I was asked if there was an easy way to export all the plans from cache to a .SQLPLAN file. My immediate answer was, “I’m sure there’s a PowerShell script out there somewhere.” However, rather than do a Google search, I figured I’d quickly knock up an example.

I’ve gone minimal on the script. I’m creating a connection to the local instance, defining a command, and returning the data into a data set. From there, since the data set consists of a single column, I’m walking through them all to export out to a file:

$Query = 'SELECT deqp.query_plan
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS deqs
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_query_plan(deqs.plan_handle) AS deqp
WHERE deqp.query_plan IS NOT NULL;'

$SqlConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$SqlConnection.ConnectionString = 'Server=ServerX\DOJO;Database=master;trusted_connection=true'

$PlanQuery = new-object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$PlanQuery.CommandText = $Query
$PlanQuery.Connection = $SqlConnection
$PlanAdapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
$PlanAdapter.SelectCommand = $PlanQuery
$PlanSet = new-object System.Data.DataSet
$PlanAdapter.Fill($PlanSet)

foreach($row in $PlanSet.Tables[0])
{
    $i+=1
    $row[0] | Out-File -FilePath "c:\plans\$i.sqlplan"

}

Obviously, you’d want to edit the connection and the path for your own circumstances. Also, you can modify the base query to only retrieve plans for a particular database or some other filter criteria. However, this was a quick and easy way to get the job done.

I’m sure there are more efficient ways to get this written. I just wanted to get it written. I’ve tested it multiple times and it works a charm. Feel free to use it as you will or modify it to meet your own special needs.