Hey, everyone, welcome to another deep dive. Today we're all about PowerShell seven, especially for all you IT pros out there. Yeah, we're diving into the book PowerShell seven for IT professionals.
Great book.
Our expert today is Thomas Lee. He's a Microsoft MVP, really knows his stuff. We're going to break down how PowerShell seven can make your IT life well easier. Absolutely think of this deep dive as like getting a cheat sheet for the best parts exactly. We'll cover things like how to get those new version notifications automatically, no more like scrambling to see if you're up to date. And we'll even get into some cool tricks with set location so you can jump between directories crazy fast.
It's a game changer.
So are you ready? Let's do it.
You know, the exciting part is that PowerShell seven it's not just you know, another update, it's really a whole new chapter. It's an evolution from Windows PowerShell. Okay, but this time it's all about cross platform.
Cross platform Now that is huge. So we're talking about all those listeners out there juggling Windows, Linux, maybe even some mac os.
Exactly one scripting language for all of them.
One language. Yeah, think about managing all those systems, but with just one set of skills, right, No more like context switching between languages. It really simplifies things, especially in those big, mixed environments.
I bet some of our listeners are really happy to hear that. But for those who've been using Windows PowerShell for a while, what's new? I mean, the book really seems to focus on that. What should get them excited?
Oh, there's a lot, but one of the coolest things is how they're handling these experimental features. It's like you get a sneak peek. Oh interesting, Yeah, you can try them out, give feedback directly to the PowerShell team. It's pretty cool.
So you're like a PowerShell pioneer exactly.
You're helping shape the future of the tool instead of just you know, complaining about it later.
I like that. Everyone likes to have their voice heard, right.
Sure, and make sure PowerShell actually stays relevant. The book also mentions DSSE resources. That's desired state configuration.
For anyone new to that. Now, full ds support isn't there yet, but you can use individual DSE resources.
Okay, so you can pick and choose what you need exactly.
Right.
Now, let's talk about something every it pro nos active directory. How does PowerShell seven make ad you know, not such a headache?
Well, before the how, let's talk about the what active directory? Think of it like a company. You've got domains. Those are like departments, right, each one has his own users, computers, all that. Then you have forests. That's like the whole company with all the departments combined. Okay, and at the heart of each domain, yeah, domain controllers. They're the bosses managing everything.
I like that. That's a good analogy. So how does PowerShell seven fit into this whole company picture? Give us a real world scenario.
Sure, let's say you're setting up a brand new domain. Yeah, you need a server to be the domain controller, the big boss. Right. The book walks you through promoting a server to that role. And the cool part is you do it all with PowerShell seven code. Setting the domain name, passwords, even the DNS settings. It's all automated, So.
No more clicking through a million menus exactly.
It's much more efficient.
And I see the book even goes into setting up those child domains, you know, like a subdepartment.
Yeah, like a branch office, and you can manage users in those child domains. With PowerShell seven too.
It's like having a blueprint for your whole active directory structure exactly. So it seems like PowerShell seven is all about saving you time and making things easier. Okay, now what about networking and storage? Those are two other big areas for it. How does Powershall seven help there?
Well, it's like having a supercharge toolkit specifically for networking and storage. Need to deal with DHCP, PowerShell can do it. DNS sounds piece of cake, and even managing file shares becomes really straightforward.
Speaking of straightforward, the book mentions iSCSI, and honestly, that always sounds a bit intimidating. Can you break that down for us?
Sure, imagine a server on your network that stores files, but it's not directly connected to your computer. CSI lets you access that storage as if it were a drive plugged right in.
Oh okay, so no more carrying around those external hard drives exactly. That's great for teams working together.
Absolutely makes data management a lot easier. And you know what, this reminds me of the storage Replica feature. Oh yeah, does a book talk about how that works with iSCSI?
It does? It actually shows you how to use storage replica to set up a disaster recovery plan. So you're replicating data between servers just in case.
So double the protection.
Exactly, You got it.
This book really does cover a lot. I also saw sections on WMI and reporting WMI Windows Management instrumentation. That one always sounds of it, well, you know.
A little joginy. Yeah, can you simplify it.
It's like getting a behind the scenes look at your computer systems. Okay, PowerShell seven with its CIMCM deal, it's makes it easy to use.
So what kind of things can you actually.
Do with it? You can gather hardware information, see how your system's performing in real time, and even set up responses if certain events happen.
Oh, so it's like having like a little IT team constantly watching over things exactly.
And if something comes up, you can have powershells seven take care of it automatically.
