Shay Levy

Are you the Ultimate Script Warrior?

ScriptFanatic — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:37:00 GMT

If your answer is positive then Quest Software’s PowerPack Challenge 2009 is for you. Quest Software is sponsoring this contest where you can test your PowerShell scripting skills and get paid. Just create some cool PowerShell scripts using Quest’s PowerGUI , and then post them to their site. Winners can receive up to $1,000 USD to spend on Amazon.com.

The event details and rules can be found HERE and on Dmitry’s blog as well, and in this year’s event I’m participating in the contest judges panel :)

To create a PowerPack, download PowerGUI , the ultimate scripting tool. Then, show the world your PowerShell scripting muscle. Combine your arsenal for one – or many – PowerPacks. The choice is yours!

Some video resources to get you started with PowerPack authoring:

So, see you at the contest and GOOD LUCK!

Windows Management Framework is here!

ScriptFanatic — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:12:00 GMT

Windows Management Framework, which includes Windows PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0, and BITS 4.0, was officially released to the world this morning. IT Professionals can now easily manage their Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 machines through PowerShell remoting. You can download the packages HERE.

אז מה היה לנו שם? (Hebrew)

ScriptFanatic — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:30:00 GMT

היום, לכבוד הרמת כוסית לראש השנה התוודעתי לכשרון מיוחד של אחד העובדים באגף. אז הנה לפניכם המקאמה של גידי על השנה שהייתה וגם כמה איחולים לשנה החדשה.

ראש השנה ממש בפתח
בואו, ביחד נבחן את השטח
מאז פסח מה קרה?
ננסה לבדוק כל מאורע

ראשית התחלפה לנו ממשלה
ולה, יש אג'נדה משלה
קצת להקפיא אך לפני זה לבנות
להשקיע בחינוך – אבל פחות,
לקבוע שיא במספר השרים
במקום אלו שחוטאים ונעצרים
(והצ'ופרים להם נשמרים).
לטוס לרוסיה בטיסה חשאית
שעליה כותבים בכותרת ראשית
ומה יצא מזה מעשית?

העולם על ארצנו מביט במגדלת
ומחרים דברים שבשטחים מגדלת
כועס על כל הרוג "תמים"
אך באפגניסטן מחסל הוא תשעים
ממציאים כאילו אנחנו סוחרים -
משכנינו הערבים לוקחים איברים
זה מה שחושבים כולם
על הצבא הכי מוסרי בעולם

וכאן במדינה הקיץ החם
גורם לכולם לצאת מעורם
האלימות גואה בכל הבתים
והכי כואב זו פגיעה בזאטוטים
זה חונק וההיא מרעיבה
במקום לנהוג בחמלה ואהבה
את השונה אנחנו שונאים:
יורים והורגים במועדון הגאים
ואת אחינו – צאצאי מלכת שבא
דוחים בחינוך - הווו, איזו אחווה.
רוצחים בשביל בטל בשישים
מה קרה כאן? כולנו פושעים

אבל למה להיות כזה פסימי?
נחפש גם את הצד האופטימי
מספר הנוסעים שחששנו שיקטן
חוזר וצומח לו עם הזמן
וגם הבורסה כבר לא צוללת
אם כי על השיא עוד לא מתנפלת
ואפילו בכדורגל אנחנו "פצצות"
לשלב הבתים עלו שתי קבוצות
אפילו שחיפה חטפה על הראש
הפסידה – הובסה אפס שלוש
וכן בקולנוע היו הצלחות
"לבנון" בוונציה מעלה נשכחות

ומה לקראת השנה הקרובה?
שתהיה זו שנה מלאה אהבה
שתהיה שנה של צמיחה כלכלית
ברמה האישית וברמה הכללית
שתהיה שנה של בריאות ושל אושר
שגם מנהיגינו יקפידו על יושר
ואני מקווה שהשנה – שנת תש"ע
נדע להנמיך את מפלס הפשע
ממש נמאס כבר מעוולות וַרשע.

ואם נבין שצריכים יחד להיות
זה מה שיקל עלינו לחיות
שנדע לתת אחד לשני
זה יטפח אצלנו את "האני".

