PAM release February 2012

I have added another module to the PowerShell Admin Modules – http://psam.codeplex.com/

Release 0.7 adds a PAMHostsFile module with the following members

add-hostfilecontent
add-IPv6hostfilecontent
clear-hostfilecontent
get-hostfilecontent
remove-hostfilecontent

A release notes document is also available which includes a listing of all modules and members together with a history of releases.

Training for the Scripting Games

Like all sporting events you need to train before participating – as part of your training follow the links on the sites in my previous post

http://msmvps.com/blogs/richardsiddaway/archive/2012/02/04/scripting-games-2012-link-page.aspx

and also use these resources

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/02/05/2012-scripting-games-study-guide-a-resource-for-learning-powershell.aspx

Good luck

Scripting Games 2012–link page

The 2012 Scripting Games were announced

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/01/30/scripting-guys-announce-the-2012-powershell-scripting-games.aspx

They will start on 2 April – with events released to schedule after that. The usual Advanced and Beginner categories will be available

An all links page is available

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/02/04/the-2012-windows-powershell-scripting-games-all-links-on-one-page.aspx

This is worth book marking.

If you didn’t compete last year – follow the links to see the type of fun that is in store.

Last year there were some amazing PowerShell scripts submitted – looking forward to this years games already.

And just to add to the fun – this year you can use PowerShell v3

Naming Contexts

Continuing our quick look at The ActiveDirectory name space lets have a look at the MSAD_NamingContext  class

Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\MicrosoftActiveDirectory -Class MSAD_NamingContext |

Format-Table DistinguishedName, IsFullReplica –AutoSize

DistinguishedName                              IsFullReplica
—————–                              ————-
DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=Manticore,DC=org                   True
DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=Manticore,DC=org                   True
CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=Manticore,DC=org          True
CN=Configuration,DC=Manticore,DC=org                    True
DC=Manticore,DC=org                                     True

This is equivalent to the information you see in the root of the AD provider

PS> Get-ChildItem -Path AD:\

Name                 ObjectClass          DistinguishedName
—-                 ———–          —————–
Manticore            domainDNS            DC=Manticore,DC=org
Configuration        configuration        CN=Configuration,DC=Manticore,DC=org
Schema               dMD                  CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=Manticore,DC=org
ForestDnsZones       domainDNS            DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=Manticore,DC=org
DomainDnsZones       domainDNS            DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=Manticore,DC=org

Active Directory and WMI

A lot of the Active Directory related functionality has been removed from WMI but  there is a little bit left in the root\MicrosoftActiveDirectory namespace.

This is on a Windows 2008 R2 domain controller – I don’t know if this is available on down level versions of Windows.

Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\MicrosoftActiveDirectory -List | where {$_.Name -notlike "__*"}

ReplicationProvider1
MSAD_ReplPendingOp
Microsoft_TrustProvider
Microsoft_DomainTrustStatus
Microsoft_LocalDomainInfo
MSAD_NamingContext
MSAD_ReplCursor
MSAD_DomainController
MSAD_ReplNeighbor

The mixture of naming conventions doesn’t help but lets start looking at some domain information

Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\MicrosoftActiveDirectory -Class Microsoft_LocalDomainInfo

The following properties of interest are returned

DCname           : SERVER02
DNSname          : Manticore.org
FlatName         : MANTICORE
SID              : S-1-5-21-3881460461-1879668979-35955009
TreeName         : Manticore.org

We can also get a quick replication test

Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\MicrosoftActiveDirectory -Class MSAD_DomainController |
select CommonName, DistinguishedName, IsAdvertisingToLocator, IsGC, IsNextRIDPoolAvailable,
IsRegisteredInDNS, IsSysVolReady, NTDsaGUID, PercentOfRIDsLeft, SiteName,
@{N="OldestQueuedAddition"; E={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.TimeOfOldestReplAdd)} },
@{N="OldestQueuedDeletion"; E={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.TimeOfOldestReplDel)} },
@{N="OldestQueuedModification"; E={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.TimeOfOldestReplMod)} },
@{N="OldestQueuedReplicationSync"; E={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.TimeOfOldestReplSync)} },
@{N="OldestQueuedReplicationUpdate"; E={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.TimeOfOldestReplUpdRefs)} }

