Troubleshooting Windows Server with PowerShell

✍ Scribed by Schauland, Derek;Jacobs, Donald

• Publisher: Apress
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 140
• Series: Windows troubleshooting series
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book shows you how to use PowerShell to quickly pinpoint, diagnose, and solve problems with your Windows Server environment, reducing the need for external tools, and ensuring you stay up-to-date with PowerShell as it quickly becomes one of the most useful tools in an administrator's toolkit.

Authors Derek Schauland and Donald Jacobs take you through a range of examples, showing you how to gather information from different computer sources. Whether you are logged into the server locally or just wanting to check the status of a server from your local computer, the right PowerShell cmdlets can give you a lot of information quickly, and allow you to troubleshoot your servers from the command line with little interaction with the server's desktop.

In this book, you'll learn how PowerShell can help you:



Understand PowerShell versus the GUI
Gather information from Windows event logs
Gather information from your server, including memory, hardware configurations, and disk space available
Find out what applications are installed on a server
Find out which Windows updates have been installed on your computer
Check the processes running on your computer and gather information about them, or start and stop them from the command line
Quickly check if services are running, and stop or start them as needed

Who This Book Is For
Windows Administrators, IT Professionals and support personnel needing ways to quickly find and troubleshoot issues in their environment using the included tools. Those entering IT or wishing to develop their PowerShell skills will also benefit from this book.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents at a Glance......Page 8
Contents......Page 10
About the Authors......Page 16
About the Technical Reviewer......Page 18
Windows Troubleshooting Series......Page 20
Acknowledgments......Page 22
Introduction......Page 24
Chapter 1: Getting Started......Page 26
Getting to Know PowerShell......Page 27
GUI Tools vs. PowerShell......Page 28
Working with Variables......Page 29
Why All the Drives?......Page 30
The Natural Progression of Tool Building......Page 31
PowerShell Is Not Going Away......Page 32
Chapters in this Book......Page 33
Assumptions Used in this Book......Page 34
How to Let PowerShell Help You Learn More......Page 36
Summary......Page 40
More Reading......Page 41
What Can Windows Capture?......Page 42
Accessing the Event Log Information......Page 43
Scenario......Page 44
Finding Information with PowerShell......Page 45
Why Choose One cmdlet over Another?......Page 47
Getting Logs from Remote Computers......Page 48
Comma-Separated Values......Page 49
Formatting HTML for Readability......Page 52
HTML Formatting with a Function......Page 53
Can PowerShell Use the Event Log to Store Information?......Page 57
Summary......Page 58
Gathering Disk Space......Page 59
Disks First......Page 60
Logical Disks......Page 61
Listing Shares......Page 62
NTFS Permissions......Page 65
Getting the ACLs......Page 66
Setting the ACLs......Page 67
Hardware......Page 69
Computer System Information......Page 72
Processor Information......Page 73
Remote Queries......Page 75
Summary......Page 76
Obtaining a List of Installed Applications......Page 77
Using the CIM Object......Page 78
Using the Registry Keys......Page 82
Arrays......Page 84
Next Steps......Page 86
Summary......Page 87
Chapter 5: Windows Update......Page 88
Resolution......Page 89
Details of Get-HotFix Results......Page 90
Checking When a Computer Was Rebooted......Page 91
Improvements to this Code......Page 92
Improvements to this Function......Page 94
Pending Restarts......Page 95
Summary......Page 97
Working with Processes......Page 98
Filtering by Process ID or Name......Page 101
Sorting and Selecting Information Needed......Page 102
Working with Returned Data......Page 104
Collecting Information from a Remote Computer or Computers......Page 105
Other Ways to Improve the Script......Page 106
Starting and Stopping Processes......Page 107
When Start-Process and Stop-Process Are Useful......Page 108
Using WMI or CIM to Work with Processes......Page 109
Using the CIM cmdlets......Page 110
Summary......Page 111
Access to Services with PowerShell......Page 112
Actions on Services......Page 113
Enter WMI......Page 118
Reporting on Services or Providing More Presentable Information......Page 121
Summary......Page 124
Building Modules......Page 125
Desired State Configuration......Page 127
Applying Configurations: Make It So......Page 128
Starting or Stopping Services......Page 129
Working with DSC to Ensure IIS Is Installed......Page 130
PowerShell Remoting......Page 131
A Remote PowerShell Session......Page 132
Scheduled Jobs Options......Page 133
Scheduled Job Triggers......Page 134
Job Verification......Page 135
Getting Scheduled Job Results......Page 136
Summary......Page 137
Index......Page 138