Wiley Automating Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows PowerShell 2.0
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1. FIGURE 1 2 Thisis PowerShell too zaz File Edit View Debug Help ll amp Or 7 B a e Eloo Untitled1 ps1 x a 1 PS C Users Matt gt PowerShell can do that Once you learn the language you should be able to perform these tasks faster than you have in the past By integrating PowerShell scripts into your environment you can automate many of the time consuming monotonous tasks required of system administrators If you look at tasks such as some of the previous examples that gather and parse large amounts of information it may take a long time to do them manually These types of tasks are perfect candidates for PowerShell scripting PowerShell includes numerous system administration utilities consistent syntax and naming conventions and improved navigation for common management data such WHY POWERSHELL 5 as the registry certificate store and Windows Management Instrumentation WMI WMI is a core technology for Windows system administration because it exposes a wide range of information in a uniform manner PowerShell includes a cmdlet that allows you to interface with WMI objects enhancing your ability to do real work But isn t PowerShell just a command line tool Yes it is a command line tool but in most cases PowerShell can accomplish all the tasks that graphic management tools can CHAPTER1 What Is PowerShell and Why Do You Need It a s gt v f m 5 PowerShell is built upon a2. For those who are new to development and unfamiliar with the basic concepts of objects and properties Appendix B explores objects and properties from a PowerShell perspective It may seem odd to develop on the command prompt PowerShell has many tools to be able to extend the language into your developers code The ISE allows you to create full and robust scripts using PowerShell with some familiar keyboard com mands from Visual Studio Not only does PowerShell have the tools but it also has been designed to write your own advanced functions and cmdlets using program matic logic and constructs at the command prompt Appendix D covers working with advanced functions and cmdlets Being able to program with PowerShell allows you to create and work with your own providers There are many providers built into your systems but you may have a particular scenario where there is a gap and PowerShell does not have a tool set to help you You can create your own custom providers like the develop ers did for Hyper V These providers allow you to access data stored inside data stores such as the registry environment variables and certificate stores easier than former methods with a command line Appendix C provides a guide for creating custom providers PowerShell also provides the necessary tools and framework to be able to deploy the custom tools you create in your infrastructure In PowerShell v1 0 these were called snap ins in PowerShell 2 0 modu
3. create a new session in your existing session for a local or remote computer The session cmdlet uses a parameter called ComputerName This allows you to specify the remote computer you want to start the PowerShell session on For WHAT S NEW IN POWERSHELL 2 0 example the following cmdlet would create and enter a new PowerShell session on Server2 Enter PSSession ComputerName Server2 Your results will look similar to Figure 1 4 FIGURE 1 4 Remote session rator gt Enter PSSe on ComputerName Server2 rs administrator CONTOSO Documents gt m Another key addition to PowerShell 2 0 is the ability to create and run background jobs After you start a background job you are returned almost immediately to your interactive PowerShell session This allows you to continue to do work in your PowerShell session and at any time you can see the status of your background jobs The following command starts a command in the background to get the existing services Start Job name Services scriptblock Get Service To see the status of background jobs you started in your PowerShell session you would run the following command Get Job Your results will look similar to Figure 1 5 FIGURE 1 5 Background jobs Administrator Windows PowerShell rator gt Start Job name Process criptblock lt Get Process gt Name State HasMoreData Location Command Process Running True localhost Get Process PS C Users Administrator gt S
4. many of the server roles on Windows Server that did not have native PowerShell cmdlets in PowerShell 1 0 One of the key roles on Windows Server 2008 R2 that got new cmdlets was Active Directory AD Managing AD with PowerShell 1 0 was a challenge There were no built in cmdlets so you had to know how to work with LDAP in script Chapter 8 takes a look at the new PowerShell cmdlets you can use to manage your AD environment Chapter 8 will also show you a couple of new features Recycle Bin and managed service accounts you can manage only in PowerShell PowerShell in the Enterprise PowerShell 2 0 provides several new capabilities to make the tool more enterprise friendly For example running PowerShell commands on remote computers in PowerShell 1 0 was not built in A lot of administrators started remote desktop sessions to run PowerShell commands This was one of the challenges that was addressed in PowerShell 2 0 Remoting uses the WS Management protocol and the Windows Remote Management WinRM service that implements WS Management in Windows This protocol is a standard based firewall compatible communications proto col Chapter 6 covers remoting and shows you how to configure and work with PowerShell remoting Key to working with remoting is another new concept in PowerShell 2 0 called sessions A session is the environment where you run PowerShell commands Every time you start PowerShell a new session is created You can even
