How-To: Install SSMS in a Cluster After SQL Server is Installed in a Clustered Instance

Here's a quick way of installing SSMS on cluster nodes after SQL Server has been installed in a clustered instance.

For Basic Tools:
setup.exe /q /ACTION=INSTALL /FEATURES=SSMS /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms=TRUE

For Advanced Tools:
setup.exe /q /ACTION=INSTALL /FEATURES=ADV_SSMS /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms=TRUE

Slipstreaming SP's and CU's into the SQL Server 2012 Installer

You can now easily slipstream SQL 2012 installer with Service Packs and CU's.

1. 1.  Create a folder under the installation folder called "Patches"
   2. Download all related files required for the hotfix/CU's into this folder
   3. Go into the Installation folder, go to x64, and update the DefaultSetup.ini folder to include the following line at the end
      1. UpdateSource=".\Patches"  (It's the relative path to the update files)
      2. Save it, copy it and overwrite the DefaultSetup.ini file in x86
      3. Now, run the normal Setup.exe executable in the root of the install folder, and when you run the install, it will present you with a screen showing all the hotfixes it found in that folder, and allow you to include or exclude them to slipstream into the install.
      
      

What is My SQL Server Collation Set To?

To find out what the collation settings are in an instance of SQL Server, open a New Query window and execute the following command:

SELECT CONVERT (varchar, SERVERPROPERTY('collation'));


It will return the collation setting, for example:  SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

What DC is my Logon Server?

To find out which Domain Controller your server/workstation is authenticating against, open up a command prompt (Start --> Run --> cmd --> Enter) and copy/paste the following:

echo %logonserver%


This will return the DC that has authenticated your login.

Printing a Selection of a Page in Adobe Acrobat

If you've ever wondered how to print a portion of a single page in a PDF document in Acrobat, here is what you need to do:

1. Open the document, and go to the page you would like to print.
2. In Acrobat X/Reader X, Choose Edit > Take A Snapshot.
   In Acrobat 9/Reader 9,  Choose Tools > Select & Zoom > Snapshot Tool.
3. Drag a rectangle around the area you want to print.  It will highlight the selection that will be printed
4. Go to File --> Print
5. Make any changes to the way it will print as you usually would (Fit to Page, Custom Scaling, etc.)
6. Click the Print button!

This works in both Reader and Acrobat.

Changing Host Name of Server w/ SQL Installed

If you need to change the host name of a Windows Server with SQL Server already installed on it, there are two Stored Procedures that need to be run on SQL Server to change the server name within SQL.

After renaming the host and rebooting run the following two procedures with the appropriate host names and the restart SQL.

sp_dropserver OldServerName
go
sp_addserver NewServerName, local
go


Install All Web Features Through PowerShell

To install all web features on Windows 2008, 2008 R2 & 2012, run the following two commands from within Powershell:

Import-Module ServerManager Get-WindowsFeature Web-* | Add-WindowsFeature