CommonName                    : SERVER02
DistinguishedName             : CN=NTDS Settings,CN=SERVER02,CN=Servers,CN=Site1,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=Manticore,DC=org
IsAdvertisingToLocator        : True
IsGC                          : True
IsNextRIDPoolAvailable        : False
IsRegisteredInDNS             : True
IsSysVolReady                 : True
NTDsaGUID                     : baba1150-8a6a-41ac-9889-4b69268d3f7c
PercentOfRIDsLeft             : 91
SiteName                      : Site1
OldestQueuedAddition          : 01/01/1601 00:00:00
OldestQueuedDeletion          : 01/01/1601 00:00:00
OldestQueuedModification      : 01/01/1601 00:00:00
OldestQueuedReplicationSync   : 01/01/1601 00:00:00
OldestQueuedReplicationUpdate : 01/01/1601 00:00:00

The 1601 dates mean nothing is queued

PowerShell Deep Dive 2012

The 2012 PowerShell Deep Dive has been announced  – April 29 – May 2 in San Diego.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2012/01/27/it-s-time-for-another-powershell-deep-dive.aspx

This time PowerShell is a full track so expect more of your favourite stuff.  Hope to see you there.

Integer sizes

If you’ve used PowerShell for any time you will be away of [int] meaning integer. One common use is in functions to define a parameter’s data type

function test1 {
param (
  [int]$a,
  [int]$b
)
$a * $b
}

We can use this function

PS> test1 -a 10 -b 6
60

OK simple stuff but what if we do this

PS> test1 -a 2147483648 -b 17
test1 : Cannot process argument transformation on parameter ‘a’. Cannot convert
value "2147483648" to type "System.Int32". Error: "Value was either too large
or too small for an Int32."
At line:1 char:9
+ test1 -a <<<<  2147483648 -b 17
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [test1], ParameterBindin…mati
   onException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentTransformationError,test1

Oh

Integers come in a number of different sizes – denoted by the number of bits that are used to store the number – 16, 32 and 64 respectively.  The standard [int] is a 32bit integer (4 bytes)

We can see the maximum and minimum numbers that can be stored in these data types using the MaxValue and MinValue properties

"`n16 bit integer"
"$([int16]::MinValue) to $([int16]::MaxValue)"

"`n32 bit integer"
"$([int32]::MinValue) to $([int32]::MaxValue)"

"`n32 bit integer alternative"
"$([int]::MinValue) to $([int]::MaxValue)"

"`n64 bit integer"
"$([int64]::MinValue) to $([int64]::MaxValue)"

which gives these results

16 bit integer
-32768 to 32767

32 bit integer
-2147483648 to 2147483647

32 bit integer alternative
-2147483648 to 2147483647

64 bit integer
-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807

So 2147483648 is one bigger than the maximum value storable in 32 bit integer. We could use a 64bit integer or we can use an unsigned integer. This only contains positive values

"`nunsigned 16 bit integer"
"$([uint16]::MinValue) to $([uint16]::MaxValue)"

"`nunsigned 32 bit integer"
"$([uint32]::MinValue) to $([uint32]::MaxValue)"

"`nunsigned 64 bit integer"
"$([uint64]::MinValue) to $([uint64]::MaxValue)"

unsigned 16 bit integer
0 to 65535

unsigned 32 bit integer
0 to 4294967295

unsigned 64 bit integer
0 to 18446744073709551615

Which should you use?  Use int64 if likely to have negative values and possibly uint32 if definitely only positive values

Remoting between PowerShell v3 CTP 2 and PowerShell v2

One of the questions on tonight’s Live Meeting concerned the compatibility between remoting on PowerShell v2 and PowerShell v3 CTP 2

The difference is that v3 uses a WSMAN 3.0 stack but v2 uses 2.0

I used two machines:

• Windows 2008 R2 SP 1 with PowerShell v2
• Windows 7 SP1 with PowerShell v3 CTP 2

on each machine I ensured remoting was enabled then ran

$s = New-PSSession –ComputerName <other computer name>
Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock {get-service}

it worked in both cases

Looks like in this case you can remote both ways

Recording–UK PowerShell group January 2012

The recording of tonight’s meeting together with the slides and demo scripts are available from

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=43cfa46a74cf3e96#cid=43CFA46A74CF3E96&id=43CFA46A74CF3E96%212469&sc=documents

download the zip file from the 2012 January PowerShell v3 CTP2 overview folder

Enjoy

Get-CimClass

Get-CimClass is used to dig into the information available within a WMI class.

