UPDATE:  I re-uploaded the mp3 file, as the audio cut out about 22 min in.  If you downloaded the file before 2:40 PM CST, you might need to re-download the file.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  - Steve 

Recorded: January 14, 2009

Your Hosts:  Steve Murawski and Jonathan Walz

Show Length: 1:18:22

This show is brought to you by Quest Software.

When it comes to scripting, you’re a warrior. But mighty warriors need mighty tools!

For awesome PowerShell scripting, nothing matches the might of Quest’s PowerGUI?. Versatile and easy to use,PowerGUI? helps you build commanding scripts that leverage PowerShell’s strength across the enterprise. Now, ruling your domain is easier than ever.

Is your scripting might equal to the challenge? Put the power in your hands. Download PowerGUI today.

Links:

• DMTF Standard for WS-MAN
• Intro to WinRM (Script Center)
• OpenWSMAN
• Taking Your Server’s Pulse (Technet Magazine)
• Memtest86

Read the full show notes here.Website Picks

Brad Call (Listener) - www.ponoko.com

Listen Now:

Download Here

This week we will be joined by Jeffrey Snover, Partner/Architect at Microsoft.  Part of Jeffrey’s domain includes WSMAN and WinRM, which are part of Microsoft’s remote management strategy.  Join us at 8:30 CST / 9:30 EST on Wednesday, 1/14, and learn a bit more about what these technologies mean for your environment.

After the holidays, it’s good to get back into the swing of things (with as normal as things get).

As for the show, we are back to the regularly scheduled dates and times for our live stream.  So, join us tonight at 8:30 PM CST/9:30 PM EST for a rollicking good time and some tech too!

If you are interested in PowerShell and are on Twitter, I’ve compiled a (continuously expanding) list of Twitterers who often have PowerShell related content.

To make it a bit easier, I’ve written a script that will parse that list, compare it to whom you currently follow, and follow anyone you are missing.

The script (Add-PoShTwitterFriend) can be found here.

The list of PowerShell Twitterers can be found here.   If you are into PowerShell and on Twitter but not on the list, let me know (@stevenmurawski), I know I’m missing some people.

UPDATED…. Thanks to a tip from Jeffery Hicks, I updated the Add-PoshTwitterFriend script so it should run more smoothly

I’m often asked why I like PowerShell so much. There are a number of reasons, but what I find most compelling about PowerShell is that it is an enabling technology.  With PowerShell, I am in charge of my admin might.  There is nowhere my shell cannot reach…  (ok.. maybe I’ve watched a few too many Conan movies).  The point is that I don’t have to rely on an outside party to customize their management experience to my environment.

With applications that support PowerShell, my general Active Directory environment, and those applications and datastores that can be coerced into working with PowerShell, PowerShell provides me a way to create the management tools that I need, specific to my environment.

• My custom .NET based application with a SQL backend doesn’t keep user information syncronized with my Active Directory.. No problem, schedule a PowerShell script to run and verify the information.
• Want to take a look at the door access control system users and find the users whose Active Directory accounts are disabled? Not a problem for PowerShell.
• Have fifty new user accounts that need to be added to both those applications and Active Directory and need mailboxes enabled? PowerShell to the rescue.
• Need to retrieve a photo that is stored as a BLOB in a database and save it to your local filesystem. Easy, with a bit of PowerShell.
• Want to read through an XML Configuration file, find a few elements and verify them against machine settings or other configurations? Can do! XML is a breeze to work with in PowerShell.

PowerShell allows me to create and define my own administrative tasks through the creation of scripts, functions, and cmdlets, which empowers me as an administrator to get my job done in as efficient a manner as possible.  I can also modularize my tasks (which makes them easier to share).  By isolating the tasks into reusable bits of PowerShell, I can quickly respond to a changing environment, creating custom workflows as needed.

