Automated linked server test

Got a big production event scheduled, so I wrote this quick automated test to be incorporated into the post-event testing. I'll probably improve on it incrementally as I notice shortcomings, but at the moment it's just a basic test of data access via all linked servers set up on a machine.


/*** Linked Server Test ***/

declare @linked table (name sysname, done bit, retval int)
declare @srvr sysname
declare @sql varchar(255)
declare @retval int
insert into @linked select name, 0 as done, NULL as retval from sys.servers
while exists (select 1 from @linked where done = 0)
begin
select top 1 @srvr = name from @linked where done = 0
begin try
exec @retval = sp_testlinkedserver @srvr
end try
begin catch
set @retval = sign(@@error)
end catch
exec(@sql)
update @linked set done = 1, retval = @retval where name = @srvr
end
select * from @linked

pyodbc returns an int instead of rows in a cursor

Just a quick note about pyodbc: if you're getting a TypeError from a pyodbc cursor because it's an int instead of a rowset, it's probably because the proc or query being called is returning extra info or messages. Try turning off anything that's returning extraneous info, like ANSI_WARNINGS.