One of the real challenges facing administrators is how to manage more and more servers. Operations such as manufacturing and customer support are done around the globe, with local copies of data being synchronized during smaller and smaller windows. Administrators need to be able to remotely install, monitor, troubleshoot, and maintain remote servers. The SQL Server tools team has delivered three categories of interfaces to manage remote environments:
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SQLCMD is for folks who are comfortable with command prompt applications. For customers migrating or currently using the command prompt languages, OSQL and ISQL are deprecated and have been replaced with SQLCMD. SQLCMD is a command-line executable. You invoke it at the command prompt by typing SQLCMD.
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SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) is for those who build user interface–oriented applications. DBAs who want to build custom management tools will find that SMO has replaced DMO. SMO is a new API architecture that overcomes the limitations of DMO. SMO is scalable, reliable, and flexible. SMO is significantly more robust than DMO, because it is used by SQL Server Management Studio to connect and work with SQL Server instances. Every function found in SQL Server Management Studio is made possible by SMO.
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Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) allows the use of Windows scripting languages, such as VBScript, and it's more complicated than SMO or SQLCMD. WMI is powerful and provides deep hooks into the operating system, which is beyond the reach of SQLCMD and SMO. In an extremely complex infrastructure, the WMI provider may prove to be the most complete solution.
Remote functionality is also enhanced with new capabilities for scripting and working with Replication and Analysis Services (via respective .NET libraries), Replication Management Objects, and Analysis Management Objects.