I'm curious, how important is NT shell and Unix Korn Shell scripting for a MS SQL Server DBA. The reason I ask is because I saw it in a job description for a job add. I've been a SQL Server DBA for 4 years and never really had to make use of this except for some small jobs (like copying files) using batch files or xp_cmdshell

VBScript can come in very handy for doing database builds. If you subscribe
to SQL Server Professional, my April 2004 article discusses this:

http://www.pinpub.com/html/main.isx?sub=64&story=2699

You can also use scripting for various maintenance tasks, parsing the output
of, say, DBCC SHOWCONTIG and then generating a report - or even another SQL
script.

Another reason to know scripting is for data transforms inside DTS data pump
tasks, not to mention ActiveX script tasks. IMHO, it's an important skill
to have.

--
Tom

---------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA
SQL Server MVP
Columnist, SQL Server Professional
Toronto, ON Canada
www.pinnaclepublishing.com/sql


[quoted text, click to view]
I'm curious, how important is NT shell and Unix Korn Shell scripting for a
MS SQL Server DBA. The reason I ask is because I saw it in a job description
for a job add. I've been a SQL Server DBA for 4 years and never really had
to make use of this except for some small jobs (like copying files) using
batch files or xp_cmdshell.

Does anyone know what other DBA type duties shell scripting might come in
handy for?