Large organizations typically have lots of devices that require IP addresses. Client desktops, tablets, mobile and desk phones, servers and more all consume IPs. The only way to manage IPs at this level is to use Microsoft Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which will also manage which devices obtain which IPs through DHCP leases. Even though the DHCP server in […]
Read moreWhen a software developer is asked about testing, they’ll most likely talk about unit, integration, functional, or acceptance testing. These are the kinds of tests that have been around for decades and are considered formal testing strategies. Then, one day, system administrators decided they wanted in on the coding action, and infrastructure development was born. I’m going to define an […]
Read moreThe PowerShell script introduced in this post allows you to easily list all installed programs on remote computers. To quickly check what software is installed on a computer, you can remote into the console of a client or server and bring up the Programs and Features control panel applet. Of course, you can also use a software inventory tool. The […]
Read moreThese days, just about every CIO, IT manager and IT professional has his head in the cloud. Organizations have found that offloading various utilitarian services to the cloud allows them to focus more on delivering business value rather than just keeping the lights on. As part of this cloud transition, it’s important to realize that even though you can’t see […]
Read moreOn Aug. 18, Jeffrey Snover finally got his wish. It was a wish that we in the PowerShell community knew was eventually coming judging from his tongue-in-cheek responses when asked about it for many months. Windows PowerShell was renamed simply to PowerShell because Windows was no longer its only supported operating system. It was now available on Linux and Mac […]
Read moreIn this article, I’m going to show you how to automate the process of creating self-signed certificates on your Desired State Configuration (DSC) nodes. DSC can be a huge time-saver for system administrators. Admins no longer have to create dozens of lines of code to test for and set various configuration items. If you’re set on implementing DSC in your […]
Read moreWindows lets you create virtual machines through the Azure Portal or with the Azure PowerShell module. Here’s how. The much anticipated Windows Server 2016 product is expected to be released (RTM) in Q3 of this year. This new server operating system is set to introduce a wealth of new features including native container support, Nano Server, Storage Replica, Storage Spaces […]
Read morePester is a testing framework that allows you to validate the functionality of your PowerShell scripts. In a series of several posts, I will give you an overview of how you can test your PowerShell scripts. In today’s post, I show you how to get started with Pester. System administrators have traditionally been the ones to use the tools developers […]
Read moreWhen writing large PowerShell scripts or modules, it will eventually become necessary to split up the code into modular pieces. Modularity can be achieved by using basic and advanced PowerShell functions. It also encourages good coding practices. One way to build modular code in PowerShell is to use functions. At their most basic, PowerShell functions allow you to compartmentalize code […]
Read moreThe introduction of Windows Server 2016 and PowerShell v5 brought a lot of great new commands to manage your environments. Here are some of the more common cmdlets you might use. With the introduction of Windows Server 2016 and PowerShell v5 came a lot of great new commands to manage your environments. Some of those commands included cmdlets to manage […]
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