Book offer–AD Management in a Month of Lunches
Published February 27, 2013AD Management in a month of lunches is today’s deal of the day from Manning – www.manning.com
The get 50% off today using code dotd0227cc. The offer is good for today only
The same code can be used for 50% off PowerShell in Practice
Last nights Live Meeting
Published February 27, 2013The sound was awful on last night’s Live Meeting so I intend to re-record it at the weekend. I’ll post the recording and scripts once its done.
I’m also investigating an alternative delivery mechanism that will hopefully solve the sound issues.
Filter or LDAP filter
Published February 27, 2013Many of the Microsoft AD cmdlets have a –Filter and an –LDAPFilter parameter. So what’s the difference?
PS> Get-Help Get-ADUser -Parameter *Filter*
-Filter <String>
Specifies a query string that retrieves Active Directory objects. This string uses the PowerShell Expression
Language syntax. The PowerShell Expression Language syntax provides rich type-conversion support for value types received by the Filter parameter. The syntax uses an in-order representation, which means that the operator is placed between the operand and the value. For more information about the Filter parameter, see about_ActiveDirectory_Filter.
-LDAPFilter <String>
Specifies an LDAP query string that is used to filter Active Directory objects. You can use this parameter to run your existing LDAP queries. The Filter parameter syntax supports the same functionality as the LDAP syntax. For more information, see the Filter parameter description and the about_ActiveDirectory_Filter.
This means you have two ways to approach a problem. Lets think about finding a single user:
Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter "(samAccountName=Richard)"
Get-ADUser -Filter {samAccountName -eq 'Richard'}
The LDAPFilter uses LDAP query syntax – attribute and value. Filter uses PowerShell syntax. You could think of the –Filter as a condensed version of
Get-ADUser -Filter * | where samAccountName -eq 'Richard'
Use the –Filter parameter because its less typing and you filter early – especially important if querying across a network.
You can use multiple attributes in the filters - & implies AND in the LDAP filter
Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter "(&(givenname=Bill)(sn=Green))"
Get-ADUser -Filter {GivenName -eq 'Bill' -and Surname -eq 'Green'}
The LDAP filter HAS to use the correct attribute name but Filter uses the property name returned by Get-ADUser.
LDAP filters can get very complicated very quickly. For instance if you want to find the disabled user accounts
Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter "(&(objectclass=user)(objectcategory=user)(useraccountcontrol:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))"
Get-ADUser -Filter {Enabled -eq $false}
Alternatively,and in my opinion, its simpler to use Search-ADaccount
Search-ADAccount -AccountDisabled –UsersOnly
Which one should you use? The one that best solves your problem. I mix & match to suit the search I’m performing
Advanced Functions webcast
Published February 25, 2013Quick reminder that the UK PowerShell group is hosting a Live Meeting webcast on PowerShell Advanced functions tomorrow – details from
http://richardspowershellblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/uk-powershell-groupadvanced-functions/
PowerShell in Depth–nearly there
Published February 25, 2013PowerShell in Depth is rapidly approaching its publication date – see www.manning.com/jones2 for details
New book
Published February 25, 2013My latest book has been released on the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP). Active Directory Management in a Month of Lunches takes the newcomer to AD through the tasks they need to perform to manage their organization’s AD.
it assumes no knowledge of AD and shows how to perform the common management tasks from the GUI (AD Administrative Center & the venerable AD Users & Computers) as well as PowerShell (using the Microsoft cmdlets).
Chapters 1-7 are currently available from www.manning.com\siddaway3 with more to come soon
Creating a Windows 2012 Domain Controller
Published February 21, 2013I decided to replace one of the DCs in my test environment with a Windows 2012 Server Core machine. Server Core has really come of age in Windows 2012 – its easy to configure.
I’ve covered configuring a server before but to recap:
- Rename the machine – use Rename-Computer
- Set Network – use Set-NetIPInterface (address) & et-DnsClientServerAddress( dns address) & Rename-netAdapter
- Join to domain – use Add-Computer
To create the domain controller use the ADDSDeployment module. You’ll only find this on servers where you’ve installed the AD Domain Services feature which you do like this:
Install-WindowsFeature -Name AD-Domain-Services -Confirm:$false
Import the module
Import-Module ADDSDeployment
Get-Command -Module ADDSDeployment
Create the Domain Controller. This is the equivalent of running DCPROMO in earlier versions. Even better you don’t need the answer file. Everything is a parameter on the cmdlet.
Install-ADDSDomain Controller -DomainName "manticore.org" -InstallDns -Credential (Get-Credential manticore\richard) -ApplicationPartitionsToReplicate *
Thats it! Just wait for replication to happen.
You can also demote a domain controller
$cred = Get-Credential
Uninstall-ADDSDomainController -Credential $cred -RemoveApplicationPartitions -Confirm:$false
Restart the machine and uninstall AD & DNS
Uninstall-WindowsFeature -Name AD-Domain-Services, DNS -Confirm:$false
Restart-Computer -ComputerName dc02
Leave the domain
$cred = Get-Credential manticore\richard
Remove-Computer -UnjoinDomainCredential $cred -Workgroup Test
Trash the VM.
