Windows PowerShell Unleashed

by Tyson Kopczynski, Pete Handley, Marco Shaw

Overview

PowerShell gives Windows administrators immense power to automate and customize virtually any administrative task–saving time, increasing productivity, and giving you unprecedented flexibility. PowerShell 2.0 adds important new features that offer even greater control over Windows environments. Windows PowerShell Unleashed will not only give you deep mastery over PowerShell but also a greater understanding of the features being introduced in PowerShell 2.0–and show you how to use it to solve your challenges in your production environment.

The authors begin by systematically illuminating PowerShell’s core concepts and techniques, helping you leverage whatever Windows scripting experience you may already have. Next, using complete, easy-to-adapt examples, they show how to use PowerShell to manage file systems, permissions, the Registry, WMI objects, Active Directory, Exchange Server, and many other elements of the Windows environment.

More than half of this edition’s material and examples have been completely rewritten for PowerShell 2.0, and the authors have added seven entirely new chapters–covering security, PowerShell application development, Systems Center Operations Manager 2007, and much more. Whatever Windows systems you manage, Windows PowerShell Unleashed contains the scripts and techniques you need to manage them far more effectively.

• Install, configure, and customize PowerShell 2.0 and master its command line interface
• Discover proven best practices for PowerShell scripting
• Make the most of PowerShell cmdlets–especially the new cmdlets included in PowerShell 2.0
• Leverage PowerShell’s deep .NET Framework integration
• Secure your scripts using code signing, execution policies, and PowerShell’s built-in security
• Use custom script functions to manage permissions more efficiently
• Control the registry locally and remotely and use PowerShell’s powerful new registry transactions
• Use PowerShell as a management interface
• Automate Exchange Server 2007 administrative tasks
• Automate the management of Microsoft’s new System Center Operations Manager 2007
• Preview the forthcoming Graphical PowerShell scripting environment
• Understand how to manage Active Directory using PowerShell
• Master using PowerShell with WMI
• Learn PowerShell 2.0 remoting

Download all examples and source code presented in this book from informit.com/title/9780672329883.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780672329883
Publisher:	Sams
Publication date:	12/19/2008
Series:	Unleashed Series
Edition description:	Second
Pages:	510
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

With more than nine years of experience in the information technology sector, Tyson Kopczynski has become a specialist in Active Directory, Group Policy, Windows scripting, Windows Rights Management Services, PKI, and information technology security practices. Tyson has been a contributing author for such books as Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Unleashed and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Unleashed (R2 Edition). In addition, he has written detailed technical papers and guides covering various in-the-field technologies he works with extensively. As a consultant at Convergent Computing (CCO), Tyson has been able to work with the next generation of Microsoft technologies since their inception and played a key role in expanding scripting and development practices at CCO. Tyson also holds the SANS Security Essentials Certification (GSEC), Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) Security certification, CompTIA Security+ certification, and SANS Certified Incident Handler (GCIH) certification.

Pete Handley has more than 15 years of experience in IT, including extensive knowledge of Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise messaging, and Novell Directory Services. He has been a contributing author for Microsoft Exchange 2003 Unleashed, and Windows PowerShell Unleashed. Pete specializes in Visual Basic and PowerShell scripting and is a subject matter expert on the integration and migration of Novell technologies to Microsoft technologies. Pete holds the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer 2003 (MCSE) certification, the Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP) certification, the Novell Certified Directory Engineer (CDE) certification, and the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.

Marco Shaw is an IT system analyst for a Canadian telecommunications company. He has been working in the IT industry for more than ten years, and he recently received a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for his involvement in the Windows PowerShell community. He is the assistant community director of the new PowerShell Community Web site at http://www.powershellcommunity.org. His primary blog site is http://marcoshaw.blogspot.com. Marco holds a RedHat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification, Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) certification, and a bachelor of science degree from the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick, Canada.

Read an Excerpt

IntroductionIntroduction

Well, we are back for yet another PowerShell Unleashed book. However, unlike just a simple revision of the existing book, which most likely would have resulted in only just a few updated chapters, I decided to instead treat this release in the series as almost a completely new book. Granted, the Community Technology Release (CTP) of PowerShell 2.0 did help drive the need to update all aspects of this edition. Nonetheless, there was also a lot of feedback (some positive and some negative) about how the first book could be improved.

