PowerShell | Tom's Notes

Reinstalling your Hyper-V hosts

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 10/10/2016 0 Comment

Have you ever reinstalled your Hyper-V hosts?

I know, there is not much need for it (as everything usually works just fine), but still… there is a “Windows Server 2016 re-installation wave” coming and maybe you’ll find the the next pieces interesting and useful.

One of the “messy” tasks with Windows reinstallation is networking… and by “messy” I mean “you have more than one network cable in your Hyper-V hosts” and you need to know which networks are connected where. Smile

What happens is that Windows somehow always forgets your network device order, all the pretty names you’ve applied and you get stuck with names like “Ethernet”, “Ethernet 2”, etc.

There is a way to fix this (there are many, actually) – we can ask our younger colleague to go to the server room and unplug the cables one by one and then plug them back in, following the rename on our (Windows) side. This way we are certain that all the corporate, DMZ, storage, live migration, etc. cables don’t get “confused” when added to their respective teams and if we labeled cables properly, everything will work with fresh Windows installation also.

But… there is another way. We can use what we already have – our documentation. Here I mean “our current setup” – we have our network adapters and teams already configured in our current Windows installation, why don’t we just export this info and use it after the reinstallation?

We can do this easily by using PowerShell!

The idea is to export network adapter names and MAC addresses of our physical network adapters (excluding the virtual and team adapters), in a CSV file, so that we can use it later, to rename our adapters after the reinstallation:

Get-NetAdapter | where {$_.InterfaceDescription -notlike "Microsoft*" -and $_.InterfaceDescription -notlike "Hyper-V*"} | Export-Csv C:\Hyper-V.csv -Delimiter ";"

1	Get-NetAdapter \| where {$_.InterfaceDescription -notlike "Microsoft" -and $_.InterfaceDescription -notlike "Hyper-V"} \| Export-Csv C:\Hyper-V.csv -Delimiter ";"

After reinstallation, we can use the following command to rename our adapters, as per our saved CSV file:

$networks = Import-Csv C:\Hyper-V.csv -Delimiter ";"
foreach($network in $networks){
    Get-NetAdapter | where {$_.InterfaceDescription -notlike "Microsoft*" -and $_.InterfaceDescription -notlike "Hyper-V*" -and $_.MacAddress -eq $network.MacAddress} | Rename-NetAdapter -NewName $network.Name
}

$networks = Import-Csv C:\Hyper-V.csv -Delimiter ";"

foreach($network in $networks){

Get-NetAdapter | where {$_.InterfaceDescription -notlike "Microsoft*" -and $_.InterfaceDescription -notlike "Hyper-V*" -and $_.MacAddress -eq $network.MacAddress} | Rename-NetAdapter -NewName $network.Name

}

And voilà – our networks are named nicely again (and our colleague didn’t need to go to the cold server room… this time). Smile

Cheers!

Playing with folders and permissions

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 11/01/2016 0 Comment

This one will be short and sweet. Smiješak

Imagine you have an Active Directory full of users. You also have a file server in your environment. And, as it happens, each of your users needs to have a folder created just for himself, on this file server. Each folder should have inheritance disabled and each user should get full permissions on his folder.

What do you do?

Well, we can manually create the required folders, or we can use a PowerShell script which will do it for us. Obviously, I’ve chosen PowerShell (maybe not the nicest script in the world, but it does the job), or this post would be… lame. Smiješak

So, the interesting part of this script goes like this (I’ve added a few empty lines to make comments more visible):

# get user/folder names from Active Directory (SamAccountName property)
$users = Get-ADUser -Filter * | Select SamAccountName

foreach($user in $users)
{
    $folder = "D:\Share\$user"
    
    # create a (sub)folder for each user
    New-Item -Path $folder -Type Directory
    
    # read the current access rules applied to a folder
    $acl = Get-Acl -Path $folder

    # disable the inheritance, but leave the inherited access rules in place
    $acl.SetAccessRuleProtection($True, $True)
    
    # add Full access rule for a specific user
    $rule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule("$user","FullControl", "ContainerInherit, ObjectInherit", "None", "Allow")

