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Can I save some sort of session or profile in SSMS (2008 r2) that will open up connections to a saved list of database servers when I open SSMS?

So for example I frequently will open up SSMS and then connect to SQL Servers NY-DB01, NY-DB02 etc... Can I have some sort of shortcut just to open all of these at once?

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3 Answers 3

Using SSMS, register the servers you're interested in and group them in a folder. Then you can connect to them all at once like this:

SSMS registered servers.

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Nick's recommendation about registered servers is spot on.... and if you click New Query on a particular group, you can run a query across that group. It's great for admin queries like checking each database is recently backed up etc.

Registered servers also allows you to export the file, and share that listing with colleagues - so they don't have to type the list in.

And when you are ready and need to, the next step is possibly a Central Management Server (CMS). It's a "special" SQL Server where all your servers can be registered, and this list can be used by all your DBAs and developers. A CMS can help with Policy Based Management as well. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb895144.aspx

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A CMS is the next level, fo' shizzle. –  Nick Chammas Nov 15 '11 at 17:44

I have written SSMSBoost add-in for SSMS and have noticed that feature you have requested is desired by many developers. So I have added to last release "Sessions" functionality. You can define which documents should be opened and with which connections. I hope it is what you was looking for.

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