Preface

PowerShell was first introduced to the world at the Professional Developer’s conference in Los Angeles in 2003 by Jeffrey Snover. Monad, as it was originally known, represented a complete revolution in managing host servers. A white paper written around that time, The Monad Manifesto (refer to http://www.jsnover.com/blog/2011/10/01/monad-manifesto/), remains an amazing analysis of the problem at the time – that of managing large numbers of Windows Server systems. A key takeaway is that the GUI does not scale to the, whereas PowerShell can and does.

PowerShell has transformed the management of complex, network-based Windows infrastructure and, increasingly, non-Windows and cloud infrastructures. Knowledge of PowerShell and how to get the most from PowerShell is now obligatory for any IT professional. The popular adage continues to be true: Learn PowerShell or learn golf.

Windows PowerShell was developed on Windows for Windows administrators. PowerShell 7, the open-source successor, is also available for Mac and most of the more popular Linux distributions as well as Windows. This book, however, concentrates on PowerShell within a Windows environment.

This book takes you through the use of PowerShell 7.2 in various scenarios using many of the rich set of features included in Windows Server 2022. This preface introduces what is in the book, along with some tips on how to get the most out of it.

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at IT professionals, including system administrators, system engineers, architects, and consultants who need to understand PowerShell 7 to simplify and automate their daily tasks. The recipes in this book have been tested on the latest versions of Windows Server 2022.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring PowerShell 7, shows you how you can install and configure both PowerShell 7 and VS Code, which replaces the Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) as well as installing a new font, Cascadia Code. This chapter also examines the PowerShell 7 environment, including examining the PSReadLine module.

Chapter 2, Managing PowerShell 7 in the Enterprise, looks at how you can use various PowerShell 7 features that might be more common within larger enterprises. These include the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), package management and the PowerShell Gallery, and creating a local module repository. The chapter also looks at PowerShell script signing, using short cuts, and working with archive (.zip) files.

Chapter 3, Exploring .NET, examines .NET, which provides the foundation for PowerShell 7. The chapter looks at .NET assemblies, classes, and methods. The chapter concludes with showing you how to create simple C#-based PowerShell extensions, as well as a full PowerShell cmdlet.

Chapter 4, Managing Active Directory, examines how to install, manage, and leverage Active Directory, including installing domains and child domains, managing AD objects, and leveraging Group Policy. This chapter also shows how you can use a CSV to create multiple AD user accounts.

Chapter 5, Managing Networking, shows you how to manage Windows networking with PowerShell. Networks are today central to almost every organization and this chapter looks at a variety of network-related tasks, including looking at new ways (with PowerShell) to do old things, such as setting up DNS, DHCP, and DHCP failover and load balancing.

Chapter 6, Implementing Enterprise Security, looks at security aspects within the context of an enterprise environment. The chapter looks at Just Enough Administration (JEA), which limits the actions an administrator can perform remotely). The chapter also looks at the event log, and PowerShell 7’s script block logging, setting PowerShell 7 related Group policies and configuring a fine-grained AD password policy. The chapter concludes by looking at the Windows Defender AV product built into Windows Server.

Chapter 7, Managing Storage, looks at managing storage in Windows Server, including locally attached devices and Windows Storage Spaces. The chapter also looks at managing Storage Replica, a feature of Windows Server 2022.

Chapter 8, Managing Shared Data, examines different ways to share data and manage your shared data with Windows Server and PowerShell, including managing NTFS permissions, creating and securing SMB shares, and setting up and using iSCSI. The chapter concludes by looking at File Server Resource Manager (FSRM), a feature of Windows Server, and managing FSRM quotas, file screening, and reporting.

Chapter 9, Managing Printing, shows you how to manage printers, printer queues, and printer drivers as well as how to set up a printer pool. You will also examine how to print a test page.

Chapter 10, Exploring Windows Containers, shows you how to install the Containers feature in Windows Server 2022, and use sample containers you can download. You can use containers to create a website and create a custom container using a Docker file.

Chapter 11, Managing Hyper-V, demonstrates the use of Hyper-V. This chapter shows you how to build and deploy VMs with Hyper-V. This includes nested Hyper-V running a Hyper-V VM inside another Hyper-V VM, which is useful in many scenarios.

Chapter 12, Debugging and Troubleshooting Windows Server, looks at a number of aspects of both reactive and proactive troubleshooting. This includes using the PowerShell script debugger, getting events from the event log, and using the Best Practice Analyzer contained in Windows Server.

Chapter 13, Managing Window Server with Window Management Instrumentation (WMI), examines WMI and enables you to investigate WMI namespaces, classes, and class occurrences. You retrieve information from WMI classes, update WMI using WMI methods, and manage WMI events, including WMI permanent eventing.

Chapter 14, Managing Windows Update Services, examines how you can install, configure, and manage the Windows Server Update Service (WSUS). This chapter shows how to manage a Windows feature that has no PowerShell 7 commands and does not work natively in PowerShell 7.

To get the most out of this book

I designed and wrote this book based on some assumptions and with some constraints. Please read this section to understand how I intended the book to be used and what I have assumed about you. This should help you to get the most out of this book.

The first assumption I made in writing this book is that you know the very basics of Windows PowerShell. For that reason, this book is not a PowerShell tutorial. The recipes in this book make use of a wide range of PowerShell features, including WMI, Remoting, AD, and so on, but you need to know the basics of PowerShell. The book was developed using Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2022.

The second, related, assumption is that you have a reasonable background in Windows infrastructure, including AD, networking, and storage. The recipes in each chapter provide an overview of the various technologies. I’ve tried to provide good links for more information on the topics in this book. The recipes are designed to show you the basics of how to manage aspects of Windows Server and how you might adapt them for your environment.

