Anderson Patricio Get-news Blog : Windows PowerShell

Free PowerShell V1 Book From the Makers of PowerShell Plus

Anderson Patricio — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:06:43 GMT

Hello folks,

A free book (Mastering Powershell) is avaialable (567 pages of good stuff) written by Dr Tobias Weltner (creator of PowerShell Plus).

Here are the chapters of the free book:

1. The PowerShell Console
2. Interactive PowerShell
3. Variables
4. Arrays and Hashtables
5. The PowerShell Pipeline
6. Using Objects
7. Conditions
8. Loops
9. Functions
10. Scripts
11. Finding and Avoiding Errors
12. Command Discovery and Scriptblocks
13. Text and Regular Expressions
14. XML
15. The File System
16. The Registry
17. Processes, Services, Event Logs
18. Windows Management Instrumentation
19. User Management
20. Your Own Cmdlets and Extensions

PowerShell for everyone...

Anderson Patricio — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:27:02 GMT

Hello folks,

I've just read on PowerShell Team blog that PowerShell will be installed by default on top of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 which means that for us, Exchange guys, the Exchange Server setup may have one less step during the Welcome wizard :)

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio

Overhauling the PowerShell startup process

Anderson Patricio — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:02:00 GMT

Hello folks,

I saw an interesting post in the PowerShell Team Blog (https://blogs.msdn.com) and they explained that running the script below you can increase the speed to open your PowerShell Console, as follows:

Set-Alias ngen @(
dir (join-path ${env:\windir} "Microsoft.NET\Framework") ngen.exe -recurse |
sort -descending lastwritetime
)[0].fullName
[appdomain]::currentdomain.getassemblies() | %{ngen $_.location}

Read more at source: http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/default.aspx

I ran in my machine and the startup time was much better than before. There is also a comment on that post to use Microsoft.NET\Framework64 in case of a x64 system.

What's your impression? Has it tuned up your PowerShell? Drop us a line about your experience.

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio.

Preparing Exchange Server 2007 prerequisites on Windows Server 2008

Anderson Patricio — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:09:00 GMT

Hello Folks,

The major prerequisites for Exchange Server 2007 are .Net Framework, MMC 3.0 and PowerShell installed before we deploy Exchange Server 2007.

.Net Framework and MMC 3.0 features have already installed in the Windows 2008 by default, so we have to install PowerShell and to accomplish this task we have to follow these steps:

Open Server Manager (Start/ Administrative Tools/ Server Manager)
Click on Features, then click on Add Features
Choose PowerShell on that list, and then click Next

Click on the image to enlarge

Final screen of the Windows PowerShell installation

Click on the image to enlarge

Now, we have to wait the Exchange Server 2007 SP1 to deploy Exchange Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008, but all Exchange Server 2007 prerequisites are done :)

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Running Exchange cmdlets through a PowerShell Session

Anderson Patricio — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:49:37 GMT

Hello folks,

When you open a Windows PowerShell prompt you cannot run Exchange cmdlets into this prompt, the following error will be occuring:

PS C:\Documents and Settings\admin.DOMAIN> Get-PublicFolder The term 'Get-PublicFolder' is not recognized as a cmdlet, function, operable program, or script file. Verify the term and try again. At line:1 char:16 + Get-PublicFolder <<<< PS C:\Documents and Settings\admin.DOMAIN>

So.. How can I start to use cmdlets in an existent PowerShell session without open the Exchange Management Shell? To do that we can use the Add-PSSnapin to load de Exchange Management Shell into the current PowerShell, as it follows:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Admin

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Technorati : Add-PSSnapin, Admin, Exchange Management Shell
Del.icio.us : Add-PSSnapin, Admin, Exchange Management Shell

Copying NDRs to a mailbox in Exchange Server 2007

Anderson Patricio — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:39:41 GMT

Hello Folks,

In Exchange Server 2007 the copy of NDRs is not enable by default. If you want to enable this please follow these procedures:

First of all, create an appropriate mailbox to receive the content, and also add the postmaster@yourdomain.com to this mailbox

Internal NDRs:

Set-OrganizationConfig -MicrosoftExchangeRecipientReplyRecipient "Postmaster Account"

Note: This is set up at Organization level

External NDRs:

Set-TransportServer <Hub Server Name> -ExternalPostmasterAddress postmaster@yourdomain.com

Note: We have to use this cmdlet for each Hub Transport server of the organization.

Choosing the NDRs that you want to receive

Okay, now we have a copy of the NDRs, but the question is.. which NDRs are we able to receive? By default the NDRs are: 5.4.8, 5.2.4, 5.4.6, 5.2.0, 5.4.4 and 5.1.4. But if you want to add or remove some NDRs you can accomplish this using the following cmdlet:

Set-TransportConfig -GenerateCopyOfDSNFor 5.4.X, 5.x.x>

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Technorati : Exchange Server 2007, NDRs, copy
Del.icio.us : Exchange Server 2007, NDRs, copy
Ice Rocket : Exchange Server 2007, NDRs, copy

Increasing the Rules Quota limit in Exchange Server 2007

Anderson Patricio — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 03:06:00 GMT

Hello folks,

In the previous versions of Exchange Server we cannot play with the mailbox rules limit that is only 32kb (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886616). Using Exchange Server 2007 we can do that through Exchange Management Shell. Let's see how to do that..