If I’m having trouble with my task, I can turn to the PowerShell chat room on irc.freenode.net, ask a question in the forums at PowerShellCommunity.Org, or turn to one of the numerous books, blog entries, or script samples from PoShCode.org for inspiration.

Then, once I’ve solved a problem, I can share the solution with others via a community site like PoShCode.org.

I was writing a quick script to get the Group Policy Health status (using the free Get-SDMGPHealth cmdlet from SDM Software) from computers in various OU’s in my domain.

One option for output from the Get-SDMGPHealth cmdlet is as an XML Document, which is a type of object.  One of the methods (actions an object can take) on the XML Document is the Save() method.  The Save() method does exactly what it says.. it saves the XML Document object as an XML file.

I was using the PowerShell Plus script editor and the interactive console showed my working directory as “C:\documents and settings\myaccount\”.  I ran the script and did a directory listing (I was saving the output with a file name of  “computer name”.xml), but did not see any output.  I ran it again and again, but nothing was writing to the current directory.

I remembered a post that Joel “Jaykul” Bennet wrote about the “Current Directory” problem in PowerShell.  Joel posts an interesting explanation of this issue, as well as a great solution to this problem by modifying the PowerShell prompt function. 

Scenarios where this issue can be a problem is when you are providing a relative path to a .NET method call (which will resolve the full path by using what it sees the Current Directory as).  If you want to avoid all of this, you could pass in full paths (the Resolve-Path cmdlet comes to mind).

Now, you will know where you are!

On tomorrow’s live show, we will be joined Richard Campbell, host of Runas Radio and .NET Rocks.  Richard will be joining us to talk about keeping up on new technology, working with developers, and I’ll try to work some PowerShell content in as well!

Join us in the live stream tomorrow night (Wednesday, December 17th) at 8:30 PM CST!

Recently, I posted a script that would map out various Active Directory objects using Doug Finke’s Show-Netmap script and the .NetMap research project from Microsoft.

Doug Finke was recently a featured guest on the Powerscripting Podcast and was talking about using .NetMap with PowerShell.  I was able to be in the Ustream audience during that show and asked if Doug was aware of what was happening with the .NetMap project, since the Codeplex project was unavailable.  One possible explanation was that a developer had left Microsoft and perhaps there were some intellectual property issues.

Well, I found out some of what happened.  One of the developers did, indeed, leave Microsoft to join Telligent, but the project has resurfaced under the name NodeXL.  All of the goodness that was .NetMap is now NodeXL and available on Codeplex.

I’ve modified the Show-Netmap script to Show-NodeXLMap, and updated the Get-ADMapObject script to the Show-ADObject script.  Both the Show-NodeXLMap and Show-ADObject scripts now support adding color to the maps.

Examples:

./Show-ADObject -ShowADClasses #Lists out all the available Classes or types you can map out

./Show-ADObject -ADClass group, organizationalunit, contact -Colorize #Maps out the groups, contacts, and OU’s.  Groups will have one color, contacts a second color and OU’s a third.  The color key will print out to the console.

./Show-ADObject group, organizationalunit, contact -MapLayout Grid

I’ll be updating and re-posting my Group Association script to support the new NodeXL project and colored objects.

You can download all the necessary files (except the Quest AD Cmdlets) here.

If you are interested in this type of network mapping, check out Doug’s other examples.

After being challenged by Jason on my previous script, I created the Get-ADMapObject script.

Running the script creates three functions:

• Get-ADMapObject (which takes a string or array of strings of the AD object classes)
• Get-ADObjectClassName (recurses through your Active Directory and returns the names of the object classes)
• New-SourceTarget (to get the ADMapObjects into the format that Show-Netmap wants).

Before the script runs, it will check for the dependencies (Doug’s script and the NetMap dll’s) and advise you if there are any missing. I’d love some feedback!

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We will be streaming live tonight on Ustream.TV at 8:30 CST/9:30 EST.  Join us in the chat room along with the streaming audio (and some video)!