Category Archives: Tips

Failed Job Steps That Didn’t Notify An Operator

Posted on by jeffprom

I often use jobs that have numerous steps. One example would be a job that has some initial prep work, multiple steps that run similar code on separate databases for multiple stores, and then finally some cleanup steps. I break the job down to individual steps per store so that if one of the steps fails, they all don’t fail. To do this, go to the advanced tab of the job step properties and set the ‘On failure action:‘ to ‘Go to the next step’. This allows the job to continue processing if there is an error on one of the steps. However, now it raises the question of how do we know if a step failed within a job? Unfortunately Microsoft doesn’t have built in failure notification for steps like they do with the overall job. You can view the job’s history and see if a step failed by the yellow icon, but that is not practical to check every day especially if you have multiple jobs setup this way. A better solution is to use the code below which shows jobs that recently had failed steps and did not notify an operator. It can be handy to setup in a SSRS report to keep an eye on all of your jobs that had failed steps.

-- FAILED JOB STEPS THAT DIDN'T NOTIFY AN OPERATOR VIA EMAIL
USE msdb
GO

DECLARE @DateStringToday VARCHAR(8);
DECLARE @DateStringYesterday VARCHAR(8);

SET @DateStringToday = convert(varchar, getdate(), 112);
SET @DateStringYesterday = convert(varchar, getdate()-1, 112);

SELECT
job_name = sj.name,
sj.enabled,
sjh.step_id,
sjh.step_name,
sjh.sql_message_id,
sjh.sql_severity,
sjh.message,
sjh.run_status,
sjh.run_date,
sjh.run_time,
sjh.run_duration,
operator_emailed = so.name

FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobhistory as sjh
INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.sysjobs_view sj ON sj.job_id = sjh.job_id
LEFT OUTER JOIN msdb.dbo.sysoperators so ON (sjh.operator_id_emailed = so.id)

WHERE sjh.run_status = 0
AND sjh.run_date IN(@DateStringToday, @DateStringYesterday) -- show today and yesterday
AND sj.enabled = 1 -- make sure it's enabled
AND sj.category_id != '101' -- remove SSRS report process jobs
AND so.name IS NULL -- show jobs that didn't already email an operator

ORDER BY sjh.run_date DESC, sjh.run_time DESC

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Moving SQL 2000 Logins to SQL 2005

Posted on by jeffprom

If you backup a database on one server and restore it to another, you can have the problem where the database has logins associated to it, but the instance does not. One problem, is that the database has a unique SID associated with the login name. If you create a new instance login with the same name, it will generate a different SID than the database one. I’ve read that if you are using 2005 and above, you simply create the new login for the instance and run the following to sync up the SID’s.
USE YourDatabaseName
GO
EXEC sp_change_users_login 'Update_One', 'UserName', 'UserName'
EXEC sp_change_users_login 'Auto_Fix', 'UserName'

However, in my case I was moving a database from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 and these did not work.
The Update_One produced:
Msg 15063, Level 16, State 1, Procedure sp_change_users_login, Line 143
The login already has an account under a different user name.

What I had to do was:
1. Restore the database to the new server (SQL 2005)
2. Do NOT create a new login yet.
3. Run the following to find the unique SID associated to the database user account. Next we create a
new instance login with the same SID as the database account.

-- Look up the SID from the database
USE YourDatabaseName
GO

SELECT D.name AS [DB_LoginName], D.sid AS [DB_SID], S.name AS [Server_LoginName], S.sid AS [Server_SID]
FROM sys.database_principals AS D LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.server_principals AS S ON D.name = S.name

-- Next, take that SID and put it in here to create the login account
CREATE LOGIN UserName WITH PASSWORD = 'Password', SID = 0xB0A2667BAEDE1B4AB93EAA0F9525DD21

You can re-run the SELECT query to verify that they are indeed the same.

Date Formatting Functions

Posted on by jeffprom

Different date formats are often neccesary on many occasions. Here are some Scalar-valued Functions you can use to help. Simply call your function and give it the full datetime field and it will return the formatted value depending on which funtion you call. For example; dbo.fn_dateYM(fullDateField) would return YYYY-MM.


-- Enter in full date. Return Year and Month: 2009-10
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_dateYM]
(
@dateMDYTime smalldatetime
)
RETURNS varchar(7)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @dateYM varchar(7)
SELECT @dateYM = CAST(YEAR(@dateMDYTime) AS CHAR(4)) + N'-' + RIGHT('00' + LTRIM(RTRIM(CAST(MONTH(@dateMDYTime) AS CHAR(2)))),2)
RETURN @dateYM
END

-- Enter in full date. Return Year: 2009
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_dateY]
(
@dateMDYTime smalldatetime
)
RETURNS varchar(4)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @dateY varchar(4)
SELECT @dateY = CAST(YEAR(@dateMDYTime) AS CHAR(4))
RETURN @dateY
END

-- Enter in full date. Return Month, Day, and Year: 10-14-2009
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_dateMDY]
(
@dateMDYTime smalldatetime
)
RETURNS varchar(25)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @dateMDY varchar(25)
SELECT @dateMDY = convert(varchar(25), cast(@dateMDYTime as smalldatetime), 101)
RETURN @dateMDY
END