You start your exploration by installing and configuring PowerShell 7 and VS Code, and creating Hyper-V VMs to test out each chapter’s recipes. I built and tested the recipes in this book step-by-step (i.e., not running the entire recipe as a single script file). If you run a recipe as a single step, some of the output may not be what you see here, due to how PowerShell formats objects.

Once you have any recipe working, try to re-factor the recipe’s code into your own reusable functions. In some cases, we build simple functions as a guide to richer scripts you could build. Once you have working and useful functions, incorporate them into organizational or personal modules and reuse the code.

As any author knows, writing PowerShell scripts for publication in a book is a layout and production nightmare. To reduce the issues specifically with line width and line wrapping, I have made extensive use of methods that ensure the command line width fits in the book’s chapters without wrapping. Many recipes use hash tables, property splatting, and other devices to ensure that every line of every recipe is 73 characters or less, and that there are no unintended line breaks. I hope there are not too many issues with layout!

Many of the cmdlets, commands, and object methods used in this book produce output that may not be all that helpful or useful, particularly in production. Some cmdlets generate output that would fill many pages of this book but with little added value. For this reason, many recipes pipe cmdlet output to Out-Null. Feel free to remove this where you want to see more details. I have also adjusted the output in many cases to avoid wasted white space. Thus, if you test a recipe, you may see the output that is laid out a bit differently, but it should contain the same information. Finally, remember that the specific output you see may be different based on your environment and the specific values you use in each step.

To write this book, I created a VM farm consisting of 14 Windows Server 2022 hosts. My main development host was a well-configured Windows 11 system (with 128 GB RAM, 2 x 16 core Xeon processors, and several fast SSDs). My host runs all the VMs in this book simultaneously. If your computing power is more modest, you can spin up just the VMs you need. I suggest you have a minimum of 16GB of RAM.

To assist in writing this book, I have also created a set of scripts that build the Hyper-V VMs, which I then used to develop and test the recipes in this book. I have published these scripts at: https://github.com/doctordns/ReskitBuildScripts. I have also published some details of the network of VMs created by using these scripts, complete with hostnames and IP addresses, at: https://github.com/doctordns/ReskitBuildScripts/blob/master/ReskitNetwork.md. The full set of VMs, at the end of writing this, took up around 500 GB of storage. Fortunately, storage is cheap! The GitHub repository has more details on the scripts and how to run them. If you have any issues with the scripts, please file an issue on GitHub and I can assist.

The build scripts are pretty easy to use, and I have added details on how to approach these scripts in the Readme.md file.

PowerShell 7 provides great feature coverage for managing Windows Server 2022 using PowerShell. PowerShell offers considerable flexibility in what commands you use in your scripts. While PowerShell cmdlets are generally your first choice, in some cases, you need to dip down into .NET or into WMI to get to objects, properties, and methods that PowerShell cmdlets do not provide.

An important aspect of the recipes in this book is the use of third-party modules obtained from the PowerShell Gallery. A rich and vibrant PowerShell community has created a substantial amount of functionality for you to use. The PowerShell Gallery is a repository provided by Microsoft. With PowerShell, you can, download and use the resources available in the Gallery. The NTFSSecurity module, for example, makes it easier to manage the Access Control List (ACL) on NTFS files and folders.

I have tested all the code provided in this book. It worked when I tested it and did what it says (at least during the writing stage). I have taken some liberties regarding the layout and formatting of screenshots to cater to the book’s production and printing process, but you should get the same results when you run these scripts.

The book production process is very complex, and errors can creep in during production. So if you find a step in any recipe that fails, file an issue in my GitHub repository for this book, and for generic issues, please post issues to the Spiceworks PowerShell forum at .

When writing the recipes, I use full cmdlet names with all parameter names spelled out in full. This approach makes the text a bit longer, but hopefully easier to read and understand. I have also used a variety of different ways you can achieve results.

In writing this book, I set out to create content around many features of Windows Server 2022. To publish the book, I have to avoid going too deep into every Windows Feature. I have had to decide which Windows Server features (and commands) to show and which not to cover since every chapter could easily have become its own book. To paraphrase Jeffrey Snover, to ship is to choose. I hope I chose well.

Some recipes in this book rely on you having run other recipes in previous chapters. These related recipes worked well when we wrote and tested them and hopefully work for you as well. If you have problems with any recipes, raise issues on my GitHub repository, and I can take a look and help.

Finally, there is a fine line between PowerShell and Windows Server features. To use PowerShell to manage any Windows feature, you need to understand the Windows feature as well as understand PowerShell. The chapters provide short overviews of the Windows Server features, and I have provided links to help you get more information. And as ever, Bing and Google are your best friends.

Download the example code files

The code bundle for the book is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Windows-Server-Automation-with-PowerShell-Cookbook-5th-edition. We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

The full and up-to-date repository for this book’s scripts is at: https://github.com/doctordns/PacktPS72/.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/SlBcp.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. For example: “ The System.IO.FileInfo class has a static method new() that enables you to create a new file.”

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$Manifest = Get-Content -Path $Mod.Path
$Manifest | Select-Object -First 20

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on the screen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. For example: “ Click on Open File to run the .NET SDK installer.”

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: Email [email protected] and mention the book’s title in the subject of your message. If you have questions about any aspect of this book, please email us at [email protected].

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you reported this to us. Please visit http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, click Submit Errata, and fill in the form. Alternatively post an issue in GitHub at https://github.com/doctordns/PacktPS72/issues.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit http://authors.packtpub.com.