Power Shell
Useful Sites
Subject specific useful links are listed in the sections below
- Windows PowerShell V1
- Windows PowerShell V2
- http://powershell.com/cs/ - Good all-round help
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb978526.aspx - TechNet!
Installed Version
To check the main installed version use the following command...
get-host | select version
.
However, if you might have installed something other than the normal RTM or GA release version you'll need to the registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1
, which will have the following values of interest...
Value | Data | Meaning |
---|---|---|
Install |
1 |
Installed (not version number) |
PID |
89383-100-0001260-04309 |
RTM (Release to Manufacturing) |
PID |
89393-100-0001260-00301 |
RC2 (Release Candidate 2) |
For more info on release version acronyms, see Software Release Life Cycle
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:\> $objPing.Send('127.0.0.1') Status : Success Address : 127.0.0.1 RoundtripTime : 0 Options : System.Net.NetworkInformation.PingOptions Buffer : {97, 98, 99, 100...}
Name/Address Resolution
IP to Name
- Be aware, where no name can be found, the call throws an exception. If assigning result to a variable, then it seems to return the local hostname, which is odd.
PS H:\> [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostbyAddress("159.104.31.83") HostName Aliases AddressList -------- ------- ----------- L-STRUTTS1 {} {159.104.31.83}
Name to IP
PS H:\> [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostAddresses("l-strutts1") Address : 1394567327 AddressFamily : InterNetwork ScopeId : IsIPv6Multicast : False IsIPv6LinkLocal : False IsIPv6SiteLocal : False IPAddressToString : 159.104.31.83
MySQL
Connect
function ConnectMySQL([string]$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() return $conn } function DisconnectMySQL($conn) { $conn.Close() } # So, for example... # Connection Variables $user = 'myuser' $pass = 'mypass' $database = 'mydatabase' $MySQLHost = 'database.server.com' # Connect to MySQL Database $conn = ConnectMySQL $user $pass $MySQLHost $database
Commands
All database operations are done through methods of the MySqlCommand
object, the two methods of main interest are...
- ExecuteNonQuery - Used for queries that don't return any real information, such as an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE.
- ExecuteReader - Used for normal queries that return multiple values. Results need to be received into
MySqlDataReader
object. - ExecuteScalar - Used for normal queries that return a single. The result needs to be received into a variable.
Non-Query
function ExecuteMySQLNonQuery($conn, [string]$query) { $command = $conn.CreateCommand() # Create command object $command.CommandText = $query # Load query into object $RowsInserted = $command.ExecuteNonQuery() # Execute command $command.Dispose() # Dispose of command object if ($RowsInserted) { return $RowInserted } else { return $false } } # So, to insert records into a table $query = "INSERT INTO test (id, name, age) VALUES (1, 'Joe', 33)" $Rows = ExecuteMySQLNonQuery $conn $query Write-Host $Rows " inserted into database"
Reader Query
In theory, this should work, but it doesn't seem to for me. There's something wrong with the while ($results.Read())
, in that you end up displaying the last row returned by the SQL query multiple times. Suspect its due to the way that a Reader object only seems to hold a result temporarily.
$query = "SELECT * FROM subnets;" $cmd = $connMySQL.CreateCommand() $cmd.CommandText = $query $results = $cmd.ExecuteReader() $cmd.Dispose() while ($results.Read()) { for ($i= 0; $i -lt $reader.FieldCount; $i++) { write-output $reader.GetValue($i).ToString() } }
Instead, this approach seems to work more reliably. By loading the data into a dataset, it becomes available for offline manipulation and isn't reliant on the database once the data is loaded in.
function ExecuteMySQLQuery([string]$query) { # NonQuery - Insert/Update/Delete query where no return data is required $cmd = New-Object MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlCommand($query, $connMySQL) # Create SQL command $dataAdapter = New-Object MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlDataAdapter($cmd) # Create data adapter from query command $dataSet = New-Object System.Data.DataSet # Create dataset $recordCount = $dataAdapter.Fill($dataSet, "data") # Fill dataset from data adapter, with name "data" $cmd.Dispose() return $dataSet.Tables["data"] } # So, to produce a table of results from a query... $query = "SELECT * FROM subnets;" ExecuteMySQLQuery $query | Format-Table '''Scalar Query''' '''Other''' <pre> $cmd = New-Object MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlCommand("USE $database", $conn)
Exceptions and Error Handling
- http://huddledmasses.org/trap-exception-in-powershell/ - Exception trapping
- http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/keith/archive/2007/01/22/45814.aspx - Error handling
To control how a script behaves as a result of an exception, modify the $ErrorActionPreference
variable, if required.
Value | Effect |
---|---|
Continue | [Default] Outputs error, but keeps processing |
SilentlyContinue | No output and it keeps going |
Inquire | Prompt user for action |
Stop | Outputs error and halts processing |
Basic Error Catcher
If you know where the error is likely to occur, then just place an error catcher immediately after it...
if (-not $?) { # Handle error here }