Book Image

PowerShell Core for Linux Administrators Cookbook

By : Prashanth Jayaram, Ram Iyer
Book Image

PowerShell Core for Linux Administrators Cookbook

By: Prashanth Jayaram, Ram Iyer

Overview of this book

PowerShell Core, the open source, cross-platform that is based on the open source, cross-platform .NET Core, is not a shell that came out by accident; it was intentionally created to be versatile and easy to learn at the same time. PowerShell Core enables automation on systems ranging from the Raspberry Pi to the cloud. PowerShell Core for Linux Administrators Cookbook uses simple, real-world examples that teach you how to use PowerShell to effectively administer your environment. As you make your way through the book, you will cover interesting recipes on how PowerShell Core can be used to quickly automate complex, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks. In the concluding chapters, you will learn how to develop scripts to automate tasks that involve systems and enterprise management. By the end of this book, you will have learned about the automation capabilities of PowerShell Core, including remote management using OpenSSH, cross-platform enterprise management, working with Docker containers, and managing SQL databases.

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Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Sections
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Introducing PowerShell Core
Introducing PowerShell Core
Introduction
Installing PowerShell
Updating and using Help
Exploring about_ topics
Discovering cmdlets
Finding and installing PowerShell modules
Listing the various providers in PowerShell
Understanding objects
Parsing input from text to object
Comparing the outputs of Bash and PowerShell
Comparing Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core
Working with aliases
Dissecting a .NET Core object
Listing out the execution policies and setting a suitable one
2
Preparing for Administration Using PowerShell
Preparing for Administration Using PowerShell
Introduction
Installing Visual Studio Code
Configuring automatic variables
Changing shell behavior using variables
Enabling automated execution of commands for each load
Customizing the Terminal prompt
Understanding standard redirection in PowerShell
Calling native Linux commands from PowerShell
Understanding cmdlets and parameters
Running cmdlets with minimal keystrokes
Finding parameter aliases
Calling a PowerShell script
Dot-sourcing a PowerShell script
Calling a PowerShell cmdlet from outside of PowerShell
Recording the cmdlets run on the PowerShell console
3
First Steps in Administration Using PowerShell
First Steps in Administration Using PowerShell
Introduction
Working with date properties
Working with date and time methods
Working with currently-running processes to measure resource consumption
Launching and stopping a process
Finding the owner of a process
Invoking an application based on the file type
Installing the CronTab PowerShell module
Scheduling jobs in PowerShell
Removing scheduled jobs in PowerShell
4
Passing Data through the Pipeline
Passing Data through the Pipeline
Introduction
Selecting columns from the output
Limiting the number of output objects
Expanding the properties within properties
Filtering objects
Grouping the output
Sorting the output
Taking actions on the returned objects
Understanding pipeline-enabled parameters
Importing content into PowerShell
5
Using Variables and Objects
Using Variables and Objects
Introduction
Using environment variables
Storing the output of an instance of a .NET Core object
Adding custom properties to an object
Creating a custom object from a returned object
Understanding the extension of type data
Retaining object modifications across sessions
Removing custom type data
Understanding variables
6
Working with Strings
Working with Strings
Introduction
Creating a literal string
Creating an expanding string
Understanding Here-Strings
Using basic string methods
Performing string matching operations
Replacing substrings within strings
Splitting and combining strings
Using the formatting operator
7
Flow Control Using Branches and Loops
Flow Control Using Branches and Loops
Introduction
Using If–ElseIf–Else conditions to control script flow
Using Switch–Case conditions to control script flow
Learning to use delays
Writing a basic looping construct
Writing a more complex loop on a predefined array
Using the For loop construct
Using the While loop construct
Cleaning empty directories using the Do–While construct
Cleaning empty directories using the Do–Until construct
8
Performing Calculations
Performing Calculations
Introduction
Performing arithmetic operations
Performing calculations on the output
Working with administrative constants
Working with calculated properties
Working with binary numbers
Performing base conversions
9
Using Arrays and Hashtables
Using Arrays and Hashtables
Introduction
Creating and working with a simple array
Accessing and manipulating array items
Sorting an array
Searching for an item in an array
Combining arrays
Item matching in an array
Removing elements from an array
Comparing arrays
Creating a simple hashtable
Performing simple tasks on a hashtable
10
Handling Files and Directories
Handling Files and Directories
Introduction
Reading content from a file
Sending output to a file
Adding and setting content to a file
Searching for content
Working with locations
Working with files and directories
Listing files and directories
Working with structured and unstructured files
11
Building Scripts and Functions
Building Scripts and Functions
Introduction
Writing a simple script
Reading input from the host
Displaying an interactive menu
Showing progress of execution
Defining arguments for a script
Writing a simple function
Working with a script block
Measuring running duration
Important points to remember
12
Advanced Concepts of Functions
Advanced Concepts of Functions
Introduction
Defining parameters
Working with parameter aliases
Working with parameter sets
Adding default values to the parameter
Adding validation to parameter input
Handling dependencies and prerequisites
Adding safety switches to functions
Adding help to functions
Adding support for pipeline input
Using the Main function
Writing a script module
Handling module cleanup
13
Debugging and Error Handling
Debugging and Error Handling
Introduction
The Debug tab of Visual Studio Code
Writing debug output
Running a script in Debug mode
Tracing errors
Using breakpoints
Using conditional breakpoints
Using exit codes
Working with the Error variable
Controlling flow based on errors
Sending verbose output to a file
14
Enterprise Administration Using PowerShell
Enterprise Administration Using PowerShell
Introduction to OpenSSH
Installing OpenSSH on Windows
Configuring OpenSSH using sshd_config on Windows
Installing and configuring OpenSSH on Linux
Testing PowerShell remoting using OpenSSH
Testing PowerShell remoting with OpenSSH using keys between Linux machines
Testing PowerShell remoting with OpenSSH using keys between Linux and Windows machines
Running cmdlets on remote computers
Managing the administration of remote machines with PowerShell Jobs
Generating HTML reports
Sending email messages
15
PowerShell and Cloud Operations
PowerShell and Cloud Operations
Introduction to PowerShell for Cloud operations on Azure and AWS
Installation of the AzureRM.Netcore PowerShell module on Linux machines
Installation of the AWSPowerShell.NetCore module on Linux machines
Discovering AzureRM cmdlets discovery functions
Azure Cloud Shell in action
Provisioning a Ubuntu 18.04 LTS VM using AzureRM.Netcore cmdlets on the Azure Cloud
Provisioning Linux Docker containers using Docker Machine on Azure
Provisioning Linux VM using PowerShell script
Performing management tasks using ARM PowerShell cmdlets
PowerShell remoting to Azure VM using OpenSSH
Managing AWS credentials
Connecting an EC2 Linux instance using SSH from PowerShell
16
Using PowerShell for SQL Database Management
Using PowerShell for SQL Database Management
Introduction to PowerShell, SQL Server, and Python
Technical requirements
Installing .Net Core on Linux
Installing the SqlServer module
Overview of SQL Server SMO
Running cross-platform T-SQL queries
Running cross-platform T-SQL queries on multiple servers
Creating a repository for Get-Process in the SQL database
Data formatting examples with PowerShell
Overview of PowerShell, Bash, and Python integration
17
Using PowerShell with Docker
Using PowerShell with Docker
Introduction to Docker
Installation of Docker on Linux
Getting and listing the Docker management cmdlets
Overview of Docker Hub and its operations
Building an image from a Dockerfile using PowerShell
Pulling a Docker container image from the repository
Listing Docker containers and the images
Starting and stopping Docker containers
Removing containers and container images
Working with a container using miscellaneous Docker PowerShell cmdlets
Running a PowerShell script to set up Docker containers
Finding Docker tags using PowerShell cmdlets from the remote registry
18
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Who this book is for

