Book Image

PowerShell: Automating Administrative Tasks

By : Michael Shepard, Chendrayan Venkatesan, Sherif Talaat, Brenton J.W. Blawat
Book Image

PowerShell: Automating Administrative Tasks

By: Michael Shepard, Chendrayan Venkatesan, Sherif Talaat, Brenton J.W. Blawat

Overview of this book

Are you tired of managing Windows administrative tasks manually and are looking to automate the entire process? If yes, then this is the right course for you. This learning path starts your PowerShell journey and will help you automate the administration of the Windows operating system and applications that run on Windows. It will get you up and running with PowerShell, taking you from the basics of installation to writing scripts and performing web server automation. You will explore the PowerShell environment and discover how to use cmdlets, functions, and scripts to automate Windows systems. The next installment of the course focuses on gaining concrete knowledge of Windows PowerShell scripting to perform professional-level scripting. The techniques here are packed with PowerShell scripts and sample C# code to automate tasks. You will use .NET classes in PowerShell and C# to manage Exchange Online. In the final section, you will delve into real-world examples to learn how to simplify the management of your Windows environment. You will get to grips with PowerShell’s advanced functions and how to most effectively administer your system. This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products: [*] Getting Started with PowerShell by Michael Shepard [*] Windows PowerShell for .Net Developers Second Edition by Chendrayan Venkatesan and Sherif Talaat [*] Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting by Brenton J.W. Blawat
Table of Contents (6 chapters)

Chapter 13. Automation of the Environment

One of the fastest growing uses for PowerShell is the automation of network environments. Whether it is automating mundane tasks or dynamically provisioning entire systems, PowerShell provides limitless options for developers to put their creative touch on system automation.

In this chapter, you will learn the following:

  • Invoking programs for automation
  • Using desired state configuration
  • Detecting and restoring drifting configurations

Invoking programs for automation

When you want to automate the provisioning of systems, Microsoft provides many tools that enable you to execute items in a sequence. With Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), Deployment Workbench, System Center Configuration Manager, Desired Configuration Management, and System Center Orchestrator, you have the ability to stage different tasks in sequential order. This allows administrators to pre-stage prerequisites on a system, before installing additional software. While these...