PowerShell for SharePoint or Administrators Can Use the Object Model, Too

1. PowerShell for SharePointorAdministrators Can Use the Object Model, Too 30th October 2008 Sergey Zelenov Premier Field Engineer Microsoft Corporation

2. Agenda • What is PowerShell anyway? • History • Ground principles • Availability • Future • PowerShell and SharePoint • Setting the scene... • Using PowerShell’s parsing might • Harnessing SharePoint Object Model

3. What is PowerShell anyway? • History • Idea based on a study commissioned by Microsoft in the early 2000s • Inspired by Microsoft’s moving into the server marketplace • Originally based on POSIX shell as specified in IEEE 1003.2 • Influenced by Perl and UNIX shells • Written in .NET providing direct access to the power of the framework • Current version is 1.0, 2.0 is coming soon!

4. What is PowerShell anyway? • Shell or Scripting Language? Best of both worlds!! • Ground Principles

5. What is PowerShell anyway? • Ground Principles • Cmdlets • Use verb-noun pairs Get-Command Add-Content Copy-Item Read-Host Set-Date • Return objects • Implemented by a .NET class that derives from the Cmdlet base class • Objects • Everything is an object • Uses and extends .NET type system • Adapts objects through the PSObject layer • Native support for accessing .NET and COM classes

6. What is PowerShell anyway? • Pipelines • Series of commands separated by the pipe operator “|” get-wmiobject win32_logicaldisk | sort -descfreespace | select -first 3 | format-table -autosizedeviceid, freespace • Pass output objects from one command to the next • Support streaming (in-process!) • Ground Principles

7. What is PowerShell anyway? • Availability • Available as a separate download (in fact a Windows Update) for: • Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (x86 and x64) • Microsoft Windows Vista (x86 and x64) • Windows Server 2003 (all editions, x86 and x64) • Included in Windows Server 2008 as a Feature • Not installed by default but can be added at any time

8. What is PowerShell anyway? • Future • Exchange Management Shell is already based on Windows PowerShell • All Microsoft server products are eventually to become PowerShell-compatible • PowerShell a weapon of choice for next version of SharePoint – STSADM included for backward compatibility only!

9. DEMO: PowerShell First Steps Sergey Zelenov Premier Field Engineer Microsoft Corporation

10. Setting the Scene • Prepare the environment for working with SharePoint • Taking care of security • Execution policy is set to Restricted by default • Consider changing policy to RemoteSigned or Unrestricted to allow scripts to run • Loading SharePoint assemblies • Use static methods of the System.Reflection.Assembly class • LoadWithPartialName is obsolete but great for interactive sessions • Load must be used in scripts

11. Setting the Scene • Loading SharePoint Assemblies [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(“Microsoft.SharePoint”) [System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load(“Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0 , Culture=Neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c”)

12. Setting the Scene • Loading SharePoint Assemblies • Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) Object Model • Microsoft.SharePoint • Microsoft.SharePoint.Security • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Object Model • Microsoft.Office.Server • Microsoft.Office.Server.Search • Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal • Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing

13. Using PowerShell’s Parsing Might • Parsing STSADM output • PowerShell supports XML documents as a primitive data type ([xml]) • Cast the output of an STSADM command to [xml] to use object notation $sites = [xml](Stsadm –o enumsites –urlhttp://sharepoint) • Parsing log files • Select-String cmdlet can be used for finding specific strings in ULS and IIS logs Select-String “Timer” $splogs\*20080419*\.log

14. DEMO: Parsing with PowerShell Sergey Zelenov Premier Field Engineer Microsoft Corporation

15. Harnessing SharePoint Object Model • Working with objects • Static classes don’t need to be instantiated SPFarmSPUtilitySPEncode • “::” operator is used to retrieve static members $farm = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm]::Local • New-Object cmdlet New-Object [-typeName] <string> [[-argumentList] <Object[]>] [<CommonParameters>] • Dynamic members are retrieved using ‘common’ “.” operator $farm.Servers $farm.Services $farm.Solutions

16. Harnessing SharePoint Object Model • Power of Reflection • .NET classes are self-describing • Obtain maximum information about an object without explicitly specifying members $bindflag = $([System.Reflection.BindingFlags]::Instance, [System.Reflection.BindingFlags]::Public) $props = $object.GetType().GetProperties($bindflag) foreach($propinfo in $props) { “{0}: {1}” –f $propinfo.Name, $propinfo.GetValue($object, $null) }

17. Harnessing SharePoint Object Model • Is it all this good? • SPContentDatabase class is not CLR-compliant  • Solution? Use reflection! $props = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPContentDatabase].GetProperties($bindflag); $props | % {"{0}: {1}" -f $_.Name, $_.GetValue($site.ContentDatabase,$null)}

18. DEMO: PowerShell and SharePoint Object Model Sergey Zelenov Premier Field Engineer Microsoft Corporation

19. Resources • PowerShell home page http://www.microsoft.com/powershell • Windows PowerShell Scripts in the TechNet Scripting Center http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx • PowerShell Pack for SharePoint http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/psp4sp • PowerGUI http://www.powergui.org • CodePlex http://www.codeplex.com • Zach Rosenfield’s Blog http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/zach • From The Field blog http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/fromthefield

20. © 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.