That's andy. What about reporting though, especially when it comes to active directory.
Oh, there are a ton of possibilities there. Want to see a list of all your inactive user accounts, PowerShell can generate that report. Or need to see who has specific permissions? PowerShell can do that too.
It seems like we're really just scratching the surface of what PowerShell seven can do.
Oh, definitely, We've got a lot more to explore. It really feels like PowerShell seven is this Swiss army knife for it. You know, we've seen a lot of what it can do, but there's so much more.
I bet now, for those listeners who are already Windows PowerShell pros, they might be wondering, do I really need to switch to seven? What would you tell them?
This book is perfect for anyone thinking about that. It really gets into how compatible Windows PowerShell and PowerShell seven actually are. A lot of your knowledge will transfer over, but there are some things to look out for.
The book mentions a compatibility solution. What is that exactly?
Yeah, that's a clever workaround. Basically, it lets you use certain Windows PowerShell modules right inside PowerShell seven, even if they don't, you know, officially support dot net core.
So it's like translating those older modules so they play nice with the new PowerShell seven.
Precisely, it uses something called implicit remoting, basically runs the commands in a Windows PowerShell session in the background, then brings the results back to you in PowerShell seven seamless.
So they've really thought about how to make this transition smooth, but it's not a perfect one to one match, right.
Right. They're very upfront about what doesn't work perfectly yet. Some commands that used to use computer name, like get service or get process, now you need to use in vot command to run those on another computer.
Okay, so there are some new ways to do familiar things. Makes sense. It sounds like it's time to roll up our sleeves and try PowerShell seven out. This book has tons of examples, right.
It walks you through everything from setting up PowerShell seven itself to configuring visual Studio Code.
Oh right, visual Studio Code that's a popular code editor.
It makes writing scripts way easier. And there's a section on creating a local PowerShell get repository.
Yeah, that caught my eye. Lets you create like your own library of scripts and modules.
Exactly like having your own personal PowerShell toolbox. Keeps everything organized easy to find.
I like it organized is key?
Oh? Absolutely. The book even gets into setting up a code signing environment, adds that extra layer of security.
Okay, code signing that sounds important. Can you explain why that's so crucial?
Sure? Imagine downloading a script online? Right, how do you know it's safe. Code signing is like a digital signature, verifying it came from a trusted source, hasn't been tampered.
With, so you can be confident that what you're running is actually legit. You know, I'm really itching to get back to the active directory stuff. Managing ad with PowerShell is something I'm always eager to learn more about.
Oh, this book's got you covered. It's super practical. Shows you how to set up a forest root domain, promote those servers to domain controllers, even configure trust between domains, all with PowerShell seven.
They even have a section on configuring a cross forest trust, which I know can be a real pain to do manually.
It can be a nightmare, But with PowerShell you can automate the whole thing. No more missing with complex settings, worrying about making a mistake. The book walks you through at step by step, even setting up conditional forwarders in DNS, which led to different parts of your network you know, talk to.
Each other, streamlining complexity.
I like it.
What about managing users and computers, those organizational units the core of active directory The book covers that to.
You right absolutely. It's got tons of examples of how to create change, even remove user accounts, groups OUs all with PowerShell seven. They even show you how to import a bunch of users from a CSV file, which is a huge time saver.
Oh yeah, No one wants to be stuck creating accounts one by one. Talk about tedious. This is what automation is all about. Speaking of which, there's this whole concept of just enough administration JEA.
What's that all about, ah ja. It's all about giving users just the right amount of access, you know, just what they need to do their job, nothing more. It's about security control.
So it's like giving someone a key to a specific room, not the whole building exactly.
In the book shows you how to set up JEA for managing dns. You create roles, define what people can do, even set up logs so you can see who did what.
Love that security and accountability all in one. This is great. I'm already getting so many ideas for managing active directory better. But we have even more to cover. We haven't even touched on networking and storage yet.
Oh there's a lot more where that came from. The book has some really useful stuff in those chapters.
Networking, that's right. I remember seeing chapters on configuring network adapters, managing IP addresses, even setting up DNS and DHDP servers all with PowerShell seven.
That's the beauty of it. You have so much control over your network with this tool. You can set those static IP addresses, manage DNS zones, even set up DHCP failover that way, if one DHCP server goes down, the other one's ready to.
Go DHCP failover. That's one of those things. It's great when it works.
But a pain if it's not set upright exactly.
The book talks about how to do that properly.
