Kiran's Weblog - PowerShell

PowerShell: 101-vm-secure-password

This is an Azure quickstart sample PowerShell script based on ARM template 101-vm-secure-password from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

17 September 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-multiple-data-disk

This is an Azure quickstart sample PowerShell script based on ARM template 101-vm-multiple-data-disk from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

16 September 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-simple-rhel

This is an Azure quickstart sample PowerShell script based on ARM template 101-vm-simple-rhel from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

15 September 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-simple-windows-visualstudio2019

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-simple-windows-visualstudio2019 from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

3 September 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-simple-freebsd

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-simple-freebsd from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

3 September 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-tags

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-tags from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

31 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-ubuntu-DSVM-GPU-or-CPU

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-ubuntu-DSVM-GPU-or-CPU from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

31 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-user-image-data-disks

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-user-image-data-disks from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

31 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-windows-copy-datadisks

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-windows-copy-datadisks from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

25 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-with-rdp-port

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-with-rdp-port from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

25 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-with-standardssd-disk

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-with-standardssd-disk from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

25 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-loadbalancer-with-nat-rule

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-loadbalancer-with-nat-rule from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

21 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-loadbalancer-with-multivip

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-loadbalancer-with-multivip from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

21 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-vnet-two-subnets

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vnet-two-subnets from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

4 August 2020

PowerShell: 201-2-vms-internal-load-balancer

This is a conversion of ARM template 201-2-vms-internal-load-balancer from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

4 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-sql-database

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-sql-database from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

4 August 2020

PowerShell: 101-azure-bastion-nsg

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-azure-bastion-nsg from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

20 July 2020

PowerShell: 101-1vm-2nics-2subnets-1vnet

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-1vm-2nics-2subnets-1vnet from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

10 July 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-simple-linux

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-simple-linux from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

10 July 2020

PowerShell: 101-vm-simple-windows

This is a conversion of ARM template 101-vm-simple-windows from the GitHub repository azure\azure-quickstart-templates to PowerShell Script, and this script will deploy following the resources...

PowerShell

Projects

Azure

10 July 2020

Copy Security Rules From One Azure Network Security Group To Another Using PowerShell

Network Security Group Azure Network Security Group is used to manage the flow of the network traffic and the direction as well, besides the default inbound and outbound security rules there can be none or many security rules to define the security within in the Azure Virtual Network. Purpose of copying Security Rules There are many scenarios where you need to clone Network Security Group and its security rules to a new Network Security Group or copy the security rules to an existing Network Security Group, it could be as part of the migration, testing, cloning the same security measures for different project, or for a disaster recovery site and etc., You can’t move the Network Security Group from one region to an another. You can only use the method of copy, paste and delete. Copy Security Rules using PowerShell I have created a PowerShell script to copy the security rules from one Network Security Group to another and also it has some other abilities like… Copy security rules from one Network Security Group to another. Creates a new Network Security Group and copy the security rules. Accepts the Network Security Group by name or as an object as well. By default the script merges the security rules, and it has an option to overwrite the existing NSG security rules. Code  View the code in GitHub   Syntax This function will accept the following Parameter Sets… Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules -SourceResourceGroupName <string> -SourceNSGName <string> -TargetResourceGroupName <string> -TargetNSGName <string> [<CommonParameters>] Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules -SourceResourceGroupName <string> -SourceNSGName <string> -TargetResourceGroupName <string> -TargetNSGName <string> -TargetLocation <string> [<CommonParameters>] Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules -SourceNSG <psobject> -TargetResourceGroupName <string> -TargetNSGName <string> -TargetLocation <string> [<CommonParameters>] Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules -SourceNSG <psobject> -TargetNSG <psobject> [-Overwrite] [<CommonParameters>] Example 01 To copy security rules from the existing source NSG to existing target NSG using NSG name… PS C:\> . .\Scripts\Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules.ps1 PS C:\> Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules -SourceResourceGroupName 'rg1' -SourceNSGName 'nsg1' -TargetResourceGroupName 'rg2' -TargetNSGName 'nsg2' Output: Following 2 security rule(s) is/are copied from source NSG 'rg1\nsg1' to target NSG 'rg2\nsg2' Deny_Internet, Allow_SqlServer Example 02 To create a new NSG and then copy security rules from the existing source NSG PS C:\> . .\Scripts\Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules.ps1 PS C:\> Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules -SourceResourceGroupName 'rg1' -SourceNSGName 'nsg1' -TargetNSGName 'nsg2' -TargetResourceGroupName 'rg2' -TargetLocation 'southindia' Output: New NSG 'nsg2' has been created in resource group 'rg2' in 'southindia' location. Following 2 security rule(s) is/are copied from source NSG 'rg1\nsg1' to target NSG 'rg2\nsg2' Deny_Internet, Allow_SqlServer If the target NSG is already existed… The NSG 'nsg2' is already existed, so vomiting the '-TagetLocation' parameter value and skiping the NSG creation. Following 2 security rule(s) is/are copied from source NSG 'rg1\nsg1' to target NSG 'rg2\nsg2' Deny_Internet, Allow_SqlServer Example 03 To copy security rules from the existing source NSG to existing target NSG (When direct NSG objects are provided) PS C:\> . .\Scripts\Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules.ps1 PS C:\> $nsg1 = Get-AzNetworkSecurityGroup -ResourceGroupName 'rg1' -Name 'nsg1' PS C:\> $nsg2 = Get-AzNetworkSecurityGroup -ResourceGroupName 'rg2' -Name 'nsg2' PS C:\> Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules -SourceNSG $nsg1 -TargetNSG $nsg2 Output: Following 2 security rule(s) is/are copied from source NSG 'rg1\nsg1' to target NSG 'rg2\nsg2' Deny_Internet, Allow_SqlServer Example 04 To create a new NSG and then copy security rules from the existing source NSG (When direct source NSG object is provided) PS C:\> . .\Scripts\Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules.ps1 PS C:\> $nsg1 = Get-AzNetworkSecurityGroup -ResourceGroupName 'rg1' -Name 'nsg1' PS C:\> Copy-AzNSGSecurityRules -SourceNSG $nsg1 -TargetNSGName 'nsg2' -TargetResourceGroupName 'rg2' -TargetLocation 'southindia' Output: New NSG 'nsg2' has been created in resource group 'rg2' in 'southindia' location. Following 2 security rule(s) is/are copied from source NSG 'rg1\nsg1' to target NSG 'rg2\nsg2' Deny_Internet, Allow_SqlServer If the target NSG is already existed… The NSG 'nsg2' is already existed, so vomiting the '-TagetLocation' parameter value and skiping the NSG creation. Following 2 security rule(s) is/are copied from source NSG 'rg1\nsg1' to target NSG 'rg2\nsg2' Deny_Internet, Allow_SqlServer Code  View the code in GitHub  

PowerShell

Azure

24 July 2020

Find Azure Resources By Tags Using PowerShell

Recently, I have been requested to write a small PowerShell script to fetch all the Azure resources with no tags at all, but I thought of writing a comprehensive script that is not only to find all the resources with no tags but also to find resources with specific tag name(s), tag value(s), tag(s), or with all tags. Tagging in Azure I have already covered Tagging Microsoft Azure Resources Using Powershell (Az)  in my previous post, but just to brief… Tags in Azure play pivotal role in managing the resources, predominantly in the cost governance strategies and much useful for automation and maintain environment hygiene. More than a resource name, tagging is very crucial and it must be consistent and appropriate across the resources in all the resource groups and subscriptions. Many organizations leverage the tagging effectively and consistently using the Azure policies or some automation techniques. Find-AzResource However, finding the resources in Azure is also crucial, and especially finding all the resources of all types from multiple subscriptions or resource groups. So I have come up with a PowerShell script to find all the Azure tagged/not tagged resources, and you can find the script in my GitHub repo…  View the code in GitHub   The script comes with an in-build help, and if you run the script without any parameters it will display the help as below… C:\Users\kiran\PSScripts> . .\Find-AzResource.ps1 C:\Users\kiran\PSScripts> Find-AzResource Output: NAME Find-AzResource SYNOPSIS Find-AzResource gets all the Azure tagged/not tagged resources, SYNTAX Find-AzResource [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -ResourceGroupName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -Tag <Hashtable> [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -ResourceGroupName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -TagValue <String[]> [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -ResourceGroupName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -TagName <String[]> [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -ResourceGroupName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -WithNoTag [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -ResourceGroupName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -AllTagged [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -SubscriptionName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -Tag <Hashtable> [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -SubscriptionName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -TagValue <String[]> [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -SubscriptionName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -TagName <String[]> [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -SubscriptionName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -WithNoTag [<CommonParameters>] Find-AzResource -SubscriptionName <String[]> [-ResourceName <String[]>] [-Location <String[]>] [-ResourceType <String[]>] -AllTagged [<CommonParameters>] DESCRIPTION Find-AzResource gets all the Azure resources with... > All tags > No tags > Specific tag name(s) > Specific tag value(s) > Specific tag(s) ... from one or more resourcegroup(s) or subscripttion(s) and optionally filter the resources by location, name and type as well. ... output truncated ... -------------------------- EXAMPLE 1 -------------------------- PS > Find-AzResource Displays full help -------------------------- EXAMPLE 2 -------------------------- PS > Find-AzResource -SubscriptionName Sub1, Sub2 -AllTagged Finds all the resources with tags in the given Subscriptions. it even works with ResourceGroupName as well. Optionally, you can even filter the resources by Name, Location and Type. -------------------------- EXAMPLE 3 -------------------------- PS > Find-AzResource -SubscriptionName Sub1, Sub2 -WithNoTag Finds all the resources with no tags in the given Subscriptions. It even works with ResourceGroupName as well. Optionally, you can even filter the resources by Name, Location and Type. -------------------------- EXAMPLE 4 -------------------------- PS > Find-AzResource -ResourceGroupName RG1, RG2 -TagName Status Finds all the resources with given tag name in the given resource groups. It even works with the subscriptions as well. Optionally, you can even filter the resources by Name, Location and Type. -------------------------- EXAMPLE 5 -------------------------- PS > Find-AzResource -ResourceGroupName RG1, RG2 -TagValue HR, Finance Finds all the resources with given tag values in the given resource groups. It even works with the subscriptions as well. Optionally, you can even filter the resources by Name, Location and Type. -------------------------- EXAMPLE 6 -------------------------- PS > Find-AzResource -ResourceGroupName RG1, RG2 -Tag @{Dept='IT'; Status="Expired"} Finds all the resources with given tags in the given resource groups. It even works with the subscriptions as well. Optionally, you can even filter the resources by Name, Location and Type.  View the code in GitHub  

