Here are some really common questions I get:

• How many CPUs does ServerA have?
• How much memory does ServerA have?
• What’s the port for ServerA\InstanceA?

So this month I’d like you to answer a few questions along those lines. Find out the following information for one of your servers.

• How many CPUs does the server have?
• How much memory does the server have?
• What are the IP(s) and Port(s) for the instance?
• Is the instance using dynamic ports?
• What service accounts are being used for the instance?
  • SQL Instance
  • Agent
  • FullText
  • Analysis Services
  • SSIS
  • Anything I might have missed?
• When was the instance last restarted?
• Is the instance clustered?
• Is this a virtual machine?
• And again, feel free to include anything I might have missed or that you feel like might be helpful. Particularly if you’ve been asked for the information recently.

Ok, now that you know where to find this type of information, automate it. Write a SQL script to pull all of this information together. Now do it in Powershell.

Now for the pièce de résistance! Put together something that will collect all of this information for a list of instances. Collect the data for all of your instances and ask your manager if this information would be helpful.