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Setting the working environment
Creating a profile and work folder
The following scripts sets a working folder and a profile.ps1 wherein commands will run when opening Powershell.
# Create Local Work folder New-Item "C:\Workfolder\Powershell\Scripts" -ItemType Directory -Force # Create basic profile and populate $profile = "C:\Workfolder\profile.ps1" . $profile New-Item –Path $Profile –Type File –Force # New-Item $profile -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue ‘# Profile file created’ | OUT-File $profile ‘# Profile for $(hostname)’ | OUT-File $profile -Append '' | OUT-File $profile -Append '# Set location' | OUT-File $profile -Append 'Set-Location -Path "C:\Workfolder\Powershell\Scripts"' | OUT-File $profile -Append '' | OUT-File $profile -Append '# Set an alias' | Out-File $Profile -Append 'Set-Alias gh get-help’ | Out-File $Profile -Append ‘### End of profile’ | Out-File $Profile -Append
Administrating Windows Server 2019 with Powershell
This assumes administrating Windows Server 2019 on VMWare from Windows 10.
Remoting
# Enabling remoting
# Windows
Enable-PSRemoting
# CentOS/RHEL
sudo rpm -Uvh https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/7/packages-microsoft-prod.rpm
sudo yum install powershell
sudo yum install omi-psrp-server
# Cmdlets capable of remoting
Get-Command -ParameterName ComputerName,CimSession,Session,PSSession
# Cmdlets with the ComputerName parameter usually use DCOM/RPC to communicate
# Steer clear of those, as they are slower and getting firewall exceptions is harder
Get-Service -ComputerName Machine1
# Cmdlets that can use sessions work with PowerShell remoting or CIM remoting
Get-DscConfiguration -CimSession Machine1
Copy-Item -FromSession Machine1 -Path C:\file -Destination C:\file
# What are sessions? We can have two types
# WinRM/PSRP-Sessions
# The default authentication option is Negotiate, where we try Kerberos first
$pwshSession = New-PSSession -ComputerName Machine1
# If alternate credentials are needed you can add them as well
$credentialSession = New-PSSession -ComputerName Machine2 -Credential contoso\SomeAdmin
# Sometimes, you need to access a machine via SSL or you want to set different session options
$linuxOptions = New-PSSessionOption -SkipCACheck -SkipCNCheck -SkipRevocationCheck
$linuxSession = New-PSSession -ComputerName Centos1 -SessionOption $linuxOptions -Authentication Basic -Credential root -UseSSL
# Session options can also be relevant when products like the SQL Server Reporting services
# add a HTTP SPN that effectively breaks your Kerberos authentication with the remote
$sessionOption = New-PSSessionOption -IncludePortInSPN
$session = New-PSSession -ComputerName SSRS1 -SessionOption $sessionOption
# CIM sessions
# CIM remoting enables you to retrieve all kinds of data from remote systems
# CIM is not limited to Windows, but currently implemented in most Windows PowerShell cmdlets
$cimSession = New-CimSession -ComputerName someMachine # Still using WinRM as a transport protocol
Get-NetAdapter -CimSession $cimSession
Get-DscConfiguration -CimSession $cimSession
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Process -CimSession $cimSession
# Remoting types
# Interactive, 1:1
# Session is created, used interactively and exited
Enter-PSSession -ComputerName Machine1
Get-Host
Exit-PSSession
# 1:n
$sessions = New-PSSession -ComputerName Machine1,Machine2,MachineN
# Persistent sessions, Invoke-Command uses 32 parallel connections
# Can be controlled with ThrottleLimit
Invoke-Command -Session $sessions -ScriptBlock {
$variable = "value"
}
# Persistent sessions can be used multiple times until the idle timeout
# destroys the session on the target machine
Invoke-Command -Session $sessions -ScriptBlock {
Write-Host "`$variable is still $variable"
}
# Persistent sessions can even be reconnected to if PowerShell has been closed
# If the same authentication options are used, a reconnect is possible
Get-PSSession -ComputerName Machine1
# DisconnectedScope
# Invoke-Command can run in a disconnected session that can be connected
# from any other machine on the network unless it is already connected
Invoke-Command -ComputerName Machine1 -InDisconnectedSession -ScriptBlock {
Start-Sleep -Seconds 500 # Some long running operation
}
# Either
Connect-PSSession -ComputerName Machine1 # Simply connects session so it can be used
# Or
Receive-PSSession -ComputerName Machine1 # Attempts to connect session and also retrieve data
# Implicit
# You can import sessions and modules from sessions. This is called implicit remoting
$s = New-PSSession -ComputerName DomainController
Import-Module -PSSession $s -Name ActiveDirectory -Prefix contoso
Get-contosoAdUser -Filter * # Cmdlet runs remotely and is used locally
# Data types, Serialization
Invoke-Command -ComputerName Machine1 -ScriptBlock {
"hello"
} | Get-Member # Added properties PSComputerName, RunspaceId, ShowComputerName
# Complex data types are deserialized and lose their object methods
# However, all Properties still exist and usually even keep the data type
# unless it also has been deserialized
(Invoke-Command -ComputerName Machine1 -ScriptBlock {
Get-Process
}).GetType().FullName # Deserialized.System.Diagnostics.Process