PowerShell

Azure

14 July 2020

Self Aliased Functions in PowerShell

When we are working with an interactive shell, we use aliases for the frequently used cmdlets, and aliases are really useful and reduce the amount of keystrokes, and very simple and easy to use, and sometimes they can do magics  as well. It is not recommended to use the aliases in the scripts and functions as part of the best practices. We can create aliases to cmdlets and functions, end even to scripts using the New-Alias cmdlet… New-Alias -Name hello -Value Hello-Word And, we can also create aliases to the function at the time of declaration itself using [Alias("")] statement, we need to place it just before the parameters block param. Parameters block is mandatory, at least an empty block param() Function Hello-World { [Alias('hello','hey')] param ( [string] $Name ) Write-Host "Hello, $Name!" }

PowerShell

Tips

5 July 2020

ValidateSet vs ArgumentCompleter ValidateSet parameter attribute is helpful to tab through the specified values of a particular parameter in a CmdLet or a Function and it only accepts the values specified in the validate set and it cannot generate the dynamic values by default, whereas the ArgumentCompleter parameter attribute is also similar to ValidateSet attribute but in addition to it, it has an in-built scriptblock to generate the dynamic values to pass the value to a parameter with tab completion and also it accepts the values other than the values available with tab completion. And both the attributes allow tab completion with wildcard matching values. We can create a separate Class to generate the dynamic values with the ValidateSet attribute. Using the ValidateSet, the values cannot be influenced by the other parameter values whereas using the ArgumentCompleter we can generate the dynamic values of a parameter based on the other parameter values. ArgumentCompleter produces the tab completion values as defined in the scriptblock with certain optional and positional parameters, and executes it each time when we hit the Tab, and of course it is the same with dynamic ValidateSet attribute. PowerShell requires the tab-completion values from the scriptblock in the form of an array to navigate through when we hit the Tab each time. Using ValidateSet Attribute The function below Get-Country will demonstrate how it works with the ValidateSet parameter attribute. Function Get-Country { [CmdLetBinding()] param ( [parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [ValidateSet('India', 'USA', 'UK', 'Canada', 'Australia')] [string] $CountryName ) ## Write your code here Write-Host $CountryName } In the command-line when you write Get-Country -CountryName <Tab>, it will navigate through the values defined in the ValidateSet, but you can’t enter the values other than in the ValidateSet. Using dynamic ValidateSet Attribute To generate the dynamic values to use with the ValidateSet attribute, you need to define the functionality in a class and then use it with the ValidateSet attribute. class SupportedCountries : System.Management.Automation.IValidateSetValuesGenerator { [string[]] GetValidValues() { ## Write your code here $Countries = @('India', 'USA', 'UK', 'Canada', 'Australia') return $Countries } } Function Get-Country { [CmdLetBinding()] param ( [parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [ValidateSet([SupportedCountries])] [string] $CountryName ) ## Write your code here Write-Host $CountryName } ArgumentCompleter script block As mentioned in the above, the scriptblock in the ArgumentCompleter has few optional and positional parameters that can be used if required, and now let’s see what are those parameters… $CommandName (Position 0) : This parameter is set to the name of the command for which the script block is providing tab completion. $ParameterName (Position 1) : This parameter is set to the parameter whose value requires tab completion. $WordToComplete (Position 2) : This parameter is set to value the user has provided before they pressed Tab. Your script block should use this value to determine tab-completion values. $CommandAst (Position 3) : This parameter is set to the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) for the current input line. $FakeBoundParameters (Position 4) - This parameter is set to a hashtable containing the $PSBoundParameters for the cmdlet before the user pressed Tab. The parameter names can be anything but should be in the same position. Using ArgumentCompleter Attribute The Get-Country function below will accept the values specified in the scriptblock through tab completion and also allows other values by passing manually… Function Get-Country { [CmdLetBinding()] param ( [parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [ArgumentCompleter( { param ( $CommandName, $ParameterName, $WordToComplete, $CommandAst, $FakeBoundParameters ) # Write your code here return @('India', 'USA', 'UK', 'Canada', 'Australia') })] [string] $CountryName ) Write-Host $CountryName } In the above example when you type Get-Country -CountryName <tab> it will navigate through the country names specified in the scriptblock and also accepts other country names as well. If you use the wildcard it will navigate through the matching values only and of course it is also applicable to the ValidateSet attribute as well. Now, let’s see another example that will dynamically generate the tab completion values based on the other parameter value… Function Get-Country { [CmdLetBinding()] param ( [parameter(Mandatory = $false)] [ValidateSet('''North America''', 'Europe', 'Asia', 'Oceania')] [string] $Continent, [parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [ArgumentCompleter( { param ( $CommandName, $ParameterName, $WordToComplete, $CommandAst, $FakeBoundParameters ) $CountriesByContinent = @{ 'North America' = @('USA', 'Canada') Europe = @('UK', 'Germany') Asia = @('India', '''Sri Lanka''') Oceania = @('''New Zealand''', 'Australia') } if ($fakeBoundParameters.ContainsKey('Continent')) { $CountriesByContinent[$fakeBoundParameters.Continent] | Where-Object { $_ -like "$wordToComplete*" } } else { $CountriesByContinent.Values | ForEach-Object { $_ } } })] [string] $CountryName ) Write-Host $CountryName } In the above example, I have not used all the parameters though, but the values of the parameters will be as follows… $CommandName is Get-Country $ParameterName is CountryName $WordToComplete, here in this example it is empty but if you use Get-Country -CountryName Ger<Tab> then the value of this parameter is Ger $CommandAst is Get-Country -CountryName $FakeBoundParameters, if you run Get-Country -Continent Asia -CountryName India then the value of this parameter is @{Continent = ‘Asia’} which is a hashtable, if there are any other bound parameters then they will also be returned in the form of hashtable itself. Using Register-ArgumentCompleter CmdLet To give an ability to tab through the valid values of a parameter in a CmdLet or a Function, you can use the Register-ArgumentCompleter CmdLet to register the valid argument completers to navigate through between the Tab hits. The Register-ArgumentCompleter will also accept the script block as it is in the ArgumentCompleter parameter attribute with all the optional and positional parameters to register the argument completers of a parameter in a CmdLet or a Function. Now let’s see how it works… Function Get-Country { [CmdLetBinding()] param ( [parameter(Mandatory = $false)] [ValidateSet('''North America''', 'Europe', 'Asia', 'Oceania')] [string] $Continent, [parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [string] $CountryName ) ## Write your code here Write-Host $CountryName } In the above function, there is no ValidateSet or ArgumentCompleter parameter attributes to CountryName parameter, and now we will register the argument completers using Register-ArgumentCompleter CmdLet to work with tab completion, and we will use the same script that we have used in the above example. $ScriptBlock = [scriptblock]::Create({ param ( $CommandName, $ParameterName, $WordToComplete, $CommandAst, $FakeBoundParameters ) $CountriesByContinent = @{ 'North America' = @('USA', 'Canada') Europe = @('UK', 'Germany') Asia = @('India', '''Sri Lanka''') Oceania = @('''New Zealand''', 'Australia') } if ($fakeBoundParameters.ContainsKey('Continent')) { $CountriesByContinent[$fakeBoundParameters.Continent] | Where-Object { $_ -like "$WordToComplete*" } } else { $CountriesByContinent.Values | ForEach-Object { $_ } } }) Register-ArgumentCompleter -CommandName Get-Country -ParameterName CountryName -ScriptBlock $ScriptBlock You can also register the argument completers to any CmdLets or Functions from any vender and to any native applications as well. $ScriptBlock = [scriptblock]::Create({ param ( $CommandName, $ParameterName, $WordToComplete, $CommandAst, $FakeBoundParameters ) $Shares = Get-SmbShare | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "$WordToComplete*"} $Shares | ForEach-Object { New-Object -Type System.Management.Automation.CompletionResult -ArgumentList $_.Name, $_.Name, "ParameterValue", $_.Name } }) Register-ArgumentCompleter -CommandName Set-SmbShare -ParameterName Name -ScriptBlock $ScriptBlock