5. 4 163 iexplore 362 33 8 168 22 196 153 2 06 4 812 iexplore 163 26 7856 12 416 79 1 708 InoRpc 174 18 33 656 38 772 106 2 084 InoRT 174 20 34 212 41 424 115 2 120 InoTask 887 25 5 424 12 888 48 656 lsass 216 10 2 908 5 892 34 664 ism 537 49 56 328 54 760 682 3 404 mmc 363 33 40 472 7 164 576 1 61 2 704 MOM 147 18 3 412 7 572 61 3 744 msdtc 60 6 1 340 4 644 7 4 772 msfeedssync 82 8 1 332 4 700 60 0 08 4 532 OfficeLiveSignIn 645 65 43 140 8 576 266 25 44 1 628 POWERPNT 401 24 65 352 61 312 591 3 79 4 172 powershell 144 25 26 420 18 044 506 4 724 PresentationFont 134 14 3 536 9 020 87 0 61 2 340 Realmon 87 8 1 796 5 172 52 2 840 RegSrve 286 13 5 880 9 468 43 648 services 30 2 424 700 5 340 sms 244 47 17 356 32 936 149 4 37 2 524 Snagit32 424 81 26 452 70 928 217 34 01 3 896 SnagitEditor 68 8 1 152 4 404 49 3 496 SnagPriv 193 14 7 292 13 464 129 1 28 3 216 splwow64 348 22 7 716 13 972 84 1 536 spoolsv 171 9 3 212 9 244 42 4 424 sppsvc 387 42 172 26 972 215 2 232 sqlservr K PowerShell Has Something for Everyone PowerShell has something for everyone from IT professionals to developers to the casual scripter PowerShell is a tool that can save you time and show you a new way to automate a task that was previously difficult or impossible Unlocking PowerShell to meet your needs always starts with the basics Before you can dive into PowerShell to meet your particular interest or business you need a solid foundation in PowerShell You
6. CHAPTER What Is PowerShell and Why Do You Need It HERE ARE THE TOPICS COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER P gt WHY POWERSHELL 2 Overview of PowerShell 0 c ccs cece eens eeeeeeeeeeees 3 The Power Behind PowerShell 0 c cseceeeeeeeeeeees 5 What About the Learning Curve ce cece eee eee eee eee 6 gt WHAT S NEW IN POWERSHELL 2 0 7 PowerShell in the Enterprise 00 cee cece eee eee e ee eee ed 8 PowerShell with a GULET ccc cece cece eee eee tees 10 gt POWERSHELL HAS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE 13 What s in It for IT Professionals ccceceee eee eeeee 14 L dildVH T professionals have been looking for ways to automate and perform tasks in a consistent manner for years There have been many techniques and technologies from simple batch files to third party tools to accomplish the tasks Some IT professionals have gone the extra step and learned developer languages such as Visual Basic or JavaScript to give their scripts more power A majority of these tools were not integrated into the Microsoft environment More importantly the documentation for these tools to accomplish common administra tive tasks was not readily available As part of its effort over the years to improve the scripting environment Microsoft developed PowerShell to overcome the challenges of previous scripting languages PowerShell provides a common language you can use throughout your Microsoft infrastruc
7. Hyper V via PowerShell However the PowerShell community has created a dedi cated provider for managing Hyper V in PowerShell making it easier than having to use WMI to accomplish the same tasks Chapters 7 12 focus on many of the daily workloads you may encounter when you manage a Windows Server 2008 R2 server with PowerShell These chapters will show how to install server components how to manage IIS Hyper V and Active Directory and how to use many other roles and features you will find in Windows Server 2008 R2 What s in It for Developers Although this book does focus on some of the IT professional and administrative tasks performed on Windows Server 2008 R2 servers there is a side of PowerShell CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS POWERSHELL AND WHY DO YOU NEED IT that developers can work with making it that much more powerful and beneficial in your workplace PowerShell is another development platform you can use to automate many tasks via code After you have the foundational knowledge pre sented throughout this book looking at the programmatic side of PowerShell will allow you to take PowerShell to another level PowerShell provides you with a lightweight when compared to Visual Studio or other developer tools programmatic interface Many of the applications utilizing PowerShell have a core set of APIs accessible with PowerShell There are features that were designed in PowerShell 2 0 such as transactions geared to be used in code
