PowerShell in Practice
A definitive source.
PowerShell in Practice covers 205 individually tested and ready-to-use techniques, each explained in an easy problem/solution/discussion format. The book has three parts. The first is a quick overview of PowerShell. The second, Working with People, addresses user accounts, mailboxes, and desktop configuration. The third, Working with Servers, covers techniques for DNS, Active Directory, Exchange, IIS, and much more. Along the way, you'll pick up a wealth of ideas from the book's examples: 1-line scripts to full-blown Windows programs.
Table of Contents detailed table of contents
preface
acknowledgments
about this book
about the author
about the cover illustration
Part 1 Getting started with PowerShell
1. PowerShell fundamentals
1.1. What’s PowerShell?
1.2. Why PowerShell?
1.3. Major features
1.4. PowerShell v2
1.5. Summary
2. Learning PowerShell
2.1. Open the book—learn by doing
2.2. Installation and configuration
2.3. Your four best friends
2.4. Language features
2.5. Scripts
2.6. Summary
3. PowerShell toolkit
3.1. Eureka 2
3.2. Using .NET
3.3. Using COM
3.4. Using ADSI
3.5. Using WMI
3.6. Summary
4. Automating administration
4.1. Benefits of automation
4.2. Administration styles
4.3. Development for administrators
4.4. Best practice
4.5. Automation toolkit
4.6. Securing PowerShell
4.7. Summary
Part 2 Working with people
5. User accounts
5.1. Automating user account management
5.2. Local users and groups
Technique 1 User creation
Technique 2 Group creation
Technique 3 Group membership
5.3. Active Directory users
Technique 4 User creation
Technique 5 User creation (bulk)
Technique 6 User modification
Technique 7 Finding users
Technique 8 Enabling and disabling accounts
Technique 9 Moving accounts
Technique 10 Last logon time
Technique 11 Password expiry
Technique 12 Account expiry
5.4. Active Directory groups
Technique 13 Group creation
Technique 14 Changing membership
Technique 15 Changing scope
Technique 16 Finding group members
Technique 17 Finding a user’s group membership
5.5. Summary
6. Mailboxes
6.1. Automating mailbox management
Technique 18 Create a mailbox
6.2. Enabling mail
Technique 19 Mailboxes
Technique 20 Mail-enabled
Technique 21 Contact
6.3. Modifying mailboxes
Technique 22 Mailbox size limits
Technique 23 Enabling IMAP
Technique 24 Enabling POP
Technique 25 Enabling OWA
Technique 26 Adding an email address
Technique 27 Hiding an address from the address list
Technique 28 Moving a mailbox
Technique 29 Disabling mail
Technique 30 Reconnecting a mailbox
6.4. Distribution groups
Technique 31 Creating a distribution group
Technique 32 Mail-enabling a group
Technique 33 Dynamic distribution group
Technique 34 View distribution group membership
Technique 35 Modify distribution group membership
6.5. Mailbox statistics
Technique 36 Determining the largest mailboxes
Technique 37 Reporting on mailbox sizes
6.6. Deleting mailboxes
Technique 38 Deleting a mailbox
Technique 39 Purging a mailbox
6.7. Summary
7. Desktop
7.1. Automating desktop configuration
7.2. Machine configuration
Technique 40 System configuration
Technique 41 Discovering the operating system
Technique 42 Discovering service packs on the OS
Technique 43 Hotfixes
Technique 44 Listing installed software
Technique 45 Monitoring free disk space
Technique 46 Renaming a computer
Technique 47 Restarting a computer
7.3. User features
Technique 48 Minimizing windows
Technique 49 Desktop contents
Technique 50 Adding a file to the desktop
Technique 51 Listing cookies
Technique 52 Viewing recycle bin contents
Technique 53 Emptying the recycle bin
Technique 54 Sending a printer test page
Technique 55 Printer drivers
7.4. Office applications
Technique 56 Creating an Excel spreadsheet
Technique 57 Adding data to a spreadsheet
Technique 58 Opening a CSV file in Excel
Technique 59 Creating and writing to a Word document
Technique 60 Creating a configuration report
7.5. Summary
Part 3 Working with servers
8. Windows servers
8.1. Automating server administration
8.2. Services and processes
Technique 61 Service health check
Technique 62 Managing services
Technique 63 Managing processes
Technique 64 Launching processes
8.3. Filesystem
Technique 65 Creating folders
Technique 66 Creating files
Technique 67 Reading files
Technique 68 Searching files
Technique 69 Searching for files
8.4. Registry
Technique 70 Accessing the registry
Technique 71 Reading registry data
Technique 72 Creating registry entries
Technique 73 Managing registry data
8.5. Event logs
Technique 74 Reading event logs
Technique 75 Exporting logs
Technique 76 Creating an event log
Technique 77 Creating events
Technique 78 Managing event logs
8.6. Summary
9. DNS
9.1. Automating DNS administration
9.2. DNS server
Technique 79 Enable remote administration
Technique 80 View server configuration
Technique 81 Configuring round robin
Technique 82 Configuring conditional forwarding
Technique 83 Clearing the server cache
9.3. DNS zones
Technique 84 Creating a DNS zone
Technique 85 Viewing zone configuration
Technique 86 Viewing zone contents
Technique 87 Deleting a DNS zone
9.4. DNS records
Technique 88 Creating DNS A records
Technique 89 Creating DNS AAAA records
Technique 90 Creating DNS MX records
Technique 91 Creating DNS CNAME records
Technique 92 Creating DNS PTR records
Technique 93 Querying DNS records
Technique 94 Deleting DNS records