PowerShell

22 January 2020

Get All The aliases By CmdLet

You can get the alias by name using Get-Alias with -Name parameter… Get-Alias -Name gci To get all the aliases of a CmdLet, use Get-Alias with -Definition parameter… Get-Alias -Definition Get-ChildItem

PowerShell

Tips

13 January 2020

Convert A String To Title Case

Converting a string to upper and lower cases are possible with the string object using the dot notation, but not sure why title case is not directly supported yet with the string object in PowerShell, however there are a couple of ways to achieve the same… $Text = 'kiran patnayakuni' # Using PowerShell (Get-Culture).TextInfo.ToTitleCase($Text) #Using .Net [cultureinfo]::CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ToTitleCase($Text)

PowerShell

Tips

3 January 2020

Overload Definitions of a Method

To refer the overload definitions/syntax of a method of an object using the OverloadDefinitions property of a method with simple dot notation, or simply use the method name without the parenthesis (). <object>.<method>.OverloadDefinitions # or <object>.<method> Example: $Text = "PowerShell" # To see all the methods of an object $Text | Get-Member -MemberType *Method $Text.LastIndexOf # or $Text.LastIndexOf.OverloadDefinitions

PowerShell

Tips

1 January 2020

Happy New Year #In Console

Wishing you all… Happy New Year - 2020 The year 2019 was extremely good for me and helped me to cross a few milestones in my career and in my personal life as well. Thank you very much everyone who supported and helped me in my growth! I have learned a bit and there is a lot to learn. Undoubtedly, the year 2019 was very successful for me, and I hope it is the same with you all. I have set my goals for the year 2020 and will work hard to achieve all of them, and I hope it will be one of the best years of my life. Once again, I wish you all a very happy and successful new year 2020. I have started my celebrations by writing a small snippet to wish you a happy new year in the console using PowerShell… It can be directly invoked from my GitHub repo… iex (irm https://bit.ly/2G19w4s); Wish-HappyNewYear

PowerShell

1 January 2020

Get-WhatYouWant #Don’t Mess Up On Your Screen

As we all know, all the PowerShell folks use the follow three CmdLets irrespective of their expertise… Get-Command Get-Help Get-Member But still, they should be properly used to get what exactly you want, otherwise you will definitely mess up on your screen. Just to stress out what I mean to say, let me give you some examples… Just to see the syntax of a command you don’t need to use Get-Help or Get-Help with -Detailed or -Full, you can simply use the Get-Command with -Syntax parameter… Get-Command -Name Get-ComputerInfo -Syntax To see the help of a particular parameter you don’t need to use Get-Help with -Detailed or -Full, you can simply use it with the -Parameter… Get-Help -Name Get-SmbShare -Parameter ScopeName One last example, to see only the properties of an object you don’t need to simply use Get-Member alone, you can use it along with -MemberType parameter… Get-Date | Get-Member -MemberType Properties That’s all with the examples, now let’s see various use cases from the above three CmdLets… Listing/Finding the commands using Get-Command # To list all the commands availble in the current session Get-Command <# Search the commands with the name using wildcard, and it returns all types of commands matching the name with the given pattern, you can also filter further down the commands using -Module, -CommandType or both #> Get-Command -Name *VHD* Get-Command -Name *VHD* -CommandType Function Get-Command -Name *VHD* -Module Hyper-V Get-Command -Name *VHD* -CommandType Cmdlet -Module Hyper-V <# Search the commands with Verb or Noun, or both using direct names or wildcards as well, also with -Module as well #> Get-Command -Verb Get Get-Command -Noun SmbShare Get-Command -Verb Set -Noun Smb* Get-Command -Verb Get -Noun Smb* -Module SmbShare <# List the commands in a module, again you can filter further down using -Name or -Verb & -Noun, and -CommandType #> Get-Command -Module SqlServer Get-Command -Module SqlServer -CommandType Alias <# Search commands by either the parameter name or parameter type, or both You can still filter further down using -Name, or -Verb & -Noun, -Module and -CommandType #> Get-Command -ParameterName VMName Get-Command -ParameterType System.Boolean Get-Command -ParameterName Scoped -ParameterType System.Boolean <# List the commands from the modules loaded in the current session You can still filter further down using -Name, or -Verb & -Noun, -Module -CommandType, -ParameterName and -ParameterType #> Get-Command -ListImported <# To limit the output count. You can use with all ParameterSets Works with all possible parameter combination #> Get-Command -TotalCount 10 Get-Command -ListImported -TotalCount 10 <# Search the commands from closest match to least likely match. You can use this switch if you are not sure about exact name of the command, and you can't use this with wildcard search, and works only with -Name parameter combination #> Get-Command -Name gotcemmand -UseFuzzyMatching <# List the commands with the same name from different sources To test this, create an empty Write-Error function and then run the command below To create an empty function: Function Write-Error {} #> Get-Command -Name Write-Error -All # Or to list all Get-Command -All <# List the commands using the FullyQualifiedModule parameter to list the commands from the specific version of the module -FullyQualifiedModule and -Module are mutually exclusive #> Get-Command -FullyQualifiedModule @{ModuleName = "UEV"; ModuleVersion = "2.1.639.0" } <# Get the command count Get-Command can be used with all possible parameter combinations #> Get-Command | Measure-Object -Line | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Lines <# List commands return output, and its output type Get-Command can be used with all possible parameter combinations #> Get-Command | Where-Object OutputType | Format-List Get information about a specific CmdLet using Get-Command # Get the command basic info Get-Command -Name Get-ComputeProcess # Get the syntax(s) of a given command Get-Command -Name Get-Counter -Syntax # Get complete information about the given command Get-Command -Name New-NetIPAddress | Format-List * # Get all the parameters of a given command Get-Command -Name Get-ControlPanelItem | ` Select-Object -ExpandProperty Parameters # Or (Get-Command -Name Get-ControlPanelItem).Parameters # Get the module name of a given command Get-Command -Name Show-ControlPanelItem | ` Select-Object -ExpandProperty ModuleName # Or (Get-Command -Name Show-ControlPanelItem).ModuleName # Get the definition of a given command # For CmdLets you see only systax, it works only for Functions Get-Command -Name Get-NetAdapterStatistics | ` Select-Object -ExpandProperty Definition # Or (Get-Command -Name Get-NetAdapterStatistics).Definition # Get the command output type Get-Command -Name Get-NetAdapterHardwareInfo | ` Select-Object -ExpandProperty OutputType # Or (Get-Command -Name Get-NetAdapterHardwareInfo).OutputType # Get the command's default parameter set Get-Command -Name Get-Disk | ` Select-Object -ExpandProperty DefaultParameterSet # Or (Get-Command -Name Get-Disk).DefaultParameterSet # Get the type of a given command Get-Command -Name Get-NetRoute | Select-Object -ExpandProperty CommandType # Or (Get-Command -Name Get-NetRoute).CommandType # Get the dynamic parameter list of a given command (if any) Get-Command -Name Get-Package -ArgumentList 'Cert:' | ` Select-Object -ExpandProperty ParameterSets | ` ForEach-Object {$_.Parameters} | ` Where-Object {$_.IsDynamic} | ` Select-Object -Property Name -Unique You can also try Show-Command  instead of Get-Command Get Help of a specific CmdLet or about topic using Get-Help # To get the basic help Get-Help -Name Get-WULastInstallationDate # To get the parameter description & examples in-addition to the basic help Get-Help -Name Test-WSMan -Detailed # To get the comprehensive help includes parameter descriptions and attributes, # examples, input and output object types, and additional notes. Get-Help -Name Invoke-Expression -Full # To get the help with examples only Get-Help -Name New-LocalGroup -Examples # To get the online help in a browser seperately Get-Help -Name Test-Connection -Online # To get the full help in a seperate window Get-Help -Name Get-Process -ShowWindow # To get the help of a specific parameter of a command Get-Help -Name Get-NetConnectionProfile -Parameter InterfaceIndex # To get the help of all the parameters of a command Get-Help -Name Compress-Archive -Parameter * # You can use alias name as well, and works with all the above parameter combination Get-Help -Name ls # To get the help of a script (if available), and works with all the above parameter combination Get-Help -Name C:\GitRepo\Test-Script.ps1 # To list the available help matching with a specific word Get-Help -Name netconnection # To list all the conceptual topics Get-Help -Name about_* # To get the help of a specific conceptual topic Get-Help -Name about_ForEach-Parallel Get members of an object using Get-Member # Get all the member of an output object of Get-StartApps Get-StartApps | Get-Member # Get all the members and the intrinsic members and compiler-generated # members of the objects to the display, but by default they are hidden. $FirewallRules = Get-NetFirewallRule -Name FPS-* $FirewallRules | Get-Member -Force $FirewallRules.psbase # Get all the extended members of an InputObject, works with pipeline as well $VMProcessors = Get-VMProcessor -VMName Lab-ClientX Get-Member -InputObject $VMProcessors -View Extended # Get all the details of a member by name Get-NetTCPConnection | Get-Member -Name State | Format-List * ## Get the members by type Get-NetAdapter | Get-Member -MemberType Properties # All types of properties Get-NetAdapter | Get-Member -MemberType ScriptProperty # ScriptProperties Only Get-NetAdapter | Get-Member -MemberType Methods # All methods Get-NetAdapter | Get-Member -MemberType Method # Only method type

