Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tags 'Event 6' and 'Beginner'

2013 Scripting Games: Beginner Event 6

Anonymous — Thu, 30 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Summary: Scripting Games Beginner Event 6: Dr. Scripto needs to join core servers to the domain and rename them.

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Today is the revealing of the final event for the 2013 Scripting Games. I hope you have learned tons from this year’s games and had fun too. Remember that you need to go to www.powershell.org to submit your event. Good luck!

The Core Configurator

Dr. Scripto has just one final challenge for you: to get out alive!

No, wait…that was when Bond was over for tea and crumpets last week.

Ah, here we go…

Dr. Scripto is deploying a bunch of new virtual machines on a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2012. The virtual machines already have the operating system installed, and the local Administrator password is set to P@ssw0rd. The Doctor has created a text file named C:\Mac.txt, which contains the MAC addresses of each virtual machine’s active network adapter (one address per line in the file). The virtual machines are using DHCP to get an IP address. There is a DHCP server on the network named DHCP1, and it has a single DHCP scope named 10.0.0.0. The virtual machines’ current computer names are not known, and they do not yet belong to the domain.

You need to write a Windows PowerShell script that joins the virtual machines to the domain and gives them a new computer name. By using the information in Mac.txt, you must perform the following for each computer with a Server Core installation:

Query the Server Core installation’s current dynamic IP address from the DHCP server.
Join each Server Core installation to the Company.local domain. Use the domain credential Admin, with the password P@ssw0rd, to join the computer to the domain. At the same time, rename the computer. The first computer should be named SERVER1, the second SERVER2, and so forth. Allow the computer to restart.

You should minimize the number of “Are you sure?” prompts that are shown while your script runs. The computers should be added to the domain’s default container for new machine objects.

It’s fine if you do this for one computer at a time, but when your script finishes running, all of the computers must be properly provisioned.

You can safely assume that SERVER1, SERVER2, and so on do not already exist in the domain. You do not need to parameterize your script (values like SERVERx), and the Mac.txt file name and other values can be hardcoded.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy

Scripting Wife Comments on Beginner Event 6

Anonymous — Thu, 30 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Summary: The Scripting Wife reveals her impressions of 2013 Scripting Games Beginner Event 6.

Well, this event was tough, but I would not want to do it without having Windows Server 2012 because there are lots of cool functions to help with this task. What I did was go through the requirements one at a time, and for each requirement try to figure out how I could accomplish the task. For example, the first task is to read a text file that contains the MAC addresses for each virtual machine;s active network adapter. This, for me, meant creating a filter for the MAC address. To test it, I used my own MAC address to make sure things worked properly.

I found a cmdlet (function) that returns the IP address from my computer, and I was able to pipe it to a filter that found if the IP address originated from DHCP. I could not find a cmdlet that would join a computer to the domain, but I did find one that would add it to the domain—probably the same thing (even though Join is an approved verb).

Usually, I use the Force parameter when I want Windows PowerShell to do something without prompting, but it does not always work. For those times when it does not work, I use Confirm:$True instead. I guess I could also change the value of the $ConfirmPreference automatic variable.

Well, this is it for me. This year’s Scripting Games have been awesome. Thanks to everyone over at PowerShell.org for hosting these awesome Games.

Take care everyone, and if you are at TechEd in New Orleans, stop by the Scripting Guys booth and say hi!

Expert Commentary: 2012 Scripting Games Beginner Event 6

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Summary: Microsoft Windows PowerShell MVP, Sean Kearney, provides expert commentary for 2012 Scripting Games Beginner Event 6.

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Sean Kearney is the expert commentator for Beginner Event 6.

Sean “The Kraken” Kearney is an infrastructure support analyst, Microsoft MVP in Windows PowerShell, and member of the Springboard Technical Experts Program. He is also one of this year’s first ever Honorary Scripting Guys and the mystery persona behind The BATCHman and Cmdlet. He is presently writing a book about Windows PowerShell.

He is so passionate about Windows PowerShell that he tried naming a pet gerbil “Cmdlet,” and then he attempted to use a Get-Wheel | Invoke-Run on it. We have been advised that he is also barred from any caffeinated beverages when he is presenting due to “The Edmonton Affair” at TechDays Canada.

You’re staring at the desk trying desperately to concentrate and force it to fold into the shape of an Armadillo, when the phone rings breaking your concentration…

“BARK!” a voice barks at you from the other end of the wire. It’s the boss.

“I need to be able pull up metrics on our various servers and have to see how long any one of them has been running. Can you solve this for me? I’ve done some research, and I found that there is information in WMI that could help, but I’m not much of a programmer.”

You smile knowing this is a job Windows PowerShell can solve easily. “Sure! What do you have from WMI?”

“Well there’s a property called win32_operatingsystem that should have the time the computer started up, do you think you could calculate that against the current date somehow?”

