Going Crazy with Windows Azure PowerShell tonight

You’re all invited to attend FLPSUG online meeting on “Windows Azure PowerShell cmdlet” with MS Windows Azure Evangelist – Scott Klein?.

To register go here: http://flpsugmay2013online.eventbrite.com/

Don’t miss it! It will be both fun and informative.

Here’s an example of what has been trending in twitter recently.  Please notice that’s all been on Windows Azure.

Some of yesrterday (05/20/2013) “Window Azure PowerShell” links:

Automating Windows Azure Infrastructure Services (IaaS) Deployment with PowerShell – See more at:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/yungchou/archive/2013/05/20/automating-windows-azure-infrastructure-services-iaas-deployment-with-powershell.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YungChouOnHybridCloud+%28Yung+Chou+on+Hybrid+Cloud%29#sthash.ibQad0aX.dpuf

Overview of Microsoft #WindowsAzure #Powershell for automated #Cloud Services:
http://mountainss.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/overview-of-microsoft-windowsazure-powershell-for-automated-cloud-services/

PowerShell script to migrate SharePoint to Azure IaaS
http://spiffy.sg/it-pros/powshell-script-to-migrate-sharepoint-to-azure-iaas/

PowerShell script to get username and password for FTP from Microsoft Azure publish settings
http://karl-henrik.se/powershell-script-to-get-username/?utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer08a3d

Application Management-Example-Deploying a Service to Your Private Cloud (Part 1)
http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2013/04/03/application-management-example-deploying-a-service-to-your-private-cloud-part-1.aspx

Application Management-Example-Deploying a Service to Your Private Cloud (Part 2)
http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2013/04/05/application-management-example-deploying-a-service-to-your-private-cloud-part-2.aspx

Azure does Powershell too
http://www.scarydba.com/2013/05/20/azure-does-powershell-too/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HomeOfTheScaryDba+%28Home+of+the+Scary+DBA%29

Additional MSDN videos at Channel 9: MSDN Channel 9
http://channel9.msdn.com/WindowsAzure

If you missed last week Microsoft Virtual Academy on “Windows Azure for IT Professionals Jump Start”  check the recorded videos:
https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/liveevents/Windows-Azure-for-IT-Professionals?CR_CC=200206715

Sample VHD migration image PowerShell script by David Aiken:

Here’s some of my personal notes from the “Windows Azure for the IT Pro – Jump Start”

Great Sessions today under the Microsoft Virtual Academy O “Windows Azure for IT Professionals Jump Start” with David Tesar and David Aiken today.

Azure AD
1. Azure AD thru a Windows Azure VM spin off.
2. Run on Windows Azure IaaS.
3. Network Gateway need to be defined before building the VM.
4. DC VM need an addition drive to store all the NTDS databases files.
5. DC Wizard NTDS section the folders need to point to the additional VM drive (don’t pick C:\).
6. Under the directory service panel, need to add a new site to point to the Windows Azure AD site.

AD to Windows Azure AD – Synch
1. Cloud Only / No integration
2. Directory Synch – using member server (no on DC) and only one way (can’t go back). Use “DirSynch”
3. Directory and Single Sign-On

Migrating VM (VHD) to Window Azure
1. you can use a Disk2VHD. Hint: Have one network card and set to use DHCP.
2. It will copy VHD size type from Dynamic to Fixed Disk format.
3. Cloud act as a Networking boundaries.
4. Only VHD format allowed (no VHDX).
5. Don’t use Static IP Address and remove PowerShell remoting.
6. Changes to system configuration: memory, network adapters, etc.

And, there’s more I wasn’t able to attend.

Don’t be left out!  Learn PowerShell now.

PowerShell v3 fun with Get-Help and Out-GridView

PowerShell comes loaded with help documentation, and in PowerShell V3 this documentation is updated via the internet.  Now, lets have some fun with the Get-help and the updated Out-Gridview command.

The Out-Gridview cmdlet have a ‘-passthru‘ parameter that gives you the ability to select items from the popup window and the pass these values to the next command.  This is neat!!

Copy/paste the code below into your PS console to load the “Get-HelpTopics“:

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]
Function Get-HelpTopics{
## – Have fun using PassThru switch to select item(s): (PowerShell V3 feature)
$HelpNames = (GET-HELP About_*) | select name;
foreach($i in ($HelpNames | Select name | Out-GridView -PassThru))
{
$i | Select @{Label = ‘Topic Selected’; Expression = {$_.Name}};
Get-Help $i.Name -ShowWindow;
}
};
[/sourcecode]

Then, to execute type “Get-HelpTopics” and the list of topics will be displayed in a popup window.

Hold the ‘Ctrl’ key to select/mark the topics you want to read, then click the ‘OK’ button when done.

As you can see you will get a series of popup windows documentation you can move around and read about PowerShell. At the same time you are seeing how helpful is the use of the ‘-passthru‘ parameter in the ‘Out-Gridview’, and the ‘-ShowWindow‘ parameter in the ‘Get-help’.

This is a fun way to start learning PowerShell.
** This is a Windows PowerShell V3 script **

Palm Beach IT User Group – “PowerShell for the Administrator – All About The Language”

Thank once again to the Palm Beach IT User Group for having my presenting live my session “PowerShell for the Administrator – All About The Language” on May 14th evening.   http://itportalregulus.blogspot.com/

The group had the opportunity to see the evolution from a single one-liner command, to a script file, a function, and a brief taste to a module.  Also, the scripts supplied has an abundant of code snippets that can be reused.