PowerShell

26 December 2019

String Operations

String Operations in PowerShell Example string C:\> $varString = 'This is an example string for PowerShell string operations' String assignment C:\> $otherString = $varString.Clone() # OR C:\> $otherString = $varString C:\> $otherString Output: This is an example string for PowerShell string operations Change the string to upper case C:\> $varString.ToUpper() Output: THIS IS AN EXAMPLESTRING FOR POWERSHELLDTRING OPERATIONS Change the string to lower case C:\> $varString.ToLower() Output: this is an example string for powershell string operations Change the string to title case C:\> (Get-Culture).TextInfo.ToTitleCase($varString) Output: This Is An Example String For Powershell String Operations Compare with other string C:\> $otherString = 'an example string' C:\> $varString.CompareTo($otherString) # 1 - Partial match C:\> $otherString = 'This is an example string for PowerShell string operations' C:\> $varString.CompareTo($otherString) # 0 - Exact match C:\> $otherString = 'This is an example string for X PowerShell string operations' C:\> $varString.CompareTo($otherString) # -1 - More than matching Output: 1 0 -1 Verify that the given string is an exact match or not C:\> $otherString = 'This is an example string for PowerShell string operations' C:\> $varString.Equals($otherString) # It returns true # It says only true or false, if it is exact match then it says true if not false Output: True Verify that, this string contains the given string or not C:\> $matchString = 'PowerShell' C:\> $varString.Contains($matchString) # Returns True # It's a case sensitive when matching with the other string C:\> $matchString = 'powershell' C:\> $varString.Contains($matchString) # Returns False # Using 'Select-String' CmdLet C:\> $matchString = 'powershell' C:\> Select-String -InputObject $varString -Pattern $matchString -Quiet # Returns True C:\> Select-String -InputObject $varString -Pattern $matchString -CaseSensitive -Quiet # Returns False/null Output: True False True Verify that the given string is matching with starting of the string C:\> $matchString = 'This is' C:\> $varString.StartsWith($matchString) # Returns True # It's a case sensitive for all match cases C:\> $matchString = 'this' C:\> $varString.StartsWith($matchString) # Returns False Output: True False Verify that the given string is matching with ending of the string C:\> $otherString = 'operations' C:\> $varString.EndsWith($otherString) # Return True # Again this is also case sensitive Output: True Add leading spaces/characters C:\> $str = 'Hello' C:\> $str.PadLeft(10,'#') # If the character is not specified it will take space by default Output: #####Hello Add trailing spaces/characters C:\> $str = 'Hello' C:\> $str.PadRight(10,'#') # If the character is not specified it will take space by default Output: Hello##### Get length of the given string C:\> $varString.Length Output: 58 Find the starting index of a given character in a string C:\> $char = 'l' C:\> $varString.IndexOf($char) # You can set starting index C:\> $varString.IndexOf($char,17) # Ignoring the case C:\> $char = 'L' C:\> $varString.IndexOf($char,[System.StringComparison]::CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) # All the above examples work same with 'string' as well Output: 16 38 16 Find the starting index of any given characters in a string C:\> $arrayChar = @('a','e','i','o','u') C:\> $varString.IndexOfAny($arrayChar) # You can also set starting index C:\> $varString.IndexOfAny($arrayChar,3) Output: 2 5 Find the last index of a given character in a string C:\> $char = 'e' C:\> $varString.LastIndexOf($char) # You can set starting index C:\> $varString.LastIndexOf($char,40) # Ignoring the case C:\> $char = 'E' C:\> $varString.LastIndexOf($char,[System.StringComparison]::CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) # All the above examples work same with 'string' as well Output: 50 37 50 Find the last index of any given characters in a string C:\> $arrayChar = @('a','e','i','o','u') C:\> $varString.LastIndexOfAny($arrayChar) # You can also set starting index C:\> $varString.LastIndexOfAny($arrayChar,40) Output: 55 37 Find indexes of all the occurrences C:\> (Select-String -InputObject $varString -Pattern 'l' -AllMatches).Matches.Index Output: 16 38 39 Split a string seperated by a space C:\> $varString.Split() Output: This is an example string for PowerShell string operations Split a string by a given character C:\> $varStr = 'First Name: Kiran,Last Name: Patnayakuni,City: Bangalore,Course: PowerShell' C:\> $seperator = ',' C:\> $varStr.Split($seperator) Output: First Name: Kiran Last Name: Patnayakuni City: Bangalore Course: PowerShell Split a string with implicit conversion C:\> (Get-Date).Split() # Throws an error C:\> (Get-Date) -split ' ' # Instead of space you can give any character or even a string as well Output: - InvalidOperation: Method invocation failed because [System.DateTime] does not contain a method named 'Split'. 12/11/2019 18:27:45 Join two or more strings C:\> -join ('Well', 'come') # You can add any numbers of strings seperated comma C:\> [string]::Concat('Honey','well') # You can add any numbers of strings seperated comma C:\> -join ('Good', ' ', 'Morning') C:\> 'Hello', 'World' -join ' ' # You can add any numbers of strings seperated comma, and the seperator can be any character or a string as well Output: Wellcome Honeywell Good Morning Hello World Convert other data types to string data type C:\> Get-Date # Return type datetime C:\> (Get-Date).ToString() # Return type string, and you can set the format inside the parenthesis. You can convert to string datatype from anyother datatype possible C:\> Get-Date | Out-String # Return type string Output 11 December 2019 19:03:02 11-12-2019 19:03:15 11 December 2019 19:03:34 Trim the leading & trailing spaces/characters of a given string C:\> $strWithSpaces = ' Hello World ' C:\> Write-Host "This statement '$strWithSpaces' has some leading and trailing spaces" # Trim the spaces C:\> $strWithSpaces = $strWithSpaces.Trim() C:\> Write-Host "This statement '$strWithSpaces' has no leading or trailing spaces" C:\> $strWithExtChars = '~~~~~~~~Hello World~~~~~~~~' C:\> $strWithExtChars # Trim the extra characters C:\> $strWithExtChars = $strWithExtChars.Trim('~') C:\> $strWithExtChars # Trim the strings as well C:\> $FileName = "xxxpowershell.exexxx" C:\> $FileName.Trim("xxx") Output: This statement ' Hello World ' has some leading and trailing spaces This statement 'Hello World' has no leading or trailing spaces ~~~~~~~~Hello World~~~~~~~~ Hello World powershell.exe Trim the leading spaces/characters of a given string C:\> $strWithLeadingSpaces = ' Hello World' C:\> Write-Host "This statement '$strWithLeadingSpaces' has some leading spaces" # Trim the leading spaces C:\> $strWithLeadingSpaces = $strWithLeadingSpaces.TrimStart() C:\> Write-Host "This statement '$strWithLeadingSpaces' has no leading spaces" C:\> $strWithExtChars = '~~~~~~~~Hello World~~~~~~~~' C:\> $strWithExtChars # Trim the extra leading characters C:\> $strWithExtChars = $strWithExtChars.TrimStart('~') C:\> $strWithExtChars # Trim the strings as well C:\> $FileName = "powershell.exe" C:\> $FileName.TrimStart("power") Output: This statement ' Hello World' has some leading spaces This statement 'Hello World' has no leading spaces ~~~~~~~~Hello World~~~~~~~~ Hello World~~~~~~~~ shell.exe Trim the trailing spaces/characters of a given string C:\> $strWithTrailingSpaces = 'Hello World ' C:\> Write-Host "This statement '$strWithTrailingSpaces' has some trailing spaces" # Trim the spaces C:\> $strWithTrailingSpaces = $strWithTrailingSpaces.TrimEnd() C:\> Write-Host "This statement '$strWithTrailingSpaces' has no trailing spaces" C:\> $strWithExtChars = '~~~~~~~~Hello World~~~~~~~~' C:\> $strWithExtChars # Trim the extra trailing characters C:\> $strWithExtChars = $strWithExtChars.TrimEnd('~') C:\> $strWithExtChars # Trim the strings as well C:\> $FileName = "powershell.exe" C:\> $FileName.TrimEnd(".exe") Output: This statement 'Hello World ' has some leading and trailing spaces This statement 'Hello World' has no leading or trailing spaces ~~~~~~~~Hello World~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~Hello World powershell Generate a Random string C:\> $randomStrLength = 16 # With all lower, upper, numeric and including all special characters C:\> -join ((33..126) | Get-Random -Count $randomStrLength | % {[char]$_}) # With all lower and numeric characters only C:\> -join ((97..122) + (48..57) | Get-Random -Count $randomStrLength | %{[char]$_}) # With all upper and numeric characters only C:\> -join ((65..90) + (48..57) | Get-Random -Count $randomStrLength | %{[char]$_}) # With all lower, numeric and some special characters C:\> -join ((97..122) + (33..64) | Get-Random -Count $randomStrLength | %{[char]$_}) # In your case outputs will be different Output: -d!Z~k8r3,%JGbKC cep976xaz2mqtwgr 9T061UFDL3BIE82A au<y:>;s#86(mf.5 Remove specified number of characters from a given string # Remove all the characters starting from 18th index C:\> $varString.Remove(18) # Remove a specified number of characters C:\> $varString.Remove(18,22) Output: This is an example This is an example string operations Insert a specified string in a given string C:\> $myString = 'Good Kiran' C:\> $InsString = ' Morning' C:\> $myString.Insert(4, $InsString) Output: Good Morning Kiran Replace a specified string in a given string C:\> $myString = 'My name is kiran patnayakuni' C:\> $myString.Replace(' ', ',') C:\> $myString.Replace('p','P') C:\> $myString.Replace('kiran','Kirankumar') # Replace with implicit conversion C:\> (Get-Date).Date -replace '-', '' Output: My,name,is,kiran,patnayakuni My name is kiran Patnayakuni My name is Kirankumar Patnayakuni 12122019 00:00:00 Get a Substring from a given string C:\> $myString = 'WindowsPowerShell' C:\> $myString.Substring(7) # Till the end C:\> $myString.Substring(7,5) # Length of 5 Output: PowerShell Power Place holders C:\> $FirstName = 'Kiran' C:\> $LastName = 'Patnayakuni' C:\> $DOJ = '30-08-2015' C:\> $Organization = 'ABC Companey' C:\> "Hello - {0}, {1} has joined in the organization {2} on {3}." -f $FirstName, $LastName, $Organization, $DOJ Output: Hello - Kiran, Patnayakuni has joined in the organization ABC Companey on 30-08-2015. Verify the string is null or empty $myString = $null [string]::IsNullOrEmpty($myString) # Returns True $myString = '' [string]::IsNullOrEmpty($myString) # Returns True $myString = ' ' [string]::IsNullOrEmpty($myString) # Returns False ### And in all other cases it returns False Output: True True False Verify the string is null or white space $myString = $null [string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($myString) # Returns True $myString = '' [string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($myString) # Returns True $myString = ' ' [string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($myString) # Returns True ### And in all other cases it returns False Output: True True True

