< 1 min read Backups are one of the most important tasks when maintaining a system, and as the complexity of your environment grows, you need tools to automate tasks. Using the SQL Agent, you can schedule the following stored procedure to back up every database and database log on your server (or modify it to your needs), excluding some stuff you can live without.

CREATE PROCEDURE BackupDatabases
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    DECLARE @name VARCHAR(50) /*database name*/
    DECLARE @dbpath VARCHAR(256) /*path for backup db files*/
    DECLARE @logpath VARCHAR(256) /*path for backup log files*/
    DECLARE @dbName VARCHAR(256) /*filename for backup*/
    DECLARE @logName VARCHAR(256) /*filename for backup*/
    DECLARE @fileDate VARCHAR(20) /*used for file name*/
    SET @dbpath = 'C:Database Backup'
    SET @logpath = 'C:Database Log Backup'
    SELECT @fileDate = CONVERT(VARCHAR(20),GETDATE(),112)
    DECLARE db_cursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT name
    FROM master.dbo.sysdatabases
    WHERE name NOT IN ('master','model','msdb','tempdb') /* Exclude any databases you don't want to backup */
    OPEN db_cursor  
    FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @name  
    WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0  
    BEGIN  
           SET @dbName = @dbpath + @name + '_' + @fileDate + '.BAK'
           BACKUP DATABASE @name TO DISK = @dbName WITH FORMAT;
           SET @logName = @logpath + @name + '_' + @fileDate + '.BAK'
           BACKUP LOG @name TO DISK = @logName;
           FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @name
    END
    CLOSE db_cursor
    DEALLOCATE db_cursor
END
GO

< 1 min read

SQL Server has a stored procedure that accepts a parameter of type text, and executes the code. This is useful if you need to run a large (over 8000 characters) dynamic query

sys.sp_sqlexec

< 1 min read

Sometimes you need to make mass changes to a database, and either add or remove a column, or other table or data manipulations. The script below prints SQL statements you can later execute for whatever you need. It loops through each table in your database, and replaces ? with the table name.

EXEC sp_msforeachtable
'PRINT ALTER TABLE ? ADD LastModified DATETIME NOT NULL DEFAULT GETDATE();
ALTER TABLE ? ADD UserID int NULL;
ALTER TABLE ? ADD Deleted bit NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;'
EXEC sp_msforeachtable
    'PRINT Update ? SET SiteID=1'