The cmdlet utilized to set up the mailbox is called set-mailbox:

Set-Mailbox <mailbox> -RulesQuota:<size>

Let's change the user Alexandre to 256KB limit using set-mailbox, and after that let's visualize the changes, as it follows:

Ps.: This value is only for enabled rules, the disabled rules are not included in the amount of rules data.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Visualizing the Exchange Server 2007 setup log files through Exchange Management Shell

Anderson Patricio — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:39:00 GMT

Hello folks,

Exchange Server 2007 has a bunch of scripts to facilitate our daily tasks. One of them is the Get-Setuplog.ps1 that allows us to see the Setup Log file using Exchange Management Shell, the nice thing of this script is the different collor for each type of event (Error = Red, Warning = Yellow and Regular Messages = white).

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Creating an Equipment Address List in Exchange Server 2007

Anderson Patricio — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:19:00 GMT

Hello folks,

By default, Exchange Server 2007 has an All Rooms address list, and how about Equipment Mailboxes? We do not have it, so.. If you want to create using Exchange Management Console forget it, because it is not possible, we have to use Exchange Management Shell (Power Shell) to accomplish the task. Then.. let's go..

To create a new address list to all Equipment mailbox we will use the New-AddressList cmdlet, as it follows:

New-AddressList -Name 'All Equipments' -RecipientFilter "(ResourceType -eq 'Equipment')"

Now we can go back to Exchange Management Console and we can check the new address list that was created using Exchange Management Shell.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Installing the DPM Management Shell

Anderson Patricio — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT

Hello Folks,

I've been working with DPM since the previous versions and yesterday I started to play with DPM v2. In this blog post I will cover the installation of the DPM Management Shell portion of the product.

The initial screen, click on Install DPM Management Shell.

License Terms, If you agree Accept and click on OK.

Welcome. Just click Next

Prerequsites Check. The setup will validate the prerequisites, click on Next.

Installation Settings. We can change the installation folder, after that click on Next.

Installation. Just click on Close to start to manage the DPM through DPM Management Shell.

Now, PowerShell rocks!!!

Do you have any doubts about DPM Management Shell cmdlets? Don't worry we can use get-DPMCommand cmdlet to get all the avaiable cmdlets to manage the DPM through PowerShell.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Managing the Language in the OWA Virtual Directory

Anderson Patricio — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:07:00 GMT

Hello folks,

By default when a new mailbox access the OWA after the first logon the following screen appears, and we should choose the language and time zone settings:

How can we remove this screen? It's easy just set up the DefaultClientLanguage parameter in the OWA virtual directory, using the following cmdlet:

Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -identity "Owa (Default Web Site)" -DefaultClientLanguagage <language code>

Now, all the first logon will be using the language that we choose in the language code, here are some language codes:

English (Canada) : 4105
Portuguese (Brazil): 1046
French(Canada): 3084

Now let's go some procedures:

List the DefaultClientLanguage of determined server

Get-OwaVirtualDirectory | Sect Name,DefaultClientLanguage
Setting up the OWA* virtual directory to use Portuguese as default language. It means that all new mailboxes user in this OWA will not receive the Language selection screen in the first logon.

Set-OwaVirtual Directory -Identity 'owa*' -DefaultClientLanguage:1046
Validating the Language value in the mailboxes

Get-Mailbox | Select Name,Languages

Note: When you change for a value different than 0, this value is not filled out in the user attribute, when you return the value to 0, all the users that haven't choosen yet the value will receive the option to choose.

Now we can see a new mailbox receive the Portuguese automatically

Note: To rollback the settings to the normal behavior, just set up the language code with the 0 value.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

An overview of PowerGUI tool

Anderson Patricio — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:54:00 GMT

Hello folks,

I was reading the Rui J. M. Silva's Blog (http://msmvps.com/ehlo/) that is one of my favourites blogs and I saw an interesting post about some help tools to PowerShell (http://msmvps.com/blogs/ehlo/archive/2007/06/04/941379.aspx).. So.. I decided to start this post..

There is a powerful Tool available on the internet, called PowerGUI. It is a Free GUI (Graphical User Interface) PowerShell Tool sponsered by Quest. The PowerGUI allows we to use the Windows PowerShell in a familiar and intuitive GUI, like a MMC console.

To download the PowerGui, we can check the new version out, at the official site: http://www.powergui.org/

When you install the Tool you have the opportunity to set up the builtin scripts/cmdlets that you want. Let's take an overview of the tool...

Starting the PowerGUI..

The startup screen of the PowerShell...

After started, we can see the folders separated by features (Network, Exchange 2007 and Local System), each node above those items can be scripts or cmdlets, we can create more scripts and cmdlets to add functionalities to the PowerGui, in this post I will be using only the builtin Nodes.

