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Monitoring Azure Cloud and Hybrid Environments

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Cloud-based services and applications must still be monitored just like the on-premise ones. You still need most of your data center activities that ensure that your planning, budgeting, security and service-level obligations are met wherever the data and services are actually hosted. There is much to be said for an integrated approach to providing a unified view of entire application workloads on-premise. hybrid and cloud using the same tools wherever possible. … Read more

High Performance PowerShell with LINQ

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PowerShell is a scripting language, and like all scripting languages it struggles to perform well with rapid iterative processes such as aggregation. It isn't well-known that PowerShell can use LINQ for many of those tasks which would otherwise use iteration, though somewhat awkwardly. However, some of the speed improvements you can get are startling. To get you well started, Michael explains every LINQ function , gives you example code in C#, The PowerShell way of getting the result, and finally Powershell's use of LINQ. This article could change the way you use PowerShell.… Read more

Working with Windows Containers and Docker: Into your Stride

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So far, in this series, Nicolas has shown how to get simple container instances up and running with just some basic background information. Now we need to understand the differences between Linux containers, Windows Server containers and Hyper-V containers. We can then define, create and run multi-container Docker applications, and port existing Windows Container VMs to Docker.… Read more

Working with Windows Containers and Docker: Up and Running

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Deployments can be made easier, in many different ways, by using Docker and Windows Containers; but how do you set about working with them? As part of his practical series on Windows Containers and Docker, Nicolas shows how to deploy a Container Host to the Microsoft Azure cloud. retrieve Images from Docker Hub, build your own container image, and push your images to the Docker Hub. … Read more

PowerShell Time Saver: Automatic Defaults

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Because PowerShell needs to be usable as an immediate scripting language by IT professionals who type in commands at a console, there have to be language devices such as aliases that can make for terseness when appropriate. There are several ways of cutting down the verbiage in a script, and being able to specify default values via $PSDefaultParameterValues is one of the more generally useful ones. Michael Sorens explains how it can save you time in your daily work.… Read more

Working with Windows Containers and Docker: The Basics

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When you begin to work with containers, you will notice many similarities between a container and a virtual machine; but, in fact, these are two quite different concepts. Containers are going to change the way that we do Windows-based development work in the coming year, and they already underpin much of the devops work of speeding the delivery process. Nicolas Prigent explains how to use the Windows Containers feature.… Read more

Managing Hyper-V VMs using PowerShell Direct

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Virtual machines are easier to manage via PowerShell than with the the Hyper-V Manager console. PowerShell Direct takes this further by allowing you to interact easily with the virtual machines on the Hyper-V host without needing network access. With Windows Nano Server, PowerShell Direct is an essential because this OS requires you to use remote management via PowerShell scripts. … Read more

Questions About the Use of PowerShell That you were Too Shy to Ask

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Let's forget the actual PowerShell code for a moment: Why is PowerShell important? Why should I use it? Where did it come from? Why did it take so long to arrive? These and many other basic questions are answered in William Brewer's latest addition to the series that answers those seemingly simple questions that you were too shy to ask in public.… Read more

Lists With, or Without, Ranges in both T-SQL and PowerShell

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Whether you are working in a procedural language like PowerShell or in T-SQL, there is something slightly bothersome about having to deal with parameters that are lists, or worse with ranges amongst the values. In fact, once you have a way of dealing with them, they can be convenient, especially when bridging the gulf between application and the database. Phil Factor shows how to deal with them.… Read more

Hyper-V and PowerShell: The Basics

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Because it is important with maintaining Virtual Machine environments to be able to repeat routine tasks completely accurately, Windows PowerShell has grown in importance for the job. Now you can manage the Hyper-V environment via PowerShell without needing to use the Hyper-V Manager console. It opens up many opportunities for automation.… Read more

Automating the Setup of the Local Developer Machine

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On both Windows and Linux, the chore of setting up a development workstation can take several days, and there always seem to be a few configuration settings that get missed. You can reduce the time and tedium dramatically by automating the process by using Vagrant to set up the operating system, followed by your choice of provisioning, configuration management and orchestration applications such as Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Salt, Docker, Chocolatey and Boxstarter. Vishwas shows how to make it easy to do with Vagrant, Chocolatey and Boxstarter.… Read more

Using SQLite with PowerShell and SQL Server

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When you combine PowerShell and SQLite, you can perform powerful magic. Phil Factor is in awe of SQLite and gives a brief demonstration of how easy it is to use. Just to encourage anyone who is unfamiliar with the database, he includes a giant-sized SQLite version of the old PUBS database that the first generation of RDBMS developers cut their teeth on. … Read more

Managing Packages Using Windows PowerShell

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Windows hasn't had a package manager in the style of the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) of Linux distributions. Apt-get is a great way of installing packages and other software. We have Chocolatey, of course which has a growing library of software and even allows you to automatically update software. Now PowerShell has an 'official' way of using any system, such as NuGet, Chocolatey, GitHub or PSget. It is definitely useful and likely to mature into an indispensable tool for Windows users. Nicolas explains why… Read more

Representing Hierarchical Data for Mere Mortals

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Why is it that we use XML, but with so little enthusiasm when it does so much, and is so feature-rich? Phil Factor argues that there are better ways of doing it, more complete than JSON, but easier to read than XML. To try to convince you, he gives a set of flying demos, using PowerShell and his PSYaml module, to illustrate how YAML can let you work faster, and more accurately.… Read more

PSYaml: PowerShell does YAML

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PSYaml is a simple PowerShell module that I’ve written that allows you to serialize PowerShell objects to “YAML Ain’t Markup Language” (YAML) documents and deserialize YAML documents to PowerShell objects. It uses Antoine Aubry’s excellent YamlDotNet library To start, you can simply load the PowerShell file and the manifest from its home on GitHub PSYaml … Read more

PowerShell Just Enough Administration

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A major difficulty for a System Administrator who wishes to provide access for auditors, Helpdesk staff, developers and other IT people is that adminstrator roles give users more access than they need. It is too easy to make mistakes, or to make more changes than those that were signed-off. With JEA, it is possible to create role-based access control (RBAC) endpoints that define precisely what actions you’ll let your users carry out without needing a elevated, privileged administrator credentials, and which log and report all operations.… Read more

PowerShell Desired State Configuration: DSC Resources

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Desired State Configuration (DSC) allows you to automate the way that you manage configuration data for software services as well as the environment in which these services run. DSC uses a set of built-in and custom 'resources' as the building blocks for a configuration. if you have specific requirements you may need to create the relevant resource to make the configuration happen. Nicolas Prigent provides a practical guide to DSC resources… Read more

Using C# to Create PowerShell Cmdlets: Beyond the Basics

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It is just the first stage to make your C# Cmdlet do what it is supposed to do. Even though cmdlets are used at the commandline, they need a whole range of features to make life easier for the end user. These include such refinements as providing documentation, validating inputs, providing a manifest, and implementing the common parameters.… Read more

PowerShell Desired State Configuration: Automating and Monitoring Pull mode

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The Pull mode of Desired State Configuration (DSC) is more complicated to implement because you need to meticulously manage the MOF files and their naming conventions so as to ensure that you deploy your DSC configurations correctly. In this first article of a two-part series, Nicolas Prigent describes how you can best automate this, and then in a second part on monitoring DSC he describes techniques to help you to use the pull mode as a regular part of your admin work.… Read more

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