Category: Windows 8

Finally got this last function working in order and created a new module: “DiscoverPowershell” with all three Show-Help* functions:

1. Show-HelpPowerShellCommand – Meant to select one module at the time and then multiple commands.
2. Show-HelpAboutPowerShellTopic – Multi-select can be applied.
3. Show-HelpPowerShellObject (New) – Multi-select can be applied.
Check out the first two functions on my previous blog.

In the module I tweak is just a little bit but the functionality stay the same. Basically, you can select multiple Item(s) in the Out-Gridview and display the results.

Here’s the link to download and install the module folder “DiscoverPowerShell“: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=7FD7082276C66197!30947&authkey=!AKkr99vUvdqDKCw&ithint=file%2c.zip

*Note: Module requirements: PowerShell V4 (or greater) on Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 2012 R2.

Here’s the third function: Show-HelpPowerShellObject

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]
function Show-HelpPowerShellObject
{
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Function to list all PowerShell Variable objects in your current session.

.DESCRIPTION
This function will display in the ‘Out-Gridview’ a list of all PowerShell Variable objects in your
session. Press the Crtl-Key and select the PowerShell variable you want to Display information.

.PARAMETER No Parameter(s) required.

.EXAMPLE
Show-HelpPowerShellObject
#>

[CmdletBinding()]
Param ()

[Array] $selItem = $null; [Array] $myObj = $null;
While ($selItem -eq $null)
{
$selItem = Get-Variable `
| Select name, @{ Label = ‘objectType’; Expression = { $_.GetType(); } }, value `
| Sort-Object Name | Out-GridView -PassThru -Title "Select the PSVariable Object";
If ($selItem -eq $null) { break };
[Array] $myObj = $null;
ForEach ($myObj in $selItem.Name)
{
((get-variable $myObj).Value) | get-member `
| Out-GridView -Title (‘Displaying Selected PSObject – $’ + "$myObj");
};
If ($myObj -eq $null) { break };
$selItem = $null;
}
};
[/sourcecode]

It’s all about having fun with PowerShell!!

Here’s a simple function that will get your system last bootup time.  Also, notice that I’m using the ‘-ErrorVariable ‘ parameter wth a given variable name ‘MyError‘ to trap any error messages during the execution of the ‘Get-WMIobject’ command.  That the same time I’m including the ‘-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue‘ so my function won’t abort while executing.

For the only argument needed in this function, I’m validating that the passing argument is not null (or empty).  Then, to build my result I’m using the scriptblocks to customized the results to be displayed on screen.

At the end, I’m collecting all thre information into the ‘$SvrRebooted‘ variable so it can be diaplayed when done.

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]
function Get-SystemLastBootUpTime{
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True, Position=0)][ValidateScript({$_ -ne $null})] [Array] $ComputerName
)
[Array] $SvrRebooted = $null;

$SvrRebooted = foreach($name in $ComputerName)
{
$x = get-wmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem -Computername $name `
-ErrorAction ‘SilentlyContinue’ -ErrorVariable MyError;

if($($MyError | Select exception) -eq $Null)
{
$x | Select-Object `
@{Label = ‘ComputerName’; Expression = {$_.csname}}, `
@{Label = ‘Operating System’; Expression = {[string] (($_.Name).Split(‘|’)[0]);}}, `
@{Label = ‘MyLastBootUpTime’; Expression = {$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.LastBootUpTime)};}, `
@{Label = ‘Status’; Expression = {"Success"}};
}
else
{
$name | Select-Object `
@{Label = ‘ComputerName’; Expression = {$name}}, `
@{Label = ‘Operating System’; Expression = {$null}}, `
@{Label = ‘MyLastBootUpTime’; Expression = {$null}}, `
@{Label = ‘Status’; Expression = {‘Failed – ‘ `
+([string]([string] $MyError[0]).split("`n")).split("(E")[0];}};
};
};

$SvrRebooted;
};
[/sourcecode]

This function builds an array object.  Then you can use the ‘Format-Table‘ or the ‘Format-List‘ at your discretion. To execute the ‘Get-SystemLastBootUpTime’ function look at the following one-liners:

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]
## – Running the function:
[array] $svrList = @("Server1","Desktop2");
Get-SystemLastBootUpTime -ComputerName $svrList | Format-Table -AutoSize;
## – or
Get-SystemLastBootUpTime -ComputerName $svrList | Format-List;
[/sourcecode]

Enjoy!