9.5. Client settings
Technique 95 IP address configuration
Technique 96 Setting an IP address
Technique 97 Testing IP connectivity
9.6. Summary
10. Active Directory structure
10.1. Automating Active Directory administration
10.2. Schema
Technique 98 Schema version
Technique 99 Forest and domain level
Technique 100 Default display name
10.3. Organizational units
Technique 101 Creating an OU
Technique 102 Bulk creation and nesting
Technique 103 Listing OUs in a domain
Technique 104 Discovering child objects
Technique 105 Moving an OU
Technique 106 Deleting an OU
10.4. Group Policies
Technique 107 Creating a GPO
Technique 108 Linking a GPO
Technique 109 Listing GPOs
Technique 110 Listing GPO contents
Technique 111 GPO backup
10.5. Protection and recovery
Technique 112 Protection from accidental deletion
Technique 113 Object recovery
10.6. Summary
11. Active Directory topology
11.1. Automating AD topology administration
11.2. Domain controllers
Technique 114 Discovering domain controllers
Technique 115 Discovering global catalog servers
Technique 116 Promoting to a global catalog server
Technique 117 Discovering FSMO roles
Technique 118 Transferring FSMO roles
Technique 119 Monitor replication
Technique 120 Triggering replication
11.3. Sites
Technique 121 Listing sites
Technique 122 Creating a site
Technique 123 Modifying a site
Technique 124 Deleting a site
11.4. Subnets
Technique 125 Listing subnets
Technique 126 Creating a subnet
Technique 127 Modifying a subnet
Technique 128 Deleting a subnet
11.5. Site links
Technique 129 Listing site links
Technique 130 Creating a site link
Technique 131 Deleting a site link
Technique 132 Determining replication schedules
Technique 133 Setting replication schedules
11.6. Summary
12. Exchange Server 2007 and 2010
12.1. Automating Exchange Server 2007 administration
Technique 134 Exchange Server health
Technique 135 Exchange organization
Technique 136 Exchange Servers
12.2. Data stores
Technique 137 Creating storage groups
Technique 138 Creating databases
Technique 139 Mailbox distribution
Technique 140 Distributing mailboxes
Technique 141 Moving a database
Technique 142 Removing a database
12.3. Policies
Technique 143 Email address
Technique 144 Transport rules
Technique 145 Attachments
Technique 146 Journal rules
12.4. Certificates
Technique 147 Viewing certificates
Technique 148 Self-signed certificates
Technique 149 Third-party certificates
12.5. Resource mailboxes
Technique 150 Creating a resource mailbox
Technique 151 Viewing resource mailboxes
Technique 152 Calendar settings
12.6. Exchange Server 2010
Technique 153 Remote capabilities
12.7. Summary
13. IIS 7 and XML
13.1. Automating IIS 7 administration
Technique 154 PowerShell remoting
13.2. Websites and application pools
Technique 155 Viewing websites
Technique 156 Controlling websites
Technique 157 Creating an application pool
Technique 158 Controlling an application pool
Technique 159 Modifying website configuration
Technique 160 Removing a website and application pool
Technique 161 Configuring a new website on multiple machines
13.3. Web applications and virtual directories
Technique 162 Creating a web application
Technique 163 Add a virtual directory
Technique 164 Removing virtual directories and web applications
13.4. XML and configuration files
Technique 165 Persisting objects
Technique 166 Reading XML
Technique 167 Backing up the IIS configuration
Technique 168 Reading web configuration files
Technique 169 Modifying web configuration files
Technique 170 Creating HTML
13.5. Summary
14. SQL Server
14.1. Automating SQL Server administration
14.2. Server administration
Technique 171 Checking service health
Technique 172 Viewing the server version
Technique 173 Viewing server configuration
Technique 174 Modifying the server configuration
Technique 175 Network configuration
Technique 176 Viewing performance counters
14.3. Database administration
Technique 177 Finding databases
Technique 178 Viewing space used
Technique 179 Creating a job
14.4. Configuration database
Technique 180 Creating a database
Technique 181 Creating a table
Technique 182 Modifying a table
Technique 183 Adding keys
Technique 184 Populating a table
Technique 185 Reading data
Technique 186 Modifying data
Technique 187 Deleting data
Technique 188 Backing up a database
14.5. Summary
15. PowerShell innovations
15.1. PowerShell jobs
Technique 189 Creating a job
Technique 190 Viewing jobs
Technique 191 Viewing data
Technique 192 Deleting a job
15.2. Windows 2008 R2
Technique 193 Modules
Technique 194 Server Manager
Technique 195 Troubleshooting
Technique 196 Best practice
Technique 197 Active Directory provider
Technique 198 Creating an AD drive
15.3. Virtualization
Technique 199 Discovering Hyper-V functions
Technique 200 Virtual machine status
Technique 201 VM uptime
Technique 202 Checking disk status
Technique 203 Checking disk usage
Technique 204 Compacting disks
15.4. PowerShell in the cloud
15.5. Summary
afterword PowerShell is for you
Appendix A: PowerShell reference
Appendix B: Modules and advanced functions
Appendix C: PowerShell events
Appendix D: Reference data
Technique 205 Understanding the user account control values
Appendix E: Useful links
index
About the Technology
PowerShell is a powerful scripting language that lets you automate Windows processes you now manage by hand. It will make you a better administrator.