8. e for free download for systems newer than Windows XP SP3 Chapter 2 discusses how to install the tools on older supported operating systems Overview of PowerShell What is PowerShell gt PowerShell is an extensible automation engine from Microsoft gt PowerShell is a command line shell and task based scripting technology that provides you with enhanced remote management and automation of system administration tasks PowerShell can look like Figure 1 1 and it can look like Figure 1 2 What can it do PowerShell enables you to perform via scripts virtually any task you can do in the GUI for your local or remote Windows operating systems and your computers With PowerShell you can script and automate your day to day administrative tasks gt Do you need to get a list of all the computers on the network and create a report on the service pack level for each operating system gt Do you need to check to make sure that all the users in the domain are complying with the corporate password policy gt Do you need to start a service on 500 computers gt Do you need to add 100 user accounts to your domain CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS POWERSHELL AND WHY DO YOU NEED IT gt Do you need to collect all the critical and error events from the event logs of all your servers FIGURE 1 1 Thisis PowerShell Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell A 5 Copyright C 2009 Microsoft Corporation fll rights reserved PS C Users Matt gt
9. endently or scripted together to create a powerful automation application Lastly the language also provides a self service help system allowing you to learn the language quickly Chapter 3 will show you how to get help by using the Get Help cmdlet What s New in PowerShell 2 0 With the launch of PowerShell 2 0 Microsoft began to take a deeper look into this language With PowerShell being built into operating systems IT administrators took notice You may have been asking this question How can I leverage PowerShell in my environment and where do I start Microsoft wanted to make PowerShell 2 0 more enterprise friendly so IT adminis trators everywhere could run learn and share PowerShell easily from within the GUL PowerShell also had to be made to run safely and securely CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS POWERSHELL AND WHY DO YOU NEED IT One of the new features in PowerShell 2 0 that allows IT administrators throughout the world to use PowerShell more easily is called internationaliza tion Internationalization enables PowerShell scripts to display messages in the language specified by the UI language setting on the user s computer Under the hood this features queries the operating system of the user to determine what language is being used This lets PowerShell display the appropriate language Microsoft added more than 50 cmdlets for the core PowerShell sessions Although those new cmdlets are important Microsoft also addressed
10. hapter 2 shows you how to install the ISE which may not be installed by default Chapter 5 shows how to use this tool when working with PowerShell scripts Another way PowerShell leverages the Windows GUI is with the output cmdlet Out GridView This cmdlet allows you to take the output from a PowerShell com mand and display it in a Windows Explorer style window which not only displays your data but also allows you some interaction such as sorting and quickly filtering the data For example if you ran the command Get Process Out GridView your results would look similar to Figure 1 9 You can click any of the column headings in the Out Gridview window and the content will be sorted You can also quickly filter the data by either adding criteria or typing in the Filter text box Chapter 4 takes a look at the Out GridView cmdlet as well as other ways to work with data from your PowerShell commands POWERSHELL HAS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE FIGURE 1 9 Out Gridview oxi 736 175 11 2 568 8 128 65 1 512 Ati2evxx 154 13 16 832 17 260 59 4 476 audiodg 521 54 51 968 14 112 601 4 27 3 544 CCC 31 4 880 2 560 25 1 228 conhost 36 5 1 204 3 816 49 0 08 2 496 conhost 672 13 1 956 4 084 47 472 cstss 460 23 12 868 16 876 94 552 csrss 77 7 1 840 5 396 54 0 75 1 820 dwm 227 18 5 984 13 032 89 1 992 EvtEng 908 57 40 524 58 452 315 31 45 1 832 explorer 81 9 1 564 5 388 67 0 25 1 876 FlashUtil10l_Activex 0 0 0 24 0 it Idle 608 51 56 596 56 840 282 9 16
11. into one script You need to know how to shorten those commands and unlock many of the other administra tive aspects of PowerShell Working with scripts involves combining the tasks in the proper order and saving them in one file There are websites that have PowerShell script repositories and you can leverage the work of another PowerShell adminis trator PowerShell also protects you from rogue PowerShell scripts and allows only those scripts that are safe and secure In Chapters 3 5 you will learn to master the basics You will be able to break the previous command down into its smallest parts so commands like these do not scare you away from PowerShell You will see how easy the language can be used to perform complex tasks What s in It for IT Professionals With Windows Server 2008 R2 you can install many roles and features to provide functionality to your infrastructure From Active Directory to Hyper V to IIS to Deployment Services you can perform day to day administration with PowerShell After you learn the basics of the language you need to put PowerShell in practice When you install the features on your Windows Server 2008 R2 server nearly all of POWERSHELL HAS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE 15 them have their own set of PowerShell commands and functions to perform a vari cs ety of tasks specific to the particular role or feature ay Beginning with basic installation of the roles and features on your server z o P