PowerShell

12 December 2019

Terraform - Download & Configure on Windows

About Terraform Terraform is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool from HashiCorp, and it is an open-source, cross-platform and multi-cloud infrastructure deployment tool. It uses HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) and supports all popular cloud service providers. Terraform Installation Terraform comes as a single binary in a zip archive, you need to download it from the terraform official download page  , extract the archive and you can use it without having it installed and you can also use chocolate  package provider to download the terraform. To use the binary globally you need to set the binary location to the PATH. Alternatively, the PowerShell script below does all these steps for you and make it ready to run your terraform deployments… Function Install-Terraform { # Ensure to run the function with administrator privilege if (-not (New-Object Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal([Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent())).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator)) { Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red -Object "!!! Please run as Administrator !!!"; return } # Terrafrom download Url $Url = 'https://www.terraform.io/downloads.html' # Local path to download the terraform zip file $DownloadPath = 'C:\Terraform\' # Reg Key to set the persistent PATH $RegPathKey = 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment' # Create the local folder if it doesn't exist if ((Test-Path -Path $DownloadPath) -eq $false) { $null = New-Item -Path $DownloadPath -ItemType Directory -Force } # Download the Terraform exe in zip format $Web = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $Url $FileInfo = $Web.Links | Where-Object href -match windows_amd64 $DownloadLink = $FileInfo.href $FileName = Split-Path -Path $DownloadLink -Leaf $DownloadFile = [string]::Concat( $DownloadPath, $FileName ) Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $DownloadLink -OutFile $DownloadFile # Extract & delete the zip file Expand-Archive -Path $DownloadFile -DestinationPath $DownloadPath -Force Remove-Item -Path $DownloadFile -Force # Setting the persistent path in the registry if it is not set already if ($DownloadPath -notin $($ENV:Path -split ';')) { $PathString = (Get-ItemProperty -Path $RegPathKey -Name PATH).Path $PathString += ";$DownloadPath" Set-ItemProperty -Path $RegPathKey -Name PATH -Value $PathString # Setting the path for the current session $ENV:Path += ";$DownloadPath" } # Verify the download Invoke-Expression -Command "terraform version" } You can run this function any number of times, if terraform is not configured it will download and configure the path, if it is already there it will replace/upgrade with the latest version. You can visit terrafrom docs  to start with terraform. To start with Azure deployments using terraform you can visit Microsoft Docs. 

PowerShell

Terraform

5 December 2019

Variable Squeezing in PowerShell

When a variable is assigned with a value, it won’t print it on the console by default, you need to print it separately. C:\> $varNumber = 10 C:\> $varNumber And variable squeezing is nothing but while assigning the value to a variable, it will be printed on the console as well, for that you need to wrap the assignment with the parenthesis () C:\> ($varNumber = 10) 10 Let’s take another example… C:\> $varString = ('This is an example of variable squeezing').Split(' ') C:\> $varString This is an example of variable squeezing C:\> $varString[2..$($varString.Length - 1)] -join ' ' an example of variable squeezing In the above example, you can use the object properties only after it is assigned, but using the variable squeezing while assigning to the variable itself you can call the properties as well… C:\> ($varString = ('This is an example of variable squeezing').Split(' '))[2..$($varString.Length - 1)] -join ' ' an example of variable squeezing One last example if ($null -ne ($HostInfo = Get-Host)) { $HostInfo.Version } In the if statement itself you can assign the variable and in the script block you can directly use it. This way you can cut down a few lines of code in your scripts.

PowerShell

5 December 2019

All the IT administrators they work with remote computers as part of their regular activities, and most of the time they use explicit remoting by mentioning the -Computername parameter to the cmdlets, and most commonly used cmdlet is Invoke-Command along with the other cmdlets like Get-Service, Get-Process, Get-WmiObject, Get-EventLog and etc… Invoke-Command -ComputerName Server -ScriptBlock { $env:COMPUTERNAME } Get-Service -ComputerName Server -Name servicename Get-Process -ComputerName Server -Name processname Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem -ComputerName Server Get-EventLog -ComputerName Server -LogName Application -Newest 5 What is Implicit Remoting in PowerShell? Bring the modules installed on the remote computer and import them on your local computer to run the cmdlets natively as if they are installed on your local computer. But in fact, the cmdlets run against the remote computer from which the module is imported. We need to establish a connection to the remote computer, then load the required modules into the remote session and then export the session modules to our local computer. Establish the remote computer session Open a PowerShell session with elevated privileges and create a new pssession to the remote computer from which you want to import the module… $dcsession = New-PSSession -ComputerName DC2K16 The session output will be as below… $dcsession Id Name ComputerName ComputerType State ConfigurationName Availability -- ---- ------------ ------------ ----- ----------------- ------------ 1 WinRM1 DC2K16 RemoteMachine Opened Microsoft.PowerShell Available The above command to establish the connection to the remote computer works with the computer connected to the same domain, if it is not connected to the domain or from a different domain you need to add the remote computer name or IP to your local computer’s WinRM TrustedHosts list, and pass the credentials using -Credential parameter to the cmdlet. Load the required module into the remote session Basically, I want to connect to my DC server and export the ActiveDirectory module to my local session… Invoke-Command -Session $dcsession -ScriptBlock { Import-Module -Name ActiveDirectory } The module is loaded in the remote session and it is ready to export into the local PowerShell session. Export the module from remote session to the local session You can export the module with a different name altogether and also add a prefix to the cmdlets at the time of loading the module. When you export the module it will be created under $env:PSModulePath. Export-PSSession -Session $dcsession -CommandName *-AD* -OutputModule RemoteDCModule -AllowClobber Directory: C:\Users\kiran\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\RemoteDCModule Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a---- 05-02-2019 10:32 PM 99 RemoteDCModule.format.ps1xml -a---- 05-02-2019 10:32 PM 594 RemoteDCModule.psd1 -a---- 05-02-2019 10:32 PM 396254 RemoteDCModule.psm1 Exporting the module is nothing but the PowerShell creates functions by default with the name same as the cmdlet name to execute on the remote computer where the module is exported from, and then wraps up all these functions into a proper script module(.psm1) ready to import. Import the module and run the cmdlets The exported module is ready to be copied and imported on any computer, provided the computer can be connected to the remote server. When you import the module and run the cmdlet for the first time within the session it will create a new pssession to the remote computer and then executes the command, and the same pssession will be used till the current session alive. # Without prefix Import-Module -Name RemoteDCModule # With prefix Import-Module -Name RemoteDCModule -Prefix FromDC Adding prefix will help us to identify the cmdlets easily, it’s not mandatory though. # On the remote computer Import-Module ActiveDirectory Get-Command -Module ActiveDirectory | Select-Object -First 4 CommandType Name Version Source ----------- ---- ------- ------ Cmdlet Add-ADCentralAccessPolicyMember 1.0.0.0 ActiveDirectory Cmdlet Add-ADComputerServiceAccount 1.0.0.0 ActiveDirectory Cmdlet Add-ADDomainControllerPasswordReplicationPolicy 1.0.0.0 ActiveDirectory Cmdlet Add-ADFineGrainedPasswordPolicySubject 1.0.0.0 ActiveDirectory Notice the CommandType is CmdLet on the remote computer when you actually import the module. # On the local computer, import the exported module with prefix Import-Module RemoteDCModule -Prefix FromDC Get-Command -Module RemoteDCModule | Select-Object -First 4 CommandType Name Version Source ----------- ---- ------- ------ Function Add-FromDCADCentralAccessPolicyMember 1.0 RemoteDCModule Function Add-FromDCADComputerServiceAccount 1.0 RemoteDCModule Function Add-FromDCADDomainControllerPasswordReplication... 1.0 RemoteDCModule Function Add-FromDCADFineGrainedPasswordPolicySubject 1.0 RemoteDCModule Here the CommandType is Function and also notice the prefix FromDC in the noun. As I mentioned earlier, PowerShell creates a function to execute the actual command using Invoke-Command on the remote computer. If you want to know more about how the function is created, then pick any function from the exported module and see the definition of it using the command below… # Syntax (Get-Command -Name <function-name>).Definition #Example (Get-Command -Name Get-FromDCADUser).Definition Execute the CmdLets Since the exported module is saved in the local filesystem, you don’t need to create the remote computer session every time you execute the commands, the module will take care of establishing the connection to the remote computer and execute the commands against. So you can remove the remote session… Remove-PSSession -Session $dcsession Now, run any command and notice that there is a new session will be created (highlighted below) So finally to justify the title of this post, you can run the cmdlets without installing the modules on the local computer. Especially it is much helpful on PowerShell Core, because some modules work with Windows PowerShell don’t work with PowerShell Core.

