Windows PowerShell in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself

Timothy Warner is an IT professional and technical trainer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Tim became acquainted with information technology in 1982 when his dad bought the family a Timex Sinclair 1000 home computer and he taught himself BASIC programming. Today he works as an author/evangelist for Pluralsight and shares Windows PowerShell knowledge with anyone who’ll listen at his Two Minute PowerShell blog: http://2minutepowershell.com. You can reach Tim directly via LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/timothywarner.

Introduction 1

Who Should Read This Book 1

How This Book Is Organized 2

Conventions Used in This Book 4

System Requirements 5

Part I: Introducing Windows PowerShell

HOUR 1: Getting to Know Windows PowerShell 7

Why You Should Learn Windows PowerShell 8

Brief History of Windows PowerShell 10

Understanding the Windows PowerShell Components 13

Investigating the Power and Simplicity of Windows PowerShell 18

Summary 21

Q&A 22

Workshop 23

HOUR 2: Installing and Configuring Windows PowerShell 25

Determining Your Windows PowerShell Environment 26

Installing the Latest Version of Windows PowerShell 29

Customizing the Windows PowerShell Console 32

Customizing the Windows PowerShell ISE 39

Summary 42

Q&A 42

Workshop 44

HOUR 3: Mastering the Windows PowerShell Help System 47

Anatomy of a Windows PowerShell Cmdlet 47

Updating the Windows PowerShell Help Library 50

Understanding Windows PowerShell Help Syntax 54

Accessing Additional Command Help 60

Summary 66

Q&A 66

Workshop 67

HOUR 4: Finding and Discovering Windows PowerShell Commands 69

How Windows PowerShell Commands Are Packaged 69

Installing RSAT Tools on Windows 8.1 73

Locating Windows PowerShell Commands 75

Running External Commands 83

Summary 86

Q&A 87

Workshop 88

Part II: Understanding Objects and the Pipeline

HOUR 5: Thinking in Terms of Objects 91

The Problem with UNIX/Linux 91

What Is an Object? 93

Discovering Object Members 96

Putting Objects into Action 102

Summary 105

Q&A 105

Workshop 106

HOUR 6: Mastering the Windows PowerShell Pipeline 109

Understanding How the Pipeline Works from a High Level 109

Understanding in Depth How the Pipeline Works 113

Passing Data Through the Pipeline 118

“Forcing” Objects Through the Pipeline 125

Summary 129

Q&A 130

Workshop 131

HOUR 7: Sorting, Filtering, and Measuring Windows PowerShell Output 133

Sorting Output 134

Filtering Output 137

Measuring Objects 144

Summary 148

Q&A 148

Workshop 150

Part III: Extending the Reach of Windows PowerShell

HOUR 8: Managing Windows PowerShell Providers 153

What Are Providers? 153

Introduction to Default PSDrives 155

Using the FileSystem Provider 159

Using the Alias Provider 166

Using the Registry Provider 167

Using Extended Providers 169

Summary 171

Q&A 171

Workshop 172

HOUR 9: Formatting, Exporting, and Converting Windows PowerShell Output 175

How the PowerShell Formatting

Subsystem Works 176

Formatting PowerShell Output 180

Exporting PowerShell Output 187

Converting PowerShell Output 193

Summary 197

Q&A 198

Workshop 198

Part IV: Managing Computers Remotely with Windows PowerShell

HOUR 10: Implementing One-to-One Windows PowerShell Remoting 201

Understanding Classic Windows PowerShell Remote Access 201

Introducing “True” PowerShell Remoting 203

Enabling Windows PowerShell Remoting 205

Creating a Windows PowerShell Remote Session 209

Sending Scripts over the Network 214

Summary 217

Q&A 218

Workshop 218

HOUR 11: Implementing One-to-Many Windows PowerShell Remoting 221

One-to-Many Remote Access in the

Classic Scenario 221

One-to-Many Remoting with Persistent Sessions 224

Managing Session Configurations 225

One-to-Many Remoting with the Windows PowerShell ISE 228

Passing Input to Remote Commands 231