שנדע לשמור על העקרונות
אך כשצריך – גם לעגל ת'פינות,
שנהיה לראש ולא לזנב
שלא נריב ושרק נאהב.

שתהיה השנה כדבש מתוקה
שנאחז באוהבנו ביחד חזקה,
שנדע לעמוד מול צרינו תמיד
הן איננו עוד אומה שברירית .

שנשחרר היום ולא בעתיד
את הבן של כולנו, את גלעד שליט
זה ששנים בשבי נמק
ננסה מפה את משפחתו לחזק
ולקוות שבברכה הבאה
אוכל להגיד שהמשימה כבר בוצעה.

כמו שנאמר: "יש לי חלום"
שכל חיילנו יחזרו בשלום
גם מהצבא וגם מהבילויים
שלפעמים נראים כמועדוני עינויים
יוצאים בשלום מעופרת יצוקה
ועל יד הבית נקלעים למצוקה.
שיגמרו כבר תאונות הדרכים
הגידו, אנחנו אותן באמת צריכים?

ואולי יהיה קצת גשם כאן
שהכנרת תגיע לקו המסומן
ולא לקו התחתון – המסוכן
אנחנו ניסינו לעזור בעניינים
התקנו לכולם את מכ"מ עננים
אולי היורה השבוע הוא אחד הסימנים?

ואולי שנה בלי חדשות חמות
לא אתנגד אם הן תהיינה משעממות.
ובסופו של דבר, איך אומרים הזקנים
שיהיו לנו עוד המון שנים
של בריאות, אושר, הנאה מהילדים
ומי שיש כבר – גם מהנכדים.
ולסיום נאחל, לחברים למשפחות
רוב אושר והמון שמחות,
חג שמח – עד כה שאפשר
נביט בתקווה אל המחר
ואז כל השאר כבר יהיה מסודר.

גידי בלייכר ערה"ש תש"ע

שנה טובה וחג שמח!

Protecting OU from accidental deletion

ScriptFanatic — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:00:00 GMT

When you create new Organizational Units in Active Directory Users And Computers (ADUC) in Server 2008 (or with RSAT on 2003 domains), ADUC gives you the option to protect the OU from accidental deletion.

When this option is selected, ADUC updates the security descriptor of the object and, potentially, its parent, with Deny ACE for the Everyone domain group, which denies all administrators or users of this domain and domain controller the ability to delete this object.

Note: This setting does not provide protection against accidental deletion of a subtree that contains the protected object. Therefore, it is recommend that you enable this setting for all the protected object's containers up to the domain naming context head.

If you try to delete the OU you’ll get the following dialog:

To unprotect a container uncheck the value from the object’s Object tab in ADUC. The Object tab is visible only when Advanced Features is selected on the View menu.

With PowerShell and Quest AD cmdlets we can enable or disable OU protection with a single line of code!

Enable OU protection on all OUs

Get-QADObject –SizeLimit 0 -Type OrganizationalUnit | Add-QADPermission -Deny -Account Everyone -ApplyTo ThisObjectOnly -Rights DeleteTree,Delete

Enable protection for specific OU

Add-QADPermission -Identity 'DistinguishedNameOfTheOU' -Deny -Account Everyone -ApplyTo ThisObjectOnly -Rights DeleteTree,Delete

Remove protection for specific OU

Get-QADPermission -Identity 'DistinguishedNameOfTheOU' -Deny -Account Everyone -ApplyTo ThisObjectOnly | Remove-QADPermission

Powershell 2.0 for XP and Server 2003

ScriptFanatic — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:19:34 GMT

PowerShell 2.0 Release Candidate for XP and Server 2003 has been released. The package includes the latest version of PowerShell and WINRM. Download it HERE.

Parsing PowerShell scripts

ScriptFanatic — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:10:00 GMT

The PsParser class, introduced in Windows PowerShell 2.0, provides a mechanism to parse a script into a collection of tokens. There are some neat applications written using the Tokenize method such as Syntax Highlighting, Alias resolving and discovering functions in scripts . One other great benefit of the method is the ability to find if a script contains syntax errors without actually running the script.