Right it does. Yeah, it breaks down how to configure DHCP failover between two servers. The important thing is choosing the right failover mode like load sharing or hot standby, depends on your setup.
So it's all about having that backup plan that redundancy exactly. And speaking of security, there's a whole section on DNSc DNS security extensions. What's that all about?
DNSSEC It's all about adding that extra layer of protection to your DNS. You're protecting against things like DNS boofing where someone tries to redirect you to a fake website, and cash poisoning where they try to sneak bad information into your DNS cash.
It sounds like we need all the DNS security we can get these days, so much can go.
Wrong, It's true, and the book dives into storage management too. We're talking about everything from managing basic discs to setting up iSCSI targets, even configuring storage replica for you know, those just in case disaster scenarios.
Storage is so crucial, so let's talk about that. What are some of the big takeaways from the storage chapters.
Well, first off, you got to understand the different types of storage out there. Right, You've got your old school hard drives, then you have those super fast SSDs and NVM drives. Knowing which one to use when.
That's important, Right, It's like choosing the right tool for the job, but for your data center exactly.
And PowerShell is amazing for managing all that storage. You can create and format volumes, set disc quotas you know, to keep people from using up all the space, and even configure storage spaces.
Storage spaces, that's another one that sounds really technical. Is it as complicated as it sounds? Not?
Really? Storage spaces let you combine multiple discs into these virtual storage pools kind of like Grade but simpler, and they can handle a drive failing without losing data.
Built in redundancy. Nice. What about file sharing, I mean, that's the lifeblood of many organizations.
Absolutely. The book gets into managing file sharing with PowerShell, specifically using SMB. That's what Windows use is to share files.
Right, SMB, What can you tell us about that?
Well, you'll learn how to set up an SMB file server, securely, create shares, and set those NTFS permissions, all with PowerShell, of course, and.
They even cover encrypting those SMB shares, which is so important these days.
Couldn't agree more. The authors really emphasize security. They talk about basic share permissions, but also more advanced stuff like access based enumeration basically hiding shares from people who shouldn't see them, and SMB signing, which adds another layer of verification.
So it's all about layering those security measures making it that much harder for anyone with bad intentions to get in. Now, we talked about ISICSI before, but I see it comes up again here with file sharing.
That's right. The book shows you how to use ISICSI with PowerShell to create those isics I targets on a server and then connect to them from other servers, so you're sharing storage over the network as if it were plugged.
Directly in, like having your own little high speed storage network exactly. And what about combining that with Storage Replica like we were talking about earlier.
They actually show you how to build a whole clustered scale out file server using both. So you've got ISICSI for that flexible storage access and Storage Replica for keeping everything backed up.
That's impressive, high availability, data protection, the ability to grow your storage as needed. It's like the ultimate storage setup.
Right, We've got storage covered, But that's not all. The book also covers printing with PowerShell, going deeper into WMI with those CIMCM deal it's, and even reporting to get a handle on what's going on in your IT environment.
It's amazing how much this one tool can do printing, WMI reporting WMI always seemed kind of mysterious to me. What are some of the practical uses for it?
With PowerShell seven, WMI is like having a direct line to the inner workings of your window systems. PowerShell seven with its CIMCM dalits unlocks a ton of information. Think about gathering hardware specs seeing how your systems are performing live, even reacting to specific events.
So you're saying it's like having like a team of IT pros monitoring your systems around.
The clock exactly, and PowerShell seven can be said to take care issues automatically.
That's incredible. And then there's reporting. What kind of reports can we generate? Particularly for active.
Directory the book gives tons of examples, so you can create reports showing detailed user account info, lists of inactive users, which is great for security audits, and you can even see which users have special privileges.
That's all essential information from managing active directories securely. What about reporting on other things.
Well, it covers using something called FSRM Fileserver Resource Manager to get reports on disc usage file quotas, you know how much space these user is using in file screening policies really useful for managing your storage and making sure you're following those data retention rules right.
Staying compliant so important.
Absolutely, And if you're into performance monitoring, the book even shows you how to collect performance data and then create graphs and reports from it. You basically have your own customized performance dashboard.
That's powerful stuff. It's like having X ray vision into how your systems are performing. We're learning so much. This is great, and.
We're not even done. We've got virtualization with hyper V next, and guess what, you manage it all with PowerShell seven hyper V.
That opens up a whole new can of worms. What can we do with Parwashell seven and hyper V.
This book is superhands on. It guides you through setting up hyper V, creating and managing those virtual machines, even some really cool stuff like nested virtualization and live migration.
