Query MSSQL from batch

Sometimes you want to perform the same batch task on several servers. For that I need a list of the servers that will need some job done. So I want to get the serverlist from the serverdatabase, instead of hardcoding the scripts. The most obvious would probably be using VBscript, but in this case turned to osql.exe for a quick solution:

set sqlbinary="\\someserver\c$\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\osql.exe"
set sqlserverinstance=HOSTNAME\INSTANCE
FOR /F "usebackq" %%A IN (`tempfile`) DO set sqltmp=%%A
set sqltmp=%sqltmp:/=\%
if exist %sqltmp% del %sqltmp%
echo Creating sql inputfile : %sqltmp%
echo set nocount on > %sqltmp%
echo select ServerName+^'::^'+ServerDesc >> %sqltmp%
echo from ServerTable where ServerType = 1 AND ServerGroup = 11 >> %sqltmp%
echo go >> %sqltmp%
%sqlbin% -d ServerDatabase -i %sqltmp% -n -E -S %sqlserverinstance% | egrep "^ [sS][0-9]" | sort | sed 's/^[ \t]*//'

Now I have a list with servernames and descriptions, which I can pipe to a .txt file or perform something on each :)

By the way, I stumbled upon an awesome Batch FAQ, really old, but with some very good points and links to more info. Here are some quotes:

*** How do I perform if-then-else in batch?

if not .%1==.help goto else
rem then commands here
goto endif
:else
rem else conditions here
:endif

...

*** What do all those }{ and $ things mean?

They're uniquely named temp files or variable names. It is
desirable to make the filenames as weird as possible to avoid
overwriting files that happen to have the same name. Also,
confusion is found in spacing and where the redirection
characters are, these all write "hey!" to a temp file...

echo>[myfile] hey!
>$$$tmp$$.$ echo hey!
echo hey! > tempfile

...

*** Utility programs for batch files

Batch simply wasn't designed to do the kinds of things users
want to do, although us batch hackers ignore this and try to
do them anyway. Batch input routines are especially kludgy
and incompatible, often it's easier to just use a utility
designed for the purpose and avoid the hassle.

SENVAR by Ed Schwartz makes it very easy to set an environment
variable to standard-input...

senvar evar - input from keyboard
program senvar evar > nul - input from program
senvar evar <> nul - input from file

SENVAR is at http://www.infionline.net/~wtnewton/batch/senvar.txt

The shareware XSET program by Marc Stern has many extra options,
like reading a file from a specific column and line number...

xset /mid 6 2 /line 3 evar <> nul

XSET is at http://members.tripod.com/~marcstern/xset.htm

ASET by Richard Breuer, free, makes mathematical operations as
easy as ASET result=2+2, functions for math, string handling,
file/kb input and more. File aset10.zip at Simtel.

Strings by Douglas Boling, free, provides commands for string
handling, modifying memory and master environment, reading files,
math, keyboard input and more. File string25.zip at Simtel.

Many more useful batch utilities can be found at...
Garbo: http://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/batchutil.html
SimTel: ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/batchutl/