PowerShell Progress Meter

In many of my past PowerShell scripts, I've included my own home-spun progress report in the results window. I like that a lot, but my mind was blown when I noticed that there is a "Write-Process" cmdlet...with some re-tweaking I made it rock and much more efficient.

So the situation where you would want to use this is if you are looping over a large dataset and it takes a while to bring back results (I often will use PowerShell to hit all the servers I control, get some information about them and return it to me (backup status, if they are VM's, configuration info, etc). It can take 20+ minutes to get to all the servers and it is nice to know how far along the process is; thats where this comes in handy.

Some things to keep in mind...You need to have some resultset to work with, it doesn't have to be a query, but it does have to be some kind of System.Array. After you generate the Array, run this bit of code...I'm calling my array "results":

<################################
 ##  SETUP PROGRESS VARIABLES  ##
 ################################>
$ResultsLen = $results.Length
$LastPercentComplete = 0
[datetime]$DateStart = Get-Date -format G

This sets up some of the variables we will need inside the progress meter. Next, just after you issue your "foreach ($result in $results) {" You run the following code:

<##########################
 ##  RUN PROGRESS METER  ##
 ##########################>
foreach ($result in $results) 
{
 $currentRow++
 $PercentComplete = [math]::floor(($CurrentRow/$ResultsLen)*100)
 [datetime]$DateNow = Get-Date -format G
 $diff = $DateNow-$DateStart
 $DiffSeconds = $diff.TotalSeconds
 $SecondsPerRecord = $DiffSeconds/$currentRow
 $RemainingSeconds = $SecondsPerRecord*($ResultsLen-$currentRow)
 $SecondsPerRecord = [Math]::Round($SecondsPerRecord,2)
 
 Write-Progress -Activity "Investigating Servers..." `
  -PercentComplete $PercentComplete `
  -SecondsRemaining $RemainingSeconds `
  -CurrentOperation "Current Row: $currentRow / $ResultsLen.   Seconds/Record: $SecondsPerRecord   Run Time (seconds): $DiffSeconds" `
  -Status "Please wait."

 Remove-Variable DateNow
 Remove-Variable DiffSeconds
 Remove-Variable SecondsPerRecord
 Remove-Variable RemainingSeconds
}

You don't need to remove your variables, I just like to do it to clean up my code, I do this at the bottom of the script:

Remove-Variable ResultsLen
Remove-Variable currentRow
Remove-Variable LastPercentComplete
Remove-Variable DateStart

Want to see it in action? Take my script and add this to the top of it (creates an array with 10000 items, which should keep the status bar up long enough for you to see):
$results = 1..10000

This looks awesome in PowerGUI, which is what I use for PowerShell Development, it looks a bit funky in the native PS window, but good enough to get you the idea. If you aren't using PowerGUI, give it a shot, it's free. http://www.powergui.org

As always, please leave comments below if you find this useful or have other suggestions. It's nice to know people read these posts.

Getting the CORE/CPU count with PowerShell

With SQL Server 2012's new licensing model, it becomes important to know how many cores you have on a given server, however if you are still in planning phase for 2012 and you have a large inventory of SQL Servers, you might be interested in knowing how the average number of cores per server you have, or the total number of servers with x cores. This is the situation I was in, so I turned to PowerShell to help me out. The "Hey, Scripting Guy! blog" helped me get a start on figuring this out. It showed me that I can do the following:

$property = "systemname","maxclockspeed","addressWidth","numberOfCores", "NumberOfLogicalProcessors"
Get-WmiObject -class win32_processor -Property  $property | Select-Object -Property $property

And get returned the information I want. But this has a lot of room for some improvement. First I started by creating a datatable to dump the results in when I loop over every server in my inventory, next I added my progress meter logic (this is handy if you have multiple locations across the world that you will be connecting to, or if you have a large inventory), I then added logic to loop over the inventory and store the data, then I display it in a Grid. At that point you can view it, or copy it to excel or do something else with it. Note that my logic assumes you have some kind of inventory database which contains the hostname of your SQL Servers; if you have this in another format (or don't have it), you will have to remove the SQL Query logic and replace it with logic matching the way you store this data. Let me know if you find this useful, or if you have any questions:

<###################################
 ##   DEFINE INVENTORY DATABASE   ##
 ###################################>
CLS
$server = "[SERVER\INSTANCE]"
$dbname = "[DB Name]"
$LookupServer = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server -ArgumentList localhost
CLS
Write-Host 'Querying Server...'

