PowerScripting Podcast

A Podcast about Windows PowerShell.
Listen:

In This Episode

Tonight on the PowerScripting Podcast we talk to James Hamilton of Microsoft and MVP Thomas Lee about using PowerShell on the Hotmail Team.

News

Before you acquire power, you must acquire knowledge – and Quest Software has what you need! In Jeffery Hicks’ e-book, “Managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell,” learn how PowerShell helps you master local accounts and groups, password management, security and permissions and much, much more. You’ll also learn about the PowerShell extras and out-of-the-box features that will help you control Active Directory. Don’t wait – visit quest.com/powershellbook to register for your free copy or quest.com/powerguipro and see why PowerShell and Quest PowerGUI are the ultimate Windows management tools.

• Sapien announces Visual PowerShell 2011. Q&A
• Tweet from @jaykul: Save 37% on @Manning Books (including eBooks). Get your Windows #PowerShell in Action or PowerShell in Practice …http://bit.ly/97qQ3D
• Karl Prosser is working on portable PowerShell ISE
• Cool new PowerGUI stuff
  • Publish scripts to PoshCode from PowerGui
  • Automatic alias expansion
• Listener @sqlVariant just had his talk accepted to the SQL PASS summit! Title is: The Dirty Dozen: PowerShell Scripts for the Busy DBA
• Coming soon: VMware vSphere Pro Series 2 featuring PowerCLI goodies from Hal!
• User group news:
  • Atlanta: July 20th
  • SQLSaturday #49 will be held Oct 16, 2010 at Seminole State College. They are actively seeking PowerShell papers, submit yours today! Due date 7/16.

Interview

Links:

• Hotmail tips the scales
• A CONVERSATION WITH PHIL SMOOT – THE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING A MEGASERVICE
• RichCopy
• jEdit

Questions:

• SQLvariant: ##What’s left of Windows Live now that Bing is out?
• AaronHoover: ## chimed in a bit late and the Linux comment, but what % of management is done with PowerShell now?
• esarakaitis: ##we have over 3,000 vm’s we manage via powershell, we find that cmd-lets take too much time as compared to direct API calls, how do you handle it?
• philiplavoie: ## will there be a powershell command line tool such as googleCL for hotmail/live mail done in powershell for us users? i.e http://code.google.com/p/googlecl/
• pcgeek86: ## Do they use code signing certificates to sign all their scripts?
• SQLvariant: ## Does the Hotmail team go beyond using PowerShell to just script?  Do they make interfaces that have PowerShell underneath like SCVMM?
• AaronHoover: ## primarily monitor with WMI, or more?
• SQLvariant: ##Does the team build any internal GUI tools that are built via PowerShell and/or have PowerShell underneath
• esarakaitis: ##do you use service accounts? if so, how do you manage passwords with your powershell scripts?
• AaronHoover: ##piggybacking on esarakaitis ? — Do you usse 2k8 MSA accounts for service passwords?
• SQLvariant: ##Can you expand on the “Visualization through HTML.”
• philiplavoie: ## do they use powershell for any automated testing of new depoys / releases? load tests, scalability, failover, etc?
• glnsize: ## was the switch to powershell a directive, or was it natural.
• SQLvariant: @bj11 ## doe you use PowerShell in any of those XML generation tasks or rendering steps?
• glnsize: ## when can I expect to see a hotmail provider 🙂
• SQLvariant: @bj11 ##can you speak to any chalenges in working with large amounts of XML with PowerShell.  Do you run the scripts to gather from your desktops or a big server?
• esarakaitis: ##what complications have you encountered using powershell? i know using a code repository was a stumbling block for us
• glnsize: ## given your scale what’s your opinion on v2 remoting.  have you used it and how has it performed for you…  (arrived late sorry if already covered)
• SQLvariant: ##any best practices he wants to mention when dealing / parsing large amounts of XML?
• esarakaitis: ##whats your favorite PS editor? (please say notepad++)
• AaronHoover: ## is the WMI the primary way of gathering data?
• esarakaitis: ##any hot PS profile tips?
• esarakaitis: ##do you find yourself using built in cmd-lets or writing custom functions, etc..
• philiplavoie: ## what limitations have you guys found with PS> where you’ve just needed to go another route?
• AaronHoover: ## earlier there was a comment of *only* about 200 servers at a time, why not more?
• Toshana: ## Are you using the readily available cmdlets, or custom written cmdlets or imported .net assemblies 
• AaronHoover: ## thoughts to ‘sell’ ITIL when the org ‘looked’ at it and believe it is not for us?
• SQLvariant: ##Bank of America had a comercial stating that they had *at leat* 4 data centers staffed and capable of running the whole company at any given time…
• SQLvariant: ##How do you go about managing whose controlling what with which script in a scenario like that?