Summary 233

Q&A 233

Workshop 235

HOUR 12: Deploying Windows PowerShell Web Access 237

Introducing Windows PowerShell Web Access 237

Setting Up the Windows PSWA Gateway 239

Testing the Windows PSWA User Experience 244

Managing the Gateway 249

Summary 251

Q&A 252

Workshop 252

Part V: Putting Windows Powershell to Work

HOUR 13: Multitasking Windows PowerShell 255

Investigating the PowerShell Job Architecture 255

Controlling Job Behavior 259

Understanding Parent and Child Jobs 261

Introducing the –AsJob Parameter 263

Scheduling Jobs 266

Reviewing What We’ve Learned 270

Summary 272

Q&A 273

Workshop 273

HOUR 14: Harnessing Windows PowerShell Workflow 275

Understanding How Windows PowerShell Workflow Works 276

Writing Your First Windows PowerShell Workflow 279

Running a Workflow as a Job 282

Understanding Workflow Activities 283

Tying Everything Together 288

Summary 289

Q&A 290

Workshop 291

HOUR 15: Introducing WMI and CIM 293

Defining WMI and CIM 293

Getting Comfortable with WMI 296

Using Windows PowerShell WMI Commands 300

Using Windows PowerShell CIM Commands 305

Summary 308

Q&A 308

Workshop 310

HOUR 16: Searching and Filtering with Regular Expressions 313

Revisiting the Wildcard Operators 313

Understanding Regular Expressions 315

Using the –Match Parameter 317

Using Select-String 324

Using the RegEx Type Accelerator 327

Summary 327

Q&A 328

Workshop 329

Part VI: Enterprise-Class Windows PowerShell

HOUR 17: Managing Software with Windows PowerShell OneGet 331

Understanding IT-Related Terminology 332

Preparing Your Environment 334

Browsing Package Repositories 336

Installing Software from the Command Line 340

Managing Providers and Packages 346

Hosting a Private OneGet Repository 349

Summary 350

Q&A 351

Workshop 352

HOUR 18: Desired State Configuration Basics 355

Historical Background of DSC 355

Basic Tenets of DSC 357

DSC Authoring Environment 358

Configuring the DSC Environment 359

Writing Your First Configuration Script 364

A Word on DSC Push Configuration 372

Summary 373

Q&A 373

Workshop 375

Part VII: Scripting with Windows PowerShell

HOUR 19: Introduction to Windows PowerShell Scripting 377

Managing Execution Policy 377

Writing Our First Script: The User Profile 379

Writing a PowerShell Function 383

Adding Programming Logic 385

Running Scripts 388

Pointers to Master PowerShell Scripting 395

Summary 395

Q&A 396

Workshop 397

HOUR 20: Making PowerShell Code Portable with Modules 399

Understanding Snap-Ins 399

Introducing PowerShell Modules 401

Creating Your First PowerShell Script Module 403

Using Module Manifests 407

Adding Comment-Based Help 410

Finding Modules Easily 413

Summary 414

Q&A 414

Workshop 415

Part VIII: Administering Microsoft Enterprise Servers with Windows PowerShell

HOUR 21: Managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell 417

Installing Active Directory 417

Creating Common Active Directory Objects 423

Understanding Various AD Administrative Tasks 430

Summary 433

Q&A 433

Workshop 434

HOUR 22: Managing SQL Server with Windows PowerShell 437

Running PowerShell Using SQL Server Tools 438

Interacting with SQL Server Using PowerShell 442

Automating Common SQL Server DBA Tasks 443

Summary 449

Q&A 450

Workshop 451

HOUR 23: Managing SharePoint Server with Windows PowerShell 453

Understanding the Environment 453

Deploying a Service Application 457

Deploying a Web Application 459

Deploying a Site Collection 460

Setting Permissions on a Site Collection 462

Reporting on a SharePoint Farm 463

Summary 468

Q&A 468

Workshop 468

HOUR 24: Managing Microsoft Azure with Windows PowerShell 471

Defining Microsoft Azure 472

Preparing Your Azure-PowerShell Environment 474

Working with Azure Virtual Machines 477

Managing Office 365 and SharePoint Online with Azure 485

Summary 488

Q&A 489

Workshop 490

INDEX 493