Understanding and Using PowerShell Support in SQL Server 2008

In this paper we’ll walk through an introduction to Windows PowerShell and its key elements.  We’ll then look at the special PowerShell executable program provided with SQL Server 2008, sqlps.exe.  Sqlps.exe incorporated a set of cmdlets specific to using PowerShell with SQL Server, and adds a PowerShell drive (PSDrive) allowing us to navigate SQL Server as though it were a filesystem.  We’ll explore these features, then look at some scripts we can use to administer SQL Server as well as to extract data as needed.

Read the white paper: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd938892.aspx