‘Twas the Night Before Scripting: Part 3
Summary: Dr. Scripto teaches our Admin friend how to find cmdlets in a module and get Help.
Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, here. If you missed it yesterday, see Sean’s latest video: Just Script It! Also be sure to read:
Yesterday we saw how Dr. Scripto aided our good Administrator friend, a person who had never scripted, modify multiple users in Active Directory. Yet there was still much left to do on this project, including deployment of workstations, oh my!
And so we continue with our third badly rhyme-filled session…
And so it continued
Yet not deep in the night,
For PowerShell scripting
Deleted the fright.
With the good Dr. Scripto
And our new Admin friend
Learning to automate,
His aid he would lend.
He then looked at the list
Of things left to do.
Instead of a panic,
A thought came anew.
“Dr. Scripto, a question,
A query for you
I wonder if PowerShell
Could make this happen to?
New accounts for computers
I must create now.
Is there a cmdlet or
Some easy way how?”
The good Doctor smiled
(Which was tricky, ya know,
Since he is made of
Plaster, not snow).
He pulled a list of cmdlets
From a module so keen,
Active Directory it was called,
Listed them all on the screen.
Get-Command –module ActiveDirectory
“Hmm, perhaps I should show
(Yes, that would make more sense)
Only those for the computer,
Would make it less dense”
Get-Command –name *Computer* –module ActiveDirectory
“Looking on screen
At the list, oh so small,
I see one that makes sense,
Filling the call.”
New-ADComputer
“Dr. Scripto, but how…
How can I know?
To learn how to use
The cmdlet below?”
With his bobbly head
He bounced left and right,
“We use Get-Help
And –examples for sight.”
Get-Help New-ADComputer -examples
Our Admin smiled at the
Sample he saw now,
“This seems all too simple!”
As he blinked and said, “Wow!”
So then he typed
Just for fun, in a way,
A sample cmdlet
To try it today.
New-ADComputer –name “JohnnyTestPC” –SamAccountName “JohnnyTestPC”
And checking the results
Within the MMC,
Our Admin could view
His success for to see.
“Creating accounts
For over 500 PCs
Might not be so hard
With this cmdlet for me!”
Dr. Scripto bobbed Yes
And jumped up and down,
Our Admin now had a smile
Instead of a frown.
And tomorrow we’ll
See how he’ll fare,
On setting up systems
With security to fare!
I invite you to follow the Scripting Guys on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.
Sean Kearney, Honorary Scripting Guy and Windows PowerShell MVP