Sams Teach Yourself Windows PowerShell in 24 Hours Pearson uCertify Course Student Access Card

by Timothy Warner

Overview

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, Sams Teach Yourself Windows PowerShell in 24 Hours helps you streamline all facets of Windows administration, supercharging your effectiveness as an IT professional or power user. This book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach shows you how to build and run scripts, extend Windows PowerShell reach, manage computers remotely, and automate a wide variety of tasks on any modern Windows server or client. Every lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success!

 

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common PowerShell scripting tasks.

 

Practical, hands-on examples show you how to apply what you learn.

 

Quizzes and exercises help you test your knowledge and stretch your skills.

 

Notes, tips, and cautions point out shortcuts, pitfalls, and solutions.

 

Learn how to...

• Install, configure, and explore Windows PowerShell (including updates for PowerShell 5)
• Leverage .NET’s remarkable power and scope with easy-to-use cmdlets
• Build new scripts with the console, ISE visual tools, and other popular hosts
• Apply best practices for writing more reliable, flexible, team-friendly scripts
• Work effectively with the pipeline, objects, and data
• Extend Windows PowerShell reach via providers, drives, and output
• Run external tools like ping, ipconfig, and tracert from within PowerShell
• Remotely manage computers with basic and advanced remoting (WinRM), WMI, and Regex
• Configure Windows devices across the web with PSWA
• Sort, filter, measure, format, export, and convert script output
• Run Windows PowerShell flexibly, using background and scheduled jobs
• Customize your environment with profile scripts, alternate credentials, thirdparty tools, and packages
• Strengthen your control over Windows systems and services with Desired State Configuration
• Administer key tasks on SQL Server, SharePoint, and other Windows servers
• Master PowerShell skills needed to earn many Microsoft certifications

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780134049359
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	05/02/2015
Series:	Sams Teach Yourself
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	549,656
File size:	42 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Timothy Warner is an IT professional and technical trainer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Tim became acquainted with information technology in 1982 when his dad bought the family a Timex Sinclair 1000 home computer and he taught himself BASIC programming. Today he works as an author/evangelist for Pluralsight and shares Windows PowerShell knowledge with anyone who’ll listen at his Two Minute PowerShell blog: http://2minutepowershell.com. You can reach Tim directly via LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/timothywarner.