12. ints using the Set PSBreakpoint cmdlet and you can list your breakpoints 12 CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS POWERSHELL AND WHY DO YOU NEED IT with the Get PSBreakpoint cmdlet for any of your PowerShell scripts Figure 1 8 shows an example of a debugging session from the PowerShell console FIGURE 1 8 Debugging session in PowerShell Windows PowerShell Matt gt Set PSBreakpoint C Users Matt required psi line 3 Line Command Variable Action O required psi PS C NUsers Matt gt required psi vinrn g debug mode nh or for help e breakpoint C Matt required ps requi foreach lt arg in args DBGI PS C Users Matt gt gt gt Get PSBreakpoint ID Script Line Command Variable Action O vequired psi 3 DBG PS C Users Matt gt gt gt h stepInto Single step step into functions i etc tepOver Step to next statement step ov cti scripts etc pout Step out of the current functio i continue Continue execution quit Stop execution and exit the debugger Get P CallStack Display call stack list i rce code for the current script st to start fron the current line list lt m t fron line lt m and list lt m gt lt n gt to list lt n gt tarting from line lt m gt Repeat last command if it was stepInto stepOver or list Displays this help message For instructions about how to customize your debugger prompt type help ahout_prompt To learn more about the ISE see Chapter 2 and Chapter 5 C
13. les make this even easier to do Appendix E explains how to work with existing snap ins and how to create your own Lastly you can create GUIs in PowerShell Whether you want to take advantage of Windows Presentation Foundation WPF with the separation of design and code or continue the look of legacy applications with Windows Forms WinForms PowerShell allows you to work with both of these technologies Although it is POWERSHELL HAS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE 17 relatively easy to work with GUI technologies in PowerShell there are also some z tools to make this easy process even easier Appendix F explores creating GUIs in PowerShell ra 3 es T DA EXERCISE 1 INVENTORY YOUR SCRIPTS EE CHAPTER 1 Take an inventory of the tasks you are currently using scripts to perform By the end of the book you should be able to take the script or scripts you are currently using and convert them to PowerShell
14. ll is more than just a console application It is a robust scripting environment that supports a full range of logical program control including simple conditional statements and complex switch statements using regular expressions to parse conditions Scripts can be used independently or in conjunction with other scripts with NET Framework or COM objects or even in code PowerShell enables easy access to COM and WMI to provide an environment for local and remote Windows systems CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS POWERSHELL AND WHY DO YOU NEED IT In many cases a majority of the built in roles and services such as IS or Active Directory that you may run on your Windows Server 2008 R2 server have PowerShell providers and cmdlets to manage them For example the PowerShell Provider for Internet Information Services IIS 7 5 allows you to easily automate routine and complex HS 7 5 administration tasks such as creating websites and managing configuration and runtime data by using PowerShell Chapter 10 shows how to work with PowerShell and your websites All of the other major applications running on a Windows Server 2008 R2 server including Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SharePoint Server have built in support for PowerShell Exchange Server was the first major server application to get full support for PowerShell The SQL Server 2008 PowerShell snap in supports more complex logic than Transact SQL scripts allowing SQL Se
15. need to know the basics of installing PowerShell and of reading and writing PowerShell scripts That way you can build your knowledge for many other aspects of PowerShell Whether your focus is IT administration or development you need the basics 13 What Is PowerShell and Why Do You Need It CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS POWERSHELL AND WHY DO YOU NEED IT PowerShell needs to be installed on any system you want to be able to manage with PowerShell PowerShell can be installed on many Microsoft operating systems including XP mode on Windows 7 There are third party PowerShell add ons for non Microsoft operating systems Knowing what systems you want to manage allows you to determine which is the best path to deploy PowerShell Chapter 2 focuses on the proper way to enable and install PowerShell PowerShell has a robust and easy to use built in help system that provides descriptions of the various cmdlets as well as examples in most cases After PowerShell has been installed you can learn to read the language When you see a command like the following you should understand what it does Get ADObject SearchBase CN Deleted Objects DC your domain name DC Com Filter lastKnownParent eq OU marketing DC deploy dc com includeDeletedObjects Restore ADObject This command restores deleted users from the marketing organizational unit OU in the deploy com domain You can then begin to combine multiple commands