Thanks to all South Florida IT Pro Camp organizers for having present at their event. Here’s the PowerShell presentation and demo scripts all consolidated into zipped file.

Feel free to contact me via email if you have any questions.

Thanks to all for attending my presentation.

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:

While working on my PowerShell demo scripts today, I decided to create a simple function to display my scripts during my presentations.  Here’s my new and simple Show-PSDemo function:

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]
#========================================================================
# Created with: SAPIEN Technologies, Inc., PowerShell Studio 2012 v3.1.15
# Created on: 1/13/2013 9:07 AM
# Created by: Maximo Trinidad
# Organization: PutItTogether
# Filename: Show-PSDemo_function.ps1
# Version: 0.1
#========================================================================

function Show-PSDemo{
Param([String] $FileLocation)

## – Verify for a valid file location:
if((Test-Path -Path $FileLocation) -ne $true)
{
Write-Host "No script files to execute!" `
-ForegroundColor ‘Yellow’;
Break;
}
else
{
[Array] $executethis = Get-Content $FileLocation;
};

## – Saved previous default Host Colors:
$defaultForegroundColor = $host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor;
$defaultBackgroundColor = $host.UI.RawUI.BackgroundColor;

## – Customizing Host Colors:
$host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "Cyan";
$host.UI.RawUI.BackgroundColor = "Black";
$StartDemoTime = [DateTime]::now; $i = 0;
Clear-Host;

Write-Host "Demo Start Time: $([DateTime]::now)" -ForeGroundColor ‘White’;
Write-Host "`t Running Script file: $FileLocation" -ForegroundColor ‘Yellow’;

foreach($line in $executethis)
{
$i++
## – Identify comment lines:
if($line.Startswith(‘#’)){
Write-Host -NoNewLine $("`n[$i]PS> ")
Write-Host -NoNewLine -Foreground ‘Green’ $($($line) + " ")
}
Else
{
## – add section identify oneliners with continuation tick:
[string] $Addline = $null;
if($line -match ‘`’)
{
#Write-Host " Found tick = `t`r`n $($line)" -ForegroundColor yellow;
$Addline = $line.replace(‘`’,”).tostring();
$Scriptline += $Addline;
$tickFound = $true;
$continuation = $true;

## – List oneliner with continuation tick:
Write-Host -NoNewLine $("`n[$i]PS> ");
Write-Host -NoNewLine $line;
}
else
{
## – identify the last line of a continuation oneliner:
if($tickFound -eq $true)
{
$Scriptline += $line;
$tickFound = $false;
$continuation = $false;

## – List oneliner with continuation tick:
Write-Host -NoNewLine $("`n[$i]PS> ");
Write-Host -NoNewLine $line "`r`n";
}
Else
{
## – Single onliner found:
$Scriptline = $line;
$continuation = $false;
Write-Host -NoNewLine $("`n[$i]PS> ")
Write-Host -NoNewLine $Scriptline "`r`n";
};
};
if($continuation -eq $false)
{
## – Executive:
Write-Host "`r`n`t Executing Script…`r`n" -ForegroundColor ‘Yellow’;
Invoke-Expression $(‘.{‘ +$Scriptline + ‘}| out-host’);
$Scriptline = $null;
}
## – ——————————————————————–
if($continuation -eq $false)
{
Write-Host "`r`n– Press Enter to continue –" -ForegroundColor ‘Magenta’ `
-BackgroundColor white;
Read-Host;
};
};
};

