Windows PowerShell™ Hands-On: Automating Administrative Tasks

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this course about? This course is about administering systems with Windows PowerShell to automate repetitive tasks and ensure complex, error-prone routines are performed consistently. You learn how to manage both interactive commands at the PowerShell command prompt as well as PowerShell scripting, including flow control, looping and error handling. Why should I use PowerShell? Two-thirds of a server's total cost of ownership is administrative salaries. A cost-effective way to increase administrative productivity is to automate repetitive tasks. The benefits of automation include: Reducing the time it takes to perform necessary tasks Ensuring that complex, error-prone routines are performed consistently Enabling junior administrators to correctly perform tasks which might otherwise exceed their knowledge and expertise By automating common administrative tasks, PowerShell is a powerful tool for managing servers and workstations. Who will benefit from this course? This course is valuable for administrators who want to automate tasks using PowerShell on Windows systems, applications and servers, including Exchange Server, SQL Server and Microsoft System Center products. What background do I need? It is essential for you to have taken Course 960, Windows Server® 2008: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction, or Course 595, Windows Server® 2003: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction, or have equivalent knowledge. Specific areas of assumed knowledge include: Windows graphical user interface (GUI) Standard administrative consoles for adding and managing computers, users and groups Active Directory principles File and directory security TCP/IP Windows networking I have no scripting experience. Can I take this course? Previous scripting or programming experience in any language is strongly recommended. In addition, command line experience is helpful, such as Windows or UNIX command line utilities. However, command line experience is not assumed. What's the difference between this course and Course 558, Automating Windows® Administration with VBScript: Hands-On? Course 558 covers leveraging the Windows Script Host to control COM objects using VBScript. PowerShell is Microsoft's replacement for COM-based scripting and uses .NET classes. Microsoft has announced that they intend to eventually discontinue developing COM objects, meaning PowerShell will likely become the predominant Windows system automation and management tool. I previously took Course 558. Should I take this course? While there is some overlap between Course 558, Automating Windows® Administration with VBScript: Hands-On, and this course in terms of the tools and concepts provided, the techniques and language used in this course are vastly different. PowerShell presents a much richer set of manageable objects. Having completed Course 558, you may find learning PowerShell significantly easier than students who do not have previous scripting experience. How is PowerShell related to the .NET framework? PowerShell gives you immediate access to thousands of .NET objects without requiring knowledge of programming. There are several objects particularly useful for the administrator, providing the ability to control event logs, for example, or objects for SQL Server and Exchange server. What are some of the key topics covered in this course? This course covers several important concepts including: Cmdlets: simple, single-function commands that operate on objects. Pipeline: a PowerShell feature which simplifies complex tasks by using the output of one cmdlet as the input to a subsequent cmdlet. Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI): a language-independent interface for managing a variety of directories. ADSI enables using the same commands to perform identical actions in a variety of directories. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI): is Microsoft's language-independent implementation of Web-based enterprise management. How much time is spent on each topic? Content Hours Introduction to PowerShell 3.0 PowerShell Fundamentals 4.0 Controlling Script Execution 3.5 Configuring Systems with Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) 2.5 Leveraging the Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI) 2.0 Extending the Scope of PowerShell Scripts 1.5 Optimizing Scripts 1.5 Times, including the workshops, are estimates; exact times may vary according to the needs of each class. My organization hasn't yet moved to Vista or Windows Server 2008. Is there any value to PowerShell in my environment? Yes. PowerShell can be installed on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. To manage workstations and servers, it is only necessary that the .NET Framework 2.0 or later is installed. How much of this course is hands-on? About 45 percent of class time is spent in hands-on activities. Activities include implementing secure PowerShell scripts; reading, writing and parsing event logs; managing local accounts and shares; and structuring scripts to maximize maintainability. Why should I take this course from Learning Tree? Our independence from Microsoft (and any other vendor) allows us to give an unbiased view of what works and what does not. This course is objective in its approach, having been developed independently from Microsoft by industry experts who bring their real-world experience to the classroom. How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses? The following courses are very closely related to this course: 961, Windows Server® 2008 Administration: Hands-On focuses on manually managing remote machines one at a time. If you take Course 961 prior to this course, you will be better prepared and will already be familiar with Windows 2008 administrative tools. However, Course 961 is not a prerequisite. 962, Windows Server® 2008 Active Directory Domain Services: Hands-On covers how to create users and groups and how to manually create Active Directory objects. Course 962 is also beneficial to take prior to this course; however, it is not required. The following course is related to this course: 963, Windows Server® 2008 Group Policy Management: Hands-On provides the skills to remotely manage workstations and servers using Group Policy. By taking Course 963 together with this course, you'll know two methods for automating administrative procedures. Other courses that may be of interest include: 965, System Center Configuration Manager 2007: Hands-On  967, Terminal Services for Windows Server® 2008: Hands-On  980, Exchange Server 2007 Administration: Hands-On  981, Securing Exchange Server 2007: Hands-On  131, SQL Server® 2005: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction  132, SQL Server® 2005 Database Administration: Hands-On  145, Hands-On PC Configuration and Troubleshooting  284, Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving

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