JeffWoutersBlog - Latest Comments

Re: Manage Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V in SCVMM 2012 –Unknown Hypervisor

Alex — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:32:33 -0000

Apparently, it's by design:
System Center 2012 CTP for Windows Server "8" Beta support
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us...

Re: Manage Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V in SCVMM 2012 –Unknown Hypervisor

Alex — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:32:35 -0000

Thank you for the post, Jeff!
Do you have any idea why NVSPWMI.DLL may be missing from the Windows 8's System32 folder?

Error (20505)The nvspwmi service cannot be located on the computer Hyper-v-host. .local.Recommended ActionEnsure that the nvspwmi service is installed and running on the computer Hyper-v-host. .local.

Warning (438)Service nvspwmi is not present on Hyper-v-host. .local.Recommended ActionCheck that the service exists in the Services MMC snap-in on Hyper-v-host. .local by running services.msc.

Error (12704)Unable to connect to the Hyper-V service on the server Hyper-v-host. .local.Recommended ActionEnsure that the Hyper-V services (vmms, nvspwmi, or vhdsv) and the Virtual Machine Manager Agent are installed and running on the server Hyper-v-host. .local.

Thank you!
Alex

Re: Disk offline with error – the disk is offline because of a policy set by an administrator

Msbhatti19 — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:59:28 -0000

Thank you alots

Re: Powershell function to create a random password with complexity requirement

Jeff Wouters — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:12:57 -0000

Hi Niklas,
Thanks for your feedback, always appreciated.
Although we already talked about it through Twitter still my reply: You're function has the same limitation as my first one, it doesn't enforce the requirement for the password complexity policy... but as you tweeted already, you've noticed that :-)
Jeff.

Re: Powershell function to create a random password with complexity requirement

Niklas Akerlund — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:37:13 -0000

Here is another function for that (do not remember where i found it though)

function Get-RandomPassword {

param(
$length = 7,
$characters = 'abcdefghkmnprstuvwxyzABCDEFGHKLMNPRSTUVWXYZ',
$nonchar = '123456789!"§$%&/()=?*+#_'
)
$length = $length - 2
# select random characters
$random = 1..$length | ForEach-Object { Get-Random -Maximum $characters.length }
$random2 = 1..2 | ForEach-Object { Get-Random -Maximum $nonchar.length }

# output random pwd
#Write-Host $random
$private:ofs= ""
$password = [String]$characters[$random] + [String]$nonchar[$random2]
return $password
}

Re: PowerShell – Having fun with Compare-Object in the 2012 Scripting Games

Boe Prox — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:42:06 -0000

Compare-Object is a great cmdlet and very useful. But there are some gotchas when using it with certain objects. I wrote an article a while back that takes a look at one of those gotchas with comparing objects and not getting the results that one might think they would get. http://learn-powershell.net/20...
Good job on this article and great job in the Scripting Games this year!

Boe

Re: Disk offline with error – the disk is offline because of a policy set by an administrator

kjetilpp — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 20:31:29 -0000

TNX :D You saved my day

Re: Book giveaway: Win a free copy of the Microsoft Application Virtualization Advanced Guide, just by commenting!

Getintouch — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:51:52 -0000

I want this book because since being introduced to MS App-V, I was advised to read your first book on v4.6 prior to going on a course. Unfortunately, the course was geared towards v4.5 and was therefore a waste of time and waste of money! I was disappointed as I needed a more working example of v4.6 and it's associated technologies. I feel this book will bridge the skills gap that exists from your first book and my working knowledge of the product. Thank you

Re: Book giveaway: Win a free copy of the Microsoft Application Virtualization Advanced Guide, just by commenting!

Jeff Wouters — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 05:14:03 -0000

PLEASE READ THIS: The contest has ended on the 10th of April... so comments posted from that point on will no be eligible to win!

Re: Book giveaway: Win a free copy of the Microsoft Application Virtualization Advanced Guide, just by commenting!

Chris Auty — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:40:37 -0000

I need this book in my life... App-V is an essential component in our drive towards private cloud and delivering an agile IT service. Days gone by of application compatibilty are a distant memory and it amazes me more enterprises still don't adopt this approach. App-V enables rapid deployment, simpler testing lifecycles and simpler integration of multiple versions of the same applications across different platforms. We've recently started to understand more about how how separating the application layer and then also the O/S enables IT to deliver rapid and outstanding results and let's face it, it's just very cool at the same time.

