Our favorite way to organize servers within a SQL Server estate is by using Registered Servers (http://dbatools.io/registerservers), which is an instance inventory system introduced in SQL Server 2005. Registered Servers is our preferred inventory system because it has all of the basic features we need, such as grouping, authentication, and aliases, and it’s included in SQL Server at no additional cost. This means we don’t have to procure an inventory system each time we begin working in a new environment.
Registered Servers supports SQL Server 2000 instances and later and can support the Database Engine, Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services. We prefer to use this feature as a simplified inventory tool for the Database Engine, because it enables us to pipe servers from Get-DbaRegServer into almost any dbatools command. This ability makes it astoundingly easy to execute a command against every single instance in our SQL estate.
If you’ve got a lot of SQL Server instances, keeping track of them can be a daunting task. In the old days, we used custom web applications, Excel, or even Notepad to keep track of each instance. Registered Servers can help monitor your SQL Server instances, but they can still be rather tedious because they require a ton of clicking. Fortunately, dbatools turns those clicks into commands that make management fast and easy.