The Tokenize method has two overloads, both accept a script as a string or as an array of lines (Script parameter) and both update a referenced variable with a collection of the errors that occurred when parsing the script (Errors parameter).

Test-PSScript is a v2 advanced function. Its FilePath parameter accepts input from the pipeline or through the command parameter. The output of the function is an extended Token object (see sample usage and result below) which includes the path of the script, Error Message, the line where the error occurred and some other information.

#Requires -Version 2

function Test-PSScript
{

   param(
      [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=0, ValueFromPipeline=$true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
      [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
      [Alias('PSPath','FullName')]
      [System.String[]] $FilePath,

[Switch]$IncludeSummaryReport
)

   begin
   {
      $total=$fails=0
   }

   process
   {
       $FilePath | Foreach-Object {

         if(Test-Path -Path $_ -PathType Leaf)
         {
            $Path = Convert-Path -Path $_

            $Errors = $null
            $Content = Get-Content -Path $path
            $Tokens = [System.Management.Automation.PsParser]::Tokenize($Content,[ref]$Errors)

            if($Errors)
            {
               $fails+=1
               $Errors | Foreach-Object {
                  $_.Token | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Path -Value $Path -PassThru | `
                  Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ErrorMessage -Value $_.Message -PassThru
               }
            }

           $total+=1
         }
      }
   }

   end
   {
      if($IncludeSummaryReport)
      {
         Write-Host "`n$total script(s) processed, $fails script(s) contain syntax errors."
      }
   }
}

Sample usage:

PS > Get-ChildItem –Filter *.ps1 | Test-PSScript -IncludeSummaryReport

Path         : D:\scripts\Recycle-IIsAppPool.ps1
ErrorMessage : Missing closing ')' in expression.
Content      : <position>
Type         : Position
Start        : 3928
Length       : 0
StartLine    : 113
StartColumn  : 1
EndLine      : 113
EndColumn    : 1


Path         : D:\scripts\Play-Sound.ps1
ErrorMessage : Missing expression after unary operator '--'.
Content      : --
Type         : Operator
Start        : 975
Length       : 2
StartLine    : 35
StartColumn  : 32
EndLine      : 35
EndColumn    : 34


35 script(s) processed, 2 script(s) contain syntax errors.

For Powershell 1.0 parsing technique see Keith Hill’s Preparsing Scripts to Check for Syntax Errors blog post.

PowerShell 2.0 Modules: An Introduction with Bruce Payette

ScriptFanatic — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:42:54 GMT

Join PowerShell Program Manager, Osama Sajid, in an interview with the Principal Software Design Engineer, Bruce Payette, discussing the new PowerShell Modules feature.

Episode one introduces Modules and discusses comparisons with CmdLets.
Episode two demonstrates how to use Modules.
Episode three illustrates how to develop script and binary Modules.

Get-WMIQualifierValue (revisited)

ScriptFanatic — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:37:53 GMT

An updated version of my Get-WMIQualifierValue function. With this version you can query remote computers, specify the NameSpace of the class and also specify a property name to get just its values instead of all properties.

Sample Usage:

Get-WMIQualifierValue -Class Win32_LogicalDisk -ComputerName computer1 –Property StatusInfo

function Get-WMIQualifierValue
{

   param(
      [string]$Class=$(Throw “Parameter ‘Class’ cannot be empty”),
      [string]$ComputerName=".",
      [string]$NameSpace="ROOT\cimv2",
      [string]$Property="*"
   )

   if($PSVersionTable)
   {
     #PowerShell v2 detected
     $wmi = Get-WmiObject meta_class -Filter "__Class = '$class'" -Amended `
    -ComputerName $ComputerName -Namespace $NameSpace
   }
   else
   {
     #PowerShell v1 detected
    $wmi=[wmiclass]"\\$ComputerName\$($NameSpace):$class"
     $wmi.psbase.options.useAmendedQualifiers=$true
   }

   foreach ($p in $wmi.psbase.properties)
   {
      $names = $p.qualifiers | ForEach-Object {$_.name}