    # add this rule to existing ruleset
    $acl.AddAccessRule($rule)

    # and finally, apply the new ruleset to a folder
    Set-Acl -Path $folder -AclObject $acl
}

# get user/folder names from Active Directory (SamAccountName property)

$users = Get-ADUser -Filter * | Select SamAccountName

foreach($user in $users)

{

$folder = "D:\Share\$user"

# create a (sub)folder for each user

New-Item -Path $folder -Type Directory

# read the current access rules applied to a folder

$acl = Get-Acl -Path $folder

# disable the inheritance, but leave the inherited access rules in place

$acl.SetAccessRuleProtection($True, $True)

# add Full access rule for a specific user

$rule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule("$user","FullControl", "ContainerInherit, ObjectInherit", "None", "Allow")

# add this rule to existing ruleset

$acl.AddAccessRule($rule)

# and finally, apply the new ruleset to a folder

Set-Acl -Path $folder -AclObject $acl

}

Cheers!

Open Cloud BBQ – Nano Server

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 18/06/2015 0 Comment

There was a barbecue today… on the roof… of the Microsoft office! How cool is that??? Smiješak

I’ve had an honor to join my colleagues and friends, and contribute to this great event with a presentation called “Nano Server – budućnost je tu!”, which was actually inspired by Jeffrey Snover’s Ignite speech about Nano Server – the new installation option in Windows Server 2016.

The whole Nano Server idea is very simple – let’s remove all the “unnecessary” roles and features (especially the famous GUI), and leave only the parts that we really need for whatever purpose (i.e. we’re getting the “purpose built servers”). All the purposes/roles that are supported in this preview version are Hyper-V, File Server and Failover Clustering, and they are working great on this “nano-sized” server operating system (even in this early preview).

I’m really excited about Nano Server, and I’m so glad that I’ve had a chance to talk about it at such great event. Because there were so many questions about it during the day/evening, I’ve noticed that Nano Server is a very cool subject for attendees also. Nice!

The presentation is available on SlideShare – check it, install the Nano Server and start rocking your datacenters! Smiješak

Open Cloud BBQ – Nano Server from Tomica Kaniski

Cheers!

Hyper-V reporting script

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 22/01/2015 7 Comments

There’s something nice for all you Hyper-V admins out there – don’t know if you’ve seen it already, but Serhat Akinci (my MVP colleague) made a great script for reporting the health of your Hyper-V hosts, called Get-HyperVReport.

You can use it on local or remote Hyper-V hosts and clusters, schedule and e-mail the reports (something to read while enjoying the morning coffee… or tea Smile ), and they look like this:

Highlights (from TechNet page):

More than 2600+ lines of PowerShell, HTML and CSS code examples
Creates a plain but detailed and user-friendly HTML report which is compatible with all modern browsers
Provides more detailed information via tooltips in the HTML report. (cells with asteriks and highlighted)
Checks and installs required runtime environment prerequisites like Hyper-V and Clustering PowerShell
Collects information by using standard Hyper-V and Clustering PowerShell cmdlets and custom WMI queries
Shows alerts in the report for certain situations (utilizations, VM checkpoints, replication status, etc.)
Can be used directly from command-line or as a scheduled Windows task
Supports report delivery via e-mail with advanced options. (authentication, TLS/SSL, multiple recipients)
Includes a mode that reports only alerts in the Hyper-V environment. (aka HighlightsOnly mode)
Advanced error handling and logging. (Console messages and log file)

Download of this script, and more information about it, is available at TechNet Gallery. And remember – don’t let your Hyper-V hosts run all by themselves! Smile

Cheers!

Adventure of installing the Windows Azure Active Directory Module for PowerShell

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 28/05/2014 0 Comment

Well, you know the story – “something needs to be done immediately, usually in the middle of the night, involving PowerShell, and you don’t have all the needed modules installed…”.

The solution seems easy enough – install the required modules, connect to Office 365 and do the job. Yeah… but no! Smile

More specific – I’ve tried to install the Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell the other night. In the end, I’ve succeeded, but something kept me awake a little longer than necessary.

I’ve read an article on TechNet, explaining the management of Azure Active Directory using PowerShell. Why? Because I couldn’t do what was needed via the (nice) user interface.