PowerShell

7 February 2019

Zip & Unzip

Prior to Windows PowerShell 5.0, if you want to zip or unzip the files you have to depend on COM objects, but from version 5.0 onwards (it is even available in PowerShell Core as well) there are two new cmdlets Compress-Archive and Expand-Archive are introduced to zip & unzip the files respectively. Examples: ### Examples are from Microsoft Docs ## Zip the files # Example 1: Create an archive file Compress-Archive -LiteralPath C:\Reference\Draftdoc.docx, C:\Reference\Images\diagram2.vsd -CompressionLevel Optimal -DestinationPath C:\Archives\Draft.Zip # Example 2: Create an archive with wildcard characters Compress-Archive -Path C:\Reference\* -CompressionLevel Fastest -DestinationPath C:\Archives\Draft # Example 3: Update an existing archive file Compress-Archive -Path C:\Reference\* -Update -DestinationPath C:\Archives\Draft.Zip # Example 4: Create an archive from an entire folder Compress-Archive -Path C:\Reference -DestinationPath C:\Archives\Draft ## Unzip the file # Example 1: Extract the contents of an archive Expand-Archive -LiteralPath C:\Archives\Draft.Zip -DestinationPath C:\Reference # Example 2: Extract the contents of an archive in the current folder Expand-Archive -Path Draft.Zip -DestinationPath C:\Reference

PowerShell

Tips

31 January 2019

Host A Static Website In A Azure Storage Account

What is a static website? By the definition, the static website contains web pages with fixed content and displays the same content to every user on every visit, and static websites are very basic and easy to create. Now static websites can be built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript and hosted on Azure Storage, and support client-side script execution but not server-side, if the static website needs some data processing or manipulation on server-side you can leverage it to Azure Cognitive Services or Azure Functions. What is the use? Static websites are very useful when it doesn’t require high bandwidth, backend support and targeted to limited audiences and mostly for the shorter duration of time. Some useful areas are… Explain about the project and the road map. Just for the sake of presentation in the meeting, create some html documents with the necessary content, upload them to the Azure blob storage and simply access the url from anywhere in the world. Showcase about the products, events and promotions. Sales and marketing teams require nice and colorful web pages to walk through the concepts, so build a website using CSS & HTML, publish it on to Azure blob storage and share the link with the intended audience. Technical Documents & Manuals Host some technical documentation and manuals relating to your project, and share it with the team across the globe for their perusal. How it works? When the static website service is enabled on a Azure storage account you need to enter the default document name; and error document name as optional and when the feature is enabled a container named $web will be created if it doesn’t already exist to upload your website files. Files in the $web container are read only, case sensitive and available to access anonymously… How to access? Available to the public web following this pattern: https://<ACCOUNT_NAME>.<ZONE_NAME>.web.core.windows.net/<FILE_NAME> Available through a Blob storage endpoint following this pattern: https://<ACCOUNT_NAME>.blob.core.windows.net/$web/<FILE_NAME> It can also available with CDN and SSL support  and custom domain name  as well. What is the pricing? Azure Static website feature is free; the pricing is only for storage. But in addition to the storage costs, data egress will apply and in case Azure CDN is enabled to use a custom domain with an SSL certificate, that will also be applicable. How to enable the Static Website feature and host a website using Azure PowerShell? All you need is a valid Azure subscription and follow the steps (in PowerShell)… Login into Azure account. Select the required subscription. Select/Create a Resource Group. Select /Create a Storage Account (StorageV2). Set the current storage account to enable the Static Website feature. Enable the Static Website feature on the current storage account. Upload the website files to the blob storage container ($web). Verify the files uploaded successfully. Retrieve the URL to access the static website. #requires -Module Az ## Ensure logged into your Azure account if([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($(Get-AzContext))) { Add-AzAccount } ## Define the required variables $SubscriptionId = '<SubscriptionId>' # This is your subscription id (ex: 'f34d6539-c45b-4a93-91d9-0b4e6ffb6030') $ResourceGroupName = 'static-websites-rg' # Resource Group $Location = 'southindia' # Location $StorageAccountName = 'staticwebsitesa999' # Storage Account $WebpagePath = "C:\wwwroot\" # Static website files ## Select the required subscription, in case there multiple subscriptions Select-AzSubscription -Subscription $SubscriptionId ## Select/Create Azure resource group # Parameters $ParamList = @{ Name = $ResourceGroupName Location= $Location } # Create the resource group if it doesn't exist $ResourceGroup = Get-AzResourceGroup @ParamList -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue if ($null -eq $ResourceGroup) { New-AzResourceGroup @ParamList } ## Select/Create storage account # Parameters $ParamTable = @{ Name = $StorageAccountName ResourceGroupName = $ResourceGroupName } # Create the storage account if it doesn't exist $StorageAccount = Get-AzStorageAccount @ParamTable -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue if ($null -eq $StorageAccount) { $ParamTable.Location = $Location $ParamTable.SkuName = 'Standard_LRS' $ParamTable.Kind = 'StorageV2' $ParamTable.AccessTier = 'Hot' New-AzStorageAccount @ParamTable } ## Parameters required to use with storage Cmdlets $ParamTable = @{ Name = $StorageAccountName ResourceGroupName = $ResourceGroupName } ## Set the storage account to enable the static website feature Set-AzCurrentStorageAccount @ParamTable ## Enable the static website feature for the selected storage account # Ensure the documents are created with the names mentioned Enable-AzStorageStaticWebsite -IndexDocument "index.html" -ErrorDocument404Path "error.html" ## Upload the website pages to the azure blob container Get-ChildItem -Path $WebpagePath -Recurse | Set-AzStorageBlobContent -Container '$web' ## Verify the files uploaded to the azure blob container Get-AzStorageContainer -Name '$web' | Get-AzStorageBlob ## Retrieve the public URL to access the static website (Get-AzStorageAccount @ParamTable).PrimaryEndpoints.Web ## Add custom domain to your static website, but need to add CNAME record in your domain dns server Set-AzStorageAccount @ParamTable -CustomDomainName "www.yourdomain.com" -UseSubDomain $True With the glory of GitHub public repositories, I have cloned a simple website and created my profile page just like that and hosted it on my Azure Storage.