-- Enter in full date. Return Month: 10
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_dateM]
(
@dateMDYTime smalldatetime
)
RETURNS varchar(2)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @dateM varchar(2)
SELECT @dateM = CAST(MONTH(@dateMDYTime) AS CHAR(2))
RETURN @dateM
END

-- Enter in full date. Return Day: 14
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_dateD]
(
@dateMDYTime smalldatetime
)
RETURNS varchar(2)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @dateD varchar(2)
SELECT @dateD = CAST(DAY(@dateMDYTime) AS CHAR(2))
RETURN @dateD
END

Renaming SQL Server

Posted on by jeffprom

When you setup a server for replication you may find unexpectedly that SQL complains about your server name. The most likely reason is that the SQL Server name doesn’t match your machine name.
Run the following command to take a look:
SELECT @@SERVERNAME, SERVERPROPERTY(‘ServerName’)

The results should be identical. If they are different, you will need to rename your SQL Server name to match the machine name. To do this use the following:

use master
go
-- Remove old Server Name
exec sp_dropserver ‘OLDNAME’
GO
-- Add New Server Name
exec sp_addserver ‘NEWNAME’,’LOCAL’

You then need to restart SQL Server. Now open a new query and run the following again:
SELECT @@SERVERNAME, SERVERPROPERTY(‘ServerName’)
They should now be the same.

Database Mail

Posted on by jeffprom

One great way to keep track of failed jobs is to setup email notifications. In SQL 2000 the email system was called SQL Mail. In SQL 2005 it is called Database Mail and is very different. Here are some instructions to setup Database Mail and some nifty queries to manage it.

Setup Database Mail:
1. In Management Studio expand the Management folder.
2. Right click on Database Mail, Configure Database Mail.
3. From the main menu you can add and edit profiles and accounts.
4. For a new system select the top option of ‘Set up Database Mail by performing the following tasks:’
5. Click Yes to enable the mail feature.
6. Fill in the appropriate fields with your mail info, choose defaults for the rest and make your way to the finish page.
7. Now right click on SQL server Agent, Properties, Alert System.
8. Check the box ‘Enable mail profile’. Your mail profile name should show up.
9. Restart the SQL Agent Service from within windows.
10. You can send a test by right clicking Database Mail, Send Test E-mail.

Setup an Operator:
1. Under SQL Server Agent right click Operators, New Operator.
2. Pick a name, and fill in the E-mail name (address).

Setup Job Failure Notifications:
1. Now under Jobs, select a job and right click properites, Notifications.
2. Check the E-mail box, select your Operator from the drop down, and select ‘When the job fails’.

Now your job will notify you via email if it fails. But what’s happening behind the scenes with the mail system? Here are some queries that let you see what’s going on.

USE msdb
GO

-- Show Mail Event Log
SELECT event_type AS [Type], log_date AS LogDate, [Description]
FROM sysmail_event_log
ORDER BY log_date DESC

-- Show Sent Messages
SELECT recipients AS [To], [Subject], Body, sent_status AS [Status], sent_date AS DateSent
FROM sysmail_sentitems
ORDER BY sent_date DESC

-- Show Failed Messages
SELECT recipients AS [To], [Subject], Body, sent_status AS [Status], sent_date AS DateSent
FROM sysmail_faileditems
ORDER BY sent_date DESC

-- Show All Items
SELECT recipients AS [To], [Subject], Body, sent_status AS [Status], sent_date AS DateSent
FROM sysmail_allitems
ORDER BY sent_date DESC

-- Show Unsent Messages
SELECT recipients AS [To], [Subject], Body, sent_status AS [Status], sent_date AS DateSent
FROM sysmail_unsentitems
ORDER BY sent_date DESC

And there you have it. You can now setup email notifications and see what the email system is doing.

SSRS Failed Subscription Notifications

Posted on by jeffprom

Reporting Services can email reports to end users on a regular basis without allowing them access to the web portal. This gives you a little more control over the report and can make it easier for the end user. One problem is that with numerous reports scheduled with numerous parameters to numerous recipients it can be difficult to know if/when a report failed to be sent. It looks bad when the VP keeps asking why he didn’t get his report today.

SSRS subscriptions are very picky. If you have one invalid email address in a subscription with multiple recipients, the whole subscription fails and nobody gets the report. Likewise, if one of your report parameters changed the report will not be sent. Surprisingly there isn’t an out of the box solution to see what reports failed to run.

Here is a query I wrote that checks SSRS subscriptions and returns any failed reports. Use the database you setup for Reporting Services. (default is ReportServer)

SELECT C.Name, S.LastRunTime, S.LastStatus, S.Description
FROM Subscriptions AS S
LEFT OUTER JOIN [Catalog] AS C
ON C.ItemID = S.Report_OID
WHERE LEFT (S.LastStatus, 12) != ‘Mail sent to’
AND LEFT (S.LastStatus, 12) != ‘New Subscrip’

The first time I ran this we had 4 reports that had failed and we weren’t aware of it! I’ve set this up as an SSRS report and view it daily, and have it emailed to me so I know all my reports were sent.