Comments on: three ways to track logins using dbatools

By: sam

sam — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:16:37 +0000

Hi I have a similar required to capture – username, login time, logout time. can you please share me scripts to do the same. thank you.

By: Chrissy LeMaire

Chrissy LeMaire — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 09:12:39 +0000

Hey Luke, the auditing is primarily intended to ensure that all supported applications are known and considered/planned for when performing the migration. When SSMS connects to a server, it's more of an ad-hoc behavior that likely does not need need to be managed. If you would like to audit for purposes other than migrations or if your end-users are connecting via ssms, then you can remove the filter

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:49:12 +0000

Could you, please, explain to me why you do not audit anything comeing from ssms?

not like ‘Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio%’

Thank you!
Luke

By: Pollus Brodeur

Pollus Brodeur — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 17:17:15 +0000

Hi Chrissy,

Great article

I wanted to use the Default Trace to get this information but something is bothering me. Default trace does not capture Login or Logout event id (14,15). This means that it does not garanty all connections will be captured. I tried connecting and running a simple query the close the connection. It was not in the trace. It’s worth warning the reader. They must be aware before taking migration decision based on incomplete data.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 13:18:28 +0000

I got it working, here is what I found.
The $Servers is not working – I ran this before the script above and that is when it failed (not this ype, this created the null issue): $servers = Get-DbaRegisteredServer -SqlInstance localhost
So Something with that is not working. Still not sure.I ran the following and it returned nothing (but I am newish to powershell so this may not be right)
$servers = Get-DbaRegisteredServer -SqlInstance localhost
write-output $servers
I then ran the next command but i took out the ‘$servers |’ and ran without, it prompted me for the instance, i typed it in and everything worked. So I am not sure what the issue with registering the server is. It is a SQL Server 2017 if that makes any difference. Here is what worked.
# Collect the results into a variable so that the bulk import is supafast
$results = Get-DbaXESession -Session ‘Login Tracker’ | Read-DbaXEFile |
Select-Object server_instance_name, server_principal_name, client_hostname, database_name, client_app_name, timestamp

# Bulk import to the centralized database in an efficient manner (piping would write line by line)
Write-DbaDataTable -InputObject $results -SqlInstance localhost -Database inventory -Table watchlogins

Thank you for your help

By: Chrissy LeMaire

Chrissy LeMaire — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 12:46:52 +0000

The command index is out of date, the command does exist. You can see all our commands using: Find-DbaCommand.

Did you add any wheres and did you ensure the Login Tracker session is running?

#ensure you have servers assigned
$servers

#ensure your login tracker is running
$servers | Get-DbaXESession -Session ‘Login Tracker’

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 12:01:48 +0000

I understand it is null, i guess my question is, using the script, why is it null? I can see data in the session in SSMS so there is data. It also appears you use the function ‘Read-DbaXEFile’ but this function is no longer in dbatools. (It is not listed in the command index) I am starting to think that is why the variable is null.
Thank you

By: Chrissy LeMaire

Chrissy LeMaire — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 20:32:49 +0000

Hey Greg, that’s because your result set is null. In my own script I assign the collection to a variable then check to see if the variable is null: if ($results) { write-dbadatatable -inputobject $results).

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 13:54:42 +0000

I am trying to run the collector session-insert.ps1 script for extended events and I am getting the following error. I updated dbatools to latest. I am on sql 2017 on a localhost using all the standard scripts you provided. The first command executes without error but the second command fails. Everything worked until than. Any ideas? Thanks
Write-DbaDataTable : Cannot validate argument on parameter ‘InputObject’. The argument is null. Provide a valid value for the argument, and then try running the command again.
At line:6 char:33
+ Write-DbaDataTable -InputObject $results -SqlInstance localhost -Data …
+ ~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Write-DbaDataTable], ParameterBindingValidationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Write-DbaDataTable

By: Chrissy LeMaire

Chrissy LeMaire — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 12:24:23 +0000

Cool, Hermann! Did you use which Event did you end up using? sql_statements_starting?

We have a lot of new (since Jan) XE stuff – check out dbatools.io/xevents