PowerShell

Azure

24 January 2019

How To Use Splatting To Pass Parameters To Commands

Many a times we might have come across the situation where we need to execute the lengthy CmdLets/functions having bunch of parameters and exceeds screen width and wrapped down to the next line or need to scroll towards end of the command or need to ignore the new line using the escape character ( ). Splatting, pass the parameter values as a collection in the form of name and value pair, as a hash table or array of values. It makes the command shorter, easy to read and can be re-used. It’s a hash table/array variable though, to pass the parameter values to the command @ symbol will be used before the variable name instead of $. SYNTAX $paramtable = @{ Name1 = 'Value1' Name2 = 'Value2' Name3 = 'Value3' } C:\> Sample-Command @paramtable or C:\> Sample-Command <optional parameters> @paramtable <optional parameters> To provide the named parameter values hash table can be used and to provide the positional parameters array can be used. When splatting, it is not necessary to use either hash table or an array only to pass the parameters, positional parameters and/or named parameters can also be used along with. EXAMPLE: Splatting with hash table Create a new file using New-Item CmdLet by passing necessary parameters… # Along with the named parameters New-Item -Path C:\Windows\Temp\ -Name Delete.txt -ItemType File -Value "Hello World!" -Force # With hash table $paramtable = @{ Path = 'C:\Windows\Temp\' Name = 'Delete.txt' ItemType = 'File' Value = 'Hello World!' Force = $true } New-Item @paramtable EXAMPLE: Splatting with array Copy a file from one location to other using Copy-Item CmdLet by passing necessary parameters… # Copy a file using named parameters Copy-Item -Path $env:windir\Temp\CSV1.csv -Destination $env:TEMP\CSV1.csv -Force # With array $paramarray = @("$env:windir\Temp\CSV1.csv", "$env:TEMP\CSV1.csv") Copy-Item @paramarray -Force An another example… Function Create-NewItem { [CmdLetBinding(SupportsShouldProcess)] param ( [parameter(mandatory=$true,parametersetname="Path")] [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Name")] [string]$Path, [parameter(mandatory=$true,parametersetname="Name")] [string] $Name, [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Path")] [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Name")] [string]$ItemType, [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Path")] [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Name")] [object] $Value, [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Path")] [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Name")] [switch]$Force, [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Path")] [parameter(mandatory=$false,parametersetname="Name")] [pscredential] $Credential ) Write-Host "Creating a new $($ItemType.ToLower())" New-Item @PSBoundParameters | Out-Null if ($?) {Write-Host "New $($ItemType.ToLower()) has been created successfully"} } $paramtable = @{ Path = "C:\Temp\" ItemType = "Directory" } Create-NewItem @paramtable <# PS C:\> Create-NewItem @paramtable Creating a new directory New directory has been created successfully #> #Run the script again Create-NewItem @paramtable <# PS C:\> Create-NewItem @paramtable Creating a new directory New-Item : An item with the specified name C:\Temp already exists. At line:25 char:5 + New-Item @PSBoundParameters | Out-Null + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : ResourceExists: (C:\Temp:String) [New-Item], IOException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DirectoryExist,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewItemCommand #> $paramtable.Force = $true <# PS C:\> $paramtable Name Value ---- ----- Path C:\Temp\ Force True ItemType Directory #> #Run the script again Create-NewItem @paramtable <# PS C:\> Create-NewItem @paramtable Creating a new directory New directory has been created successfully #> $paramtable.Name = 'Test.txt' $paramtable.ItemType = 'File' $paramtable.Remove("Force") <# PS C:\> $paramtable Name Value ---- ----- Path C:\Temp\ Name Test.txt ItemType File #> #Run the script again Create-NewItem @paramtable <# PS C:\> Create-NewItem @paramtable Creating a new file New file has been created successfully #>

PowerShell

21 January 2019

Prompt for choice

Sometimes in the interactive session when we are executing the scripts, and where it requires an input/consent from the user to proceed further we can prompt the user to choose from the given choices… # PromptForChoice Args $Title = "Do you want to proceed further?" $Prompt = "Enter your choice" $Choices = [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]] @("&Yes", "&No", "&Cancel") $Default = 1 # Prompt for the choice $Choice = $host.UI.PromptForChoice($Title, $Prompt, $Choices, $Default) # Action based on the choice switch($Choice) { 0 { Write-Host "Yes - Write your code"} 1 { Write-Host "No - Write your code"} 2 { Write-Host "Cancel - Write your code"} }

PowerShell

Tips

15 January 2019

Select-Object With Calculated Properties In PowerShell.

When selecting properties using Select-Object, sometimes we may need to fetch the values in a more meaningful and understandable format, and in some cases, conditional output may be needed to get the precise output, you can achieve the same by using the expressions directly in the same select statement or using splatting… # Get the total memory in GB from the local computer using the calculated property with Select-Object Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | Select-Object -Property PSComputerName, ` @{Name = 'Memory in GB'; Expression = {[Math]::Round($_.TotalVisibleMemorySize/1MB)}} <# Output PSComputerName Memory in GB -------------- ------------ Workstation 8 #> # Get the services where the names are starting with App, and display IsRunning with Yes/No using the calculated property $IsRunning = @{ Label = "IsRunning" Expression = { if($_.Status -eq 'Running') { "Yes" } else { "No" } } } Get-Service -Name App* | Select-Object -Property Name, DisplayName, $IsRunning <# Output Name DisplayName IsRunning ---- ----------- --------- AppIDSvc Application Identity No Appinfo Application Information Yes AppMgmt Application Management No AppReadiness App Readiness No AppVClient Microsoft App-V Client No AppXSvc AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) No #>

PowerShell

13 January 2019

Excel Reports Using ImportExcel Module From PowerShell Gallery

You know why Excel is still one of the popular reporting tools because it is very easy to use, customizable as per your needs and moreover it is interactive. There are many ways that you can generate excel reports programmatically, but especially when you are using a scripting language like PowerShell there are tons of modules are already available with sophisticated features in the public repositories to reuse in your code, and they are very easy and simple to use. Please be careful when you are installing the modules from the public repositories, because people around the world they publish their code into the repositories which work for them as per their environment and settings, but it may harmful for your environment. So please ensure the scripts work fine for you in your test environment first and then use it in your production environment. ImportExcel  PowerShell Module by Doug Finke  from PowerShellGallery is a very popular and much helpful module, it works even without Excel installed on your computer, and again it’s an open source project in GitHub.  This module is very rich in features and compact to use in your code, and I find this module is very useful and helpful. Now let’s get started with ImportModule module in PowerShell Core  … Since PowerShellGallery is a default repository in PowerShell, you don’t need to set the repository again, just ensure that you have PSGallery as a default repository… Get-PSRepository Now it’s time to get the module installed and imported to the session… # Find the module Find-Module -Name ImportModule # Install the modules Find-Module -Name ImportModule | Install-Module Install-Module -Name Install-Module # Update the module Update-Module -Name ImportExcel # Verify the module is installed Get-Module -Name ImportExcel -ListAvailable # Import the module Import-Module -Name ImportExcel To check the CmdLets available in the ImportExcel module, run the CmdLet below… Get-Command -Module ImportExcel Now let’s see how to export the data to excel and various options… Export-Excel CmdLet will do all the magic with various parameters; to simply export the data to excel, just pipe the output to Export-Excel, this will export the data to excel, apply filters, auto size the columns and pop up the excel window, but this will not save the file to disk. Get-Service | Select Name, DisplayName, Status | Export-Excel … just to export the data to excel and save the file to disk, use -Path flag with Export-Excel… Get-Service | Select Name, DisplayName, Status | Export-Excel -Path C:\Test.xlsx Observe the data in the excel opened after the file was created, where the columns are compact, not readable and no filters applied. By default without any parameters Export-Excel CmdLet will not save the file to disk, show the window, apply filters, auto size the columns, but if we use -Path and want to pop up the window, apply filters and auto size the columns we need to use the -Show, -AutoSize, -AutoFilter flags… # To Show the window after the file save to disk Get-Service | Select Name, DisplayName, Status | Export-Excel -Path .\Test.xlsx -Show # To apply filters, and allow auto size the columns Get-Service | Select Name, DisplayName, Status | Export-Excel -Path .\Test.xlsx -Show -AutoSize -AutoFilter Now let’s see formatting the text in the excel reports… # Get the services exported to excel and highlight the services state separately for services running and services are stopped. $ConTxt1 = New-ConditionalText -Text 'Stopped' -ConditionalTextColor Red -BackgroundColor Yellow $ConTxt2 = New-ConditionalText -Text 'Running' -ConditionalTextColor Yellow -BackgroundColor Green Get-Service | Select Status, Name, DisplayName | Export-Excel -Path .\Test.xlsx -AutoSize -Show -ConditionalFormat $ConTxt1, $ConTxt2 # '-ConditionalFormat' parameter accepts arrays Setting the icons to the values to represent the changes with in the given range… # Get the processes, and represent the changes in the memory with the icons $ConFmt = New-ConditionalFormattingIconSet -Range "C:C" -ConditionalFormat FiveIconSet -IconType Arrows Get-Process | Select Company, Name, PM, Handles | Export-Excel -Path .\Process.xlsx -Show -AutoSize -AutoFilter -ConditionalFormat $ConFmt # Also club it with the conditional text $ConTxt = New-ConditionalText -Text 'Microsoft' -ConditionalTextColor Yellow -BackgroundColor Green Get-Process | Select Company, Name, PM, Handles | Export-Excel -Path .\Process.xlsx -Show -AutoSize -AutoFilter -ConditionalFormat $ConFmt, $ConTxt Now let’s see some creating pivot tables and charts… # Get the services and identify the number of service are running & stopped and the services count per start type $Data = Get-Service | Select-Object Status, Name, DisplayName, StartType | Sort-Object StartType # Parmaters in a hashtable $Param = @{ Show = $true AutoSize = $true IncludePivotTable = $true PivotRows = 'StartType' PivotData = 'StartType' PivotColumns = 'Status' } # Create the pivot table $Data | Export-Excel -Path C:\GitRepo\Test.xlsx @Param # Get the services and identify the number of service are running & stopped and the services count per start type $Data = Get-Service | Select-Object Status, Name, DisplayName, StartType | Sort-Object StartType # Parmaters in a hashtable $Param = @{ Show = $true AutoSize = $true PivotRows = 'StartType' PivotData = 'StartType' IncludePivotChart = $true ChartType = 'PieExploded3D' } # Create the pivot charts $Data | Export-Excel -Path C:\GitRepo\Test.xlsx @Param There are plenty of options are available, so please explore the all the features in the ImportExcel and make the best use of this module. You can also achieve the same by writing your own code, but this is very compact and easy to use. Many thanks to Doug Finke! #ImportExcel