“No problem sir….give me a few minutes, and I’ll create a simple script in Windows PowerShell to solve it all.”

You immediately head into the task by firing up Windows PowerShell to see what properties are available from win32_operatingsystem.

GET-WMIOBJECT win32_operatingsystem | GET-MEMBER

Drilling down the list you note that there is one called LastBootupTime. “Aha! I’ll just pull up this property and subtract todays date!” you smile to yourself. Sometimes the boss IS right.

GET-WMIOBJECT win32_operatingsystem | SELECT-OBJECT –expandproperty LastBootupTime

But you stare at the screen with the results with a blank look.

20110201055602.000000-300

“Whaaaaaaa??????????????????!!!!!”

Your eyeballs pop out and roll on the desk. After you pick them up and put them back in your sockets, you take a second look and realize that you are looking at the date. It’s just in a different format. You decide to see if there might be some help from Get-Help about how to parse the date differently.

GET-HELP GET-DATE –examples

Drilling down near example #7, you notice a scenario that almost matches—manipulating the date from win32_bios. It appears that the WMI date is stored differently and there is an available method to convert it to a DotNet format.

You grab the object from win32_operatingsystem and store it away to mimic how the example presented it.

$A= GET-WMIOBJECT win32_operatingsystem

Using the example from Get-Help, you then try to convert the WMI object for LastBootupTime to a normal DotNet date.

$A.converttodatetime($A.LastBootupTime)

You blink and look at the screen in wonder and amazement.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011 5:56:02 AM

“Yes!” You nearly jump out of your shorts, knocking over the gerbil cage. “Now all I need to do is subtract this date from the current date and show the difference! Oh, I can’t wait to have this running on the servers!”

# Get name of local Server
$Machine=Hostname

# Get today’s date
$Today=GET-DATE

# Get the WMI object for the start time
$A=GET-WMIOBJECT win32_operatingsystem

# Obtain the Boot time in DOTNET format
$BootTime=$A.ConverttoDateTime($A.LastBootupTime)

# Calculate how many days the system has been up
$Uptime=$Today-$Boottime

# Obtain all the data for the output string
$Days=$Uptime.Days
$Hours=$Uptime.Hours
$Minutes=$Uptime.Minutes
$Seconds=$Uptime.Seconds
$JustDate=$Today.toshortdatestring()
$JustTime=$Today.toshorttimestring()

“The computer $Machine has been up for $Days days, $Hours hours, $Minutes minutes, $Seconds seconds, as of $JustDate $JustTime.”

You save the file as GETUPTIME.PS1 and hand it to the boss. He pops onto the security server to test it. He smiles.

“Great job! I knew investing in an IT Pro who knew Windows PowerShell would save me in the long term! Thanks!” And he hands you keys to the most hallowed place in the office…

…the executive coffee room!

2012 Scripting Games Guest Commentator Week Part 2 will continue tomorrow when we will present the scenario for Event 7.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy

2012 Scripting Games Beginner Event 6: Compute Uptime for Local Computer

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Summary: In Beginner Event 6, you are required to compute the uptime for the local computer.

About this event

Division	Beginner
Date of Event	4/9/2012 12:01 AM
Due Date	4/16/2012 12:01 AM

Event scenario

You are the main network administrator for a small company. As such, your duties consist of a variety of functions, including assisting the Help Desk when they get behind. Recently, your manager has become concerned about server uptime. He wants you to write a script that will display how long a server has been “up.” He said that he is not concerned with anything fancy—he just wants a general idea. The only real guidance he provided for the task is, “Use WMI. There is a class called Win32_OperatingSystem that should do the trick for you. Tell me the server name, and how many days, hours, and minutes the server has been up.”

The output that is shown in the image that follows meets the boss’s requirements.

Design points

Your solution only needs to run locally.
Your script should be easy to read and easy to understand.
Your script is only concerned with the uptime for the local server, calculated with the current time. Do not worry about time zones or about comparing up times with different computers.
Pay attention to the formatting of the output and the script itself.

2012 Scripting Games links

2012 Scripting Games: All Links on One Page

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy

Expert Solution for 2011 Scripting Games Beginner Event 6: Parse the Windows Update Log for Errors with PowerShell

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Summary : Microsoft MVP, Sean Kearney, uses Windows PowerShell to solve 2011 Scripting Games Beginner Event 6 and parse the Windows update log for errors. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, here. Today we have Sean Kearney to provide his solution for...(read more)

The 2011 Scripting Games Beginner Event 6: Use PowerShell to Find Windows Update Errors

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Summary : Beginner Event 6 of 2011 Scripting Games uses Windows PowerShell to find Windows Update errors. About this event Division Beginner Date of Event 4/11/2011 12:01 AM Due Date 4/18/2011 12:01 AM Event scenario On your home computer, you notice...(read more)