So, based on this feedback and the looming PowerShell 2.0 feature list, I set about making a major revision to the book. To start off right, I decided to address how the PowerShell language was covered in the series. After all, the first book in the series was script heavy, but lacking when it came to explaining some of the basics about the PowerShell language. Additionally, we wanted to go into greater detail about how PowerShell could be used to manage Windows resources while further addressing some of the finer technical details of PowerShell’s architecture. Needless to say, all of these changes required a reorganization to not only the layout of the book, but also its size.

The bottom line, in this new edition, there are six completely new chapters with the rest of the existing chapters either being extensively rewritten or updated. With all this extra content, the book needed additional authors to jump on board and help pound out the book’s technical prose. Thus, joining me on this book as coauthors were Marco Shaw (PowerShell MVP) and Peter Handley (contributing author from the first book). Together, Marco and Peter made great additions to this book and infused fantastic ideas together with even better content—all while writing their chapters.

Finally, the primary goal of this book was to start down the path of explaining the features found in the future 2.0 release of PowerShell. After all, with the 2.0 CTP release late last year, the PowerShell product team ignited our imaginations with the possibilities for what might come down the road (remoting). So, we simply had to do our best to explain the new features. However, given that the 2.0 version is still just a CTP and not a beta, we also walked down a slippery slope, considering that some of these features may not exist in the PowerShell 2.0 RTM. Naturally, like a good reporter might do, we did our best. In the end, we tried to include 2.0 content where applicable while also dedicating an entire chapter to only 2.0 features deemed too important to ignore or voted most likely to survive the beta.

We hope our efforts result in a more comprehensive PowerShell book that can act as both a reference for the current PowerShell 1.0 release while also providing insight into where PowerShell might go with the 2.0 release.

Who Is This Book’s Intended Audience?

This Unleashed book is intended for an intermediate level of systems administrators who have invested time and energy learning Windows scripting and want to translate those skills into PowerShell skills while learning how it can meet their real-world needs. This book has been written so that anyone with a scripting background can understand what PowerShell is and how to use it, but by no means is it meant to be a complete PowerShell reference. Instead, think of it as a resource for learning how PowerShell can be applied in your own environment. Therefore, the structure of this book reflects that focus by including numerous command examples and working scripts.

How This Book Is Organized

The book is divided into the following three parts:

Part I, “Introduction to PowerShell”—In this section, you are introduced to PowerShell and some of its internal workings. Topics covered include items such as why PowerShell came into existence, general concepts about PowerShell and how it is constructed, and an in-depth review of PowerShell security.

Part II, “Using PowerShell”—In this section, you learn more about the PowerShell scripting language, how to use PowerShell to manage Windows resources, and important best practices to follow when using PowerShell. Specific topics covered range from working with the Windows file system, the Registry, permissions, strings, and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to understanding PowerShell language concepts such as loops, functions, arrays, and so on.

Part III, “Managing Microsoft Technologies with PowerShell”—In this section, you learn how PowerShell can be used to manage Microsoft technologies. Topics covered include using PowerShell to manage Active Directory, Exchange Server 2007, and Systems Center Operations Manager 2007. Additionally, you learn how to programmatically use PowerShell to manage systems and gain insight and understanding into important PowerShell 2.0 features.
Conventions Used in This Book

Commands, scripts, and anything related to code are presented in a special monospace computer typeface. Bold indicates key terms being defined, and italic is used to indicate variables or for emphasis. Great care has been taken to be consistent in letter case, naming, and structure, with the goal of making command and script examples more readable. In addition, you might find instances in which commands or scripts haven’t been fully optimized. This lack of optimization is for your benefit, as it makes those code samples more intelligible and follows the practice of writing code for others to read.

Other standards used throughout this book are as follows:

Black Code Boxes

These code boxes contain commands that run in a PowerShell or Bash shell session.

Gray Code Boxes

These code boxes contain source code from scripts, configuration files, or other items that aren’t run directly in a shell session.

