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  • Book Overview & Buying Getting Started with Powershell
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Getting Started with Powershell

Getting Started with Powershell

By : Michael Shepard
1 (1)
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Getting Started with Powershell

Getting Started with Powershell

1 (1)
By: Michael Shepard
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
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Preface
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Preface
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What this book covers
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What you need for this book
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Who this book is for
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Conventions
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Reader feedback
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Customer support
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1
1. First Steps
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1. First Steps
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Determining the installed PowerShell version
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Installing/upgrading PowerShell
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Starting a PowerShell session
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Simple PowerShell commands
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PowerShell aliases
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Summary
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For further reading
2
2. Building Blocks
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2. Building Blocks
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What can you do?
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The scripter's secret weapon – tab completion
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How does that work?
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Interpreting the cmdlet syntax
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Summary
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For further reading
3
3. Objects and PowerShell
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3. Objects and PowerShell
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Objects all the way down
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What are members?
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The Get-Member cmdlet
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Where did these all come from?
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Summary
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For further reading
4
4. Life on the Assembly Line
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4. Life on the Assembly Line
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The pipeline as an assembly line
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Dealing with pipeline data
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Putting them together
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Summary
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For further reading
5
5. Formatting Output
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5. Formatting Output
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When does formatting occur?
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The rules of automatic formatting
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Cmdlets that control formatting
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The dangers of formatting
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Best practices of formatting
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Summary
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For further reading
6
6. Scripts
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6. Scripts
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Packaging commands
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Parameters add flexibility
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Adding some logic
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Profiles
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Summary
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For further reading
7
7. Functions
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7. Functions
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Another kind of container
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Executing and calling functions
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Naming conventions
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Comment-based help
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Parameters revisited
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Default values for parameters
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Output
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Summary
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For further reading
8
8. Modules
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8. Modules
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Packaging functions
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Script modules
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Where do modules live?
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Removing a module
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PowerShell module autoloading
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The #Requires statement
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Removing a module – take two
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Listing modules
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Summary
9
9. File I/O
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9. File I/O
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Reading and writing text files
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Working with CSV files
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PowerShell streams and redirection
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CLIXML – a special type of XML
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Summary
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For further reading
10
10. WMI and CIM
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10. WMI and CIM
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What is WMI?
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Finding WMI classes
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Retrieving objects with Get-WMIObject
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Calling methods
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WMI and CIM
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CDXML modules
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Summary
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For further reading
11
11. Web Server Administration
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11. Web Server Administration
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Installing IIS
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Verifying IIS
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The WebAdministration module
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Starting, stopping, and restarting IIS
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Creating virtual directories and web applications
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Working with application pools
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Summary
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For further reading
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A. Next Steps
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A. Next Steps
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Index
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Index

Installing/upgrading PowerShell

If you don't have PowerShell installed or want a more recent version of PowerShell, you'll need to find the Windows Management Framework (WMF) download that matches the PowerShell version you want. WMF includes PowerShell as well as other related tools such as Windows Remoting (WinRM), Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), and Desired State Configuration (DSC). The contents of the distribution change from version to version, so make sure to read the release notes included in the download. Here are links to the installers:

PowerShell Version

URL

1.0

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926139

2.0

http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/968929/en-us

3.0

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34595

4.0

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40855

5.0 (Feb. Preview)

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45883

Note that PowerShell 5.0 has not been officially released, so the table lists the February 2015 preview, the latest at the time of writing.

The PowerShell 1.0 installer was released as an executable (.exe), but since then the releases have all been as standalone Windows update installers (.msu). All of these are painless to execute. You can simply download the file and run it from the explorer or from the Run… option in the start menu. PowerShell installs don't typically require a reboot but it's best to plan on doing one, just in case.

It's important to note that you can only have one version of PowerShell installed, and you can't install a lower version than the version that was shipped with your OS. Also, there are noted compatibility issues between various versions of PowerShell and Microsoft products such as Exchange, System Center, and Small Business Server, so make sure to read the system requirements section on the download page. Most of the conflicts can be resolved with a service pack of the software, but you should be sure of this before upgrading PowerShell on a server.

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