Table of Contents

Introduction    1

Who Should Read This Book    1

How This Book Is Organized    2

Conventions Used in This Book    4

System Requirements    5

Part I: Introducing Windows PowerShell

HOUR 1: Getting to Know Windows PowerShell    7

Why You Should Learn Windows PowerShell    8

Brief History of Windows PowerShell    10

Understanding the Windows PowerShell Components    13

Investigating the Power and Simplicity of Windows PowerShell    18

Summary    21

Q&A    22

Workshop    23

HOUR 2: Installing and Configuring Windows PowerShell    25

Determining Your Windows PowerShell Environment    26

Installing the Latest Version of Windows PowerShell    29

Customizing the Windows PowerShell Console    32

Customizing the Windows PowerShell ISE    39

Summary    42

Q&A    42

Workshop    44

HOUR 3: Mastering the Windows PowerShell Help System    47

Anatomy of a Windows PowerShell Cmdlet    47

Updating the Windows PowerShell Help Library    50

Understanding Windows PowerShell Help Syntax    54

Accessing Additional Command Help    60

Summary    66

Q&A    66

Workshop    67

HOUR 4: Finding and Discovering Windows PowerShell Commands    69

How Windows PowerShell Commands Are Packaged    69

Installing RSAT Tools on Windows 8.1    73

Locating Windows PowerShell Commands    75

Running External Commands    83

Summary    86

Q&A    87

Workshop    88

Part II: Understanding Objects and the Pipeline

HOUR 5: Thinking in Terms of Objects    91

The Problem with UNIX/Linux    91

What Is an Object?    93

Discovering Object Members    96

Putting Objects into Action    102

Summary    105

Q&A    105

Workshop    106

HOUR 6: Mastering the Windows PowerShell Pipeline    109

Understanding How the Pipeline Works from a High Level    109

Understanding in Depth How the Pipeline Works    113

Passing Data Through the Pipeline    118

“Forcing” Objects Through the Pipeline    125

Summary    129

Q&A    130

Workshop    131

HOUR 7: Sorting, Filtering, and Measuring Windows PowerShell Output    133

Sorting Output    134

Filtering Output    137

Measuring Objects    144

Summary    148

Q&A    148

Workshop    150

Part III: Extending the Reach of Windows PowerShell

HOUR 8: Managing Windows PowerShell Providers    153

What Are Providers?    153

Introduction to Default PSDrives    155

Using the FileSystem Provider    159

Using the Alias Provider    166

Using the Registry Provider    167

Using Extended Providers    169

Summary    171

Q&A    171

Workshop    172

HOUR 9: Formatting, Exporting, and Converting Windows PowerShell Output    175

How the PowerShell Formatting

Subsystem Works    176

Formatting PowerShell Output    180

Exporting PowerShell Output    187

Converting PowerShell Output    193

Summary    197

Q&A    198

Workshop    198

Part IV: Managing Computers Remotely with Windows PowerShell

HOUR 10: Implementing One-to-One Windows PowerShell Remoting    201

Understanding Classic Windows PowerShell Remote Access    201

Introducing “True” PowerShell Remoting    203

Enabling Windows PowerShell Remoting    205

Creating a Windows PowerShell Remote Session    209

Sending Scripts over the Network    214

Summary    217

Q&A    218

Workshop    218

HOUR 11: Implementing One-to-Many Windows PowerShell Remoting    221

One-to-Many Remote Access in the

Classic Scenario    221

One-to-Many Remoting with Persistent Sessions    224

Managing Session Configurations    225

One-to-Many Remoting with the Windows PowerShell ISE    228

Passing Input to Remote Commands    231

Summary    233

Q&A    233

Workshop    235

HOUR 12: Deploying Windows PowerShell Web Access    237

Introducing Windows PowerShell Web Access    237

Setting Up the Windows PSWA Gateway    239

Testing the Windows PSWA User Experience    244

Managing the Gateway    249

Summary    251

Q&A    252

Workshop    252

Part V: Putting Windows Powershell to Work

HOUR 13: Multitasking Windows PowerShell    255

Investigating the PowerShell Job Architecture    255

Controlling Job Behavior    259

Understanding Parent and Child Jobs    261

Introducing the –AsJob Parameter    263

Scheduling Jobs    266

Reviewing What We’ve Learned    270

Summary    272

Q&A    273

Workshop    273

HOUR 14: Harnessing Windows PowerShell Workflow    275

Understanding How Windows PowerShell Workflow Works    276

Writing Your First Windows PowerShell Workflow    279

Running a Workflow as a Job    282

Understanding Workflow Activities    283

Tying Everything Together    288

Summary    289

Q&A    290

Workshop    291

HOUR 15: Introducing WMI and CIM    293

Defining WMI and CIM    293

Getting Comfortable with WMI    296

Using Windows PowerShell WMI Commands    300

Using Windows PowerShell CIM Commands    305

Summary    308

Q&A    308

Workshop    310

HOUR 16: Searching and Filtering with Regular Expressions    313

Revisiting the Wildcard Operators    313

Understanding Regular Expressions    315

Using the –Match Parameter    317

Using Select-String    324

Using the RegEx Type Accelerator    327

Summary    327

Q&A    328

Workshop    329

Part VI: Enterprise-Class Windows PowerShell

HOUR 17: Managing Software with Windows PowerShell OneGet    331

Understanding IT-Related Terminology    332

Preparing Your Environment    334

Browsing Package Repositories    336

Installing Software from the Command Line    340

Managing Providers and Packages    346

Hosting a Private OneGet Repository    349

Summary    350

Q&A    351

Workshop    352

HOUR 18: Desired State Configuration Basics    355

Historical Background of DSC    355

Basic Tenets of DSC    357

DSC Authoring Environment    358

Configuring the DSC Environment    359

Writing Your First Configuration Script    364

A Word on DSC Push Configuration    372

Summary    373

Q&A    373

Workshop    375

Part VII: Scripting with Windows PowerShell

HOUR 19: Introduction to Windows PowerShell Scripting    377

Managing Execution Policy    377

Writing Our First Script: The User Profile    379

Writing a PowerShell Function    383

Adding Programming Logic    385

Running Scripts    388

Pointers to Master PowerShell Scripting    395

Summary    395

Q&A    396

Workshop    397

HOUR 20: Making PowerShell Code Portable with Modules    399

Understanding Snap-Ins    399

Introducing PowerShell Modules    401

Creating Your First PowerShell Script Module    403

Using Module Manifests    407

Adding Comment-Based Help    410

Finding Modules Easily    413

Summary    414

Q&A    414

Workshop    415

Part VIII: Administering Microsoft Enterprise Servers with Windows PowerShell

HOUR 21: Managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell    417

Installing Active Directory    417

Creating Common Active Directory Objects    423

Understanding Various AD Administrative Tasks    430

Summary    433

Q&A    433

Workshop    434

HOUR 22: Managing SQL Server with Windows PowerShell    437

Running PowerShell Using SQL Server Tools    438

Interacting with SQL Server Using PowerShell    442

Automating Common SQL Server DBA Tasks    443

Summary    449

Q&A    450

Workshop    451

HOUR 23: Managing SharePoint Server with Windows PowerShell    453

Understanding the Environment    453

Deploying a Service Application    457

Deploying a Web Application    459

Deploying a Site Collection    460

Setting Permissions on a Site Collection    462

Reporting on a SharePoint Farm    463

Summary    468

Q&A    468

Workshop    468

HOUR 24: Managing Microsoft Azure with Windows PowerShell    471

Defining Microsoft Azure    472

Preparing Your Azure-PowerShell Environment    474

Working with Azure Virtual Machines    477

Managing Office 365 and SharePoint Online with Azure    485

Summary    488

Q&A    489

Workshop    490

INDEX    493