Please note that although PowerShell can display text in multiple colors, all script output from the examples is printed here in black and white. If you run one of the example scripts on your lab system, the text will be displayed in color.

CAUTION - Cautions alert you to actions that should be avoided.

NOTE - Notes give you additional background information about a topic being discussed.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Introduction to PowerShell

1 Introduction to Shells 7

What Is a Shell? 7

Basic Shell Use 8

Basic Shell Scripts 11

A Shell History 15

Enter PowerShell 16

New Capabilities in PowerShell 2.0 CTP2 18

Summary 19

2 Basic PowerShell Concepts 21

Getting Started 21

PowerShell 1.0 RTW 22

PowerShell 2.0 CTP2 23

Before Installing PowerShell 2.0 CTP2 23

Downloading and Installing PowerShell 2.0 25

Understanding the Command-Line Interface (CLI) 28

Navigating the CLI 30

Tab Key Auto-Completion in PowerShell 30

Understanding Cmdlets 32

Common Parameters 33

Getting Help 34

Get-Help 34

Cmdlet Help Topics 36

Get-Command 36

Understanding Variables 39

Built-In Variables 40

Understanding Aliases 42

Discovering Alias Cmdlets 43

Creating Persistent Aliases 44

Creating Your First Script 45

Summary 47

3 Advanced PowerShell Concepts 49

Working with the .NET Framework 51

Using the New-Object Cmdlet 53

Understanding Assemblies 54

Understanding Reflection 56

Understanding the Pipeline 59

Powerful One-Liners 63

The Extended Type System (ETS) 65

Understanding the Add-Member Cmdlet 67

Understanding the types.ps1xml File 68

Working with Types 68

Type Accelerators 71

Summary 72

4 Other Key PowerShell Concepts 73

Formatting Output 73

The Formatting Cmdlets 74

PowerShell’s Formatting under the Hood 74

Customizing Output Formats 75

Providers 79

Accessing Drives and Data 82

Mounting a Drive 85

Profiles 87

The All Users Profile 87

The All Users Host-Specific Profile 87

The Current User’s Profile 88

The Current User’s Host-Specific Profile 88

Scopes 88

The Global Scope 88

The Local Scope 89

The Script Scope 89

The Private Scope 90

Dot Sourcing 91

Library Files 91

Summary 97

5 Understanding PowerShell Security 99

PowerShell Default Security 100

Execution Policies 100

Restricted 100

AllSigned 101

RemoteSigned 101

Unrestricted 103

Setting the Execution Policy 103

Code Signing 105

What Is Code Signing? 106

Obtaining a Code-Signing Certificate 107

The PVK Digital Certificate Files Importer 112

Signing PowerShell Scripts 112

Verifying Digital Signatures 113

Signed Code Distribution 115

Enterprise Code Distribution 117

Public Code Distribution 117

PowerShell Security Best Practices 118

Digitally Sign PowerShell Scripts and Configuration Files 118

Never Set Execution Policies to Unrestricted 118

Try to Run Scripts with the Minimum Required Rights 118

PowerShell 2.0 CTP2 and Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 119

Configuring WinRM 119

Working with Windows Remote Shell (WinRS) 120

Configuring WinRM and WinRS Settings Through Group Policy 122

Summary 125

Part II Using PowerShell

6 The PowerShell Language 129

Expressions and Operators 129

Expressions 130

Operators 130

Escape Sequences 143

Error Handling 145

Methods for Handling Errors in PowerShell 146

Managing Elements with Arrays 151

Creating Functions 157

Understanding Filters 163

Controlling Script Flow with Loops 164

Using Logic and Making Decisions 167

Building Scripts with Scriptblocks 170

Summary 172

7 PowerShell and Strings 173

System.String 173

[String] Type Accelerator 174

Select-String Cmdlet 175

Simple Operations 177

System.String Members 178

Contains Method 180

EndsWith Method 180

Insert Method 181

Remove Method 181

Replace Method 182

Split Method 182

