SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management
by Sharon Dooley, SQL Server consultant, former MVP, and author. Sharon is an active member of PASS (the Professional Association for SQL Server) and has presented at numerous conferences.
This paper explores Policy-Based Management, a new management feature introduced in SQL Server 2008. Policy-Based Management allows DBAs to define a set of policies that can control many different aspects of SQL Server. Policies can be applied to a single server or to groups of servers. For example, a DBA could define a policy that specifies how a particular configuration option should be set on all the servers in the enterprise. What used to be time-consuming tasks and referencing paper manuals can now be virtually automated.
Because this paper is very long (55 pages) reading it in an online format such as the Library becomes impractical, so we offer it as a downloadable Microsoft Word document.