Still time to vote on event 4 – the numbers of votes are falling off slightly – especially in the Advanced events. This is your opportunity to observe what other people are doing, comment and very possibly learn.
The final chapters of PowerShell Deep Dive have been added to the MEAP http://www.manning.com/hicks/ Enjoy
The MEAP for AD Management in a Month of Lunches has been extended with the inclusion of chapter 11 – Creating Domain Controllers. www.manning.com/siddaway3 Enjoy
Grading the scripts in Event 4 and the one thing that jumps out is the amount of unnecessary data being carried through the scripts You were asked for 7 properties off 20 random users Get-ADUser has a –properties parameter. USE it to restrict the properties you return. You don’t NEED all the other properties Next […]
I have heard some discussions recently regarding whether Win32_LogicalDisk or Win32_Volume should be used in the answer to event 3 in the Scripting Games. The problem requires you pull the drive letter, drive size and freespace for local disks on the server. Notice the emphasis – that will be important. Looking at Win32_Volume PS> Get-CimClass […]
One of the principles of writing scripts (or any code) is the KISS principle – Keep It Simple Scripter. That principle is being abused al lot in event 3 I am seeing numerous entries that define an advanced function as the solution and then inside the PROCESS block define one or more functions. You PROCESS […]
In event 3 you have to get information on hard disk capacity. I’ve only looked at the first couple of dozen scripts but seen this too many times Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_LogicalDisk | where DriveType -eq 3 or if you prefer the version 2 way Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_LogicalDisk | where {$_.DriveType -eq 3} If puppies get […]
I’ve seen a lot of this type of thing in events 1 and 2 $ErrorPref = $ErrorActionPreference $ErrorActionPreference = "Stop" Don’t The default for $ErrorActionPreference is Continue. This means that the error message is shown and the cmdlet attempts to continue. The possible values (from about_Preference_Variables) Stop: Displays the error message and stops executing. […]
I saw this in one of the submissions: $Properties = @{} $Properties[‘Computer’] = $SystemInfo.__SERVER $Properties[‘OperatingSystem’] = "$($OSInfo.Caption) – $($OSInfo.CSDVersion)" $Properties[‘PhysicalMemory’] = $SystemInfo.TotalPhysicalMemory My immediate thought was the entrant likes making work for themselves. The hash table can be created in a much simpler manner $Properties = @{ Computer = $SystemInfo.__SERVER OperatingSystem = "$($OSInfo.Caption) – $($OSInfo.CSDVersion)" […]
Chapter 10 of AD Management in a Month of Lunches is now available. http://www.manning.com/siddaway3/ The chapter covers Fine Grained Password Policies