This document provides an overview of various IT environments and introduces PowerShell. It begins with the presenter's background in IT and computer science. It then discusses different roles in IT and industries where IT is used. Specific examples of IT environments at an educational institution, Internet service provider, and manufacturing company are explored. Finally, it provides an introduction to PowerShell, including what it is, who can benefit from it, examples of tasks it can automate, and resources for learning more.

1. EXPLORING VARIOUS IT
ENVIRONMENTS & INTRO TO
POWERSHELL
PRESENTED FOR THE KENT STATE ASHTABULA AITP CHAPTER
NOVEMBER 13, 2013
SARAH DUTKIEWICZ
SARAH@CLETECHCONSULTING.COM

2. AGENDA
• Quick Background
• Adventures in IT
•
Why you should
care about it
•
What products
can benefit
from it
•
What is IT
•
IT in Education
•
IT in an ISP
•
•
PowerShell
Basics
IT in
Manufacturing
•
Resources
•
IT elsewhere
• Intro to PowerShell
•
What is it

3. QUICK BACKGROUND
THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE EMBARKING INTO IT ADVENTURES

4. SARAH’S BACKGROUND
• First computer was a Compaq Presario 486, late start into computing
• Originally focused on software – VB3 app talking to an Access database
• Data junkie / UX junkie
• Programming language junkie
• Programming and data internship right out of high school
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science & Engineering
Technology, University of Toledo, May 2002
• Various IT positions and a developer position along the way
• Independent consultant since August 2011
• Married to an IT consultant with similar background

5. COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
• Some electrical courses – resistive & reactive
circuits, electronics, digital logic design, field programmable logic
devices (VHDL)
• Some hardware-related courses – VLSI, PC and industrial
networks, small computers
• Some programming-related courses – Microcomputers
(Assembly), Web Site Design (HTML, XML)
, Java, JavaScript, programming language paradigms
• Admin-related courses – Web server administration
• Middle-tier courses – Client-Server computing

6. ADVENTURES IN IT

7. WHAT
IS I.T.?

8. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The application of computers and
telecommunications equipment to
store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate
data, often in the context of business or other
enterprise

9. SOME ROLES IN IT - ADMINISTRATORS
System administration
Software
Hardware
Server administration
Web server administration
Mail server administration
Database server administration
Network administration

10. OTHER ROLES IN IT
• Software developer
• Project manager
• Desktop or other client support
• Reports manager
• And many others

11. INDUSTRIES FOR IT CAREERS
• Manufacturing
• Medical
• Financial
• Energy
• Education
• Insurance
• Libraries
• Government
• Military
• Anywhere technology is needed! (EVERYWHERE!)

12. IT IN EDUCATION

13. TYPES OF CLIENTS
• Faculty and Staff
• Lawyers
• Military (ROTC)
• Executives (President, VPs, chancellors, etc.)
• Labs

14. ENVIRONMENT CONSIDERATIONS
• Various platforms – Solaris, Linux, Windows, Mac; mobile, desktop, tablet
• Various backgrounds – technical and non-technical users
• Every client is different
• Sometimes you won’t know what you’re getting into until you’re there

15. STORIES FROM EDUCATION
• The First Few Weeks
• The Paranoid Grad Student
• ROTC
• Overall Adventures

16. IT IN AN INTERNET
SERVICE PROVIDER
(ISP)

17. WHAT MAKES UP THE IT TEAM OF AN ISP
• Systems Administrators
• Mail Administrators
• Webserver Administrators
• Network Administrators & Engineers
• Web Developers*
• Technical Support

18. EXPERIENCE WITH TECH SUPPORT
• First line of defense, sometimes the gateway to the other tech departments
• Mostly phone support, some onsite support
• Not scripted, as every call is different
• End user could be a personal or business account
• Customers are human, so add a personal touch
• Pay attention to others on the team and learn from them
• Don’t be afraid to talk to other departments to learn about their jobs so that you can do your job better
in supporting them as well, since calls may come in for them

19. STORIES FROM ISP I.T.
• The “I Want to Talk to the Manager” Dilemma
• Becoming Familiar with Clients

20. IT IN MANUFACTURING

21. MOTTO OF MANUFACTURING
If it’s broken, fix it. If it’s working, don’t break it.

22. ROLES OF IT IN MANUFACTURING
• Database Administrator
•
ERP systems
•
Timeclocks
•
Financial reporting
•
HR issues
• System Administrator
• Network Administrator
• Troubleshoot technical issues with machines
• Phone system (PBX) administration
• Desktop support

23. STORIES FROM IT IN MANUFACTURING
• Sensitive Data
• Security Checks
• Small Team to Large Client Base

24. IT ELSEWHERE

25. GENERAL NOTES ON IT
• IT roles may be siloed – where you can specialize in a part of IT and stay with it
• Smaller companies try for more jacks of all trades to watch their IT costs
•
A lot of companies see IT as nothing more than an overhead department, despite the necessity
• Consultants are jacks of all trades
• Managers of IT departments may or may not have technical experience; some places put managers in
place with business/team building skills rather than technical know-how