Also, giving example of reusing and modifying a community script (Thx, Jefferey Hicks for his contributions) so you can make it your own.

Here’s some reference links: http://jdhitsolutions.com/blog/2012/02/create-html-bar-charts-from-powershell/ and http://jdhitsolutions.com/blog/2011/12/friday-fun-drive-usage-console-graph/

Special Thanks to Sapien Technology for providing some books to giveaway and to Plurasight for the free one month online subscription.

Here’s the end result.  A function that check the machine disk space, build an HTML file with a graph and send an email thru your live.com SMTP server.

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]
function Get-DiskUsageHTMLGraph{
Param(
[array] $ComputerNames,
[string] $ReportPath = "c:\Temp\HTML_DiskSpace.html",
[boolean] $ViewReport,
[boolean] $SendEmail,
[Array] $SendTo
)

## – Set variable (no function):
$htmlTitle=’Server Drive(s) Report’

## – Configuring the HTML CSS Style sheet for the HTML code: (#FFFFCC)
## – When using Here-String/Splatting you must begin in the first position.
## – The use of Tab is invalid.
$head = @"

$($htmlTitle)

"@

## – Define the HTML Fragments as an Array type, add the header and title object:
[Array] $HTMLfragments = $null; $HTMLfragments += $head;
$HTMLfragments+="</pre>
<h1>Server Disk Space</h1>
<pre>

";

## – Build WMI Disk information object and group results by ComputerNames:
$SystemNames = get-wmiobject -Class Win32_logicaldisk -computer $ComputerNames `
| Group-Object -Property SystemName;

## – This is the graph character code:
[string] $gCode = [char] 9608;

## – Loop through each computer object found and create html fragments:
ForEach ($System in $SystemNames)
{
## – Get the System name:
$HTMLfragments+="</pre>
<h2>$($System.Name)</h2>
<pre>
"

## – Create an html fragment for each system found:
$html = $System.group `
| Where-Object {$_.DriveType -notmatch ‘5|2′} | Sort-Object -Property Name `
| Select-Object `
SystemName, @{Label = "DriveID";Expression={$_.Name}}, `
VolumeName, FileSystem, DriveType, `
@{Label="DiskSizeGB";Expression={"{0:N}" -f ($_.Size/1GB) -as [float]}}, `
@{Label="FreeSpaceGB";Expression={"{0:N}" -f ($_.FreeSpace/1GB) -as [float]}}, `
@{Label="PercFree";Expression={"{0:N}" -f ($_.FreeSpace/$_.Size*100) -as [float]}}, `
@{Label="Low if(($_.FreeSpace/$_.Size*100) -le ’15’) `
{ `
"- Critical -"; `
} `
Else `
{ `
$null; `
}; `
}}, `
@{Name="";Expression={ `
$UsedPer = (($_.Size – $_.Freespace)/$_.Size)*100; `
$UsedGraph = $gCode * ($UsedPer/2); `
$FreeGraph = $gCode * ((100-$UsedPer)/2); `
"xltFont color=Redxgt{0}xlt/FontxgtxltFont Color=Greenxgt{1}xlt/fontxgt" `
-f $usedGraph,$FreeGraph; `
}} | ConvertTo-Html -Fragment;

## – Replacing replace the tag place holders: (Jefferey’s hack at work)
$html=$html -replace ‘xlt’,’
## – Add the Disk information results to the HTML fragment:
$HTMLfragments+=$html;

## – Insert a line break for each computer it find:
$HTMLfragments+="
";
}

## – Add a footer to HTML code:
$footer=("
<em>Report run {0} by {1}\{2}<em>" -f (Get-Date -displayhint date),$env:userdomain,$env:username)
$HTMLfragments+=$footer

## – Write HTML code to a file on disk:
ConvertTo-Html -head $head -body $HTMLfragments | Out-File $ReportPath;

if($ViewReport -eq $true)
{
ii $ReportPath;
}

if($SendEmail -eq $true)
{
## – Setting the information for hotmail:
$MyEmailAcct = "UserX@live.com";
$MyPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString ‘$myPassword!’ -AsPlainText -Force;
$MyCredentials = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $MyEmailAcct,$MyPassword
[Array] $emaillist = @(‘User1@gmail.com’,’UserX@live.com’);

## – OR, send it as a body message in the email:
$GetError = $null;
Send-MailMessage `
-From ‘MySysAdmin-DoNotReply@MySysAdmin.com’ `
-To $SendTo `
-Subject "Diskspace Information for the date – $((Get-Date).ToString("MMddyyyy, HH:MM"))" `
-BodyAsHtml ([string] (ConvertTo-Html -head $head -body $HTMLfragments)) `
-SmtpServer ‘smtp.live.com’ `
-Credential $MyCredentials `
-UseSsl `
-Port 587 `
-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue `
-ErrorVariable GetError;

if($GetError -ne $null)
{
$date = (get-Date).ToString("MMddyyyy_HHMMss");
"Sender: $($getCred1.UserName) `r`n $GetError" | `
Out-File -FilePath "C:\Temp\log\emailerror_$date.txt";
};
};
};

[/sourcecode]

Sample results for email to live.com:

Sample Browser:

Here’s the zipped presentation link: