Windows PowerShell: An Automation Toolbox for Building Solutions That Span Small Businesses, Enterprises and Cloud Services

Kenneth Hansen, Program ManagerNarayanan Lakshmanan, DeveloperMicrosoft Corporation

SVR13

Datacenter X

Datacenter Y

….com

….com

Contoso.com

Exchange Labs

ACME.com

Ops

NK App user Finance

HR

Sales

Purchase

Fabrikam Enterprises

Different Admin Environments

>>FUTUREKey Trends and Implied Needs

IT Infrastructure trends with material implications for management

Source: IDC Server Virtualization Forecast 2005-2012> Consolidation suppressing physical growth, but total OS instances (i.e., physical+virtual) still growing rapidly

> Broadening of IT applications (e.g., collaboration, VOIP, mobile workforce, etc.) over time

> Users consumer expectations are beginning to define expectations of corporate IT

Need for management to scale – multi-instance, one-to-many, automation, service enablement, etc.

Source: US Government Bureau of Labor and Statistics> Overall demand for IT

resources trending up, but not keeping up with rate of server growth

> Difficulty finding, training and retaining qualified IT staff

> Ongoing pressure on IT to suppress labor costs (i.e., do more with less)

Need to drive greater IT efficiency – enable IT department to manage many more servers with fewer staff

Growing Complexity Admin Base not Keeping Pace

Source: Higher Education Research Institute Survey, UCLA> Less interest in pursuing

Computer Science education> Smaller echo generation as

baby boomers retire> Lower skill set and

experience in incoming job candidates requires designing for a less skilled target

Need to simplify/streamline management – making features more accessible to targeted administrators

Smaller Pool of Talent

Management Landscape

Key considerations:> Easy to use AND Flexible> Consistent and discoverable> Fast and responsive

“Click and Run”

“Click once

repeat often”

Admins

Service Operation

s

“Install and

forget”Engineerin

gSupport

Key considerations:• Deterministic, fool

proof • Repeatable• Scalable

External

Customers

Internal

Customers

Service Partners

Population sizeFrequency of use

"I'm Conflicted"… I can’t do it all!!

Increased Complexity of Computing Environments

Simplified Administration Experience

Tailored automation that crosses islands of technology

Support GUI and Command Line

How do we resolve the conflict? Right set of Commands

• Cmdlets/Scripts to manage the individual entities

Automate using Commands and Tools• Reduces operational errors, costs and boredom!• Increases consistency, availability, agility, …• Abstractions can isolate complexity

Target the right actions to the right people in the right way• Delegation and focused functionality• UI and Command-line

Using the Automation Platform and Tools

PowerShell Automation Platform

Events, Jobs, Transactions, WMI, WSMan

Events, Jobs, Transactions, WMI, WSMan

Events, Jobs, Transactions, WMI, WSMan

Cmdlets/Scripts

In-Proc, Local, RemoteRuntime Engines

In-Proc, Local, RemoteRuntime Engines

In-Proc, Local, RemoteRuntime Engines

Automation Platform (API)

Scripting Language

Type Normalizers

Type Normalizers

Type Adapters

Shells, ISEs, GUIs, Applications Universal:• Production scripting

Wide range of skill sets (novice to system program)

• Interactive or programmatic

• Execution environmentsLocal or remote, single or multi-machine, AsJobs, OnEvents

• Many authentication mechanisms

• Direct data/code access: .NET, native code, COM, WMI, ADSI, XML, ADO, WebServices, WSMAN, etcPowered by a strong community

Namespaces Types/Format

Example problem… Problem• Assure we have the right set of features on our

machines Right set of commands• WMI cmdlets (access to system information)• Server Manager (features installed)

Automate using Commands and Tools• [Inventory] Query each machine for system

information and feature status• [Report] Notify admin of any areas of concern• [Job] Update/fix of non-compliant machines

Using the Automation Platform and Tools

Automation in Action(Inventory, Reports and

Jobs)

Narayanan LakshmananDeveloperWindows Management

demo

How do we resolve the conflict? Right set of Commands

• Cmdlets/Scripts to manage the individual entities

Automate using Commands and Tools• Reduces operational errors, costs and boredom!• Increases consistency, availability, agility, …• Abstractions can isolate complexity

Target the right actions to the right people in the right way• Delegation, focused functionality• UI and Command-line

Using the Automation Platform and Tools

Right Actions, Right People, Right Way Managing Services• Sorin: (Get + Stop/Start)• Siva: (Get Only)

Managing Employees• Mir: (Everything)• Erin: (Org specific)

Customized GUI and Commandline for each Role

Narayanan LakshmananDeveloperWindows Management

demo

Management StackWeb Client

Integrated management service

Rich client

External customers

IIS Host Process

WinRM Plugin

Authorization

ADElementMailbox

Authentication

PowerShell server runtime

Custom Endpoint

Internal Customers

Automated management

Store

InteractiveCmdline

Partner Applications

Managed Elements

PowerShell client runtime WinRM Client

Windows Auth

CSV files to define roles Customized using scripts &

ACLs

WPF application

Interactive Cmdline

CSV files for UIcontrol mapping

Impersonation

"I'm Resolved"We can handle both…

Increased Complexity of Computing Environments

Simplified Administration Experience

Targeted automation with the right User Experience

Q & A

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