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Introduction

PowerShell is a powerful tool for system administrators, providing a robust scripting environment to automate and manage various administrative tasks. This module will cover essential system administration tasks that can be performed using PowerShell, including managing services, processes, users, and system information.

Key Concepts

Managing Services: Start, stop, and configure system services.
Managing Processes: Monitor and control running processes.
User and Group Management: Create, modify, and delete users and groups.
System Information: Retrieve and analyze system information.

Managing Services

Listing Services

To list all services on a system, use the Get-Service cmdlet:

Get-Service

Starting and Stopping Services

To start a service, use the Start-Service cmdlet:

Start-Service -Name "ServiceName"

To stop a service, use the Stop-Service cmdlet:

Stop-Service -Name "ServiceName"

Example

# Start the Windows Update service
Start-Service -Name "wuauserv"

# Stop the Windows Update service
Stop-Service -Name "wuauserv"

Practical Exercise

Task: Write a script to check the status of the "Spooler" service and start it if it is stopped.

Solution:

$service = Get-Service -Name "Spooler"
if ($service.Status -eq "Stopped") {
    Start-Service -Name "Spooler"
    Write-Output "Spooler service started."
} else {
    Write-Output "Spooler service is already running."
}

Managing Processes

Listing Processes

To list all running processes, use the Get-Process cmdlet:

Get-Process

Stopping Processes

To stop a process, use the Stop-Process cmdlet:

Stop-Process -Name "ProcessName"

Example

# List all running processes
Get-Process

# Stop the notepad process
Stop-Process -Name "notepad"

Practical Exercise

Task: Write a script to find and stop all instances of "notepad".

Solution:

$processes = Get-Process -Name "notepad"
if ($processes) {
    $processes | Stop-Process
    Write-Output "All instances of notepad have been stopped."
} else {
    Write-Output "No instances of notepad found."
}

User and Group Management

Creating a New User

To create a new user, use the New-LocalUser cmdlet:

New-LocalUser -Name "NewUser" -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString "P@ssw0rd" -AsPlainText -Force) -FullName "New User" -Description "A new user account"

Adding a User to a Group

To add a user to a group, use the Add-LocalGroupMember cmdlet:

Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member "NewUser"

Example

# Create a new user
New-LocalUser -Name "NewUser" -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString "P@ssw0rd" -AsPlainText -Force) -FullName "New User" -Description "A new user account"

# Add the new user to the Administrators group
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member "NewUser"

Practical Exercise

Task: Write a script to create a new user "TestUser" with the password "Test@123" and add them to the "Users" group.

Solution:

# Create a new user
New-LocalUser -Name "TestUser" -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString "Test@123" -AsPlainText -Force) -FullName "Test User" -Description "A test user account"

# Add the new user to the Users group
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Users" -Member "TestUser"

System Information

Retrieving System Information

To retrieve system information, use the Get-ComputerInfo cmdlet:

Get-ComputerInfo

Example

# Retrieve and display system information
Get-ComputerInfo

Practical Exercise

Task: Write a script to retrieve and display the operating system version and the total physical memory.

Solution:

$info = Get-ComputerInfo
Write-Output "Operating System: $($info.WindowsVersion)"
Write-Output "Total Physical Memory: $($info.CsTotalPhysicalMemory / 1GB) GB"

Conclusion

In this section, we covered essential system administration tasks using PowerShell, including managing services, processes, users, and retrieving system information. These skills are fundamental for automating and streamlining administrative tasks, making system management more efficient and effective.

Next, we will delve into automating tasks and scheduling them using PowerShell, which will further enhance your ability to manage systems proactively.

Using PowerShell for System Administration

Introduction

Key Concepts

Managing Services

Listing Services

Starting and Stopping Services

Example

Practical Exercise

Managing Processes

Listing Processes

Stopping Processes

Example

Practical Exercise

User and Group Management

Creating a New User

Adding a User to a Group

Example

Practical Exercise

System Information

Retrieving System Information

Example

Practical Exercise

Conclusion

PowerShell Course

Module 1: Introduction to PowerShell

Module 2: Basic Scripting

Module 3: Working with Objects

Module 4: Advanced Scripting Techniques

Module 5: Automation and Task Scheduling

Module 6: PowerShell Remoting

Module 7: Advanced PowerShell Features

Module 8: PowerShell and DevOps

Module 9: Best Practices and Advanced Tips