16. owerShell can be used to perform these functions for your full and core Windows o 2 Server 2008 R2 servers Performing and scheduling a task such as a backup can be quickly created in a PowerShell script and tied to the Task Scheduler PowerShell can provide a consistent approach to the daily maintenance of servers In some cases PowerShell may be the only utility you can use This is the case with the Active Directory Recycle Bin and managed service accounts two features in Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory IIS provides another scenario for IT professionals to use PowerShell With PowerShell you can work with the core configuration to manage sites and work with web applications This allows you to manage and quickly maintain web farms As an IT professional you want PowerShell to be consistent when you work on various tasks or when you download third party tools This is where you see the pervasiveness of PowerShell For example when you download the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit MDT this free tool has built in PowerShell cmdlets What makes PowerShell a unique tool set is the strong community following the language In some cases Microsoft did not provide cmdlets for a Windows Server 2008 R2 server role Yet you can find third party ones with an Internet search This is the case with Hyper V With PowerShell 2 0 there are no built in cmdlets to sup port working with Hyper V and you may have to use WMI to work directly with
17. robust architecture that includes the following gt A script parser that processes language constructs such as scripts predicates and conditionals gt A pipeline processor which manages intercommand communication using pipes gt Acommand processor which manages command execution registration and associated metadata In addition to those processors the shell can also manage session state and has an extended type system which exposes a common interface for accessing properties and methods independent of the underlying object type Lastly PowerShell includes a robust error handler for managing error exceptions and error reporting The Power Behind PowerShell PowerShell is built around an object oriented language that lets you manage your Windows infrastructure It provides an interface and programming environment that allows users and administrators to access and set system properties through NET objects and single function command line tools called cmdlets Cmdlets are the building blocks for PowerShell scripts Chapter 3 explores cmdlets and the core PowerShell syntax The scripting language manipulates objects not text using the INET Framework and the NET common language runtime PowerShell is built on top of and is integrated with the Microsoft NET Framework It accepts and returns NET objects allowing for robust scripting that interfaces seamlessly with many line of business tools This is the main reason PowerShe
18. rver administrators to build robust administration scripts not only for server administration but also to extend the power of SQL databases PowerShell in some cases is also replacing existing tools for the command prompt manage ment of a server With SharePoint Server PowerShell is gradually replacing the stsadm tool which has been the main tool for command prompt administration for SharePoint servers What About the Learning Curve One of the many benefits of PowerShell is that the learning curve to get started with it is minimal If you already know scripting languages you have a good base for working with PowerShell Whether you have a background with command prompt tools for Microsoft or non Microsoft operating systems such as UNIX PowerShell lets you build on your existing command prompt knowledge Throughout this book you will see many examples of PowerShell that look similar to techniques you have used in other shells PowerShell includes single function tools such as cd copy and dir that you are familiar with from the Windows command interface You can also recognize these other PowerShell functions from a UNIX background such as 1s or man If you have a UNIX administration background you are familiar with the term shell A shell provides a powerful flexible and scriptable command line experience that allows you to perform any administrative task that you can perform using the console The difference between using the shell and
19. t W gt There are debugging tools built in to PowerShell 2 0 Scripts are created in many different tools from the ISE to Notepad and scripters have used a variety of WHAT S NEW IN POWERSHELL 2 0 11 debugging tools with PowerShell The new debugging features allow you set break z points on the following gt Lines E 2 as gt Columns a gt Variables CHAPTER 1 gt Commands If you are using the debugger with your scripts you can step into over and out of the scripts and you can even display the call stack often with a single keystroke There are cmdlets to work with the debugger You can also display the values of variables and run standard commands in the debugger The ISE makes it easy to interact with the debugger Figure 1 7 shows the Debug menu FIGURE 1 7 _ISE s Debug menu E Windows PowerShell ISE loj x File Edit View Debug Help Oo Ey eoa F10 Slo Oe p Step Into Fil a d required ps1 Step Out Shift F11 a g Srq ge Run Continue FS es Format Table property displayname status J foreac Stop Debugger Shift F5 Toggle Breakpoint F9 4 Writ Ri All Br ints Ctrl Shift F9 the following services are required s ra Enable All Breakpoints s Disable All Breakpoints 10 List Breakpoints Ctrl Shift L Display Call Stack Ctrl Shift D PS C Users Matt gt gt You can also access the debugger in your PowerShell sessions You can set break po
