sql server client network utility - how to list the aliases?

Question

there is something called sql server client network utility

it lives on C:\Windows\System32 for 64 bits.

as you can see I have many aliases there, server, instance and ip address and port used for connectivity are all there.

I have here a great script by Hanna Vernon, that I have been using a lot, however, the aliases above configured on (generally the client machine) shown above take precedence, so I would like a way to list those,best would be powershell, as in my case I dont even have sql server installed on that machine, it is a jenkins machine that connects to different sql server servers, but uses the settings defined on that sql server client network utility

/*
    Reads the instance's registry settings (via xp_instance_regread
    as opposed to xp_regread), to determine if the Dedicated 
    Aministrator Connection is configured to use the desired TCP 
    port number.

    2022-11-29  Hannah Vernon 
*/
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SET XACT_ABORT ON;

DECLARE @desired_dac_port   varchar(11)     = '1432';

IF NOT EXISTS
(
    SELECT 
        1 
    FROM 
        [sys].[configurations] sc
    WHERE  
        sc.[name] = N'show advanced options' 
        AND sc.[value] = 1
)
BEGIN
    PRINT N'Enabling "Show Advanced Options" configuration.';
    EXEC sys.sp_configure 
          @configname = 'show advanced options'
        , @configvalue = 1;
    RECONFIGURE;
END;

IF NOT EXISTS
(
    SELECT 
        1 
    FROM 
        [sys].[configurations] sc
    WHERE  
        sc.[name] = N'remote admin connections' 
        AND sc.[value] = 1
)
BEGIN
    PRINT N'Enabling Remote Dedicated Admin Connections.';
    EXEC sys.sp_configure 
          @configname = 'remote admin connections'
        , @configvalue = 1;
    RECONFIGURE;
END
ELSE
BEGIN
    PRINT N'Remote Dedicated Admin Connections are already enabled.';
END;

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #dac_port;
CREATE TABLE #dac_port
(
      [value]   nvarchar(128)       NOT NULL
    , [data]    varchar(255)        NULL
);

INSERT INTO #dac_port
(
      [value]
    , [data]
)
EXEC sys.xp_instance_regread 
      @rootkey = N'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'
    , @key = N'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQLServer\SuperSocketNetLib\AdminConnection\Tcp'
    , @value = N'TcpDynamicPorts';

IF NOT EXISTS
(
    SELECT *
    FROM #dac_port dp
    WHERE dp.[value] = N'TcpDynamicPorts'
        AND dp.[data] = @desired_dac_port
)
BEGIN
    PRINT N'Setting Dedicated Admin Connection to use port ' + @desired_dac_port;

    EXEC sys.xp_instance_regwrite 
          @rootkey = N'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'
        , @key = N'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQLServer\SuperSocketNetLib\AdminConnection\Tcp'
        , @value_name = N'TcpDynamicPorts'
        , @type = N'REG_SZ'
        , @value = @desired_dac_port;
END
ELSE
BEGIN
    PRINT N'The dedicated admin connection is already configured on port ' + @desired_dac_port;
END;

this script is also top:

--Mark Storey-Smith

DECLARE 
    @StaticPort NVARCHAR(512)
    , @DynamicPort NVARCHAR(512)

EXEC xp_regread
    'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'
    , 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQLServer\SuperSocketNetLib\Tcp\IPAll'
    , 'TcpPort'
    , @StaticPort OUTPUT

EXEC xp_regread
    'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'
    , 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQLServer\SuperSocketNetLib\Tcp\IPAll'
    , 'TcpDynamicPorts'
    , @DynamicPort OUTPUT

SELECT
    @StaticPort AS StaticPort
    , @DynamicPort AS DynamicPort

Basically my question is:

how can I find out the aliases defined on sql server client network utility - reading the registry, either sql server or powershell?

Answer 1

In Powershell, it can be done easily with dbatools module.

This PowerShell module contains lots of cmdlets very useful for SQL Server management, including cmdlets to manage the aliases: Get-DbaClientAlias, New-DbaClientAlias, and Remove-DbaClientAlias

for more information: https://dbatools.io/aliases/