PowerShell: Automation for everyone

Gavin Barron, Solution ArchitectMarch 22, 2014

ComCamp Auckland

PowerShell: Automation for Everyone

The only five commands you need

Rules for writing scripts

Demos

Intro

Wrap up

Our agenda

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SharePoint Server MVP

Developer

Skier

http://gavinb.net

@gavinbarron

[email protected]

Gavin BarronSolution Architect

Your presenter

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Why Automate?

Repeatability

Reliability

Save time?

Eliminate boring manual tasks

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Why PowerShell?

Product specific cmdlets

Able to run .NET code

Hooks into WMI/COM

Object pipeline

Readable scripts

The only five commands you need

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Get-Command

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Get-Help

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Get-Member

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Where-Object

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ForEach-Object

Demos

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Find the command you need

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Simple Pipeline Use

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File renaming in .bat

@echo offfor /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b *.txt') do call :dot "%%a"pausegoto :EOF:dotset "var=%~n1"set "var=%var:.=_%"  echo ren %1 "%var%%~x1"

Rules for writing scripts

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Consider error cases

What should you do when it goes pear shaped? Default behaviour is Ignore and Continue $ErrorActionPreference -ErrorAction try{} catch{}

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Consider your outputs

Write-Host Write-Output Write-Progress Add-Content Out-File

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Have style!

Use a coding convention Naming Casing Bracing

Avoid aliases Be Consistent!

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Leverage functions for re-use

Small tasks Compose a script from functions Functions are highly reusable Cmdlet Binding Attribute Parameters Attribute Default Values

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Use configuration files

$file =[xml] (Get-ChildItem $constantsFilePath)$root = "setup-config"$ConstantsNodeList = $file.$root.Constantsforeach($property in $ConstantsNodeList.Property) {

$key= $property.Key$value=$property.Value $webApp.Properties.Add($key,$value)

}$webApp.Update()

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Script Examples

Wrap up

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Start scripting, it’s easy!

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Handy resources

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/scriptcenter/

en-US/home?forum=ITCG http://ss64.com/ps/ http://ss64.com/ps/syntax.html

Any questions?

Email: [email protected]

Blog: http://gavinb.net

Twitter: @gavinbarron

Thank you

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