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88-448: PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management program from Microsoft , consisting of a command-line shell and the associated scripting language . Initially a Windows component only, known as Windows PowerShell , it was made open-source and cross-platform on August 18, 2016, with the introduction of PowerShell Core . The former is built on the .NET Framework , the latter on .NET (previously .NET Core). PowerShell

176-429: A Verb - Noun naming pattern, such as Get-ChildItem , which makes it self-documenting code . Cmdlets output their results as objects and can also receive objects as input, making them suitable for use as recipients in a pipeline. If a cmdlet outputs multiple objects, each object in the collection is passed down through the entire pipeline before the next object is processed. Cmdlets are specialized .NET classes , which

264-460: A Windows administrator will need in the coming years". Windows 10 shipped with Pester, a script validation suite for PowerShell. On August 18, 2016, Microsoft announced that they had made PowerShell open-source and cross-platform with support for Windows, macOS , CentOS and Ubuntu . The source code was published on GitHub . The move to open source created a second incarnation of PowerShell called "PowerShell Core", which runs on .NET Core . It

352-625: A benefit to using configuration management on projects of this nature. Active Scripting The Active Scripting technologies were first released in 1996, with the release of the Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 (August 1996) and Internet Information Services 3.0 products (December 1996). Usual applications of Active Scripting include Active Server Pages (ASP) server scripts , Internet Explorer , and Windows Script Host (WSH) scripts automating routine tasks, including use for login scripts, Registry manipulation, and

440-446: A classic example is whether aircraft on board an aircraft carrier are equipped with bombs for ground support or missiles for defense. Configuration management can be used to maintain OS configuration files. Many of these systems utilize Infrastructure as Code to define and maintain configuration. The Promise theory of configuration maintenance was developed by Mark Burgess , with

528-487: A cmdlet receives either pipeline input or command-line parameter input, there must be a corresponding property in the class, with a mutator implementation. PowerShell invokes the mutator with the parameter value or pipeline input, which is saved by the mutator implementation in class variables. These values are then referred to by the methods which implement the functionality. Properties that map to command-line parameters are marked by ParameterAttribute and are set before

616-432: A cmdlet runs, PowerShell invokes these methods in sequence, with ProcessRecord() being called if it receives pipeline input. If a collection of objects is piped, the method is invoked for each object in the collection. The class implementing the cmdlet must have one .NET attribute – CmdletAttribute – which specifies the verb and the noun that make up the name of the cmdlet. Common verbs are provided as an enum . If

704-409: A cmdlet, the job of binding the argument value to the parameter is done by PowerShell itself, but for external executables, arguments are parsed by the external executable independently of PowerShell interpretation. The PowerShell Extended Type System ( ETS ) is based on the .NET type system, but with extended semantics (for example, propertySets and third-party extensibility). For example, it enables

792-432: A command, a pipeline (represented by a Pipeline object) must be created and associated with the runspace. The pipeline object is then populated with the cmdlets that make up the pipeline. For sequential operations (as in a PowerShell script), a Pipeline object is created for each statement and nested inside another Pipeline object. When a pipeline is created, Windows PowerShell invokes the pipeline processor, which resolves

880-452: A component, subsystem, and system basis. A structured CM program ensures that documentation (e.g., requirements, design, test, and acceptance documentation) for items is accurate and consistent with the actual physical design of the item. In many cases, without CM, the documentation exists but is not consistent with the item itself. For this reason, engineers, contractors, and management are frequently forced to develop documentation reflecting

968-634: A different approach. Monad was to be a new extensible CLI with a fresh design capable of automating a range of core administrative tasks. Microsoft first demonstrated Monad publicly at the Professional Development Conference in Los Angeles in October 2003. A few months later, they opened up private beta, which eventually led to a public beta. Microsoft published the first Monad public beta release on June 17, 2005, and

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1056-517: A hosting API with which the PowerShell runtime can be embedded inside other applications. These applications can then use PowerShell functionality to implement certain operations, including those exposed via the graphical interface . This capability has been used by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 to expose its management functionality as PowerShell cmdlets and providers and implement the graphical management tools as PowerShell hosts which invoke

1144-412: A lack of this can often be a limiting factor. Capturing and disseminating the operating data to the various support organizations is becoming an industry in itself. The consumers of this data have grown more numerous and complex with the growth of programs offered by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). These are designed to offer operators guaranteed availability and make the picture more complex with

1232-416: A librarian activity, and break out change control or change management as a separate or stand alone discipline. CM is the practice of handling changes systematically so that a system maintains its integrity over time. CM implements the policies, procedures, techniques, and tools that manage, evaluate proposed changes, track the status of changes, and maintain an inventory of system and support documents as

1320-701: A module). Later, either the entire script or individual functions in the script can be used. Scripts and functions operate analogously with cmdlets, in that they can be used as commands in pipelines, and parameters can be bound to them. Pipeline objects can be passed between functions, scripts, and cmdlets seamlessly. To prevent unintentional running of scripts, script execution is disabled by default and must be enabled explicitly. Enabling of scripts can be performed either at system, user or session level. PowerShell scripts can be signed to verify their integrity, and are subject to Code Access Security . The PowerShell scripting language supports binary prefix notation similar to

1408-470: A more general-purpose solution to Microsoft's problem of administrative automation. By 2002, Microsoft had started to develop a new approach to command-line management, including a CLI called Monad (also known as Microsoft Shell or MSH). The ideas behind it were published in August 2002 in a white paper called the "Monad Manifesto" by its chief architect, Jeffrey Snover . In a 2017 interview, Snover explains

1496-475: A new cmd.exe that bore strong similarities to COMMAND.COM. Both environments support a few basic internal commands and a primitive scripting language ( batch files ), which can be used to automate various tasks. However, they cannot automate all facets of Windows graphical user interface (GUI) because command-line equivalents of operations are limited and the scripting language is elementary. Microsoft attempted to address some of these shortcomings by introducing

1584-451: A particular audience. PowerShell's developers based the core grammar of the tool on that of the POSIX 1003.2 KornShell . However, PowerShell's language was also influenced by PHP , Perl , and many other existing languages. Windows PowerShell can execute four kinds of named commands: If a command is a standalone executable program, PowerShell launches it in a separate process ; if it

1672-568: A particular operation. These work by accessing data in different data stores, like the file system or Windows Registry , which are made available to PowerShell via providers . Third-party developers can add cmdlets and providers to PowerShell. Cmdlets may be used by scripts, which may in turn be packaged into modules. Cmdlets work in tandem with the .NET API . PowerShell's support for .NET Remoting , WS-Management , CIM , and SSH enables administrators to perform administrative tasks on both local and remote Windows systems. PowerShell also provides

1760-503: A practical implementation on present day computer systems in the software CFEngine able to perform real time repair as well as preventive maintenance. Understanding the "as is" state of an asset and its major components is an essential element in preventive maintenance as used in maintenance, repair, and overhaul and enterprise asset management systems. Complex assets such as aircraft, ships, industrial machinery etc. depend on many different components being serviceable. This serviceability

1848-422: A reputation as a system vulnerability vector after several high-profile computer viruses exploited weaknesses in its security provisions. Different versions of Windows provided various special-purpose command-line interpreters (such as netsh and WMIC ) with their own command sets but they were not interoperable. Windows Server 2003 further attempted to improve the command-line experience but scripting support

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1936-438: A sound SCM process is implemented. They are: These terms and definitions change from standard to standard, but are essentially the same. ITIL specifies the use of a configuration management system (CMS) or configuration management database (CMDB) as a means of achieving industry best practices for Configuration Management. CMDBs are used to track Configuration Items (CIs) and the dependencies between them, where CIs represent

2024-436: A system performs as intended, and is identified and documented in sufficient detail to support its projected life cycle. The CM process facilitates orderly management of system information and system changes for such beneficial purposes as to revise capability; improve performance, reliability, or maintainability; extend life; reduce cost; reduce risk and liability; or correct defects. The relatively minimal cost of implementing CM

2112-409: A view to maintaining the highest level of serviceability for the lowest cost. Specifically, it aims to ensure that operations are not disrupted due to the asset (or parts of the asset) overrunning limits of planned lifespan or below quality levels. In the military, this type of activity is often classed as "mission readiness", and seeks to define which assets are available and for which type of mission;

2200-461: Is a cmdlet, it executes in the PowerShell process. PowerShell provides an interactive command-line interface , where the commands can be entered and their output displayed. The user interface offers customizable tab completion . PowerShell enables the creation of aliases for cmdlets, which PowerShell textually translates into invocations of the original commands. PowerShell supports both named and positional parameters for commands. In executing

2288-438: Is a management process for establishing and maintaining consistency of a product's performance, functional, and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. The CM process is widely used by military engineering organizations to manage changes throughout the system lifecycle of complex systems , such as weapon systems, military vehicles , and information systems . Outside

2376-433: Is a raw string while a string enclosed between double quotation marks is an escaped string. PowerShell treats straight and curly quotes as equivalent. The following list of special characters is supported by PowerShell: For error handling, PowerShell provides a .NET-based exception-handling mechanism. In case of errors, objects containing information about the error ( Exception object) are thrown, which are caught using

2464-474: Is an ITIL-specific ITSM process that tracks all of the individual CIs in an IT system which may be as simple as a single server, or as complex as the entire IT department. In large organizations a configuration manager may be appointed to oversee and manage the CM process. In ITIL version 3, this process has been renamed as Service Asset and Configuration Management . For information assurance , CM can be defined as

2552-432: Is an addition to Windows that is similar to the functionality of Unix shell scripts, as well as an incremental improvement upon batch files (command.com), Windows NT style shell scripts (cmd.exe) and, by way of VBScript , the replacement for QBasic , which was last available on the supplementary disc for Windows 95. The majority of the languages used for Active Scripting mentioned below are glue languages , with Perl being

2640-423: Is analyzed on board or at a remote location by computer to evaluate its current serviceability and increasingly its likely future state using algorithms which predict potential future failures based on previous examples of failure through field experience and modeling. This is the basis for "predictive maintenance". Availability of accurate and timely data is essential in order for CM to provide operational value and

2728-403: Is bundled with all currently supported Windows versions , and can also be installed on MacOS and Linux . Since Windows 10 build 14971, PowerShell replaced Command Prompt (cmd.exe) and became the default command shell for File Explorer . In PowerShell, administrative tasks are generally performed via cmdlets (pronounced command-lets ), which are specialized .NET classes implementing

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2816-498: Is distinct from "Windows PowerShell", which runs on the full .NET Framework . Starting with version 5.1, PowerShell Core is bundled with Windows Server 2016 Nano Server . A key design tactic for PowerShell was to leverage the large number of APIs that already existed in Windows, Windows Management Instrumentation, .NET Framework, and other software. PowerShell cmdlets "wrap around" existing functionality. The intent with this tactic

2904-517: Is invoked in either of the following forms: PowerShell allows any static .NET methods to be called by providing their namespaces enclosed in brackets ( [] ), and then using a pair of colons ( :: ) to indicate the static method. For example: There are dozens of ways to create objects in PowerShell. Once created, one can access the properties and instance methods of an object using the . notation. PowerShell accepts strings , both raw and escaped . A string enclosed between single quotation marks

2992-498: Is often defined in terms of the amount of usage the component has had since it was new, since fitted, since repaired, the amount of use it has had over its life and several other limiting factors. Understanding how near the end of their life each of these components is has been a major undertaking involving labor-intensive record keeping until recent developments in software. Many types of component use electronic sensors to capture data which provides live condition monitoring . This data

3080-445: Is returned manyfold in cost avoidance. The lack of CM, or its ineffectual implementation, can be very expensive and sometimes can have such catastrophic consequences such as failure of equipment or loss of life. CM emphasizes the functional relation between parts, subsystems, and systems for effectively controlling system change. It helps to verify that proposed changes are systematically considered to minimize adverse effects. Changes to

3168-422: Is to provide an administrator-friendly, more-consistent interface between administrators and a wide range of underlying functionality. With PowerShell, an administrator doesn't need to know .NET, WMI, or low-level API coding, and can instead focus on using the cmdlets exposed by PowerShell. In this regard, PowerShell creates little new functionality, instead focusing on making existing functionality more accessible to

3256-416: The try ... catch construct (although a trap construct is supported as well). PowerShell can be configured to silently resume execution, without actually throwing the exception; this can be done either on a single command, a single session or perpetually. Scripts written using PowerShell can be made to persist across sessions in either a .ps1 file or a .psm1 file (the latter is used to implement

3344-594: The Windows Script Host in 1998 with Windows 98 , and its command-line based host, cscript.exe . It integrates with the Active Script engine and allows scripts to be written in compatible languages, such as JScript and VBScript , leveraging the APIs exposed by applications via the component object model ( COM ). Its shortcomings are: its documentation is not very accessible, and it quickly gained