<#########################
 ##   CLEAR VARIABLES   ##
 #########################>
$SystemName = ""
$MaxclockSpeed = ""
$AddressWidth = ""
$NumberOfCores = 0
$NumberOfLogicalProcessors = 0
$CPUCount = 0

<######################################
 ##   CREATE DATATABLE FOR RESULTS   ##
 ######################################>
$table = New-Object system.Data.DataTable

$col1 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Server,([string])
$col2 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn maxclockspeed,([string])
$col3 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn addressWidth,([string])
$col4 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn numberOfCores,([string])
$col5 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn NumberOfLogicalProcessors,([string])
$col6 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn CPUCount,([string])


$table.columns.add($col1)
$table.columns.add($col2)
$table.columns.add($col3)
$table.columns.add($col4)
$table.columns.add($col5)
$table.columns.add($col6)

<######################################
 ## QUERY TO GET INSTANCES TO CHECK  ##
 ######################################>
$query += "
 WRITE YOUR QUERY HERE TO GET YOUR SERVER LIST.  
 THIS LIST SHOULD NOT CONTAIN AN INSTANCE NAME AND SHOULD NAME THE SERVERNAME FIELD [ServerName]
 i.e. SELECT xxx AS ServerName
"

$results = Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query $query -ServerInstance $server -Database $dbname;
#$ResultsLen = $results.Length


$resultsLen = 0
if ($results -is [system.array])
{
 $ResultsLen += $results.Length
}
else
{
 if ($results)
 {
  $ResultsLen += 1
 }
 else
 {
  Write-Host "No servers found in the inventory to inspect"
  break
 }
}


$currentRow = 0
$LastPercentComplete = 0
$sd = Get-Date -format G
[datetime]$DateStart = Get-Date -format G
Write-Host "Starting: " $sd
Write-Host "Total Server Count = $ResultsLen"

<#########################################
 ## LOOP OVER RECORDS AND WRITE TO FILE ##
 #########################################>
foreach ($result in $results) 
{
 <############################
  ##    DISPLAY PROGRESS    ##
  ############################>
 $currentRow = $currentRow +1
 $PercentComplete = [math]::floor(($CurrentRow/$ResultsLen)*100)
 if($PercentComplete % 10 -eq 0 -and $LastPercentComplete -ne $PercentComplete -and $PercentComplete -ne 100)
 {
  [datetime]$DateNow = Get-Date -format G

  $diff = $DateNow-$DateStart
  $DiffSeconds = $diff.TotalSeconds
  
  $SecondsPerRecord = $DiffSeconds/$currentRow
  $RemainingSeconds = $SecondsPerRecord*($ResultsLen-$currentRow)
  $RemainingMinutes = new-timespan -seconds $RemainingSeconds
  $SecondsPerRecord = [Math]::Round($SecondsPerRecord,2)
  Write-Host "Progress: $PercentComplete %.  Current Row: $currentRow.   Estimated Time Remaining: $RemainingMinutes   Seconds/Record: $SecondsPerRecord   Run Time (seconds): $DiffSeconds"

  Remove-Variable DateNow
  Remove-Variable DiffSeconds
  Remove-Variable SecondsPerRecord
  Remove-Variable RemainingSeconds
  Remove-Variable RemainingMinutes
  
 }
 ##Write-Host "Current Row: $currentRow"
 $LastPercentComplete = $PercentComplete

 <################################
  ## ASSIGN THE SERVER TO CHECK ##
  ################################>
 $server = $result.ServerName  #Do not put an instance here...this is just the root server

 try
 {
  try
  {
   <#################################################################
    ##  WE ARE DOING A TRY CATCH HERE BECAUSE ON SOME OLD SYSTEMS  ## 
    ##  THE numberOfCores AND NumberOfLogicalProcessors FIELDS     ##
    ##  DO NOT EXIST, WE WILL CATCH THESE AND RESOLVE THEM BELOW   ##
    #################################################################>
   $property = "systemname","maxclockspeed","addressWidth", "numberOfCores", "NumberOfLogicalProcessors"
   $CPUresults = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $server -class win32_processor -Property $property -ErrorAction Stop | Select-Object -Property $property