StartsWith Method 182

SubString Method 183

ToLower Method 183

ToString Method 183

ToUpper Method 184

Trim Method 184

Length Property 185

Wildcards

Comparison Operators 190

Regular Expressions 191

Match/NotMatch Comparison Operator 191

Replace Operators 192

[RegEx] Type Accelerator 193

2.0 CTP: Join and Split 194

Join Operator 194

Split Operator 195

Format Operator 195

Summary 196

8 PowerShell and the File System 197

Core Cmdlets 197

Navigating the File System 198

Get-Location Cmdlet 198

Set-Location Cmdlet 198

Push-Location Cmdlet 199

Pop-Location Cmdlet 199

Managing Drives 200

Adding a Drive 200

Removing a Drive 200

Removing a Drive 201

Managing Folders 201

Adding a Folder 201

Removing a Folder 202

Moving a Folder 202

Renaming a Folder 203

Testing for a Folder 204

Managing Files 205

Creating a File 205

Removing a File 205

Moving a File 206

Renaming a File 206

Getting the Content of a File 206

Setting the Content of a File 206

Appending Content to a File 207

Searching for Content in a File 207

Testing for a File 208

Working with XML Files 208

Creating an XML File 209

Appending an XML File 210

Modifying an XML File 211

Deleting from an XML File 212

Loading an XML File 212

Processing an XML File 213

Using Import-CliXml and Export-CliXml 213

Working with CSV Files 214

Writing to a CSV File 216

Scenario: Automating File System Management 216

Summary 225

9 PowerShell and Permissions 227

WSH and Permissions 227

SubInACL Functions 228

PowerShell and Permissions 231

PowerShell Functions 233

Summary 238

10 PowerShell and the Registry 239

Registry Management in PowerShell 239

Adding Other Hives 242

Registry Transactions 243

Getting Started 243

New Cmdlets 244

How It Works 245

Example: Starting and Committing a Transaction 245

Example: Starting and Undoing a Transaction 247

Example: Performing a Transaction That Has Errors 248

Simplifying Registry Management 249

The LibraryRegistry.ps1 Script 249

Using 2.0 CTP Features 262

Scenario Details 262

Running the Commands 263

Cleaning Up 264

Summary 265

11 PowerShell and WMI 267

Comparing WMI Usage Between WSH and PowerShell 269

Using WMI in WSH 269

Using WMI in PowerShell 271

Working with WMI 274

The PowerShell WMI Explorer 278

Understanding Providers 278

Understanding WQL 278

PowerShell 2.0 Changes 280

AuthenticationLevel and ImpersonationLevel 280

Set-WMIInstance Cmdlet 282

Invoke-WMIMethod Cmdlet 283

Remove-WMIObject Cmdlet 284

Scripting Scenario: MonitorMSVS.ps1 285

Summary 291

12 PowerShell Scripting Best Practices 293

PowerShell Configuration and Usage Recommendations 293

Digitally Sign PowerShell Scripts and Configuration Files 294

Never Set Execution Policies to Unrestricted 294

Try to Run Scripts with the Minimum Required Rights 294

Centrally Manage PowerShell Remoting Security Settings in Your Enterprise 295

Script Development 295

Treat Scripting Projects as Actual Projects 295

Use a Development Life Cycle Model 296

Design and Prototype Your Scripts by Using Pseudocode 297

Gather Script Requirements Effectively 297

Don’t Develop Scripts in a Production Environment 297

Test, Test, Test 298

Keep Your Scripts Professional 298

Script Design 299

Put Configuration Information at the Beginning of Scripts 299

Use Comments 300

Avoid Hard-Coding Configuration Information 300

When Necessary, Use Variables in One Place 301

Provide Instructions 301

Perform Validity Checking on Required Parameters 302

Make Scripts and Functions Reusable 303

Use Descriptive Names Rather Than Aliases 303

Provide Status Information for Script Users 304

Use the WhatIf and Confirm Parameters 305

Standards for Scripting 306

This Book’s Scripting Standards 307

PowerShell Community Scripting Standards 308

Summary 311