Re: And the winners are…

Craig Miller — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:01:46 -0000

I thought mine was geeky.....how about this:

Hurry up and learn about application virtualization before it becomes irrelevant and surely it will be in a matter of time. Why will it become irrelevant you may ask, well because Microsoft doesn't include anything out of the box in Windows which allows an admin to deploy applications via some virtualized manner. The only in-house way of doing this is through App-V which is only available to customers with Software Assurance from Microsoft. It also requires you admin to sequence all applications into the system since Microsoft has failed to push vendors to adopt the new format...hell they even failed to adopt their format themselves with the exception of one version of Office which they released as a pre-packaged for App-V but I never heard of anyone using this version. How will it become irrelevant you might ask....what will replace it? My guess is the Windows App store which is being bundled into every Windows 8 system and being heavily promoted by Microsoft. Of course this would require the vendor to rewrite them for their App Store if they want their application to be delivered in a sandbox manner similar to App-V, but I'm sure it's going to be just a manner of time before this is done. I give it about three-four years...about the time the next Windows after Windows 8 would be released. So hurry up and learn it now!!!

Re: Book giveaway: Win a free copy of the Microsoft Application Virtualization Advanced Guide, just by commenting!

Craig Miller — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:48:35 -0000

Application virtualization is the key component to having a dynamic environment in the enterprise world. It allows users to be mobile even when their systems aren't by having their applications assigned to them and follow them no matter where they log in from. It also makes the administrator's job much easier when it comes to updates and maintenance of the application, because once the application is virtualized it is also linked back to a master package of that application and all the admin staff has to do is update and maintain that one master. Whenever updates are made to the master it then pushes these updates to the users that use it without the admin having to do anything; making the administrative overhead much smaller when compared to traditional application deployment and maintenance. The virtualized also work in their own isolated environment which means you can freely run multiple versions of the same application, which can help ease users as the transition from one to another. Still using Microsoft Office 2003 because the interface changed so much in 2007 and you're afraid of the user's needing to relearn everything? With application virtualization the administrative staff can push out both Office 2003 and 2007 and then let their users run them concurrently side by side allowing them to get more comfortable with the changes that were made.

Re: A reusable PowerShell function to select the correct size format

Jeffery Hicks — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:50:59 -0000

You got me distracted now. Here's I might sort the results. Definitely not something I would expect someone new to PowerShell to figure out.

PS S:\> 122334,554335566,1234,889872,777622222| Select-sizeformatType | Sort @{expression={
[double]$value=$_.Substring(0,$_.length-2)
[string]$size=$_.Substring($_.length-2)
Switch ($size) {
"PB" {$value*1PB}
"TB" {$value*1TB}
"GB" {$value*1GB}
"MB" {$value*1MB}
"KB" {$value*1KB}
Default {$value}
} #switch }
} #expression

1.21KB
119.47KB
869.02KB
528.66MB
741.60MB

Re: A reusable PowerShell function to select the correct size format

Jeffery Hicks — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:14:27 -0000

Your function needs to be tweaked to really take pipelined input:

function Select-SizeFormatType
{
# Define the mandatory input parameter
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipeline=$true, Position=0)][System.int64]$sizeInBytes,
[int]$Digits=2
)

Process {
# Determine the correct size format and use ‘break’ to exit the switch
switch ($SizeInBytes)
{
{$SizeInBytes -ge 1PB} {"{0:n$Digits}PB" -f ($SizeInBytes/1PB) ; break}
{$SizeInBytes -ge 1TB} {"{0:n$Digits}TB" -f ($SizeInBytes/1TB) ; break}
{$SizeInBytes -ge 1GB} {"{0:n$Digits}GB" -f ($SizeInBytes/1GB) ; break}
{$SizeInBytes -ge 1MB} {"{0:n$Digits}MB" -f ($SizeInBytes/1MB) ; break}
{$SizeInBytes -ge 1KB} {"{0:n$Digits}KB" -f ($SizeInBytes/1KB) ; break}
Default { "{0:n$sigDigits}Bytes" -f $SizeInBytes}
} #close Switch
} #close process
} #close function

Now I can do this: 122334,554335566,889872,777622222| Select-sizeformatType | Sort
But it won't sort the way you would expect. In fact it never will sort as an integer because you have appended a string to the number.

