Intergen's Solution Architect and Microsoft MVP Gavin Barron presented "PowerShell: Automation for everyone" during the MVP CompCamp 2014, a worldwide event ran during the weekend of 22-23 March 2014. Gavin's blog: http://gavinb.net/

1. Gavin Barron, Solution Architect
March 22, 2014
ComCamp Auckland
PowerShell:
Automation for
Everyone

2. The only five commands you need
Rules for writing scripts
Demos
Intro
Wrap up
Our agenda

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 SharePoint Server MVP
 Developer
 Skier
 http://gavinb.net
 @gavinbarron
 gavin.barron@intergen.co.nz
Gavin Barron
Solution Architect
Your presenter

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Why Automate?
 Repeatability
 Reliability
 Save time?
 Eliminate boring manual tasks

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Why PowerShell?
 Product specific cmdlets
 Able to run .NET code
 Hooks into WMI/COM
 Object pipeline
 Readable scripts

6. The only five
commands you need

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Get-Command

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Get-Help

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Get-Member

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Where-Object

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ForEach-Object

12. Demos

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Find the command
you need

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Simple Pipeline Use

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File renaming in .bat
@echo off
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b *.txt') do call :dot "%%a"
pause
goto :EOF
:dot
set "var=%~n1"
set "var=%var:.=_%"
echo ren %1 "%var%%~x1"

16. Rules for writing
scripts

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Consider error cases
 What should you do when it goes pear shaped?
 Default behaviour is Ignore and Continue
 $ErrorActionPreference
 -ErrorAction
 try{} catch{}

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Consider your outputs
 Write-Host
 Write-Output
 Write-Progress
 Add-Content
 Out-File

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Have style!
 Use a coding convention
 Naming
 Casing
 Bracing
 Avoid aliases
 Be Consistent!

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Leverage functions for re-use
 Small tasks
 Compose a script from functions
 Functions are highly reusable
 Cmdlet Binding Attribute
 Parameters Attribute
 Default Values

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Use configuration files
$file =[xml] (Get-ChildItem $constantsFilePath)
$root = "setup-config"
$ConstantsNodeList = $file.$root.Constants
foreach($property in $ConstantsNodeList.Property) {
$key= $property.Key
$value=$property.Value
$webApp.Properties.Add($key,$value)
}
$webApp.Update()

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Script Examples

23. Wrap up

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Start scripting, it’s easy!

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Handy resources
 http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy
 http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter
 http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/scriptcenter/en-
US/home?forum=ITCG
 http://ss64.com/ps/
 http://ss64.com/ps/syntax.html

26. Any questions?

27. Email: gavin.barron@intergen.co.nz
Blog: http://gavinb.net
Twitter: @gavinbarron
Thank you