In our previous tips we introduced all kinds of useful PowerShell functions to ping, scan ports, or contact SNMP devices. Today, it’s time to take a few functions and put them together to show how powerful reusable PowerShell functions can be.
The goal today is to perform a lightning-fast network query for printers, then display all the printer properties and create an Excel inventory from it.
Thanks to the PowerShell modularity, this is the (easy to understand and adjust) production script:
#requires -Modules ImportExcel, PSParallel New-IpRange -From 192.168.2.1 -To 192.168.3.12 | # test port 9100 for 128 machines simultaneously: Invoke-Parallel { Test-RemotePort -ComputerName $_ -Port 9100 -TimeoutMilliSec 1000 } -ThrottleLimit 128 | # take the ones that respond (network printers): Where-Object Response | # query the printers 32 at a time via SNMP Invoke-Parallel { Get-PrinterInfo -ComputerName $_.ComputerName } | # send everything to excel Export-Excel
It will generate an extensive network printer report as Excel file for the specified network segment, and scanning 256 IP addresses and querying the printers via SNMP will take only a total of 2-3 seconds.
Before you can run this, take a look at the requirements: you need the “ImportExcel” module (which adds the awesome Export-Excel cmdlet to output data directly to Excel) and the “InvokeParallel” module (which adds a fast and simple-to-use parallel loop that is essential on Windows PowerShell and still recommended on PowerShell 7).
Getting these modules is a snap:
PS C:\> Install-Module -Name ImportExcel, InvokeParallel -Scope CurrentUser
Then you also need the New-IpRange, Test-RemotePort and Get-PrinterInfo functions. They have all been discussed in previous tips. Here they are (simply run them to load them into memory):
function New-IpRange { param ( [Parameter(Mandatory)] [ipaddress] $From, [Parameter(Mandatory)] [ipaddress] $To ) $ipFromBytes = $From.GetAddressBytes() $ipToBytes = $To.GetAddressBytes() # change endianness (reverse bytes) [array]::Reverse($ipFromBytes) [array]::Reverse($ipToBytes) # convert reversed bytes to uint32 $start=[BitConverter]::ToUInt32($ipFromBytes, 0) $end=[BitConverter]::ToUInt32($ipToBytes, 0) # enumerate from start to end uint32 for($x = $start; $x -le $end; $x++) { # split uit32 back into bytes $ip=[bitconverter]::getbytes($x) # reverse bytes back to normal [Array]::Reverse($ip) # output ipv4 address as string $ip -join '.' } } function Test-RemotePort { param ( [Parameter(Mandatory)] [int] $Port, [string] $ComputerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME, [int] $TimeoutMilliSec = 1000 ) try { $client = [Net.Sockets.TcpClient]::new() $task = $client.ConnectAsync($ComputerName, $Port) if ($task.Wait($TimeoutMilliSec)) { $success = $client.Connected } else { $success = $false } } catch { $success = $false } finally { $client.Close() $client.Dispose() } [PSCustomObject]@{ ComputerName = $ComputerName Port = $Port Response = $success } } function Get-PrinterInfo { param ( [Parameter(Mandatory)] [string] $ComputerName ) $oid = @{ RAW_DATA = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.18.1.1" CONSOLE_DATA = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.16" CONTACT = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.1.4.0" LOCATION = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.1.6.0" SERIAL_NUMBER = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.5.1.1.17.1" SYSTEM_DESCRIPTION = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0" DEVICE_DESCRIPTION = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.25.3.2.1.3.1" DEVICE_STATE = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.25.3.2.1.5.1" DEVICE_ERRORS = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.25.3.2.1.6.1" UPTIME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0" MEMORY_SIZE = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.2.0" PAGE_COUNT = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.10.2.1.4.1.1" HARDWARE_ADDRESS = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.6.1" TRAY_1_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.13.1.1" TRAY_1_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.9.1.1" TRAY_1_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.10.1.1" TRAY_2_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.13.1.2" TRAY_2_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.9.1.2" TRAY_2_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.10.1.2" TRAY_3_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.13.1.3" TRAY_3_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.9.1.3" TRAY_3_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.10.1.3" TRAY_4_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.13.1.4" TRAY_4_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.9.1.4" TRAY_4_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.8.2.1.10.1.4" BLACK_TONER_CARTRIDGE_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.1" BLACK_TONER_CARTRIDGE_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.1" BLACK_TONER_CARTRIDGE_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.1" CYAN_TONER_CARTRIDGE_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.2" CYAN_TONER_CARTRIDGE_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.2" CYAN_TONER_CARTRIDGE_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.2" MAGENTA_TONER_CARTRIDGE_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.3" MAGENTA_TONER_CARTRIDGE_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.3" MAGENTA_TONER_CARTRIDGE_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.3" YELLOW_TONER_CARTRIDGE_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.4" YELLOW_TONER_CARTRIDGE_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.4" YELLOW_TONER_CARTRIDGE_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.4" WASTE_TONER_BOX_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.5" WASTE_TONER_BOX_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.5" WASTE_TONER_BOX_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.5" BELT_UNIT_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.6" BELT_UNIT_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.6" BELT_UNIT_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.6" BLACK_DRUM_UNIT_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.7" BLACK_DRUM_UNIT_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.7" BLACK_DRUM_UNIT_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.7" CYAN_DRUM_UNIT_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.8" CYAN_DRUM_UNIT_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.8" CYAN_DRUM_UNIT_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.8" MAGENTA_DRUM_UNIT_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.9" MAGENTA_DRUM_UNIT_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.9" MAGENTA_DRUM_UNIT_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.9" YELLOW_DRUM_UNIT_NAME = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.6.1.10" YELLOW_DRUM_UNIT_CAPACITY = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.8.1.10" YELLOW_DRUM_UNIT_LEVEL = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.1.10" } # connect to printer: $SNMP = New-Object -ComObject olePrn.OleSNMP $SNMP.Open($ComputerName,'public') $hash = [Ordered]@{} $hash['IPAddress'] = $ComputerName $oid.Keys | Sort-Object | ForEach-Object { $hash[$_] = try { $SNMP.Get($oid[$_]) } catch { '<NOINFO>' } } $SNMP.Close() [PSCustomObject]$hash }