   <###############################################################
    ##  IF MULTIPLE CPUs EXIST THEY WILL BE PLACED IN AN ARRAY.  ##
    ##  WE WILL NEED TO LOOP OVER THE ARRAY TO GET COUNTS.       ##
    ###############################################################>
   if ($CPUresults -is [system.array])
   {
    $NumberOfCores = 0
    $NumberOfLogicalProcessors = 0
    $CPUCount = $CPUresults.Count
    foreach ($CPUresult in $CPUresults) 
    {
     <#####################
      ## WRITE VARIABLES ##
      #####################>
      $SystemName = $CPUresult.systemname
      $MaxclockSpeed = $CPUresult.maxclockspeed
      $AddressWidth = $CPUresult.addressWidth
      $NumberOfCores += $CPUresult.numberOfCores
      $NumberOfLogicalProcessors += $CPUresult.NumberOfLogicalProcessors
    }
    if ($NumberOfCores -eq 0)
    {
     $NumberOfCores = $CPUresults.Count
     $NumberOfLogicalProcessors = $CPUresults.Count
    }

   }
   <############################################################
    ##  IF ONLY 1 CPU EXISTS WE CAN JUST DISPLAY THE RESULTS  ##
    ############################################################>
   else 
   {
    $SystemName = $CPUresults.systemname
    $MaxclockSpeed = $CPUresults.maxclockspeed
    $AddressWidth = $CPUresults.addressWidth
    $NumberOfCores = $CPUresults.numberOfCores
    $NumberOfLogicalProcessors = $CPUresults.NumberOfLogicalProcessors
    $CPUCount = 1

   }
  }
  catch
  {
   <###################################################################
    ##  MOST LIKELY THE numberOfCores AND NumberOfLogicalProcessors  ## 
    ##  FIELDS WERE MISSING, TRYING AGAIN WITHOUT THEM               ##
    ##  (ASSUME 1 CORE PER CPU)                                      ##
    ###################################################################>
   $property = "systemname","maxclockspeed","addressWidth", "SocketDesignation"
   $CPUresults = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $server -class win32_processor -Property $property -ErrorAction Stop | Select-Object -Property $property

   if ($CPUresults -is [system.array])
   {
    $SystemName = $CPUresults[0].systemname
    $MaxclockSpeed = $CPUresults[0].maxclockspeed
    $AddressWidth = $CPUresults[0].addressWidth
    $NumberOfCores = $CPUresults.Count
    $NumberOfLogicalProcessors = $CPUresults.Count
    $CPUCount = $CPUresults.Count
   }
   else 
   {
    $SystemName = $CPUresults.systemname
    $MaxclockSpeed = $CPUresults.maxclockspeed
    $AddressWidth = $CPUresults.addressWidth
    $NumberOfCores = "1"
    $NumberOfLogicalProcessors = "1"
    $CPUCount = "1"
   }  
  }

  <######################
   ## WRITE DATA ROWS ##
   ######################>
  $row = $table.NewRow()
  $row.Server = $SystemName
  $row.maxclockspeed = $MaxclockSpeed
  $row.addressWidth = $AddressWidth
  $row.numberOfCores = $NumberOfCores
  $row.NumberOfLogicalProcessors = $NumberOfLogicalProcessors
  $row.CPUCount = $CPUCount
  $table.Rows.Add($row)
  
  Remove-Variable SystemName
  Remove-Variable MaxclockSpeed
  Remove-Variable AddressWidth
  Remove-Variable NumberOfCores
  Remove-Variable NumberOfLogicalProcessors
  Remove-Variable CPUCount
    
 }
 catch 
 {
  <######################
   ## WRITE ERROR ROWS ##
   ######################>
  $row = $table.NewRow()
  $row.Server = $server
  $row.maxclockspeed = "ERROR"
  $row.addressWidth = ""
  $row.numberOfCores = ""
  $row.NumberOfLogicalProcessors = ""
  $row.CPUCount = ""
  $table.Rows.Add($row)
  Write-Host $_.Exception.Message
 }
}

$table | Out-GridView

Remove-Variable result
Remove-Variable results
Remove-Variable CPUresult
Remove-Variable CPUresults
Remove-Variable property
Remove-Variable row
Remove-Variable table