Power Shell

• Windows PowerShell V1
• Windows PowerShell V2

Variables

Powershell is all about manipulating objects, and its variables are all essentially the same, not being specifically defined as an object, string, integer, etc. Which is normally useful, however sometimes you need to force a variable to contain a data type. Using a prefix of [type] achieves this...

• [string]$result = $PingResult.Status

Notation	Data Type
[datetime]	Date or time
[string]	String of characters
[char]	Single character
[double]	Double-precision floating number
[single]	Single-precision floating number
[int]	32-bit integer
[wmi]	Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) instance or collection
[adsi]	Active Directory Services object
[wmiclass]	WMI class
[Boolean]	True or False value

Credentials

When running commands that require a connection to a remote machine its useful to be able to store a user/pass combination so that you aren't repeatedly prompted every time you run a command. Create a credential object, then supply that in place of a username in a command

PS H:\> $cred = Get-Credential

cmdlet Get-Credential at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
Credential
PS H:\> Get-WMIObject -query "SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem" -credential $cred -computer 159.104.224.167

SystemDirectory : C:\WINDOWS\system32
Organization    : TF
BuildNumber     : 3790
RegisteredUser  : TF
SerialNumber    : 69712-640-3560061-45009
Version         : 5.2.3790

WMI

Cmdlet for using WMI via PowerShell is Get-WMIObject, which has an alias of gwmi, for example...

PS H:\> Get-WMIObject -query "Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem"

SystemDirectory : C:\WINDOWS\system32
Organization    :
BuildNumber     : 2600
RegisteredUser  : TF
SerialNumber    : 76487-OEM-0011903-00102
Version         : 5.1.2600

PS H:\> Get-WMIObject -query "SELECT * FROM Win32_UTCTime"

__GENUS          : 2
__CLASS          : Win32_UTCTime
__SUPERCLASS     : Win32_CurrentTime
__DYNASTY        : Win32_CurrentTime
__RELPATH        : Win32_UTCTime=@
__PROPERTY_COUNT : 10
__DERIVATION     : {Win32_CurrentTime}
__SERVER         : L-0STRUTTS1
__NAMESPACE      : root\cimv2
__PATH           : \\L-0STRUTTS1\root\cimv2:Win32_UTCTime=@
Day              : 27
DayOfWeek        : 4
Hour             : 10
Milliseconds     :
Minute           : 0
Month            : 8
Quarter          : 3
Second           : 1
WeekInMonth      : 5
Year             : 2009

PS H:\> Get-WMIObject -query "Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem" -credential sysmgr -computer ukpgemon2

SystemDirectory : C:\WINDOWS\system32
Organization    : Thomson Financial
BuildNumber     : 3790
RegisteredUser  : Dell Image Rev 1
SerialNumber    : 69712-640-3560061-45321
Version         : 5.2.3790

PS H:\> Get-WMIObject -query "Select * from Win32_userAccount WHERE Domain = 'OCM-WCS1' AND Name = 'pptp_ypos'" -credential administrator -computer 159.104.224.167
 
AccountType : 512
Caption     : OCM-WCS1\pptp_ypos
Domain      : OCM-WCS1
SID         : S-1-5-21-2453442427-2400495818-1845097998-1073
FullName    : Ypos-Consulting GmbH
Name        : pptp_ypos

Find Classes and Properties

In order to find the correct class use...

Get-WMIObject -list -credential $cred -computer 159.104.224.167 | Select-String -InputObject {$_.Name} Win32*

To then see all the properties of a class use (doesn't work on remote machines (access denied) - this is a known bug in Power Shell v1)...

Get-WMIObject Win32_BIOS | Format-List *

TechNet article: Windows PowerShell Best Inventory Tool Ever!

Network

Ping

PS H:\> $objPing = New-Object system.Net.NetworkInformation.Ping
PS H:\> $objPing.Send('127.0.0.1')

Status        : Success
Address       : 127.0.0.1
RoundtripTime : 0
Options       : System.Net.NetworkInformation.PingOptions
Buffer        : {97, 98, 99, 100...}

Name/Address Resolution

IP to Name

• Be aware, where no name can be found, the call throws an exception. If assigning result to a variable, then it seems to return the local hostname, which is odd.

PS H:\> [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostbyAddress("159.104.31.83")

HostName                                Aliases                                 AddressList
--------                                -------                                 -----------
L-STRUTTS1                              {}                                      {159.104.31.83}

Name to IP

PS H:\> [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostAddresses("l-strutts1")

Address           : 1394567327
AddressFamily     : InterNetwork
ScopeId           :
IsIPv6Multicast   : False
IsIPv6LinkLocal   : False
IsIPv6SiteLocal   : False
IPAddressToString : 159.104.31.83

MySQL

function ConnectMySQL([string]$user,[string]$pass,[string]$MySQLHost,[string]$database) { 

  # Load MySQL .NET Connector Objects 
  [void][system.reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("MySql.Data") 

  # Open Connection 
  $connStr = "server=" + $MySQLHost + ";port=3306;uid=" + $user + ";pwd=" + $pass + ";database="+$database+";Pooling=FALSE" 
  $conn = New-Object MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection($connStr) 
  $conn.Open() 
  $cmd = New-Object MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlCommand("USE $database", $conn) 
  return $conn 
} 

function WriteMySQLQuery($conn, [string]$query) { 
  $command = $conn.CreateCommand() 
  $command.CommandText = $query 
  $RowsInserted = $command.ExecuteNonQuery() 
  $command.Dispose() 
  if ($RowsInserted) { 
    return $RowInserted 
  } else { 
    return $false 
  } 
} 

# setup vars 
$user = 'myuser' 
$pass = 'mypass' 
$database = 'mydatabase' 
$MySQLHost = 'database.server.com' 

# Connect to MySQL Database 
$conn = ConnectMySQL $user $pass $MySQLHost $database 

# Read all the records from table 
$query = 'INSERT INTO test (id,name,age) VALUES ("1","Joe","33")' 
$Rows = WriteMySQLQuery $conn $query 
Write-Host $Rows " inserted into database" 

Exceptions and Error Handling

• http://huddledmasses.org/trap-exception-in-powershell/

If you know where the error is likely to occur, then just place an error catcher immediately after it...

if (-not $?) {
    # Handle error here
  }