VMware Communities: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan

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11 Replies Last post: May 19, 2009 5:05 AM by alanrenouf

Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan

Mar 11, 2009 5:57 AM

Kevin Hamilton 52 posts since
Oct 23, 2007

Hello all, I thought Alaric's idea of running some early sessions concentrating on specific topics a great idea. To follow up on it I asked Alan Renouf how keen he would be to run a Powershell class for Newbs.

To my great relief he thinks it is a great idea and one he has mentioned himself.

I am new to Powershell but love it to bits, my big prob is it is bleedin easy to rely on top blokes like Al and LucD who provide time and effort helping write the scripts for Newbs like me who are struggling to write them. As I have taken advantage of these guy's amongst others relentlessly I now need to show a bit of commitment to learning to do it myself. Al is offering to help run a bit of class to show us the way to go.

Please add to this thread if you would be interested in attending to ensure he has a good audience. Also it will show there is enough interest and Alaric I am sure will kindly arrange for it to happen.

Alaric if you need any additional help let me know.

Cheers

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 11, 2009 6:16 AM

yorkie 490 posts since
Dec 11, 2004

I like the idea, though for me Powershell isn't the hottest topic in terms of impact on business, but it is hot amongst admins... but I digress...

What I'd like to see is more "teach how to fish" rather than "give them the fish" - what do you need to (a) reuse others' scripts, and (b) roll your own - is there a pattern?

If there's a pattern, that consists of online resources, tools to use, a quick template format for scripts, quick testing, library etc. then I think that would be awesome.

</shouting from the sidelines>

cheers

Steve

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 11, 2009 6:23 AM

Vodder 86 posts since
May 15, 2006

Hi Kevin,

I'd be interested in something like this. At the moment alot of my PS experience is from taking other people's scripts and editing them accordingly but I'd much rather be in a position to be creating my own.

Cheers
Tim

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 11, 2009 7:24 AM

in response to: Vodder

Brucky 15 posts since
Apr 28, 2006

All,

I don't mind helping Al with this session if he needs a hand. Even if it is just to rip off all his material again

To all those out there thinking that re-using scripts is a guilt pleasure take heart - we all do it. There are very few guys out there that start a complicated script from scratch. You can be assured that Google takes a good battering before I start on most scripts.

That said a session as suggested will hopefully show people that even running a couple of commands on their own is useful.

To list all the snapshots for all virtual machines try typing

Get-VM | Get-Snapshot

Anyway, I'm sure Al will do a sterling job. Take a peek at his Quick Reference Guide to see how.

http://virtu-al.net/Downloads/VIToolkitQuickReferenceGuide.pdf

Brucky

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 12, 2009 2:11 AM

in response to: Brucky

wardla 4 posts since
Jan 20, 2009

Hi Kevin,

Please count me in, I found the discussion on Tuesday really useful and this is an area I kow little about.

Regards

Laurence

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 12, 2009 3:54 AM

edgrigson 18 posts since
Jun 20, 2007

Sounds like a good idea, I'd definitely be interested. The number of management tools is growing daily and I'd like to understand better where Powershell fits in, what it can do that isn't readily available in other tools, whether PowerGUI is worth looking at etc. I'm OK at scripting but haven't done much with Powershell (plenty of DOS, some Perl, some WSH, VBScript etc etc).

Regards,

Ed.

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 12, 2009 4:02 AM

in response to: edgrigson

yorkie 490 posts since
Dec 11, 2004

That's a good point, Ed: has anyone done a "map" of management tools in a VMUG before, a bit like a Gartner/Forrester/Burton etc map, perhaps with feature circles? I'm sure there's something out there in the blogosphere but I haven't time to research it...

A healthy discussion about vendor tools, which tool does what function and who is using them, that would be a great help to many, I think.

Another question I get multiple times a week which I'd love to hear the VMUG talk about is VMware mapped to management processes and tools (ITIL). I don't think that everyone cares about this, but there's a big chunk that do - mostly because the ITIL processes appear to get in their way of doing virtualization, if that makes sense.

As much as I love Powershell and the impact it has had, for me it only makes sense when it comes out of the admins toolkit and enables the other processes like fault isolation, monitoring and config/change management/operations.

Anyone else interested in this stuff, or is the VMUG not concerned with this kind of topic (ie. putting some meat and reality onto VMware/ITIL)?

Steve

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 12, 2009 4:04 AM

in response to: edgrigson

Kevin Hamilton 52 posts since
Oct 23, 2007

Hello Ed, just as a quickie I would recommend downloading and getting PowerGUI installed and the plugin for your Virtual Centre running. In my opinion it is the dog's doo das. The latest powerpack for VMware is excellant and the ability to just click and let the scripts run then export for anything you like is top quality.

Reason I chuck this in now, if you have a play with the PowerGUI you will get a much better understanding of Powershell and have much harder questions for Alan and Steve when and if the session happens.

Cheers

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 12, 2009 4:09 AM

in response to: yorkie

Kevin Hamilton 52 posts since
Oct 23, 2007

Yorkie, I for one am interested in the stuff you talk about. It makes a lot of sense. I think I speak for AL, Stu and the the other guys who actually run the VMUG (I am only a keen enthusiast LOL) in that there is no topic that the User Group won't discuss or go into. As Al asks at every Mtg give him the ideas and he will organise a discussion on them. There are guest speakers at most and as you have a bit of a passion on the subjects you mentioned in the thread may be you could do a bit on them.

Cheers

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Mar 12, 2009 4:18 AM

in response to: Kevin Hamilton

alanrenouf 574 posts since
Feb 28, 2006

I would definately recommend PowerGUI as most of the powershell scripts and cool features are already integrated for free, check my blog post about the recent powerpack update http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/03/09/powergui-vmware-powerpack-215-released/

The same team are also releasing a more virtualisation focused application that is going to be amazing, I would seriously start looking into it now and get ready for it, this will help every VI admin, posted here:

http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/03/03/the-vesi-is-on-its-way/

I think there are some good ideas in this forum post and I could definaetly run a session around them and would enjoy doing so, If I have an Internet connection we can also make it more interactive.

Alan

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan Apr 29, 2009 11:23 PM

in response to: alanrenouf

piglet 39 posts since
Oct 14, 2005

Folks,

All the above looks good - there are some great suggestions in there. I'm pleased to advise that Alan will be holding a session ahead of the upcoming UG on the 14th May at the Capital Suite, London Chamber of Commerce. The session will run from 1100 - 1200. Please don't respond to this thread to advise on your attendance. Please do see my post further up the main UG page, and explicitly mention in your email reply to that that you'd like to attend the PS Workshop. This is so we have an idea of numbers/interest.

Although Alan has a few ideas of what he'd like to cover, we're not being too prescriptive over content. For instance, bring along a problem or a slightly wonky script and, if there's time, Alan will have a go at it. The plan is for Alan to hook up to his test environment over the wireless and run through things live, so that a degree of interactivity is possible.

Alan is very kindly contributing time and effort to run this under his own steam, and we're very grateful to him for undertaking to do this.

Cheers for now folks,

Alaric

Re: Who would like to attend a powershell for newbs by Alan May 19, 2009 5:05 AM

in response to: piglet

alanrenouf 574 posts since
Feb 28, 2006

Hi Guys,

I added my presentation and demo script to my blog as promised, I just want to thank everyone who attended and gave me feedback.

Sorry for over running !

http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/05/17/ukvmug-powercli-presentation/

Alan Renouf
http://virtu-al.net

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