So, instructions said “Install the Windows Azure AD Module” – I’ve downloaded the appropriate installer (Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell (64-bit version)), and started the installation.

Almost immediately, I’ve got an error saying that the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant (version 7.0 or greater) needs to be already installed. OK, I’ve downloaded this piece of software as well (from here), and installed it. “Fortunately” it demands a machine reboot. Rebooted.

Now I’ve tried to install the Windows Azure AD Module again, and got the same error:

I must say that I’m little confused at this point, because I was convinced that I’ve installed this just a minute or two ago. Ok, it’s late. No big deal – I’ve ran the installation again, and got the following screen:

So, it is installed after all. Maybe it’s the wrong version (on the other hand, the TechNet article contains the link to download)? After a few moments of searching, I’ve found the more recent version of this Sign-In Assistant, called Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant for IT Professionals BETA. I’ve installed this version now, and tried to install the Windows Azure AD Module afterwards. Now it finally worked!

The conclusion – this TechNet article is slightly out-of-date (linked to the wrong version of the Sign-In Assistant, which doesn’t work with the current version of Windows Azure AD Module) and, until this is resolved, you’ll need to install the BETA version from the link provided above (this one).

Cheers!

Installing the KB2920189… successfully!

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 19/05/2014 1 Comment

The other day, I’ve written about an issue with installation of update KB2920189 for Windows Server 2012 R2 (post called [TIP] Latest “Patch Tuesday” & errors installing update). So, the problem I was facing was failing installation on Generation 2 virtual machines, with Secure Boot enabled.

Actually, you can overcome this problem easily by reading the documentation before it happens or… with PowerShell after (OK, you can use GUI also, but who uses it nowadays?)! Smile

As I’ve already mentioned, all you need to do is just one thing – install the BitLocker feature on your server.

Install-WindowsFeature BitLocker –Restart

1	Install-WindowsFeature BitLocker –Restart

(yes, “-Restart” is optional – if you want, you can restart your server manually, of course)

After that, BitLocker is installed, and you can successfully install the KB2920189 also.

Second (not official) approach on installing this update on Generation 2 virtual machine, as I’ve written in the mentioned post, is to uncheck Secure Boot, install the update, and then check the Secure Boot option again.

This can be easily done using the following script:

# stopping the VM 
Stop-VM "MyVirtualMachine" 
# disabling Secure Boot 
Set-VMFirmware -VMName "MyVirtualMachine" -EnableSecureBoot Off 
# starting the VM back again 
Start-VM "MyVirtualMachine"

# stopping the VM

Stop-VM "MyVirtualMachine"

# disabling Secure Boot

Set-VMFirmware -VMName "MyVirtualMachine" -EnableSecureBoot Off

# starting the VM back again

Start-VM "MyVirtualMachine"

We can now install this “problematic” update as the Secure Boot feature is disabled:

# once again, we are stopping the VM 
Stop-VM "MyVirtualMachine" 
# enabling Secure Boot 
Set-VMFirmware -VMName "MyVirtualMachine" -EnableSecureBoot On 
# and starting the VM 
Start-VM "MyVirtualMachine"

# once again, we are stopping the VM

Stop-VM "MyVirtualMachine"

# enabling Secure Boot

Set-VMFirmware -VMName "MyVirtualMachine" -EnableSecureBoot On

# and starting the VM

Start-VM "MyVirtualMachine"

…and Secure Boot is enabled again (“nothing” happened)!

Of course, you can do all of this manually, but then again – why do we have PowerShell? Smile

Cheers!

P.S. I’m no PowerShell expert… just like to automate some things. Smile

Besplatna PowerShell knjiga

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 17/08/2009 0 Comment

Interesira vas PowerShell, a ne znate od kuda početi? Rješenje ovog problema nalazi se na sljedećoj adresi.

Na tom linku se nalazi BESPLATNA e-knjiga “Mastering-PowerShell” koju je napisao Dr. Tobias Weltner (Microsoftov MVP za PowerShell i pisac preko 80 knjiga).

Znači, ako trebate knjigu o PowerShellu, koju je napisao čovjek koji “zna nešto” o toj tematici – posjetite gore navedene stranice i uživajte…