Superhero: superman / flight

This segment is brought to you by SAPIEN Technologies.

• Checking free diskspace on Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) with PowerShell: http://bit.ly/b1AMR7
• @beefarino posted his “PowerShell as a Tools Platform” slide deck from Codestock 2010.
• Inspecting Deleted AD Objects before Restore
• Ed Wilson spoke to the Tampa PowerShell User Group today (7/8) about best practices and you can access the Live Meeting recording here.
• cspshell: 21 User Information Commands to Run Before You Die http://bit.ly/9QJ16l
• James O’Neil explorers the Image module from the PowerShellPack

This segment is brought to you by Serverfault.com!

• Pull DNS data with PowerShell
• Add help to your functions

A Podcast about Windows PowerShell.
Listen:

A Podcast about Windows PowerShell.
Listen:

Hal recorded a podcast in front of live studio audience at CodeStock in Knoxville, TN on June 26th.

A Podcast about Windows PowerShell.
Listen:

In This Episode

Tonight on the PowerScripting Podcast we talk to Jeffrey Snover, Ed Wilson, and Bartek Bielawski, winner of the Scripting Games chat-with-Snover contest!

News

• New MVPs:
  • Ravikanth Chaganti
  • Krishna R
• PowerShell Power Users group in LinkedIn just surpassed 1,000 members
• Don Jones is doing PowerShell workshops in Philadelphia and Minneapolis this September.
• Redhat does PowerShell? Tweet from BSonPosh: Sad that RedHat does a better job of getting #Powershell than #XenServer: RedHat SDK for RHEV-M http://is.gd/cXWR7
• Chad Sakac from EMC hints that they have PowerShell support coming soon
• SQL Saturday rolls on!
  • #28 in Baton Rouge Aug 14th
  • #40 in S. Florida on July 31st
• The SQL PASS Summit will have some PowerShell goodness as well (Nov 8th in Seattle)
  • Use Powershell to get the most out of SQL Server

Interview

PowerWF is a business process automation tool based on Windows Workflow and fueled by PowerShell.  Visualize, Extend and Reuse PowerShell scripts and easily leverage the efforts of your domain experts.  You can download a 30-day trial today at PowerWF.com

Links:

• Bartek’s blog: http://become-lotr.spaces.live.com/default.aspx
• NetApp blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2010/06/16/kudos-to-netapp-for-data-ontap-powershell-toolkit.aspx

Questions:

• < philiplavoie: ## when does cmd.exe die and we only have ps>?
• < proxb: ## Its been asked about cmd.exe, so what about vbscript and its timeline? Are there plans to phase it out (or at least try to) sometime in the future?
• < mikefoley: Hey Jeffrey! I’m trying desparately to evangelize PS at (my division of company recently mentioned). There’s still vbscript development going on!!!
• rfoust: ## do any of the large MS product teams have “political power” over the direction of powershell, like maybe the exchange group? or do you really get to innovate on your own?
• ps4devs
  • < philiplavoie: ## is there work going on with the visual studio / tfs / alm teams going on for built a<censored>o be built with inherent ps> support?
  • < philiplavoie: ## hal, most of our probs are built apps via VS notbeing built for PS> interaction. may make sense to go to the crew who built the dev suite to help out the PS> cause.
• < mikefoley: Question: How much did DCL influence Powershell? (Jeffrey knows DCL :))
• < v3
  • < proxb: ## When might we see a CTP of Posh3.0 (if it is currently being worked on) and what new things will we see with it?
  • < rfoust: ## what can we look forward to in future versions of powershell? (general direction stuff)
  • < proxb: ## Are we going to see a newer version of ISE in the near future? Possibly using Intellisense and code folding?
• < rfoust: ## i’m still waiting for the “fix-myproblem -now” cmdlet.
• < finked: ## Any thoughts on LINQ and PowerShell?
• Hal: Provisioning framework?
• < ChadMiller: ##What are your thoughts on better module distribtution ala apt-get, CPAN/PPM.
• < MaxTrinidad: Question:  Any possibility to see an PS addin or integration with MSOffice?
• rfoust: ## is there a powershell compiler that will convert a script into a compiled .net program?
• < SQLvariant-1: ##How do we get a ScriptingGuys bobble-head?
• aleksandar: ## online PowerShell help topics are now very different (bugs/typos fixed) than built-in help topics. when can we get a chance to download them and use them offline as well? 
• philiplavoie: ## are internal MS SDETS using PS> to test your apps?
• SQLvariant: ##When will we be able to backup our Zune desktop software configurations with a PowerShell script 🙂

Superhero: Bartek – The Witcher