SSMS Server Settings
I think this has been discussed before on better blogs than mine, but it's just so darn cool that I want to help spread the word.
In SSMS 2008, you can change the color of the status bar for servers. This gives you a nice visual reminder as to which server you're currently connecting to. Since I've made the DEV/PROD mistake before, this is something I'm a big fan of.
So let's walk through how you can set this up:
Opening a new connection
Click on Options >>
Connection Properties
Select Use custom color and click on Select...
Pick a color
Choose the color you prefer, then click on OK
Open a new query
Click on Connect.
That's all there is to it. Pretty easy, huh? Now let's see what happens when we connect to multiple servers...
Multi-Server Rainbow
Beautiful! SSMS seems to remember the color settings too, so you should only have to set this up once.
Categories
- Business Intelligence
- Internals
- Miscellaneous
- PASS
- Performance & Tuning
- Presentations
- SQL 2008
- SQL Tips
- Syndication
- T-SQL Scripts
Subscribe to my blog!
| Like what you see? Subscribe! |
 |
Around the Web
Recent Tweets
- RT @Phil_Factor: SQL Server table columns under the hood http://t.co/vp7gQ77B < what a great post
- @tradney haha that's awesome :)
- OH: @AdamMachanic's #sqlpass session was one of the best I've ever seen.
Archives
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
March 25th, 2009 - 16:30
This is a really cool option. It was one of the reasons I went to SSMS 2008 over 2005 even with 90% 2005 instances in the environment. You can do this from the registered servers view also. Pretty much the same place. Just right click the registered server–>properties and select the connection properties like the object explorer window.
March 26th, 2009 - 02:30
i found by using it that sometimes this coloring gets a bit flakey and doesn’t remember colors.
here’s some shameless free stuff advertising
that’s why i added this option to my free ssms add-in http://www.ssmstoolspack.com
which adds this option even on ssms 2005.
Hope it helps someone.
March 26th, 2009 - 05:06
The coloring is cool, but only works by sessions triggered from Registered servers. In other words, if you use the New Query button, or if you use the Connect button on the Object Explorer, resultant windows will not have the corresponding colors.
Another, more insidious, gotcha is if you Change Connection from an existing window. For instance, I have my development servers set to green, and my production servers set to red. If I change the connection to a production server in a window originally opened for a dev server, the color stays green. For this reason I have had to become disciplined to not use the Change Connection button/menu, and to only open new queries from Registered Servers (or from a server in the Object Explorer that was opened from a Registered Server).
March 27th, 2009 - 03:31
@jerry:
try my pack. it’s doens’t have that problem
)
@michelle:
)
see that’s some more shamelss advertising
March 27th, 2009 - 07:58
Plug away, Mladen! Your tool pack is awesome, definitely plug-worthy, so shameless advertising is encouraged.