Part III Managing Microsoft Technologies with PowerShell

13 PowerShell as a Management Interface 315

Getting Started 315

Definitions 316

The PowerShell SDK 316

Installation Instructions 317

Creating a Custom Cmdlet 320

Naming Conventions 320

Setting Up a Project 321

Writing the Code 322

Creating a Custom Snap-In 323

Creating Custom Parameters 327

Advanced Parameter Functionality 329

Arrays 329

Position 330

Mandatory 331

HelpMessage 331

Alias 332

Input Validation 332

ValidateLength 332

ValidateRange 333

ValidatePattern 333

ValidateSet 334

ValidateCount 334

Supporting Get-Help 335

Header 335

Name and Synopsis 335

Syntax 336

Detailed Description 337

Parameters 337

Input Type 338

Return Type 338

Notes 338

Related Links 339

Output 340

Runspaces 341

Scenario: Geocoding in MMC 3.0 344

Get-Coordinates Cmdlet 344

Get-Coordinates User Control 347

Get-Coordinates MMC 349

Summary 352

14 PowerShell and Active Directory 353

Understanding the Interfaces 353

Managing Active Directory Using WSH 355

Managing Active Directory Using PowerShell 356

Managing Objects 361

Binding 361

Working with Objects 363

Examples 365

Searching for Objects 367

SearchRoot 367

Filter 367

SearchScope 371

PageSize 371

SizeLimit 371

PropertiesToLoad 372

Putting It All Together 372

Scripting Scenario: ChangeLocalAdminPassword.ps1 373

Summary 386

15 PowerShell and Exchange Server 2007 387

Accessing the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) 388

Using the Exchange Management Shell 389

Working with Servers 390

Working with Storage Groups 391

Working with Databases 392

Working with Recipients 394

Scripting Scenario: GetDatabaseSizeReport.ps1 397

Scripting Scenario: GetEvent1221Info.ps1 406

Scripting Scenario: ProvisionExchangeUsers.ps1 416

Summary 423

16 PowerShell and System Center Operations Manager 2007 425

Operations Manager PowerShell Integration 425

The Command Shell 426

The Object Tree 427

Getting Help 431

Operations Manager 2007 PowerShell Scripts 432

Agent Cmdlets 432

get-Agent 432

install-agent 434

uninstall-agent 435

Task Cmdlets 436

get-Task 437

start-Task 438

get-TaskResult 439

Management Server Cmdlets 441

get-ManagementServer 441

set-ManagementServer 442

get-DefaultSetting 443

set-DefaultSetting 444

Default Setting Paths 445

Maintenance Mode Cmdlets 447

new-MaintenanceWindow 448

get-MaintenanceWindow 449

set-MaintenanceWindow 451

Comprehensive Operations Manager Cmdlet List 452

Get/Set Cmdlets 452

Add/Remove Cmdlets 454

Enable/Disable Cmdlets 455

Install/Uninstall Cmdlets 455

Various Cmdlets 455

Summary 456

17 PowerShell 2.0 Features 457

Remoting 458

Understanding Remoting 459

Executing Commands on a Remote Machine 460

Background Jobs 466

Graphical PowerShell 468

Script Cmdlets 469

Out-GridView Cmdlet 471

Script Internationalization 472

DATA Sections 473

Modules 475

Script Debugging 475

Summary 477

A The PSShell.ps1 Script 479

Component One: Shell Replacement 480

Step One: Creating the PSShell Secure Kiosk GPO 481

Step Two: Configuring the Windows Shell Replacement Settings 481

Component Two: PSShell.exe 482

Component Three: PSShell.ps1 484

Putting It All Together 489

Index 491

Preface

Introduction

Well, we are back for yet another PowerShell Unleashed book. However, unlike just a simple revision of the existing book, which most likely would have resulted in only just a few updated chapters, I decided to instead treat this release in the series as almost a completely new book. Granted, the Community Technology Release (CTP) of PowerShell 2.0 did help drive the need to update all aspects of this edition. Nonetheless, there was also a lot of feedback (some positive and some negative) about how the first book could be improved.

