Question

I have the following powershell command i have converted from VB script:

$conn = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection(“Data Source=SERVER; Initial Catalog=DATABASE; Integrated Security=SSPI”) 
$conn.Open() 
$cmd1 = $conn.CreateCommand() 
$cmd1.CommandType = [System.Data.CommandType]::Text 
$cmd1.CommandText =“SELECT guid, name, [Serial Number] FROM dbo.wrksta as a inner join Inv_AeX_HW_Serial_Number as b on a.GUID=b._resourceGUID ORDER BY Name” 
$data = $cmd1.ExecuteReader() 
$cmd2 = $conn.CreateCommand() 
$cmd2.CommandType = [System.Data.CommandType]::Text 
$cmd2.CommandText =“SELECT top 1 [User] FROM dbo.Evt_aex_client_logon WHERE _resourceGuid = (SELECT top 1 Guid FROM dbo.Wrksta WHERE Name='" + $data["name"] + "' ORDER BY WrkstaID DESC) AND Event = 'logon' AND _eventTime > getdate()-60 GROUP BY [User] ORDER BY count([User]) desc” 
$data2 = $cmd2.ExecuteReader() 
$dt = new-object “System.Data.DataTable” 
$dt.Load($data2) 
$dt | format-table 
$conn.Close() 

If you look at the second select statement I am wanting to use a value from the first variable $data but im unsure how to write it. in VB it was like this WHERE Name='” + workstation(“name”).value + “‘ is the following the correct way to write this in powershell? ‘” + $data[“name”] + “‘. Im after the value from the name column stored in the $date variable

The VB used to do this previously is below

connString = "Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=SERVER;Initial Catalog=DATABASE;Integrated Security=SSPI;"
objSQL.Open connString 

sqlWorkstations = "SELECT guid, name, [Serial Number] FROM dbo.wrksta as a inner join Inv_AeX_HW_Serial_Number as b on a.GUID=b._resourceGUID ORDER BY Name"
Set workstation = objSQL.Execute(sqlWorkstations)

Do Until (workstation.EOF)

sqlUser = "SELECT top 1 [User] FROM dbo.Evt_aex_client_logon WHERE _resourceGuid = (SELECT top 1 Guid FROM dbo.Wrksta WHERE Name='" + workstation("name").value + "' ORDER BY WrkstaID DESC) AND Event = 'logon' AND _eventTime > getdate()-60 GROUP BY [User] ORDER BY count([User]) desc"
set user = objSQL.Execute(sqlUser)

if not user.eof then
  userName = user("User").value
else
  username = "??????"
end if

Answer 1

Make things a lot easier on yourself and load the SqlServerCmdletSnapin100 snap-in. If you’re dealing with SQL Server, it handles most of the boilerplate for you and distills running queries to a single cmdlet.

Your code above assumes that the first query returns only a single row. This may or may not always be the case; I don’t know your database. If it returns multiple records, then your code will only give you data corresponding to the first record from the first query.

Using SqlServerCmdletSnapin100‘s Invoke-SQLCmd and handling the case of multiple records being returned, do this:

$data1 = Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance SERVER -Database DATABASE -Query “SELECT guid, name, [Serial Number] FROM dbo.wrksta as a inner join Inv_AeX_HW_Serial_Number as b on a.GUID=b._resourceGUID ORDER BY Name”;
foreach ($row in $data1) {
    $name = $row.name;
    $data2 = invoke-sqlcmd -ServerInstance SERVER -Database DATABASE -Query “SELECT top 1 [User] FROM dbo.Evt_aex_client_logon WHERE _resourceGuid = (SELECT top 1 Guid FROM dbo.Wrksta WHERE Name='$name' ORDER BY WrkstaID DESC) AND Event = 'logon' AND _eventTime > getdate()-60 GROUP BY [User] ORDER BY count([User]) desc” ;
    $data2 |ft -AutoSize
}

It’s also possible that you could retrieve all of your data with a single properly-written query but again, without knowing the data that’s hard to say. You really ought to consult with your DBA regarding these queries to make sure they’re written properly and match your requirements properly.