3432-420: The file system , or using Windows Management Instrumentation to control Windows components . Other applications can register cmdlets with PowerShell, thus allowing it to manage them, and, if they enclose any datastore (such as a database), they can add specific providers as well. The number of cmdlets included in the base PowerShell install has generally increased with each version: Cmdlets can be added into

3520-511: The scientific notation supported by many programming languages in the C-family. One can also use PowerShell embedded in a management application, which uses the PowerShell runtime to implement the management functionality. For this, PowerShell provides a managed hosting API . Via the APIs, the application can instantiate a runspace (one instantiation of the PowerShell runtime), which runs in

3608-417: The .NET Framework had a scripting technology of its own and a separate scripting IDE called Visual Studio for Applications (VSA), and the interfaces to the technology were also available via Active Scripting, allowing even .NET-unaware applications to be scripted using .NET languages. VSA was also meant to replace Visual Basic for Applications. However, that entire technology was deprecated in version 2.0 of

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3696-451: The Beta 2 on September 11, 2005, and Beta 3 on January 10, 2006. On April 25, 2006, not long after the initial Monad announcement, Microsoft announced that Monad had been renamed Windows PowerShell , positioning it as a significant part of its management technology offerings. Release Candidate (RC) 1 of PowerShell was released at the same time. A significant aspect of both the name change and

3784-515: The Federal Highway Administration have used configuration management for their infrastructure projects. There are construction-based configuration management tools that aim to document change orders and RFIs in order to ensure a project stays on schedule and on budget. These programs can also store information to aid in the maintenance and modification of the infrastructure when it is completed. One such application, CCSNet,

3872-627: The GUI are the main means of implementation of installed Active Script languages. Clicking on an icon or running from the command line, a script, the Run dialogue, etc. will by default run a plain text file containing the code. A Windows Script File (.wsf) is an XML file that can contain more than one script in more than one language in addition to other elements, and are executed by the Windows Script Host. Some software such as SecureCRT use

3960-412: The PowerShell runtime instantiates and invokes at execution time . Cmdlets derive either from Cmdlet or from PSCmdlet , the latter being used when the cmdlet needs to interact with the PowerShell runtime. These base classes specify certain methods – BeginProcessing() , ProcessRecord() and EndProcessing() – which the cmdlet's implementation overrides to provide the functionality. Whenever

4048-524: The PowerShell pipeline differs from Unix pipelines in that stages execute within the PowerShell runtime rather than as a set of processes coordinated by the operating system . Additionally, structured .NET objects, rather than byte streams , are passed from one stage to the next. Using objects and executing stages within the PowerShell runtime eliminates the need to serialize data structures, or to extract them by explicitly parsing text output. An object can also encapsulate certain functions that work on

4136-528: The PowerShell type system. Windows PowerShell includes a dynamically typed scripting language which can implement complex operations using cmdlets imperatively . The scripting language supports variables, functions, branching ( if-then-else ), loops ( while , do , for , and foreach ), structured error/exception handling and closures / lambda expressions , as well as integration with .NET. Variables in PowerShell scripts are prefixed with $ . Variables can be assigned any value, including

4224-536: The RC was that this was now a component of Windows, rather than a mere add-on. Release Candidate 2 of PowerShell version 1 was released on September 26, 2006, with final release to the web on November 14, 2006. PowerShell for earlier versions of Windows was released on January 30, 2007. PowerShell v2.0 development began before PowerShell v1.0 shipped. During the development, Microsoft shipped three community technology previews (CTP) . Microsoft made these releases available to

4312-504: The WSH functionality to allow automation by means of any installed scripting engine. The script host, related components, and engines are able to be integrated into and called from Windows applications just like any other component. Active scripting is regarded complete, and no longer under active development by Microsoft. Furthermore, scripting engines will continue to be shipped with future releases of Microsoft Windows and IIS. Originally,

4400-561: The actual status of the item before they can proceed with a change. This reverse engineering process is wasteful in terms of human and other resources and can be minimized or eliminated using CM. Configuration Management originated in the United States Department of Defense in the 1950s as a technical management discipline for hardware material items—and it is now a standard practice in virtually every industry. The CM process became its own technical discipline sometime in