At its most basic level we get a set of information like this

PS> Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | fl *

ClassName           : Win32_OperatingSystem
SuperClassName      : CIM_OperatingSystem
CimSuperClassName   : CIM_OperatingSystem
SuperClass          : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimClass
CimSuperClass       : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimClass
Namespace           : ROOT/cimv2
Properties          : {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
CimClassProperties  : {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Qualifiers          : {Locale, UUID, dynamic, provider…}
CimClassQualifiers  : {Locale, UUID, dynamic, provider…}
Methods             : {Reboot, Shutdown, Win32Shutdown, Win32ShutdownTracker…}
CimClassMethods     : {Reboot, Shutdown, Win32Shutdown, Win32ShutdownTracker…}
CimSystemProperties : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties

We get a few parameters to work with

PS> Get-Help Get-CimClass

NAME
    Get-CimClass

SYNTAX
    Get-CimClass [[-ClassName] <string>] [[-Namespace] <string>] [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>] [-ComputerName
    <string[]>] [-MethodName <string>] [-PropertyName <string>] [-QualifierName <string>]  [<CommonParameters>]

    Get-CimClass [[-ClassName] <string>] [[-Namespace] <string>] [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>] -CimSession
    <CimSession[]> [-MethodName <string>] [-PropertyName <string>] [-QualifierName <string>]  [<CommonParameters>]

Want to know which WMI classes have a method called create

PS> Get-CimClass -MethodName Create

   NameSpace: ROOT/cimv2

ClassName                 Methods              Properties
———                 ——-              ———-
Win32_ShadowStorage       {Create}             {AllocatedSpace, DiffVolume, MaxSpace, UsedSpace…}
Win32_ScheduledJob        {Create, Delete}     {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_DfsNode             {Create}             {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_BaseService         {StartService, St… {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_SystemDriver        {StartService, St… {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_Service             {StartService, St… {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_TerminalService     {StartService, St… {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_Share               {Create, SetShare… {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_ClusterShare        {Create, SetShare… {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_ShadowCopy          {Create, Revert}     {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}
Win32_Process             {Create, Terminat… {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name…}

or a property called Size

PS> Get-CimClass -PropertyName Size

   NameSpace: ROOT/cimv2

ClassName
———
Win32_DiskDrive
Win32_CDROMDrive
CIM_LogicalDisk
Win32_LogicalDisk
Win32_MappedLogicalDisk
Win32_DiskPartition
Win32_PrintJob

We can dig deeper into a class

Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | select -ExpandProperty Properties

provides an output like this for every property

Name               : CSName
Value              :
CimType            : String
Flags              : Property, ReadOnly, NullValue
Qualifiers         : {CIM_Key, MaxLen, Propagated, read}
ReferenceClassName :

Likewise methods

Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | select -ExpandProperty Methods

or if you want detail on a particular method

PS> Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | select -ExpandProperty Methods | where name -eq SetDateTime | fl *

Name       : SetDateTime
ReturnType : UInt32
Parameters : {LocalDateTime}
Qualifiers : {Implemented, Privileges, ValueMap}

And no thats not a typo on the where statement – its a new PowerShell v3 feature I’ll cover another day

Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem  | select -ExpandProperty Qualifiers

and

Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem  | select -ExpandProperty CimSystemProperties | fl *

do what you would expect

Finding the key property for a class is a useful exercise

Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_Process | select -ExpandProperty Properties | where {$_.Qualifiers -like "*key*"}

returns a number of properties – some are like this

Name               : CreationClassName
Value              :
CimType            : String
Flags              : Property, ReadOnly, NullValue
Qualifiers         : {CIM_Key, MaxLen, read}
ReferenceClassName :

and have the CIM_Key qualifier but the one we are really interested in is this one

Name               : Handle
Value              :
CimType            : String
Flags              : Property, Key, ReadOnly, NullValue
Qualifiers         : {key, MaxLen, read}
ReferenceClassName :

Lots of useful information to be gained from this cmdlet. Don’t leave home to explore WMI without it.