      if($names -contains "values" -AND $names -contains "valuemap")
      {
         $pLen = "-" * $p.name.length
         $value = $p.qualifiers["Values"].value
         $meaning = $p.qualifiers["ValueMap"].value
         $map = $value | Select-Object Value,@{Name="Meaning";Expression={$_}}
         1..$map.length | ForEach-Object { $map[$_-1].value=$meaning[$_-1] }
         $map = $map | Add-Member NoteProperty Name $p.name –PassThru

         if($Property -eq "*")
         {
           Write-Host ("`n$pLen`n"+$p.name+"`n$pLen")
           $map | Select-Object Value,Meaning | Format-Table –AutoSize
         }

         if($p.name -eq $Property)
         {
           Write-Host ("`n$pLen`n"+$p.name+"`n$pLen")
           $map | Where-Object {$_.name -eq $Property } | Select-Object Value,Meaning | Format-Table –AutoSize
          break
         }
      }
   }
}

Mailbox Users Storage limit

ScriptFanatic — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:12:00 GMT

My morning task today includes the following: get all mailboxes (Exchange 2003) larger than X megs where the associated user mailbox storage limits are overriding the settings of the Mailbox store.

Storage limit information for user accounts is available in Active Directory Users and Computers on the user ‘Exchange General’ tab (click on ‘Storage Limits’ at the bottom). The ‘Storage Limits’ dialog box specifies the mailbox storage limits for warning or prohibiting a mailbox-enabled user from sending or receiving email. You can also use this dialog box to specify the number of days a deleted item is stored in the mailbox store before it is permanently deleted but for my task it is not needed.

So the script goes as follows:

Use WMI Get all mailboxes larger than 250MB in size.
Get the associated mailbox user from AD using Quest AD cmdlets.
Filter those which override the mailbox store policy (the checkbox, (1) in the figure above is not checked). The LDAP attribute name for the checkbox is mDBUseDefaults and the value is FALSE.
In addition, extend the filtered mailbox objects with storage limit attributes (and values):
- Issue warning at (KB) – Ldap name (2) is mDBStorageQuota.
- Prohibit send at (KB) – Ldap name (3) is mDBOverQuotaLimit.
- Prohibit send and receive at (KB) – Ldap name (4) is mDBOverHardQuotaLimit.

$Server = "ExchangeServer"
$MbxSize= "250MB"

Get-WMIObject Exchange_Mailbox -Namespace root\MicrosoftExchangeV2 -Computer $server -Filter "size>=$($MbxSize/1kb)" | Foreach-Object {

   $IncludedProperties = "mDBUseDefaults","mDBStorageQuota","mDBOverQuotaLimit","mDBOverHardQuotaLimit"
   $user = Get-QADUser $_.LegacyDN -IncludedProperties $IncludedProperties

   if(!$user.mDBUseDefaults)
   {
     Add-member -InputObject $_ NoteProperty mDBUseDefaults $user.mDBUseDefaults
     Add-member -InputObject $_ NoteProperty mDBStorageQuota $user.mDBStorageQuota
     Add-member -InputObject $_ NoteProperty mDBOverQuotaLimit $user.mDBOverQuotaLimit
     Add-member -InputObject $_ NoteProperty mDBOverHardQuotaLimit $user.mDBOverHardQuotaLimit –PassThru
   }

} | Select-Object MailboxDisplayName,Size,mDBUseDefaults,mDBStorageQuota,mDBOverQuotaLimit,mDBOverHardQuotaLimit

Force a VM to enter BIOS setup screen on next reboot

ScriptFanatic — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:00:00 GMT

With the following PowerCLI filter you can force entry of virtual machine(s) into the BIOS setup screen next time the VM boots. You can configure the option in the VM options tab but with Set-VMBIOSSetup you can toggle the value programmatically:

Note that setting a VM to enter BIOS mode is a one time action. Once the VM reboots and enters the BIOS screen the ‘Force BIOS Setup’ flag is unchecked so that subsequent boots proceed normally.

filter Set-VMBIOSSetup
{
   param(
        [switch]$Disable,
        [switch]$PassThru
   )

   if($_ -is [VMware.VimAutomation.Types.VirtualMachine])
    {
       trap { throw $_ }

