June 2008 - Posts

I did a presentation on Operations Manager 2007 and PowerShell, aka Command Shell for the System Center Virtual User Group's inaugural meeting announced HERE.

Here's is the roughly 50 minutes session that I did HERE (75MB/49 minutes 36 seconds).

Now, I've split up the recording into smaller sections for individual downloading:
1. Introducing myself (0.7MB/30 seconds).
2. General introduction to Windows PowerShell (14MB/8 minutes).
3. My upcoming TechNet article on Operations Manager and PowerShell (2MB/ 1 minute 35 seconds).
4. Operations Manager Command Shell (34MB/18 minutes).
5. A brief discussion of objects in .NET (12MB/7 minutes 22 seconds)
6. Customizing Operations Manager alerts (13MB/5 minutes 42 seconds).
7. Creating Command Shell scripts (2.5MB/1 minute 13 seconds).
8. Creating custom Command Shell reports (2.7MB/2 minutes).
9. Getting Command Shell help (1.5MB/1 minute 12 seconds).

Please don't hesitate to leave comments. I really appreciate them!
(Post copied from HERE.)

"Quest is holding a PowerGUI scripting contest starting tomorrow July 1. If you are not familar with PowerGUI, it is a PowerShell scripting and execution GUI. If you aren't already a PowerGUI user, here is a great opportunity to kick the tires. If you are already a PowerGUI user, here is an opportunity to turn that skill into prizes (winners recieve $250 and $500 gift certificates to Amazon.com)."

For more information, check Dmitry's blog HERE.

Full disclosure: I am also one of the judges.
I reported HERE in May that the original WinRM 2.0 CTP would not install on Server Core.

As I mentioned last week HERE , there is a new 2.0 CTP2 build that was just released.

I'm glad to report that installs perfectly on Server Core 2008, and that on top of the built-in WinRM 1.1 that comes with Server 2008.
Last year PowerGadgets came out with a "PowerGadgets MVP" program where community leaders/influencers could get a free NFR license of their PowerGadgets product.

I found out this week, that this has been renamed as the "PowerGadgets ISV Program". Community leaders/influencers can still qualify for a free NFR license by filling out the form HERE.
I've added a new poll on the site:

"If you'd join/listen to a virtual meeting over the Internet, you'd prefer:
*Getting audio over PC speakers
*Getting audio over the telephone
*Would prefer to have both methods"

Please scroll down and enter your vote in the poll on the right-hand side.
WinRM 2.0 CTP2 was recently released and I mentioned it HERE.

I just tried a WinRM 2.0 CTP -> CTP2 upgade where I simply run the installer on a Server 2008 systems, and all went well (after a reboot).

I successfully ran a start-psjob before and after the uprade as a simple test of the PowerShell v2 CTP2 connection to WinRM 2.0 CTP2.
PowerShell Usability Study, July 22 to July 29, 2008 at Redmond, WA

Microsoft Usability is conducting a study focusing on the remoting feature of PowerShell version 2 from July 22 to July 29, 2008. This is a great opportunity for IT Administrators who have experience working with PowerShell to provide feedback and help improve the user experience of PowerShell version 2.

The study will be conducted in a lab setting on Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond, Washington. It is important for you to know that you do not need to prepare anything for this. We want to learn from you, the experts, to determine what needs to be improved in our software.

If you are interested or know someone who could be interested in participating, please email us at itusable@microsoft.com with PowerShell in subject line. For information on other studies and to learn more about Microsoft's User Research program email us.
*We had about 35 attendees last night.
*Things went mostly well.
*I'll have some information posted tomorrow, and the recordings edited probably for Tuesday next week.
This is a master post for information specific to my PowerShell virtual user group.

Meeting #6 (June 2008):
*Speakers/topics:
Bruce Payette (Microsoft): "PowerShell v2 modules"
Wassim Fayed (Microsoft): "PowerShell v2 remoting"
Hal Rottenberg: "Managing VMware Infrastructure using PowerShell"
*Live Meeting recordings
*Bruce Payette PowerPoint: v2 modules
*Hal Rottenberg PowerPoint: VMware and PowerShell

Meeting #5 (April 2008):
*Speakers/topics:
Bart De Smet (Microsoft): "Focus on extensibility (cmdlets and providers) and discuss v2 features: script cmdlets and internationalization"
Steven Nelson (Microsoft): "MSDN/SDK PowerShell documentation"
*Live Meeting recordings

Meeting #4 (February 2008):
Speakers/topics:
Darren Mar-Elia (MVP): "Managing Group Policy with PowerShell"
Richard Siddaway (MVP): "Windows Server 2008 and WMI"
*Live Meeting recordings

Meeting #3 (January 2008):
*Speakers/topics:
Lee Holmes (Microsoft): "PowerShell: Pragmatic Programming, and Everyday Automation"
Karl Prosser (MVP): "Embrace the Admin Development model with agility by using tools and workflow that produce efficient, consistent results"
Brandon Shell (MVP): "Custom Objects in PowerShell"
*Live Meeting recordings

Meeting #2 (December 2007):
*Speakers/topics:
Don Jones (MVP): "New PowerShell Community site, Sapien's 2nd edition of PowerShell: TFM, and Sapien's PowerShell training"
Oisin Grehan (MVP): "PowerShell Community Extensions and project on Codeplex called PSEventing"
Jeffrey Snover (Microsoft): "The new PowerShell 2.0 Community Technology Preview (CTP)"
*Live Meeting recordings

Meeting #1 (October 2007):
*Speakers/topics:
Keith Hill (MVP): "PowerShell Community Extensions"
PowerGadgets (vendor): "PowerGadgets snap-in"
Marc van Orsouw (MVP): "PowerTab"
*Live Meeting recordings