Re: A reusable PowerShell function to select the correct size format

Jeffery Hicks — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:05:09 -0000

In a function, everything should be self contained. If I try to run your function it will likely fail since I don't have a definition for $Digits. Your function is referencing a variable out of scope which is not recommended. You would be better served by adding it as a parameter to your function. As for sorting you are on the right track. Although $SizeinBytes is likely already a numeric value. What you would need to recast as an int is your formatted value. By the way, your revised version left out the comparison. This won't work.

Re: A reusable PowerShell function to select the correct size format

Jeff Wouters — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:01:45 -0000

Hi Jeff, thanks for your good response. The $sigDigits was part of the larger script this function is a part of... changed it to $Digits to make it a bit more understandable. I didn't knew that about -f, thanks for the clarification :-) Your comment about sorting with strings made me think... one could use "Sort-Object {[int] $_.SizeInBytes}" in the same way you would sort a CSV file... or am I missing the point here?

Re: PowerShell – Convert strings to lower- or upper case

Jeff Wouters — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:23:31 -0000

Hi Walid2mi,
The "-Join" oneliner you've provided does work, but it's a lot more code... yet still, it's a different approach and fun to see that there's another way to accomplish the same :-)
However, the "-replace" twoliner doesn't work...

Re: A reusable PowerShell function to select the correct size format

Jeffery Hicks — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:19:33 -0000

Very useful. Where is $sigDigits coming from? And the point of -f is that items to the right of -f are values. I would put the the KB etc on the other side:
"{0:n$sigDigits}KB" -f ($SizeInBytes/1KB) . It is also easy for people to forget that this formatting results in a string which potentially could mean sorting wouldn't work the way you might expect.

Re: PowerShell – Convert strings to lower- or upper case

Walid2mi — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:12:56 -0000

or this:

$phrase = "THIS IS MY TEXT RIGHT NOW"

$phrase -replace '(\w)',"$([char]::ToLower($1))"

Re: PowerShell – Convert strings to lower- or upper case

Walid2mi — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:07:12 -0000

just for fun:

$phrase = "THIS IS MY TEXT RIGHT NOW"

-join $($phrase.ToCharArray()|%{
if([char]::IsLower($_)) {$_}else{[char]::ToLower($_)}})

Re: PowerShell – Finding all commands with a specific parameter

Jeff Wouters — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:49:58 -0000

So, for finding all commands with one specific parameter,the "help * -param list" is easiest and fastest to use.

Re: PowerShell – Finding all commands with a specific parameter

Walid2mi — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:40:49 -0000

hi jeff,

this is my test:

PS> measure-command { get-help * -param list }
--> TotalMilliseconds : 4778,5757

PS> measure-command { Get-Command | Where-Object { $_.Definition –like “*-list*” } }
--> TotalMilliseconds : 893,1512

PS> measure-command { help * -param list }
-> TotalMilliseconds : 403,8105

Re: PowerShell – Finding all commands with a specific parameter

Jeff Wouters — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:23:14 -0000

Hi Walid2mi,
Although the command you've provided is a lot shorter and easier to remember, it also takes quite a bit longer to execute...
Jeff.

Re: Book giveaway: Win a free copy of the Microsoft Application Virtualization Advanced Guide, just by commenting!

Ralph Jansen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:16:11 -0000

. Posted twice

Re: Book giveaway: Win a free copy of the Microsoft Application Virtualization Advanced Guide, just by commenting!

Ralph Jansen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:16:02 -0000

App-V brings IT a dynamic infrastructure by create a virtual package usable on multiple platforms.
Dynamic deployment by using the server, stand-alone or SCCM.
No pollution of the system when replacing versions or uninstalling applications.
No application conflicts by running them in a separate bubble.
High security, packages only visible by authorized users.
Reduced support calls by self-resetting the application.
Seamless upgrading applications by running them side-by-side and easy disabling the old version with the central management feature.

And even in the future the most dynamic feature: 'package your own application'!