Anthony Fourie of RDB Consulting presented a talk on Policy Based Management at a SQL Users Group in Johannesburg, South Africa

1. Learning the art of Policy Management

2. Speaker Information
 Anthony Fourie
 Previously Junior Oracle PL/SQL Developer
 SQL Server DBA Since 2011

3. What is PBM?
 Introduced in SQL Server 2008
 Originally known as “Declarative Management
Framework”
 Mechanism to assist in Multi-Server Management
 Policies are a set of defined rules that are used in order
to enforce/review certain properties and conditions
within SQL Server

4. Why use PBM?
 Replacement for Paper-Based Management
 Simplifies Multi-Server Administration
 Control and enforce compliance
 Time saver

5. Terminology
 Policies
 Rule based on a single condition and applied to one or more
targets
 Conditions
 Boolean expression or combination of expressions
 Facets
 Collection of properties used to test various conditions
 Targets
 A SQL Server Object Set (Instance, Table, Audit, etc.)
 Categories
 Grouping unit for Policies

6. Defining a Policy
 GUI Tools in SQL Server Management Studio
(recommended)
 Via Transact-SQL (not recommended)
 Evaluation Modes:
 On Schedule
 Evaluates a policy on a scheduled basis
 On Demand
 Policy evaluation done manually by Policy Administrator
 On Change: Prevent
 Uses DDL triggers to prevent changes (but there are caveats)
 On Change: Log Only
 Change is allowed but tracked in the Event Log

7. Evaluating a Policy
 Single Server Evaluation (Right-Click Methodology)
 Registered Servers
 Object Explorer
 Multi-Server Evaluation (Right-Click Methodology)
 Registered Servers
 Central Management Server
 Results Export
 Results can be exported to .xml for review/storage
 Policy Evaluation History
 Can be viewed through SSMS (on the respective policy)
 Can be viewed through System Views
 Migration of Policies
 Import/Export feature shipped with PBM

8. A few catches in PBM
 Previous Version Catches
 Can be evaluated against SQL Server 2005 and 2000 but
is limited
 Only ‘On Demand’ Evaluation is available
 Certain Facets /Properties do not apply e.g.
‘@IsMirroringEnabled’
 Domain Limitations
 Only works across Single Domain or Trusts
 Immediate Enforcement
 If enforcement of policy failures that require a server re-
boot, PBM will not notify you that a re-boot is required

9. Additional Information
 PBM System Views
 ‘Syspolicy_’ system views
 Pre-Defined Best Practice Policies
 %Installation Directory%Program FilesMicrosoft SQL
Server100ToolsPolicies
 EPM Framework
 Extended solution to PBM for all versions of SQL Server in an
enterprise
 Utilizes PowerShell to evaluate policies against targets
 Requires at least one instance of SQL Server 2008
 Report Delivery through SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

10. Resources
 MSSQL Tips
 http://www.mssqltips.com/
 Policy Based Managment Blog
 http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlpbm/
 Policy Based Management Whitepapers
 SQL Server Books Online
 MCM Vidoes
 http://goo.gl/7SLAK
 Enterprise Policy Management Framework (EPM)
 http://www.codeplex.com/EPMFramework

11. That’s it....
 Anthony@rdbconsulting.com
 @SQLAnthibian
Feedback is always appreciated!!!