Getting Started with PowerShell

Michael Shepard

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781783558506
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Networking
• Index: Computer Science

Learn the fundamentals of PowerShell to build reusable scripts and functions to automate administrative tasks with Windows

About This Book

• Harness the capabilities of the PowerShell system to get started quickly with server automation
• Learn to package commands into a reusable script and add control structures and parameters to make them flexible
• Get to grips with cmdlets that allow you to perform administration tasks efficiently

Who This Book Is For

This book is intended for Windows administrators or DevOps users who need to use PowerShell to automate tasks. Whether you know nothing about PowerShell or know just enough to get by, this guide will give you what you need to go to take your scripting to the next level.

What You Will Learn

• Learn to verify your installed version of PowerShell, upgrade it, and start a PowerShell session using the ISE
• Discover PowerShell commands and cmdlets and understand PowerShell formatting
• Use the PowerShell help system to understand what particular cmdlets do
• Utilise the pipeline to perform typical data manipulation
• Package your code in scripts, functions, and modules
• Solve common problems using basic file input/output functions
• Find system information with WMI and CIM
• Automate IIS functionality and manage it using the WebAdministration module

In Detail

Windows PowerShell is a task-based command-line shell and scripting language designed specifically for system administration. Built on the.NET Framework, Windows PowerShell helps IT professionals and power users control and automate the administration of the Windows operating system and applications that run on Windows.

PowerShell is great for batch importing or deleting large sets of user accounts and will let you collect a massive amount of detailed system information in bulk via WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation).

Getting Started with PowerShell is designed to help you get up and running with PowerShell, taking you from the basics of installation, to writing scripts and web server automation. This book, as an introduction to the central topics of PowerShell, covers finding and understanding PowerShell commands and packaging code for reusability, right through to a practical example of automating IIS. It also includes topics such as installation and setup, creating scripts, automating tasks, and using Powershell to access data stores, registry, and file systems.

You will explore the PowerShell environment and discover how to use cmdlets, functions, and scripts to automate Windows systems. Along the way, you will learn to perform data manipulation and solve common problems using basic file input/output functions.

By the end of this book, you will be familiar with PowerShell and be able to utilize the lessons learned from the book to automate your servers.

Style and approach

A practical learning guide, complete with plenty of activities, examples and screenshots.

Getting Started with PowerShell

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Table of Contents

Getting Started with PowerShell

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. First Steps

Determining the installed PowerShell version

Using the registry to find the installed version

Using PowerShell to find the installed version

Installing/upgrading PowerShell

Starting a PowerShell session

PowerShell hosts

64-bit and 32-bit PowerShell

PowerShell as an administrator

Simple PowerShell commands

PowerShell aliases

Summary

For further reading

2. Building Blocks

What can you do?

The scripter's secret weapon – tab completion

How does that work?

Interpreting the cmdlet syntax

Summary

For further reading

3. Objects and PowerShell

Objects all the way down

Digging into objects

Types, classes, and objects

What are members?

The DOS DIR command

The IPCONFIG command

PowerShell for comparison

The Get-Member cmdlet

Where did these all come from?

Summary

For further reading

4. Life on the Assembly Line

The pipeline as an assembly line

This isn't your DOS or Linux pipeline

Objects at your disposal

Dealing with pipeline data

The Sort-Object cmdlet

The Where-Object cmdlet

The Select-Object cmdlet

Limiting the number of objects returned

Limiting the properties of the objects returned

Retrieving the values of a single property

The Measure-Object cmdlet

The Group-Object cmdlet

Putting them together

Summary

For further reading

5. Formatting Output

When does formatting occur?

The rules of automatic formatting

Formatting files

Formatting decisions are based on the first object

Small objects go in a table

Large objects go in a list

Cmdlets that control formatting

Format-Table and Format-List

The dangers of formatting

Best practices of formatting

Summary

For further reading

6. Scripts

Packaging commands

Execution policy

Types of scripts

Scopes and scripts

Parameters add flexibility

Adding some logic

Conditional logic (IF)

Looping logic

More logic

Profiles

Summary

For further reading

7. Functions

Another kind of container

Comparing scripts and functions

Executing and calling functions

Naming conventions

Comment-based help

Parameters revisited

Typed parameters

Switches

Default values for parameters

Output

Summary

For further reading

8. Modules

Packaging functions

Script modules

The Export-ModuleMember cmdlet

Where do modules live?

Removing a module

PowerShell module autoloading

The #Requires statement

Removing a module – take two

Manifest modules

Listing modules

Summary

9. File I/O

Reading and writing text files

Writing text files

Working with CSV files

Output to CSV for quick reports

The Invoke-Item cmdlet

Import from CSV for quick objects

PowerShell streams and redirection

Other types of redirection operators

The out-file cmdlet

CLIXML – a special type of XML

Summary

For further reading

10. WMI and CIM

What is WMI?

WMI organization

Finding WMI classes

Retrieving objects with Get-WMIObject

Getting the right instance

WQL syntax

Calling methods

WMI and CIM

The CIM cmdlets

CDXML modules

Summary

For further reading

11. Web Server Administration

Installing IIS

Detecting and installing IIS in Windows 8.1

Detecting and installing IIS in Server 2012R2

Verifying IIS

The WebAdministration module

Starting, stopping, and restarting IIS

Creating virtual directories and web applications

Working with application pools

Creating application pools

Summary

For further reading

A. Next Steps

Index

Getting Started with PowerShell

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

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• Getting Started with PowerShell