20. tart Job name Services scriptblock lt Get Service gt Nane sMoreData Location Command Services Running pi Get Service C Wsers dministrator Get Job Command Process Conpleted Services Conpleted PS C Users Administrator gt m What Is PowerShell and Why Do You Need It CHAPTER 1 10 CHAPTER1 WHAT IS POWERSHELL AND WHY DO YOU NEED IT PowerShell with a GUI FIGURE 1 6 There was no built in GUI in PowerShell 1 0 so you had only the command console for your PowerShell session There were third party tools you could use such as PowerGUI http powergui org index jspa With PowerShell 2 0 Microsoft added new features to take advantage of the GUI The following are two of the main ways you can use PowerShell s GUI features gt Integrated Scripting Environment ISE gt Out GridView The ISE shown in Figure 1 2 is a new GUI front end application console for PowerShell However the primary benefit of the ISE is to create edit and debug PowerShell scripts The ISE provides an easy to use syntax highlighted way to work with your scripts as shown in Figure 1 6 ISE with a script inizi File Edt View Debug Help Hs oalje B a E00 required ps1 X a Srq get service args requiredservices Format Table property displayname status foreach Sarg in args 3 4 5 6 Write Host For the Sarg Service the following services are required 7 8 EJ 0 b PS C Users Matt g
21. the PowerShell console is that the PowerShell is ideally suited to repetitive tasks PowerShell is not a text based shell but a console PowerShell has a substantial number of built in commands that provide you with a powerful tool set for script based administration WHAT S NEW IN POWERSHELL 2 0 7 The formatting for commands that use the NET Framework COM objects and WMI are slightly different from other scripting technologies but in general those com mands are simpler in PowerShell If you are not familiar with scripting techniques the base set of cmdlets is easy to learn as you ll see throughout this book PowerShell provides an intuitive scripting language specifically designed for day to day adminis trative of servers What Is PowerShell and Why Do You Need It CHAPTER 1 Cmdlets really showcase the intuitive nature of PowerShell Cmdlets have a verb noun structure so they are somewhat self describing For example here is a simple cmdlet that returns the current system date and time Get Date Your results will look similar to Figure 1 3 FIGURE 1 3 Asimplecmdlet Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell Copyright lt C gt 2009 Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved PS C Users Matt gt Get Date Saturday January 29 2611 9 56 21 PM PS C Users Matt gt The cmdlets can also get more complex In this book you will start with the build ing blocks and get more in depth Cmdlets can be used indep
22. ture You will spend less time on manual repetitive tasks by scripting these tasks with PowerShell PowerShell is used in a number of scenarios including system administration and software development PowerShell is ideal for remote management reporting automation and administration This book focuses on learning this powerful scripting language with real world examples and ways to perform common everyday tasks Tasks such as backing up servers maintaining web servers analyzing your environment and many more can benefit from PowerShell Step by step instructions in the chapters that follow show you how you can make PowerShell work for you The book is divided into two sections In the first few chapters you will build the foundation of your PowerShell knowledge You will learn the basics of a building block known as a cmdlet pronounced command let and how to read script The second section of the book focuses on administrative tasks you can perform in Windows Server 2008 R2 Although the book is geared to working on a Windows Server 2008 R2 setup the foundational knowledge provided in the book allows you to leverage PowerShell regardless of the target Windows operating system The goal is to demystify PowerShell for you so you can use it in your day to day tasks This chapter gives an overview of PowerShell and why it is important Why PowerShell If you have been working in a Microsoft environment for the past few years you ma
23. y have seen or heard about PowerShell You may even remember its original code name Monad It may have been discounted as yet another scripting language and put aside to look at later You may have even thought why reinvent the wheel WHY POWERSHELL 3 In other words your environment was running smoothly you were busy and you had no time to learn the language You may have decided to wait to see whether there would be a version 2 and whether Microsoft was really serious about this language Well here we are with version 2 and PowerShell is getting better than ever Microsoft and communities such as http powershellcommunity org What Is PowerShell and Why Do You Need It are creating native PowerShell commands and providers as well as the documenta a s gt v i m av tion for scripts to make your everyday work with PowerShell even easier So you are CHAPTER 1 not in this alone The community is growing and vibrant The initial project Monad debuted in June 2005 In April 2006 Microsoft announced that Monad s name would be PowerShell and PowerShell Release Candidate 1 was released PowerShell 1 0 was released in November 2006 It was well received in the community and with its integration into the Windows environment this became a new language for administrators to work with In 2009 version 2 of PowerShell was released and built into Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 PowerShell 2 0 is also availabl
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