$DemoDurationTime = ([DateTime]::Now) – $StartDemoTime;
Write-Host ("`t <Demo Duration: {0} Minutes and {1} Seconds>" `
-f [int]$DemoDurationTime.TotalMinutes, [int]$DemoDurationTime.Seconds)
-ForeGroundColor ‘Yellow’ ;
Write-Host "`t Demo Completed at: $([DateTime]::now))" -ForeGroundColor ‘White’;

## – Set back to Default Color:
$host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = $defaultForegroundColor;
$host.UI.RawUI.BackgroundColor = $defaultBackgroundColor;
};

## – loading:
## . .\Temp\Show-PSDemo_Function.ps1
## Show-PSdemo -FileLocation C:\temp\PowerShell_SQLdata.ps1
[/sourcecode]

It has one parameter “-FileLocation” which is you full folder and file location.  The file extension doesn’t matter as long is a text file with PowerShell code in it.

It allows to:

1. The use of Comments lines.

2. The use of the “$_” in a “Select-Object“.

3. Allows the use of the “`” tick which identify a line continuation.

4. A “Pause” is included after executing each line or block of code.

Simple to load as a function, then execute:

PS C:\> .  .\YourScriptFolder\Show-PSDemo_function.ps1

PS C:\> Show-PSDemo  -FileLocation C:\YourScriptFolder\MyDemoScript.ps1

It works in both PowerShell Console and PowerShell ISE editor.

Enjoy!!

The PowerShell community has done an Excellent job in providing LOTs of sample codes. But sometime can be very intimidating for a beginner to understand. Well, PowerShell can be both simple, and complicated but not impossible to learn.

Is good to know there are other ways other to get the same or similar result. And I’m not against it because you can even integrate those solutions into PowerShell.

BUT, you need to realized this is a SKILL you need nowadays. PowerShell can’t be ignore any more. If you don’t build up this skill then you’re probably going to lose a job opportunity.

Now, here’s a series of oneliners to assist you in getting the computer BootUp time information:

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]
## – Simple way to start knowing your PSobject
$x = get-wmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem -Computername "YourComputerName";

## – Discovering you PSobject content:
$x | get-member;

## – Sample getting the PSObject ‘Property’ names for computername and Lastboottime:
$x | Select csname, LastBootUpTime;

## – Need to use the "ConvertToDateTime" script method which is in your PSobject $x:
$x.ConvertToDateTime($x.LastBootUpTime);

## – Wee need to create a one-liner to display the date/time correctly
## – using scriptblock expression:
$x | Select csname, `
@{label=’MyLastBootUpTime’;Expression={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.LastBootUpTime)};} `
| format-table -autosize;

## – Now, pay attention to the Get-member results and you’ll find the following methods:
# Reboot()
# SetDateTime()
# Shutdown()
# Win32Shutdown()
# Win32ShutdownTracker()
## – You will realized the PSObject you just created can be use to perform
## – task such as: reboot or shutdown.

## – This is an example to create an Array list of servernames:
$srvList = @("Server1","Server2","Server3");

###### BUILDING A SCRIPT with above onliners ########
## – Now we need to loop through each of the servers in the array with ‘Foreach’
## – and display the results on screen:

$srvList = @("Server1","Server2","Server3");

foreach($server in $Srvlist)
{
$x = get-wmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem -Computername $server;
$x | Select csname, `
@{label=’MyLastBootUpTime’;Expression={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.LastBootUpTime)};} `
| format-table -autosize;
};

## OR, the next sample will create a PSObject from you looping results:

$srvList = @("Server1","Server2","Server3");

[array] $myUpTimeList = foreach($server in $Srvlist)
{
$x = get-wmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem -Computername $server;
$x | Select csname, `
@{label=’MyLastBootUpTime’;Expression={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.LastBootUpTime)};};
};

$myUpTimelist | ft -auto;

## – End of scripts

[/sourcecode]

This is your starting code block. This code can be improved to suite your need by adding more PSobject properties and/or routing the results to an output file.

I hope this can give some insight on how PowerShell can help in your admin tasks.