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Exploring PowerShell Automation
With chapters selected by Richard Siddaway
  • November 2016
  • ISBN 9781617294525
  • 168 pages

During the decade that PowerShell has been around, a significant and increasing percentage of Windows administrators have discovered that PowerShell allows them to be more productive. They’ve realized that PowerShell enables them to perform administrative tasks across a wide range of technologies from Microsoft and third party vendors. The time it takes to develop PowerShell scripts is paid back multiple times by automating repetitive tasks and reducing errors with repeatable, reliable processes.

Exploring PowerShell Automation is a selection of chapters that gives you an overview of using PowerShell to administer your environment. Richard Siddaway has been involved in the production of all of these chapters either as an author or an editor, and has chosen them specifically to represent the breadth of possibilities for administering your systems through PowerShell. The first two chapters provide an overview of PowerShell and PowerShell remoting. The remaining three chapters give you examples of using PowerShell to administer SQL Server, IIS and Active Directory – three components that you'll find in practically any Windows environment.

Table of Contents detailed table of contents



Reading suggestions

Introduction to PowerShell

1. Welcome to PowerShell

1.1. What is PowerShell?

1.1.1. Shells, command lines, and scripting languages

1.2. PowerShell example code

1.2.1. Navigation and basic operations

1.2.2. Basic expressions and variables

1.2.3. Processing data

1.2.4. Flow-control statements

1.2.5. Scripts and functions

1.2.6. Remote administration

1.3. Core concepts

1.3.1. Command concepts and terminology

1.3.2. Commands and cmdlets

1.3.3. Command categories

1.3.4. Aliases and elastic syntax

1.4. Parsing the PowerShell language

1.4.1. How PowerShell parses

1.4.2. Quoting

1.4.3. Expression-mode and command-mode parsing

1.4.4. Statement termination

1.4.5. Comment syntax in PowerShell

1.5. How the pipeline works

1.5.1. Pipelines and streaming behavior

1.5.2. Parameters and parameter binding

1.6. Formatting and output

1.6.1. The formatting cmdlets

1.6.2. The outputter cmdlets

1.7. Summary

1.7.1. What's inside

PowerShell Remoting

2. PowerShell Remoting

2.1. The many forms of remote control

2.2. Remoting overview

2.2.1. Authentication

2.2.2. Firewalls and security

2.3. Using Remoting

2.3.1. Enabling Remoting

2.3.2. 1-to-1 Remoting

2.3.3. 1-to-many Remoting

2.3.4. Remoting caveats

2.3.5. Remoting options

2.4. PSSessions

2.4.1. Creating a persistent session

2.4.2. Using a session

2.4.3. Managing sessions

2.4.4. Disconnecting and reconnecting sessions

2.5. Advanced session techniques

2.5.1. Session parameters

2.5.2. Session options

2.6. Creating a custom endpoint

2.6.1. Custom endpoints for delegated administration

2.7. Connecting to non-default endpoints

2.8. Enabling the "second hop"

2.9. Setting up WinRM listeners

2.9.1. Creating an HTTP listener

2.9.2. Adding an HTTPS listener

2.10. Other configuration scenarios

2.10.1. Cross-domain Remoting

2.10.2. Quotas

2.10.3. Configuring on a remote machine

2.10.4. Key WinRM configuration settings

2.10.5. Adding a machine to your Trusted Hosts list

2.10.6. Using Group Policy to configure Remoting

2.11. Implicit Remoting

2.12. Standard troubleshooting methodology

2.13. Summary

PowerShell and SQL Server

3. PowerShell and the SQL Server provider

3.1. Requirements

3.2. Introduction to the SQL Server provider

3.3. Using the SQL Server provider

3.4. Examples of using the SQL Server provider

3.5. Getting a count of databases in an instance

3.6. Finding a table in many databases

3.7. Summary

3.7.1. What's inside

IIS Administration

4. Provisioning IIS web servers and sites with PowerShell

4.1. Rapid IIS deployment

4.2. Transferring website files and certificates

4.3. Enabling remote management for IIS Manager

4.4. Creating a load-balanced web farm

4.5. Creating an SSL website

4.6. Automating the process

4.7. Summary

4.7.1. What's inside

AD Administration

5. User accounts

5.1. Automating user account management

5.1.1. Microsoft AD cmdlets

5.1.2. Recommendations

5.2. Local users and groups

5.2.1. User creation

5.2.2. Group creation

5.2.3. Group membership

5.3. Active Directory users

5.3.1. User creation

5.3.2. User creation (bulk)

5.3.3. User modification

5.3.4. Finding users

5.3.5. Enabling and disabling accounts

5.3.6. Moving accounts

5.3.7. Last logon time

5.3.8. Password expiration

5.3.9. Account expiration

5.4. Active Directory groups

5.4.1. Group creation

5.4.2. Changing membership

5.4.3. Changing scope

5.4.4. Finding group members

5.4.5. Finding a user's group membership

5.5. Summary

5.5.1. What's inside:



About the author

Richard Siddaway is a multi-year PowerShell MVP, author, speaker and blogger with many years of experience using PowerShell across numerous technologies and industries.

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