PowerShell

PSCustomObjects are a great tool to add into your Powershell toolbelt. Let’s start with the basics and work our way into the more advanced features. The idea behind using a PSCustomObject is to have a very simple way to create structured data. Take a look at the first example and you will have a better idea of what that means.

If you know me, then you know I have been a fan of Pester for a long time. I found it to be a great tool and found novel uses for it. I put together a talk on Pester in Action a year ago to show how I used it in my environment. The big thing I wanted to get across to people was that it was amazing at verifying system configuration and validating a system before you release it. I have seen a lot of community efforts along these same lines in the last year. One of these tools deserves a closer look.

The nice thing about Powershell is that you can run any command line application from the shell. That is a common way to install things. Calling the installer is often the same as double clicking on it. If you call an MSI, it will pop up and start the install.

My first presentation to the ATXPowershell User Group was a year ago on using Pester to validate your scripts and modules as you make them. I ended the talk with a quick view of how I use Pester to validate my system deployment configurations. I shared my presentation online and that section of my scripts got a lot of attention.

For our ATXPowershell November meeting, I am taking that topic and expanding on it. I have seen the topic of using Pester for Operational Validation show up in more and more places over the last year. What I like most about it is that this is an easy skill or concept that even people fairly new to Powershell can adopt in their existing environments. This can not only add value right away but also be a great build as you go project that does not require a large investment of time.

We had a great turnout for our Austin Powershell User Group meeting this month. We have been presenting out of the Microsoft store in the Domain for one year now. The Microsoft store has been a good host for us.

The way WOL works is that the NIC has to receive the magic packet. This packet has a special bit pattern and the MAC address of the NIC. If you want to wake up 5 machines, that is 5 different magic packets. All you have to do is get this packet to the machine.

If you have started using Invoke-Command, then you have ran into the issue of getting local variables into your remote commands. There is a lot of advice out there on how to do this and some approaches are more clunky than others.

This is just a test post.

If you are looking for all my old posts and content, they are still over on blogger http://kevinmarquette.blogspot.com . I am going to leave that site up and going even though my new content will be posted here.