       $vmbo = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineBootOptions
       $vmbo.EnterBIOSSetup = $true

       if($Disable)
        {
           $vmbo.EnterBIOSSetup = $false
        }

       $vmcs = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
       $vmcs.BootOptions = $vmbo

        ($_ | Get-View).ReconfigVM($vmcs)

       if($PassThru)
        {
           Get-VM $_
        }
    }
   else
    {
       Write-Error "Wrong object type. Only virtual machine objects are allowed."
    }
}

Sample usage:

## Get all VMs which name starts with XP, force the VM to enter into bios
## mode on next boot and write VM objects back to pipeline
Get-VM XP* | Set-VMBIOSSetup -PassThru

# Get all VMs which name starts with XP and disable (uncheck) bios mode on next boot
Get-VM XP* | Set-VMBIOSSetup -Disable

One thing I found when testing the filter on ESXi 4 is that you get an error ‘fault.RestrictedVersion.summary’ if ESXi is registered, surprisingly it works if ESXi 4 is not registered. Duh!

New PowerShell videos

ScriptFanatic — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:51:43 GMT

via @makovec

Osama Sajid, PowerShell Program Manager, and Jeffrey Snover , Architect of PowerShell and Microsoft Distinguished Engineer, discussing the foundations and vision for PowerShell as a critical component of Microsoft's platform management strategy.

Discussions with the Architect, Part 1
Discussions with the Architect, Part 2
Discussions with the Architect, Part 3

And two more with James Brundage, PowerShell Test Team SDE:

PowerShell "How-To" : Variables, Types, and Operators
PowerShell "How-To" : Arrays, Conditionals, Collections, and Loops

Exchange 2007 SP2

ScriptFanatic — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:25:47 GMT

Exchange 2007 SP2 was released yesterday (version 08.02.0176.002). Below is some information regarding this release.

Exchange 2007 SP2 Download

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) has been designed specifically to help meet the challenges of any business and the needs of all the different groups with a stake in the messaging system. Exchange Server 2007 SP2 is a mission-critical communications tool that enables employees to be more productive and access their information anywhere and anytime while providing a messaging system that enables rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendar items, voice mail, and contacts. For the administrator, Exchange Server 2007 SP2 provides advanced protection options against e-mail security threats, such as spam and viruses, as well as the tools to help manage internal compliance and high availability needs.

For an overview of the new features that are available in Exchange Server 2007 SP2, see "What's New in Exchange Server 2007 SP2".

Release Notes:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ee7829a3-0ae8-44de-822c-908cd1034523&displaylang=en

Active Directory Schema Changes:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee221142.aspx

Active Directory PowerShell scripts pack

ScriptFanatic — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:21:00 GMT

As announced yesterday, Idera, the company behind PowerShellPlus , has released the Active Directory scripts pack. The scripts pack, authored by Aleksandar Nikolic and myself, is a set of more than 30 PowerShell 1.0 ADSI functions and filters designed to help IT administrators automate everyday Active Directory management tasks.

You can download the scripts pack HERE (registration needed). We hope you'll find it useful and if you have any questions or find any bugs you can report them to one of us. We are also available on Twitter (@alexandair and @ShayLevy).

Where do the functions come from?

ScriptFanatic — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:56:00 GMT

With PowerShell 2.0 you can tell exactly where a function came from, whether the function was defined in your profile or dot-sourced in a script file. You may find it useful when you want to edit a function source code but don’t know or remember the function source file.

The one-liner below gets all functions from the built-in Function provider (contains a view of the functions stored in session state), filters just those that have a value in the ScriptBlock.File member and creates a new calculated property to display the location of the file the function came from.

Get-ChildItem Function: | Where-Object {$_.ScriptBlock.File} | Select-Object Name,@{Name="Location";Expression={$_.ScriptBlock.File}}

Powershell v2 for Vista and Windows Server 2008

ScriptFanatic — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:07:00 GMT

PowerShell v2 is now available for download for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 SP2 are not included in this RC release but they will be made available in future.

For more information, and download link, see the PowerShell team blog announcement.