So, based on this feedback and the looming PowerShell 2.0 feature list, I set about making a major revision to the book. To start off right, I decided to address how the PowerShell language was covered in the series. After all, the first book in the series was script heavy, but lacking when it came to explaining some of the basics about the PowerShell language. Additionally, we wanted to go into greater detail about how PowerShell could be used to manage Windows resources while further addressing some of the finer technical details of PowerShell’s architecture. Needless to say, all of these changes required a reorganization to not only the layout of the book, but also its size.

The bottom line, in this new edition, there are six completely new chapters with the rest of the existing chapters either being extensively rewritten or updated. With all this extra content, the book needed additional authors to jump on board and help pound out the book’s technical prose. Thus, joining me on this book as coauthors were Marco Shaw (PowerShell MVP) and Peter Handley (contributing author from the first book). Together, Marco and Peter made great additions to this book and infused fantastic ideas together with even better content—all while writing their chapters.

Finally, the primary goal of this book was to start down the path of explaining the features found in the future 2.0 release of PowerShell. After all, with the 2.0 CTP release late last year, the PowerShell product team ignited our imaginations with the possibilities for what might come down the road (remoting). So, we simply had to do our best to explain the new features. However, given that the 2.0 version is still just a CTP and not a beta, we also walked down a slippery slope, considering that some of these features may not exist in the PowerShell 2.0 RTM. Naturally, like a good reporter might do, we did our best. In the end, we tried to include 2.0 content where applicable while also dedicating an entire chapter to only 2.0 features deemed too important to ignore or voted most likely to survive the beta.

We hope our efforts result in a more comprehensive PowerShell book that can act as both a reference for the current PowerShell 1.0 release while also providing insight into where PowerShell might go with the 2.0 release.

Who Is This Book’s Intended Audience?

This Unleashed book is intended for an intermediate level of systems administrators who have invested time and energy learning Windows scripting and want to translate those skills into PowerShell skills while learning how it can meet their real-world needs. This book has been written so that anyone with a scripting background can understand what PowerShell is and how to use it, but by no means is it meant to be a complete PowerShell reference. Instead, think of it as a resource for learning how PowerShell can be applied in your own environment. Therefore, the structure of this book reflects that focus by including numerous command examples and working scripts.

How This Book Is Organized

The book is divided into the following three parts:

• Part I, “Introduction to PowerShell”—In this section, you are introduced to PowerShell and some of its internal workings. Topics covered include items such as why PowerShell came into existence, general concepts about PowerShell and how it is constructed, and an in-depth review of PowerShell security.
• Part II, “Using PowerShell”—In this section, you learn more about the PowerShell scripting language, how to use PowerShell to manage Windows resources, and important best practices to follow when using PowerShell. Specific topics covered range from working with the Windows file system, the Registry, permissions, strings, and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to understanding PowerShell language concepts such as loops, functions, arrays, and so on.
• Part III, “Managing Microsoft Technologies with PowerShell”—In this section, you learn how PowerShell can be used to manage Microsoft technologies. Topics covered include using PowerShell to manage Active Directory, Exchange Server 2007, and Systems Center Operations Manager 2007. Additionally, you learn how to programmatically use PowerShell to manage systems and gain insight and understanding into important PowerShell 2.0 features.

Conventions Used in This Book

Commands, scripts, and anything related to code are presented in a special monospace computer typeface. Bold indicates key terms being defined, and italic is used to indicate variables or for emphasis. Great care has been taken to be consistent in letter case, naming, and structure, with the goal of making command and script examples more readable. In addition, you might find instances in which commands or scripts haven’t been fully optimized. This lack of optimization is for your benefit, as it makes those code samples more intelligible and follows the practice of writing code for others to read.

Other standards used throughout this book are as follows:

Black Code Boxes

These code boxes contain commands that run in a PowerShell or Bash shell session.

Gray Code Boxes

These code boxes contain source code from scripts, configuration files, or other items that aren’t run directly in a shell session.

Please note that although PowerShell can display text in multiple colors, all script output from the examples is printed here in black and white. If you run one of the example scripts on your lab system, the text will be displayed in color.

---

CAUTION - Cautions alert you to actions that should be avoided.

---

---

NOTE - Notes give you additional background information about a topic being discussed.

---

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.