4488-628: The application's process and is exposed as a Runspace object. The state of the runspace is encased in a SessionState object. When the runspace is created, the Windows PowerShell runtime initializes the instantiation, including initializing the providers and enumerating the cmdlets, and updates the SessionState object accordingly. The Runspace then must be opened for either synchronous processing or asynchronous processing. After that it can be used to execute commands. To execute

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4576-413: The appropriate security features and assurances that are used to measure a system configuration state. For example, configuration requirements may be different for a network firewall that functions as part of an organization's Internet boundary versus one that functions as an internal local network firewall. Configuration management is used to maintain an understanding of the status of complex assets with

4664-620: The beginning of what has now evolved into the most widely distributed and accepted standard on CM, ANSI–EIA–649 –1998. Now widely adopted by numerous organizations and agencies, the CM discipline's concepts include systems engineering (SE), Integrated Logistics Support (ILS), Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), ISO 9000 , Prince2 project management method, COBIT , ITIL , product lifecycle management , and Application Lifecycle Management . Many of these functions and models have redefined CM from its traditional holistic approach to technical management. Some treat CM as being similar to

4752-524: The call to BeginProcessing() . Those which map to pipeline input are also flanked by ParameterAttribute , but with the ValueFromPipeline attribute parameter set. The implementation of these cmdlet classes can refer to any .NET API and may be in any .NET language . In addition, PowerShell makes certain APIs available, such as WriteObject() , which is used to access PowerShell-specific functionality, such as writing resultant objects to

4840-510: The cmdlets into their respective assemblies (the command processor ) and adds a reference to them to the pipeline, and associates them with InputPipe , OutputPipe and ErrorOutputPipe objects, to represent the connection with the pipeline. The types are verified and parameters bound using reflection . Once the pipeline is set up, the host calls the Invoke() method to run the commands, or its asynchronous equivalent, InvokeAsync() . If

4928-519: The components are available for use via the API; or one may opt to add a language and/or tool not available by default, like programming Microsoft Excel in Perl or REXX rather than Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) or transferring data from a terminal emulator to word processor by way of a spreadsheet when they have dissimilar macro tools or none at all. For many of the above uses, Active Scripting

5016-645: The configuration. DSC configurations are idempotent. The Local Configuration Manager (LCM) periodically polls the system using the control flow described by resources (imperative pieces of DSC) to make sure that the state of a configuration is maintained. Initially using the code name "Monad", PowerShell was first shown publicly at the Professional Developers Conference in October 2003 in Los Angeles. All major releases are still supported, and each major release has featured backwards compatibility with preceding versions. PowerShell 1.0

5104-478: The contained data, which become available to the recipient command for use. For the last cmdlet in a pipeline, PowerShell automatically pipes its output object to the Out-Default cmdlet, which transforms the objects into a stream of format objects and then renders those to the screen. Because all PowerShell objects are .NET objects, they share a .ToString() method, which retrieves the text representation of

5192-430: The creation of different views of objects by exposing only a subset of the data fields, properties, and methods, as well as specifying custom formatting and sorting behavior. These views are mapped to the original object using XML -based configuration files. Cmdlets are specialized commands in the PowerShell environment that implement specific functions. These are the native commands in the PowerShell stack. Cmdlets follow

5280-406: The data in an object. In addition, PowerShell allows formatting definitions to be specified, so the text representation of objects can be customized by choosing which data elements to display, and in what manner. However, in order to maintain backward compatibility , if an external executable is used in a pipeline, it receives a text stream representing the object, instead of directly integrating with

5368-467: The effectiveness and correctness of progress. The IEEE 12207 process IEEE 12207.2 also has these activities and adds "Release management and delivery". The five disciplines are: The software configuration management (SCM) process is looked upon by practitioners as the best solution to handling changes in software projects. It identifies the functional and physical attributes of software at various points in time, and performs systematic control of changes to

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5456-462: The file. When used as an R-value , the contents of the file will be read. If an object is assigned, it is serialized before being stored. Object members can be accessed using . notation, as in C# syntax. PowerShell provides special variables, such as $ args , which is an array of all the command-line arguments passed to a function from the command line, and $ _ , which refers to the current object in

