Since it was an introduction to PowerShell, the information was a bit below my skill level. However, I did glean a few gems of knowledge. Most of all, I found Buck’s presentation style very appealing. Now I’m really going to have to listen to episode 41 of SQL Down Under.

Anyway, at the end of the presentation, Buck announced that, courtesy of SQL Server MVP Rick Heiges, a Microsoft Thrive card would be awarded to the person that sent Buck the best PowerShell/SQL Server script.

I wrote a utility for myself back in January. Sometimes when I get an escalation call, the front-line support personnel simply jump in with “I received an alert with error ___.” Very few error codes are committed to my memory, so this doesn’t provide much information to me. My utility simply looks up the error message in the [master].[sys].[messages] table and then presents it in a web page.

I’ve been planning to publish the script utility on this blog for a little while, but just haven’t gotten around to it. It’s simple, but pretty useful.

I decided to submit it for Buck’s contest, and (amazingly) I won! Woohoo! Check out the announcement on Buck’s blog: And the Winner is – Get SQL Server Error Messages from PowerShell.

When I redeemed the Microsoft Thrive, I received a voucher for a free certification exam. I need to update my certifications, so this is very serendipitous. The bigger deal, though, is the recognition.