Well, on nested virtualization, what is that? It sounds like something out of science fiction.
It's a bit wild, right. It's basically running hyper V inside another hyper V virtual machine, so you're creating a virtual environment within a virtual environment.
That's mind blowing it is.
And then you've got live migration, which is super handy. You can move a virtual machine from one hyper V host to another without any downtime, so you.
Don't have to shut down the virtual machine, move it and then restart it.
Nope, you just move it while it's running.
That's incredible. It's like magic, but.
For it exactly. And the book also covers virtual machine replication using hypervw replica basically a disaster recovery plan for your virtual machines, so if something happens to one host, you can quickly bring up those virtual machines on another one exactly, And of course you need to keep an eye on performance. The book shows you how to use PowerShell seven to track things like CPU usage, memory and network activity for those virtual machines so you.
Can make sure they're running smoothly and catch any potential problems early on.
Exactly. It's like having a real time dashboard for your virtual machines. And let's not forget storage. The book talks about managing storage for your virtual machines with PowerShell. You've got your virtual hard disks, those vhds and vhdx's and even those isicsiluns we talked about earlier.
It's like PowerShell seven puts you in complete control of your hyperview world. I'm starting to feel like a virtualization expert just listening to this.
You're getting it. And of course we need to talk about networking. The book goes over managing virtual networking with PowerShell seven, covering virtual switches, virtual network adapters, and even things like m max address spoofing, which can be handy for troubleshooting.
M Mackie address spoofing sounds a bit well, a bit technical.
It can be, but it's a helpful tool when used correctly.
I believe it. Wow, this deep dive into hyper v and PowerShell seven has been amazing. I feel like I've learned so much.
We're on a roll, and guess what, We're not even done. The book also touches on containers with PowerShell, introducing Docker and Kubernetes.
Containers, Docker, Kubernetes. These are all those hot new technologies I keep hearing about. What are containers exactly?
Think of them like lightweight virtual machines, but they share the same operating system kernel. It's like having these little self contained applications that are separate but can still talk to each other. Docker is a really popular way to build and run these containers, and the book shows you how to use PowerShell seven to work with them.
That sounds like a great starting point for anyone wanting to learn about containers and Docker. But what about Kubernetes. I hear that term thrown around a lot too.
Kubernetes is like the conductor of an orchestra, but for containers, it helps you automate how those containers are deployed, scaled, and managed. It's really useful for managing those complex applications that are built with lots of different containers.
This deep dive just keeps getting better and better. I had no idea PowerShell seven was so powerful and versatile. This book sounds like a must read for anyone working in it today.
Absolutely, and here's the best part. PowerShell is always getting better. The team behind it is constantly adding features making improvements. It's an exciting time to be using PowerShell.
It really is. I feel like I've developed a whole new appreciation for scripting and automation from this deep dive.
And the journey doesn't stop here. Unt of resources online, blog posts, forums, videos, courses. The PowerShell community is huge and really helpful. You can always find someone to learn from.
That's great to hear. This deep dive has been amazing and I want to thank you for guiding us through it all.
Happy to do it. I'm always excited to talk about PowerShell.
And to our listeners, we hope you've enjoyed this PowerShell seven adventure. If you want to learn more and start using PowerShell seven to its full potential, this book is the perfect place to beget absolutely you know, it's funny. We started talking about PowerShell as this multi tool, but it's more like a secret language.
It really is. Once you start thinking that PowerShell way, Yeah, you see automation everywhere, like you've been working with one hand tied behind your back this whole time.
And the best part is you don't have to be a coding whiz to use it. PowerShell seven is pretty easy to pick up.
Definitely. There's a learning curve, sure, but this book, it really takes you through it all. You start with the basics and bam, you're writing your own scripts before you.
Know it, like learning a new language. Instead of asking for directions, you're telling computers what to do exactly.
And speaking of getting help, the PowerShell community is awesome, Oh yeah, so helpful. You've got everyone from those who've been doing this forever to people just starting out, all sharing what they know.
That's great. It's like having a built in support system totally.
Don't be shy, ask questions, share your own scripts, learn from each other. The PowerShell community is really welcoming.
Well, this has been a fantastic deep dive. I've learned a ton Thanks for being such a great guide anytime.
I love talking about this stuff, and to.
All our listeners, thanks for joining us on this PowerShell seven journey. If you're ready to really level up your IT skills, this book is the place to start.
It's a game changer for sure.
Absolutely that's it for this deep dive. Keep learning, keep growing, and we'll catch you next time.