5544-399: The genesis of PowerShell, saying that he had been trying to make Unix tools available on Windows, which didn't work due to " core architectural difference[s] between Windows and Linux ". Specifically, he noted that Linux considers everything a text file , whereas Windows considers everything an " API that returns structured data". They were fundamentally incompatible, which led him to take

5632-438: The identified attributes for the purpose of maintaining software integrity and traceability throughout the software development life cycle. The SCM process further defines the need to trace changes, and the ability to verify that the final delivered software has all of the planned enhancements that are supposed to be included in the release. It identifies four procedures that must be defined for each software project to ensure that

5720-609: The late 1960s when the DoD developed a series of military standards called the "480 series" (i.e., MIL-STD-480, MIL-STD-481 and MIL-STD-483) that were subsequently issued in the 1970s. In 1991, the "480 series" was consolidated into a single standard known as the MIL–STD–973 that was then replaced by MIL–HDBK–61 pursuant to a general DoD goal that reduced the number of military standards in favor of industry technical standards supported by standards developing organizations (SDO). This marked

5808-409: The like. Other administrative uses include Windows Management Instrumentation and Active Directory Service Interfaces. Active Scripting can also be used for general-purpose scripting, such as database programming, text-processing, rapid prototyping, and application macro/scripting programming; some applications use Active Scripting as the main automation method, others do not have a macro facility but

5896-450: The management of security features and assurances through control of changes made to hardware, software, firmware, documentation, test, test fixtures, and test documentation throughout the life cycle of an information system. CM for information assurance, sometimes referred to as secure configuration management (SCM), relies upon performance, functional, and physical attributes of IT platforms and products and their environments to determine

5984-399: The military, the CM process is also used with IT service management as defined by ITIL , and with other domain models in the civil engineering and other industrial engineering segments such as roads, bridges, canals , dams, and buildings. CM applied over the life cycle of a system provides visibility and control of its performance, functional, and physical attributes. CM verifies that

6072-486: The most commonly used third-party script engine. The interfaces to Active Scripting engines are public, so any developer can create applications that are programmable in Active Scripting languages as well as engines for additional languages. Active Scripting engines are available for several languages. Some of the most popular include: In Windows, CScript.exe at the command line and WScript.exe running in

6160-632: The necessary cmdlets. Other Microsoft applications including Microsoft SQL Server 2008 also expose their management interface via PowerShell cmdlets. PowerShell includes its own extensive, console-based help (similar to man pages in Unix shells ) accessible via the Get-Help cmdlet. Updated local help contents can be retrieved from the Internet via the Update-Help cmdlet. Alternatively, help from

6248-453: The operator managing the asset but the OEM taking on the liability to ensure its serviceability. A number of standards support or include configuration management, including: More recently configuration management has been applied to large construction projects which can often be very complex and have a huge number of details and changes that need to be documented. Construction agencies such as

6336-403: The output of cmdlets. Strings can be enclosed either in single quotes or in double quotes: when using double quotes, variables will be expanded even if they are inside the quotation marks. Enclosing the path to a file in braces preceded by a dollar sign (as in $ {C:\foo.txt} ) creates a reference to the contents of the file. If it is used as an L-value , anything assigned to it will be written to

6424-409: The pipeline and executes them. In fact, the interactive PowerShell console itself is a PowerShell host, which interprets the scripts entered at command line and creates the necessary Pipeline objects and invokes them. DSC allows for declaratively specifying how a software environment should be configured. Upon running a configuration , DSC will ensure that the system gets the state described in

6512-497: The pipeline has the Write-Host cmdlet at the end of the pipeline, it writes the result onto the console screen. If not, the results are handed over to the host, which might either apply further processing or display the output itself. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 uses the hosting APIs to provide its management GUI. Each operation exposed in the GUI is mapped to a sequence of PowerShell commands (or pipelines). The host creates

6600-559: The pipeline. Cmdlets can use .NET data access APIs directly or use the PowerShell infrastructure of PowerShell Providers , which make data stores addressable using unique paths . Data stores are exposed using drive letters , and hierarchies within them, addressed as directories. Windows PowerShell ships with providers for the file system , registry , the certificate store, as well as the namespaces for command aliases, variables, and functions. Windows PowerShell also includes various cmdlets for managing various Windows systems, including