In the Figure bellow we are running the node Mailboxes that it is the get-mailbox cmdlet, beside of the main frame we have some features that we can customize for each view, in the Figure we have the Links, Actions and Actions Common (that are equal for all cmdlets) section. In the same figure yet, we are selecting an user and we are going to click on Statistics.

That Statistics Actions is the Get-MailboxStatistics and the result is shown in the figure below.

The tool has a lot of resources, in this post my intention was to show the tool and how we can see good oportunities to decrease the administrative tasks using the PowerGUI.

Tomorrow, I will be posting how to create nodes and Actions in the PowerGUI.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio.

Update: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Shell Help

Anderson Patricio — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:25:00 GMT

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Exchange Management Shell Help file helps you use cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell to perform day-to-day administration of Exchange 2007. You can view help in the Exchange Management Shell by using the Get-Help cmdlet.

Get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=65C12B39-DBCA-4B22-BAA4-5F5D96613574&displaylang=en

Creating Custom Resources for room and equipment mailboxes in Exchange Server 2007

Anderson Patricio — Mon, 28 May 2007 20:08:00 GMT

Hello folks, I've been seeing some doubts about Custom Resources in Exchange Server 2007.. Then... I realize that it is time to write something about it. By default all Resource mailboxes have a tab called Resource Information , as it follows: Then...(read more)

Managing Active Directory through PowerShell

Anderson Patricio — Thu, 24 May 2007 05:11:00 GMT

Hello folks,

Quest (www.quest.com) has released a free tool called ActiveRoles Management Shell for Active Directory that is a set of PowerShell commands (CMDLETs). Inside of this tool we have got some cmdlets to manage the Active Directory environment, here are the list of cmdlets available in the free tool:

CONNECT-QADSERVICE
DISCONNECT-QADSERVICE
GET-QADUSER
SET-QADUSER
NEW-QADUSER
GET-QADGROUP
NEW-QADGROUP
GET-QADGROUPMEMBER
ADD-QADGROUPMEMBER
REMOVE-QADGROUPMEMBER
GET-QADCOMPUTER
GET-QADOBJECT
SET-QADOBJECT
NEW-QADOBJECT
REMOVE-QADOBJECT
CONVERT-QADATTRIBUTEVALUE

You can get it here: http://www.quest.com/activeroles-server/arms.aspx
Ps.: Registration will be required

Tomorrow, we will be visualizing the new tool called PowerGUI, if you don't like to write cmdlets that will be your perfect tool :)

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Creating a mailbox usage report using the out-html and out-ie

Anderson Patricio — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:54:00 GMT

Hello folks,

We usually see in the MS presentation the guys using a lot of cmdlets and they show the information in the browser directly from the PowerShell.. If you have already seen it, I think you might tried before in your lab without success, right? It occurs because the "out-html" and "out-IE" scripts aren't found in the default installation. These scripts belong to the Exchange Server 2007 Powershell Scriptacular pack that were developed by (Vivek Sharma and Mihai Jalobeanu).

But why I'm talking about it? Because we are going to use those scripts to generate a report :)

First of all, download the Scriptacular from this site: http://www.viveksharma.com/techlog/2006/12/21/announcing-the-exchange-2007-powershell-scriptacular-demo-pack/
Extract all the files in the Scripts folders that are located under Exchange installation drive (the defaul path is c:\program files\microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts)
Run the following cmdlet:
Get-MailboxStatistics | select DisplayName,TotalDeletedItemSize,TotalItemSize,StorageLimitStatus | out-html | out-ie
Now we can see a html report with all mailboxes, TotalDeletedItemSize, TotalItemSize and the status of the Storage Limit settings, as shown in figure below:

If you understand portuguese or you are trying to learn it, you can check out this tutorial at my personal website: http://www.andersonpatricio.org/Tutoriais/Tutoriais.asp?tut=910

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Free PowerShell book

Anderson Patricio — Sat, 19 May 2007 02:50:00 GMT

Hello guys,

I haven't been posting for ages I know that.. but I'm starting again, the reason of this distance was my new job. I left Brazil last month to start to work in Toronto (Canada). Now, I'm getting used to the city and the english language, and I'll be starting my normal Blog operation.. :)

But the objective of this blog is to give information, then let's go..

There is a free book that was written orignally in German. Here is the description of the book "The book gives you a short introduction with many exercises about the interactive part of Windows PowerShell as well as some hints how to use other objects like WMI, .NET or COM objects like Excel or Internet Explorer."

Free PowerShell book: https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?wizid=adf74b41-ae6a-42f4-8445-db39ecabb8b3&lcid=1033&fu=http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/9/4/a94270c7-ed16-4c72-8280-658c66315719/Windows%20Powershell%20-%20EN.zip

Demos: http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/9/4/a94270c7-ed16-4c72-8280-658c66315719/PowerShell-Demofiles.zip

More information: https://blogs.technet.com/chitpro-de/archive/2007/05/10/english-version-of-windows-powershell-course-book-available-for-download.aspx

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio
http://www.andersonpatricio.org