PowerShell

13 January 2019

I preferably use Visual Studio Code for my PowerShell scripting and it has the PowerShell extension along with intellisense and syntax highlighting, PowerShell integrated console as well, however I will use Windows PowerShell to execute the commands. VSCode has an option to show the PowerShell console on startup by default, and it annoys me a bit, so I decided to disable that option… Open VSCode, go to File -> Preferences -> Settings or click on Manage button on Side Bar then select Settings or simply use the shortcut Ctrl+, then search for PowerShell Integrated Console Show On Startup option in the settings and you will see the option below, just uncheck the option highlighted below to disable the console from your next start.

PowerShell

21 December 2018

Retrieve Azure Vm Public Ip And Establish The Rdp Session

I don’t know for some reason Microsoft doesn’t provide some solutions directly, directly as in cannot achieve the outcome with a single command in PowerShell, for example to get the public ip address of an Azure VM, in fact I expected it to be as simple as this… Get-AzureRmPublicIpAddress -ResourceGroupName lab-rg -Name Workstation However there is no such command with those parameters, but still it’s not very complicated. I have written a small PowerShell wrapper to retrieve the public ip address of Azure VM and added few more functionalities as well apart from getting only the public ip address it will start the VM if it is not running by enabling the -StartIfVMIsNotRunning flag and connect to RDP session with -ConnectRDP flag. Note: Most of the organizations use either private ip or dns name to connect to the VM from their network, and this is only useful for small businesses or where there is no need of domain authentication and access from outside the local network. The script has two parameter sets Name and Object, which accepts ResourceGroupName and VMName or VMObject along with the other common parameters, and the parameters are as below… [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ParameterSetName='Name')] [string] $ResourceGroupName, # ResourceGroup Name when the ParameterSetName is 'Name' [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ParameterSetName='Name')] [string] $VMName, # Virtual Machine Name when the ParameterSetName is 'Name' [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$true,ParameterSetName='Object')] [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Compute.Models.PSVirtualMachine] $VMObject, # VM Object when the ParameterSetName is 'Object' [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,ParameterSetName='Name')] [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,ParameterSetName='Object')] [switch] $StartIfVMIsNotRunning, # Start the VM, if it is not running [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,ParameterSetName='Name')] [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,ParameterSetName='Object')] [switch] $ConnetRDP, # Connect Remote Desktop Session [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ParameterSetName='Help')] [switch] $H # Get Help Since the latest AzureRM (6.13.1) PowerShell module has some significant changes in the outcome of some CmdLets, ensuring the latest module is loaded… # Ensure the 6.13.1 version AzureRM module is loaded, # because some commands output have been changed in this version [System.Version] $RequiredModuleVersion = '6.13.1' [System.Version] $ModuleVersion = (Get-Module -Name AzureRM).Version if ($ModuleVersion -lt $RequiredModuleVersion) { Write-Verbose -Message "Import latest AzureRM module" break } Login into Azure account, if not logged in already… # Login in into the Azure account, if it is not already logged in if([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($(Get-AzureRmContext))) { $null = Add-AzureRmAccount } Retrieve the VM running state and ensure it is running, if -StartIfVMIsNotRunning flag is enabled then the VM will be started if it is not running. If VM is not running and ‘PublicIPAllocationMethod’ is set to static then still public ip can be retrieved, but if it is dynamic then the VM should be in running state itself… # Retrieve the virtual machine running status try { if ($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName -eq 'Name') { $VM = Get-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -Name $VMName -Status } elseif ($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName -eq 'Object') { $VM = Get-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName $VMObject.ResourceGroupName -Name $VMObject.Name -Status } } catch { Write-Verbose -Message $_.Exception.Message break } # Check whether the vm PowerState is running $VMStatus = $VM.Statuses | Where-Object { $_.Code -match 'running' } if ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($VMStatus)) { [bool] $ISVMRunning = $false } else { [bool] $ISVMRunning = $true } # If VM is not running and -StartIfVMIsNotRunning flag is enabled, then start the VM if ($ISVMRunning -eq $false -and $StartIfVMIsNotRunning -eq $true) { $null = Start-AzureRMVM -ResourceGroupName $VM.ResourceGroupName -Name $VM.Name $ISVmRunning = $true } Now retrieve the public ip address of an Azure VM… # Get Public IP address $VirtualMachine = Get-AzureRMVM -ResourceGroupName $VM.ResourceGroupName -Name $VM.Name $NICId = $VirtualMachine.NetworkProfile.NetworkInterfaces.id $NICResource = Get-AzureRmResource -ResourceId $NICId $PIPId = $NICResource.Properties.ipConfigurations.properties.publicIPAddress.id $PIPResource = Get-AzureRmResource -ResourceId $PIPId $PIP = $PIPResource.Properties.ipAddress Exit the script if the VM is not running and PublicIPAllocationMethod is Dynamic or public ip is not assigned… # Exit the script if the VM is not running and PublicIPAllocationMethod is Dynamic or public ip is not assigned [string] $PublicIPAllocationMethod = $PIPResource.Properties.publicIPAllocationMethod if ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($PIP.IPAddressToString) -and $ISVMRunning -eq $false -and $PublicIPAllocationMethod -eq 'Dynamic') { Write-Verbose -Message $("Since {0} VM is not running and 'Public IP Allocation Method is Dynamic', unable to determine the Public IP.`nRun the command with -StartIfVMIsNotRunning flag" -f $VMName) break } elseif ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($PIP.IPAddressToString) -and $ISVMRunning -eq $true) { Write-Verbose -Message $("No public ip id assigned to this {0} VM." -f $VMName) break } If the ‘-ConnectRDP’ flag is enabled then the remote desktop connection will be established (only when the default port for RDP is allowed in the inbound security rules) otherwise it simply returns the public ip address… # Connect the VM when -ConnectRDP flag is enabled and VM is running if ($ConnetRDP -and $ISVMRunning) { Invoke-Expression "mstsc.exe /v $($PIP.IPAddressToString)" break } # Just return the IP address when no flags are enabled return, $PIP.IPAddressToString And lets see some examples… .EXAMPLE C:\GitRepo> .\Get-ARMVMPIP.ps1 -ResourceGroupName lab-rg -Name Workstation xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Returns the public ip address when the VM is running or the VM is deallocated but the publicIPAllocationMethod is set to 'Static'. .EXAMPLE C:\GitRepo> $VM = Get-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName lab-rg -Name Workstation C:\GitRepo> $VM | .\Get-ARMVMPIP.ps1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Returns the public ip address when the VM is running or the VM is deallocated but the publicIPAllocationMethod is set to 'Static'. .EXAMPLE C:\GitRepo> .\Get-ARMVMPIP.ps1 -ResourceGroupName lab-rg -Name Workstation -StartIfVMIsNotRunning xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Returns the public ip address when the VM is running or starts the VM if it is not running and returns the public ip. .EXAMPLE C:\GitRepo> .\Get-ARMVMPIP.ps1 -ResourceGroupName lab-rg -Name Workstation -ConnectRDP # Doesn't return any output simply connects to RDP session Connect to RDP session when the VM is running .EXAMPLE C:\GitRepo> .\Get-ARMVMPIP.ps1 -ResourceGroupName lab-rg -Name Workstation -ConnectRDP # Doesn't return any output simply connects to RDP session Connect to RDP session when the VM is running and if the VM is not running it will start and establish the RDP session. The complete code is available in my git repository. 

PowerShell

Azure

20 December 2018

PowerShell Version

Know your PowerShell Version PS C:\Users\kiran> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion Major Minor Build Revision ----- ----- ----- -------- 5 1 17763 134 PS C:\Users\kiran> (Get-Host).Version Major Minor Build Revision ----- ----- ----- -------- 5 1 17763 134 PS C:\Users\kiran> $Host.Version Major Minor Build Revision ----- ----- ----- -------- 5 1 17763 134

PowerShell

Tips

20 December 2018