26. INTRO TO
POWERSHELL

27. AGENDA
• What is it
• Why you should care about it
• What products can benefit from it
• System requirements
• Resources

28. WHAT IS POWERSHELL?
• .NET Scripting Language from Microsoft used for task automation
and configuration management
• Available for Windows XP and later
• Comes with newer Windows operating systems
• Can be used to replace batch files and VBScript files
• Extensible automation engine

29. WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM POWERSHELL?
• Developers
• System Administrators
• Mail Administrators
• Database Administrators
• SharePoint Administrators
• Anyone who has tasks using the .NET Framework that can be automated

30. SIMPLE POWERSHELL EXAMPLE

31. OBJECT-ORIENTED NATURE OF
POWERSHELL

32. WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT
POWERSHELL
• Managing one user in a GUI = easy; managing hundreds of users in a GUI = time-consuming
• Many click-click-click processes can be automated
• Automating processes with a script makes processing quicker, giving you more time to tackle other
issues or projects
• VBScript is a thing of the past; a lot more products are using PowerShell for administration

33. WHAT CAN IT AUTOMATE?
• List all computers on a network, with their operating system and service pack level
• Start a service on multiple computers
• Manage Active Directory users
• Scrape all the event logs on your network for a particular error
• IIS website setup
• And many more!

34. PRODUCTS THAT BENEFIT FROM
POWERSHELL ADMINISTRATION
• Active Directory
• VPN
• Exchange
• BitLocker
• Office 365
• IBM Websphere MQ
• SharePoint
• System Center
• SQL Server
• Windows Compute Cluster Server
• Windows Server
• VMWare vShere
• IIS
• Network Administration

35. TWO ENVIRONMENTS
• Console
• Integrated Scripting Environment

36. SOME OF THE SUPPORTED OPERATING
SYSTEMS
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows 8
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core
• Windows Server 2008 SP1 – SP3
• Windows 7
• Windows Vista SP1 – SP2
• Windows XP SP3 & Windows 7 XP Mode
• Windows Embedded POSReady 2009
• Windows Embedded for Point of Service 1.1

37. MINIMUM INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 with Service Pack 1
• Windows Management Framework Core

38. COMPONENTS
• Variables
• Aliases
• Cmdlets
• Functions
• Providers
• Modules

39. VARIABLES
• Store results in a variable to use later
• Some variables are built-in
• Special variables
•
args – collection of arguments passed to a script
•
$_ - the pipeline variable
•
$Host – information about the current PowerShell environment
•
~ - user’s home directory
• List current variables:
dir Variable:

40. ALIASES
• Shortcuts for commands
• Set-Alias for setting aliases
• Get-Alias for getting aliases
• No alias alias:
Set-Alias alias Set-Alias

41. CMDLETS
• Pronounced “command-let”
• Verb-Noun Structure
• Most Helpful Ones When Learning;
•
Get-Help / Update-Help
•
Get-Command
•
Get-Member
• Specific Approved Verbs – see Get-Verb

42. GET-HELP / UPDATE-HELP
•
Newer versions of PowerShell aren’t shipping with the help files so Update-Help should be run first
•
At any point, you can type Get-Help for help
•
Syntax:
Get-Help topic –type
Get-Help cmdlet – type
•
Topics typically start with about_
•
Types of help include:
•
Examples
•
Detailed
•
Full
•
Online

43. GET-HELP EXAMPLES

44. GET-COMMAND
• Gets a list of available commands
• Can do wildcard searches
• Can filter results with options – including Verb, Module, Noun, CommandType

45. GET-COMMAND EXAMPLE

46. GET-MEMBER
• Shows attributes, properties, and methods of an object
• Shows the .NET type of an object
• Syntax:
Object | Get-Member
• Object can be a command, cmdlet, variable, or other .NET object

47. GET-MEMBER EXAMPLES

48. PROVIDERS
• Make it easier to access certain data stores
• Includes :
•
Registry
•
Certificates
•
Environment Variables
•
FileSystem
•
Function
•
Alias
•
Variable
•
WSMAN

49. MODULES
• Package of goodies
•
Cmdlets
•
Aliases
•
Functions
•
Providers
•
Other PowerShell Goodies

50. SCRIPT MODULE
• Written in PowerShell
• PSM1 file

51. BINARY MODULE
• Written in C#
• DLL file

52. MANIFEST MODULE
• PSD1 File
• New-ModuleManifest

53. POWERSHELL RESOURCES
• Hey Scripting Guy! Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/
• PowerScripting Podcast: http://powerscripting.wordpress.com/
• Automating Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration with Windows PowerShell 2.0:
http://qtlil.me/psbook
• PowerShell.org: http://powershell.org
• PowerShell.com
• On Twitter: #PowerShell

54. SARAH DUTKIEWICZ
TWITTER: @SADUKIE
BLOG: HTTP://CODINGGEEKETTE.COM
EMAIL: SARAH@CLETECHCONSULTING.COM
LINKEDIN: MY LINKEDIN PROFILE