And best of all it works over remoting. You will need to recreate the session for restarts & changes but it is really easy.
Server Core is now a much friendlier option.
CIM cmdlets and remote access
Published February 18, 2013When you used the WMI cmdlets
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_logicalDisk -ComputerName RSLAPTOP01
You were using DCOM to access the remote machine. Even if you accessed the local machine you were using DCOM.
This changes in PowerShell v3 when using the CIM cmdlets.
If you don’t use a computername
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_logicalDisk
You use DCOM to access the local machine.
If you use –computername
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_logicalDisk -ComputerName RSLAPTOP01
You use WSMAN to access the machine named – irrespective of if it is local or remote
A further complication is that the named machine has to be running WSMAN 3.0 i.e. PowerShell v3 is installed.
If you try to access a PowerShell v2 (WSMAN 2.0) machine with the CIM cmdlets you will get an error. The way round that is to create a CIMsession using DCOM as the transport protocol. If you want to learn how to do that you’ll have to wait until after my session at the PowerShell Summit in April or buy a copy of PowerShell and WMI from www.manning.com/siddaway2
I saw a number of people using the CIM cmdlets in the scripting games without thought to connectivity issues like this.
UK PowerShell Group–Advanced functions
Published February 18, 2013When: Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 7:30 PM (GMT)
Where: Virtual
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Advanced functions give you ability to create functions that act like cmdlets. Learn how to get the most from this powerful part of the PowerShell functionality
Notes
Richard Siddaway has invited you to attend an online meeting using Live Meeting.
Join the meeting.
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Computer Audio
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First Time Users:
To save time before the meeting, check your system to make sure it is ready to use Microsoft Office Live Meeting.
Troubleshooting
Unable to join the meeting? Follow these steps:
1. Copy this address and paste it into your web browser:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join
2. Copy and paste the required information:
Meeting ID: G79DNP
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Location: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups
If you still cannot enter the meeting, contact support
Notice
Microsoft Office Live Meeting can be used to record meetings. By participating in this meeting, you agree that your communications may be monitored or recorded at any time during the meeting.
Filtering
Published February 18, 2013I’ve been grading the scripts in the warm up events for the Scripting Games and noticed a lot of people doing this:
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_LogicalDisk | where {$_.DriveType -eq 3}
Ok now it works but there are a couple of things wrong with this approach.
Firstly, you are ignoring the built in capabilities of the get-wmiobject cmdlet
PS> Get-Command Get-WmiObject -Syntax
Get-WmiObject [-Class] <string> [[-Property] <string[]>] [-Filter <string>] [-Amended] [-DirectRead] [-AsJob]
[-Impersonation <ImpersonationLevel>] [-Authentication <AuthenticationLevel>] [-Locale <string>]
[-EnableAllPrivileges] [-Authority <string>] [-Credential <pscredential>] [-ThrottleLimit <int>] [-ComputerName
<string[]>] [-Namespace <string>] [<CommonParameters>]
Get-WmiObject [[-Class] <string>] [-Recurse] [-Amended] [-List] [-AsJob] [-Impersonation <ImpersonationLevel>]
[-Authentication <AuthenticationLevel>] [-Locale <string>] [-EnableAllPrivileges] [-Authority <string>] [-Credential
<pscredential>] [-ThrottleLimit <int>] [-ComputerName <string[]>] [-Namespace <string>] [<CommonParameters>]
Get-WmiObject -Query <string> [-Amended] [-DirectRead] [-AsJob] [-Impersonation <ImpersonationLevel>] [-Authentication
<AuthenticationLevel>] [-Locale <string>] [-EnableAllPrivileges] [-Authority <string>] [-Credential <pscredential>]
[-ThrottleLimit <int>] [-ComputerName <string[]>] [-Namespace <string>] [<CommonParameters>]
Get-WmiObject [-Amended] [-AsJob] [-Impersonation <ImpersonationLevel>] [-Authentication <AuthenticationLevel>]
[-Locale <string>] [-EnableAllPrivileges] [-Authority <string>] [-Credential <pscredential>] [-ThrottleLimit <int>]
[-ComputerName <string[]>] [-Namespace <string>] [<CommonParameters>]
Get-WmiObject [-Amended] [-AsJob] [-Impersonation <ImpersonationLevel>] [-Authentication <AuthenticationLevel>]
[-Locale <string>] [-EnableAllPrivileges] [-Authority <string>] [-Credential <pscredential>] [-ThrottleLimit <int>]
[-ComputerName <string[]>] [-Namespace <string>] [<CommonParameters>]
Notice the filter parameter in the first parameter set.
When you run Get-WMIObject in effect you are running a WQL query
“SELECT * FROM Win32_LogicalDisk”
if you move the filter into the query it changes to
“SELECT * FROM Win32_LogicalDisk WHERE DriveType = 3”
This is coded in the cmdlet as
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter "DriveType = 3"
Why is this better?
Because you are doing less work against the WMI repository – therefore more efficient.
Also if you are running against a remote machine filtering in the WMI query means you bring less data back across the network which makes you whole process more efficient.
Bottom line – filter as early as you sensibly can and preferably on the remote machine.