6688-552: The pipeline. PowerShell also provides arrays and associative arrays . The PowerShell scripting language also evaluates arithmetic expressions entered on the command line immediately, and it parses common abbreviations, such as GB, MB, and KB. Using the function keyword, PowerShell provides for the creation of functions. A simple function has the following general look: However, PowerShell allows for advanced functions that support named parameters, positional parameters, switch parameters and dynamic parameters. The defined function

6776-616: The public. The last CTP release of Windows PowerShell v2.0 was made available in December 2008. PowerShell v2.0 was completed and released to manufacturing in August 2009, as an integral part of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Versions of PowerShell for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 were released in October 2009 and are available for download for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. In an October 2009 issue of TechNet Magazine , Microsoft called proficiency with PowerShell "the single most important skill

6864-448: The requirements and design, they must be approved and documented, creating an accurate record of the system status. Ideally the CM process is applied throughout the system lifecycle . Most professionals mix up or get confused with Asset management (AM, see also ISO/IEC 19770 ), where it inventories the assets on hand. The key difference between CM and AM is that the former does not manage the financial accounting aspect but on service that

6952-402: The shell through snap-ins (deprecated in v2) and modules; users are not limited to the cmdlets included in the base PowerShell installation. PowerShell implements the concept of a pipeline , which enables piping the output of one cmdlet to another cmdlet as input. As with Unix pipelines , PowerShell pipelines can construct complex commands, using the | operator to connect stages. However,

7040-458: The system are proposed, evaluated, and implemented using a standardized, systematic approach that ensures consistency, and proposed changes are evaluated in terms of their anticipated impact on the entire system. CM verifies that changes are carried out as prescribed and that documentation of items and systems reflects their true configuration. A complete CM program includes provisions for the storing, tracking, and updating of all system information on

7128-449: The system changes. CM programs and plans provide technical and administrative direction to the development and implementation of the procedures, functions, services, tools, processes, and resources required to successfully develop and support a complex system. During system development, CM allows program management to track requirements throughout the life-cycle through acceptance and operations and maintenance. As changes inevitably occur in

7216-610: The system supports or in other words, that the later (AM) is trying to realize value from an IT asset. The CM process for both hardware- and software-configuration items comprises five distinct disciplines as established in the MIL–HDBK–61A and in ANSI/EIA-649. Members of an organization interested in applying a standard change-management process will employ these disciplines as policies and procedures for establishing baselines , manage and control change, and monitor and assess

7304-495: The things in an enterprise that are worth tracking and managing, such as but not limited to computers, software, software licenses, racks, network devices, storage, and even the components within such items. CMS helps manage a federated collection of CMDBs. The benefits of a CMS/CMDB includes being able to perform functions like root cause analysis, impact analysis, change management, and current state assessment for future state strategy development. Configuration Management (CM)

7392-537: The web can be acquired on a case-by-case basis via the -online switch to Get-Help . The command-line interpreter (CLI) has been an inseparable part of most Microsoft operating systems . MS-DOS and Xenix relied almost exclusively on the CLI (though MS-DOS 5 also came with a complementary graphical DOS Shell .) The Windows 9x family came bundled with COMMAND.COM , the command-line environment of MS-DOS. The Windows NT and Windows CE families, however, came with

7480-452: Was identified as a key capability. Internally, Microsoft began an effort to create a Windows port of Korn Shell, which was code-named Kermit. Intel ultimately pivoted to a Linux -based development platform that could run on Intel CPUs, rendering the Kermit project redundant. However, with a fully funded team, Microsoft program manager Jeffrey Snover realized there was an opportunity to create

7568-494: Was released in November 2006 for Windows XP SP2 , Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows Vista . It is an optional component of Windows Server 2008 . PowerShell 2.0 is integrated with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and is released for Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2, and Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. Configuration management Configuration management ( CM )

7656-439: Was still unsatisfactory. By the late 1990s, Intel had come to Microsoft asking for help in making Windows, which ran on Intel CPUs, a more appropriate platform to support the development of future Intel CPUs. At the time, Intel CPU development was accomplished on Sun Microsystems computers which ran Solaris (a Unix variant) on RISC -architecture CPUs. The ability to run Intel's many KornShell automation scripts on Windows

7744-658: Was tested in a case study funded by the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) in which the efficacy of configuration management was measured through comparing the approximately 80% complete construction of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency (LACMTA) first and second segments of the Red Line, a $ 5.3 billion rail construction project. This study yielded results indicating

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