Get-CMSite – List all Primary and Secondary Sites

After launching your ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 PowerShell Command Prompt, use the Get-CMSite cmdlet to list all primary and secondary sites in a hierarchy. Since this is a GET verb, everything we do here is query-only, so there is no damage by running any of the examples below.
Examples:

get-cmsite – default arguments, will list all sites as follows:

Happy Scripting!
Greg

PowerShell and ConfigMgr – List ConfigMgr cmdlets

Now that you’ve learned how to prepare your environment, let’s view all the cmdlets that are currently available for ConfigMgr. From your PowerShell prompt (that already has the ConfigMgr module imported), type the following:

get-command -module ConfigurationManager | out-gridview

This will display all cmdlets in the ConfigurationManager module. As of this writing (ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Beta) there are 338 cmdlets. Here’s an example for how to get the current count:

get-command -module ConfigurationManager | measure-object

Notice the verb-noun pair for each cmdlet. By using this standard practice, Powershell enables you to 1) think, 2) type, 3) do. The goal is for the admin to use standard verbs to be able to easily leverage PowerShell with different products. (Review the approved verbs for Windows PowerShell). Type get-cm and then press [tab] multiple times to enumerate the ConfigMgr cmdlets. You can also type get-cmmanagementpoint and press [tab] multiple times to display all get commands for ConfigMgr Management Points.

Greg

ConfigMgr and PowerShell-Preparing Your Environment – Part II

Yesterday, we walked through the process of launching PowerShell from the ConfigMgr console as well as importing the ConfigMgr module from the PowerShell command line.  Here’s a little additional information so that you can create a shortcut to easily launch to that PowerShell command prompt for ConfigMgr, and automatically connect to the desired site.

First, create a file called C:\PowerShell\LaunchCM.ps1 with the following contents:

import-module 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1' -force
if ((get-psdrive LAB -erroraction SilentlyContinue | measure).Count -ne 1) {
new-psdrive -Name "LAB" -PSProvider "AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite" -Root "MyLABServer.Ramseyg.com"
}
cd LAB:

Replace “LAB” with the proper site code, and “MyLabServer.Ramseyg.Com” with the FQDN to the site (or SMS provider).

Next create a new shortcut with the following target:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noexit -executionpolicy Unrestricted -file C:\PowerShell\LaunchCM.ps1

This will launch an unrestricted PowerShell command prompt, loaded to your desired ConfigMgr site. As an added bonus, you can modify the shortcut properties (click the Advanced button) to configure the shortcut to always run as administrator.

Happy Scripting!

Greg

ConfigMgr and PowerShell-Preparing Your Environment

ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 contains almost everything you need to get started with PowerShell and the new ConfigMgr cmdlets. When you install an Admin console (whether local to the site server or on a remote console), you will see the following option to launch PowerShell with ConfigMgr integration:

Note that you must have the ConfigMgr Admin Console installed on the system where you plan to leverage the new cmdlets. Also, be sure to install the Windows Management Framework 3.0 before you attempt to use PowerShell integration with ConfigMgr.

You can launch a PowerShell Prompt from the image displayed above, and it will automatically load the ConfigMgr module, connected to the site code of the site loaded in the admin console. If you prefer to use the Powershell module without the need to launch from the admin console (recall that  you must have the console installed in order to use the module), perform the following steps:

1. Open an x86 PowerShell Prompt (when possible, use Run As Administrator)
2. Run the following command: Import-Module “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1″  (modify the path as required for your console installation).
3. Verify the module is enabled by running following command: get-command -module ConfigurationManager This will show all commands available from the ConfigMgr 2012 PowerShell Module (as of this post, there are 338 cmdlets in ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Beta). If you see the ConfigMgr cmdlets, you’re ready to move to the next level! (If you don’t, be sure you launched the x86 version of PowerShell on x64 systems).
4. You can then use get-psdrive cmdlet to list the available drives. Notice in the image below that CEN is the site code of my site, and CMSite is the provider.
5. 
6. As shown in the image, simply type cd cen: to navigate to the PowerShell Provider for ConfigMgr site CEN.
7. Verify you’re connected to the provider by running the following command: get-cmsite This will list all primary and secondary sites in the hierarchy.

As a best practice, always perform admin functions from the central site. However, if you have multiple primary sites (and a CAS), you may need to connect to additional sites (by default, you will automatically connect to the most recently used site server from the Admin Console). Run the following PowerShell command to connect to the site S01:

new-psdrive -Name "S01" -PSProvider "AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite" -Root "MySiteServer.FQDN.COM" -Description "S01 Primary Site"

(Replace “S01″ with your site code, “MySiteServer.FQDN.COM” with the FQDN to the provider, and “S01 Primary Site” with a description of the site).

Happy Scripting!

Greg

How To: Display all Methods for All Classes in a WMI Namespace using PowerShell

Yes, that title is a bit cryptic – if you’ve worked a bit in WMI with PowerShell, you’ll see this code and (hopefully) think “Cool.” If you’re new to PowerShell and/or WMI, well, hang on to your hat, we’ll start diving into these soon to see how we can use them.

This example command displays all methods under the root\ccm\clientsdk namespace – this is a namespace that you will find on all ConfigMgr 2012 clients.

get-wmiobject -namespace root\ccm\clientsdk -list | select __Path -Expand Methods | select Origin, Name, __Path | out-gridview

Greg

How to: Query MachineOU information from ConfigMgr using PowerShell

With the Application Model in ConfigMgr 2012, you can create requirement rules based on Machine OU. Here’s a quick script to see what the ConfigMgr 2012 client has stored as the Machine OU:

( gwmi global_machineOU -namespace root\ccm\cimodels).MachineOU

Happy Scripting!

Greg

ramseyg@hotmail.com

Converting to/from WMI Date Time

You will find many posts for how to convert a wmi date-time string to a human-friendly date time here’s one example from Don Jones.

First, here’s an example of the wmi date-time string:

Get-WmiObject -class Win32_OperatingSystem  | select __Server, LastBootUpTime

The value for LastBootUpTime will look something like this: 20120718141700.473048-300. This output is very handy for alpha-sort, by the way…
And Here’s Don’s code:

Get-WmiObject -class Win32_OperatingSystem | Select-Object __SERVER,@{label='LastRestart';expression={$_.ConvertToDateTime($_.LastBootUpTime)}}

Notice how Don elegantly converts the string on the fly with the label and expression arguments.

Now here’s an example of using a COM object to convert the current date time to a wmi date-time string.

$wmidate = new-object -com Wbemscripting.swbemdatetime
$date = get-date -format g
$wmidate.SetVarDate($date,$true)
$wmidate.value

Not nearly as elegant, but it gets the job done. When you create objects in ConfigMgr that require a date-time field, you will usually enter a wmi date-time string.

Happy Scripting!

Greg