This book is for you if you are a Linux administrator who's open to other scripting frameworks, a system administrator who manages Linux as well as Windows workloads, and is looking to unify management, a Linux administrator who wants a framework that easily handles structured data, a Windows administrator who is new to PowerShell and wants to learn PowerShell scripting, or if you are a system administrator who is just generally curious.

Bash is, without a doubt, a great shell. While Windows PowerShell uses many Linux commands as convenience aliases, PowerShell Core on Linux is unobtrusive. PowerShell Core on Linux treats Linux commands as Linux commands (and not as convenience aliases) and calls the respective application, such as ls or grep. This way, PowerShell Core sits well in the Linux framework, and provides system administrators with a flexible, quickly-evolving toolset that enables them to write a script once and run the script everywhere—on Linux or Windows.

PowerShell is perhaps the only framework in Linux that works well with structured data. Structured data and the object model simplify automation, by packaging related data and functions within the object. Access to these members of the objects improve efficiency, thereby making automation smoother.

This book understands that an object-oriented shell has mostly been unheard of (OS/2 Workspace Shell, anybody?), and takes the reader through the concept of an object-oriented shell. Therefore, this book assumes some very basic knowledge on the reader's part, with respect to how an operating system is structured and how to use the command-line interface to work with the operating system. No experience in PowerShell is assumed.

In this book, you will learn the following topics:

  • The fundamentals of .NET Core and PowerShell Core
  • How to work with .NET (and, by extension, PowerShell) objects, understanding how they are structured and how they work
  • The different constructs, and how to create scripts, functions, and simple script modules, all with best practices in mind
  • The administration of computers locally as well as remotely, including scheduling remote jobs and retrieving their output
  • How to work with the cloud (Amazon Web Services has been touched upon, while Azure has been covered in more detail)
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