Do you know off-hand what "break", "continue", "return", and "exit" do? These are powerful language...
database-tools
Identifying Risky NTFS Permissions
Here is a quick and easy way to find NTFS permissions that are potentially dangerous. The script tests all folders in $pathsToCheck and reports any...
The Evolution of Data Modeling – by Ron Huizenga
When we review the evolution of new data architecture and development methodologies, along with the corresponding changes in corporate culture, we...
Get IP Address Geolocation
Would you like to know where a public IP address is located? Provided you have Internet access, you can query one of the public information...
Get Current IP Address
Here is a quick way to get all IP addresses assigned to your computer: #requires -Version 1 $ipaddress = [System.Net.DNS]::GetHostByName($null)...
Validating Domain Credentials
To check credentials (username plus password) against your current domain, you can use this approach: #requires -Version 1 $username =...
Taking Server Monitoring Alerts up a Level
In this blog I wanted to tackle strategies for monitoring that go beyond looking for and responding to alerts. One of the key features of any...
The Challenge of Master Data Modeling – by David Loshin
I had a recent email exchange in which a customer was looking for guidance in developing data models for master data entities used across multiple...
Safely Use UNC Paths
Whenever you use UNC paths in PowerShell, your script may break. Since a UNC path has no drive letter, PowerShell looks at the current directory...
Using Splatting
With splatting, you can call cmdlets and programmatically control the parameters you submit. To do this, add the parameters and values to a hash...
2015 State of the Cloud Report
Cloud management provider Rightscale has released their second annual State of the Cloud Report, a survey of 930 technical professionals. It is...
Reading RSS Feeds
RSS feeds can be read by using an XML object, however XML objects do not support proxies. Here is an example that uses Invoke-WebRequest to retrieve...
Getting Registry Values and Value Types
Get-ItemProperty can easily read registry values, but you do not get back any information about the registry value type. Get-ItemProperty -Path...
Finding Information about TV Series
PowerShell can query websites that deliver XML content, and here is an example on how to query a movie database. Simply adjust the name of the TV...
Comparing Folder Content
To quickly compare folder content and find out files that exist only in one of two folders, try this example: $list1 = Get-ChildItem...
Comprehensive Data Security Requires Metadata – by Rob Loranger
Anthem Inc. – 80,000,000 records stolen; Sony Pictures – 100 terabytes of data stolen; JP Morgan Chase – 70,000,000 records stolen; and EBay –...
Monitoring Oracle Exadata with Precise
Precise provides a rich toolset to monitor Oracle Exadata. Oracle Exadata provides significant improvements in accessing the data in tables quickly...
Encoded Passwords
If you must put a credential object in your script, here is a way how you can convert a secure string into encrypted text: $password = Read-Host...
Find All Active Drive Letters
To quickly get a list of all drive letters in use, try this: #requires -Version 1 [Environment]::GetLogicalDrives() The result is a list of all...
Encrypting Text Information Using Passphrase
PowerShell 3.0 and later In a previous tip we explained how you can use the Windows product ID stored in the Windows Registry to encrypt some text...
Encrypting Information with Windows ProductID
PowerShell 3.0 and later To store secret information, you can use a SecureString object and save it to disk. PowerShell automatically takes the user...
Tinker, Tailor, Developer, DBA
Tinker, Tailor, Developer, DBA is not intended as a pitch on a slightly less harrowing book or movie than the John Le Carre classic. ...
Finding Exchange Mailboxes
Microsoft Exchange 2013 To find the number of mailboxes, simply use the Exchange cmdlets and have Measure-Object count the results: Get-Mailbox...
Clever Parameter Validation
PowerShell 2.0 and later When you create PowerShell functions with parameters, make sure you tell PowerShell what kind of values the parameter...