SentryOne Plan Explorer – Everyone needs to look at execution plans, should install Plan Explorer.
      • Server Reports – This gives us from reports that are useful of looking at servers, in particular I like the Backup Growth Trend report.
      • Settings Sync – This one I highly recommended so you setup a GitHub account and let it sync your settings that way if you have to reinstall it can re-setup your settings and extensions to install.
      • SQL Assessment – Used to evaluate you SQL Server and MIs for best practices.
      • SQL Database Projects – Source controlled database projects, who doesn’t want source  control.
      • SQL Server Schema Compare – Use dacpacs to compare schemas and apply them, makes deployments easier.
      • Visual Studio IntelliCode – AI-assisted development for T-SQL development.
      • whoisactive – sp_whoisactive with charts.
      • Also, follow these directions to help load very large notebooks in ADS such as Glenn’s he has a lot of data he collects.
    • Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager – This I use for remote desktop manager, you can set all your settings and securely save your credentials. I hate typing in passwords to connect to everything.  And it does more than just RDP.
    • Git – I contribute to dbatools and dbachecks so I still need Git even though my org using something different.
    • GitHub Desktop – This is how I check my code back into Github.
    • PowerShell 7 – Shoot for the stars and use the newest version of PowerShell.

      • PowerShell Modules I use are below:
        • Az.Accounts – Manages my credentials to get into all things Azure.
        • Azure PowerShell – So I can automate speaking to all my Azure instances.
        • dbachecks – Open source module to run reports about our configuration and makes sure things are configured correctly.
        • dbatools – Open source module to do all things SQL. Book is finally finished as of yesterday but you can just get the MEAP but a 50% of discount code is available here.
        • EditorServicesCommandSuite – Use to customize my PowerShell prompt with code I got from Rob Sewell (t).
        • FormatMarkDownTable – To used to export query info to Markdown for documentation.
        • ImportExcel – Handy functions ImportExcel and ExportExcel
        • MarkdownPS – Render Markdown, again I use this to generate documenation automagically to be stored in GitHub,
        • posh-git – Use to customize my PowerShell prompt with code I got from Rob Sewell (t).
        • SqlServer – Use to run Invoke-SqlNotebook but it has to be ran in PowerShell 5 it will not work in PowerShell 7, maybe Microsoft will update one day, I should ask them.
    • To customize your PowerShell prompt do the following.  I do this because I like to see how a command took to run and get timestamps on when I ran things.
      • Open PowerShell 5 and PowerShell 7 in any editors you are using
      • Type “notepad $PROFILE”
      • In the blank file that pops up copy the code from Rob Sewell’s GitHub and make sure to edit lines 14-27 to git your GitHub setup on your machine..
    • PowerBI Desktop – Used currently to view reports from dbachecks.
    • SentryOne (Solarwinds) Plan Explorer – Advanced viewer for SQL Server execution plans.
    • SSMS
    • VSCode – PowerShell code development area for me and markdown files. I like to put this in dark mode. Here is an article on how to use VSCode of PowerShell development and settings to set.  Here is a list of extensions I install some of these are the same as ADS above.

      • .NET Interactive Notebooks
      • Azure Account – Azure account sign stuff.
      • Azure CLI Tools
      • Azure Log Analytics (Kusto) Syntax Highlighter
      • Azure Resources – Let’s me view my Azure resources from within VSCode.
      • Better Comments – Better human friendly comments like Alerts, Queries, TODOs, Highlights.
      • Code Spell Checker – Who doesn’t misspell there code and need some help there.
      • CodeTour – Setup a tour of your code for others to follow with directions.  Great for handing off after a presentation.
      • Data Workspace – Provides additional functionality for data projects.
      • Git Graph – Do fun stuff with Git.
      • Git History – Show the Git checkin history.
      • GitHub Pull Requests and Issues – Show PRs and Issues in VSCode.
      • indent-rainbow – One of my favorites colors the indents so you can see them better and line them up.
      • Jupyter – Back to more notebook related stuff.
      • jupyter-notebook-vscode – Back to more notebook related stuff.
      • Markdown All in One – Helps you with all those markdown files.
      • markdownlint – More help with writing markdown files.
      • Material Icon Theme – Another favorite shows icons for the types of files in the file explorer.
      • Peacock – Let’s you open a workspace with different colors.
      • PowerShell
      • Prettier – Code Formatter – Make my code pretty please.
      • Render Line Endings – Display the line endings so I can see whitespace.
      • search from code – By default, this extension allows you to search dbatools.io, microsoft docs, google or your VS Code workspace for the highlighted text.
      • SQL Bindings – Microsoft SQL Bindings for VS Code enables users to develop Azure Functions with Azure SQL bindings.
      • SQL Database Projects
      • SQL Server (mssql)
      • SQLTools – Database management in VSCode.
      • TODO Highlights – Highlights those comments in the code.
      • vscode-database

Last updated July 1, 2022.

The post Tools I Use on My Jump Box first appeared on Tracy Boggiano's Blog.

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