Mike F Robbins

An Uncommon Cause for IIS 503 Service Unavailable Errors

Mike F Robbins November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 2

Recently, while migrating IIS websites to a new server, I encountered "Service Unavailable HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable." errors, but only for HTTPS, while HTTP worked fine. Depending on the scenario, the problem could have just as easily impacted HTTP. The server was listening on port 443:

Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 443 -State Listen

1	Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 443 -State Listen

If you ever encounter a problem like this, stop the web publishing service:

Stop-Service -Name w3svc -PassThru

1	Stop-Service -Name w3svc -PassThru

Then check to see if the server is Read more [...]

Categories IIS, PowerShell Tags IIS, PowerShell

Access Local Variables in a Remote Session with PowerShell

Mike F Robbins November 9, 2017February 10, 2018 1

Occasionally I'll come across a system with PowerShell version 2.0 on it that I need to run a remote command against which needs access to local variables. I can never remember how to accomplish that task so I thought I would write a blog about it as a reminder for myself and others who may find themselves in the same scenario. I'll demonstrate each of the available options and whether or not they work on PowerShell version 5.1

$PSVersionTable

1	$PSVersionTable

And PowerShell version 2.0

$PSVersionTable

1	$PSVersionTable

First, Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Safety to prevent entire script from running in the PowerShell ISE

Mike F Robbins November 2, 2017November 2, 2017 3

I recently watched fellow Microsoft MVP Thomas Rayner present a session on regular expressions for the MVP Days virtual conference. Sometimes it's the little things that are the biggest takeaways for me when I'm watching others present. One thing that wasn't related to regular expressions that I noticed was Thomas's way of preventing his entire script from running if F5 was accidentally pressed instead of F8 in the PowerShell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment). If you're not aware, F5 runs the Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Registration for the PowerShell & DevOps Global Summit 2018

Mike F Robbins October 26, 2017October 26, 2017 0

Registration for the PowerShell & DevOps Global Summit 2018 opens on Wednesday, November 1st which is less than one week away. I've attended every one of these conferences that have been held in North America since its inception 5 years ago. I speak from experience when I say now is the time to ask for approval to attend this conference because it has sold out each year and it's not a matter of if it will sell out, but when will it sell out? The event brochure has lots of great information Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell, PowerShell Summit Tags PowerShell

Configure Internet Connection Sharing with PowerShell

Mike F Robbins October 19, 2017October 6, 2017 1

My test environment runs as Hyper-V VM's on my IBM Thinkpad P50. I use ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) to shield my Hyper-V test environment virtual network from my production network connection. ICS allows me to temporarily give my test VM's Internet access when needed without putting them directly on the production network. You might ask why? Because my test environment VM's run things like DHCP servers that would cause havoc on the production network. I use an Internal virtual switch with Hyper-V Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Windows Server 2016 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook – Second Edition

Mike F Robbins October 12, 2017October 6, 2017 2

One of the projects that I've been a part of this year that's now complete is Windows Server 2016 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook - Second Edition written by Thomas Lee and published by Packt Publishing. I personally read each and every page of the book while it was being written along with testing every single line of code in each of the recipes in the book. According to the book's webpage on the Packt Publishing website, it has more than a hundred recipes and we're not talking about one-liners. While Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Presenting The No-Nonsense Beginner’s Guide to PowerShell for the Austin PowerShell User Group on October 5th

Mike F Robbins October 3, 2017October 3, 2017 4

If you’re interested in some free PowerShell training where you’ll learn the basics of PowerShell from a best practices standpoint, I’ll be presenting a session on “PowerShell 101: The No-Nonsense Beginner’s Guide to PowerShell” for the Austin PowerShell User Group this Thursday, October 5th. The presentation begins at 6pm central time and is a beginner level session. Here’s a little information about what you can expect from the presentation: Interested in PowerShell but Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Regions now available in VSCode Insiders Build version 1.17.0

Mike F Robbins October 2, 2017October 2, 2017 1

Today, David Wilson from the PowerShell team at Microsoft, announced that Regions are now available in VSCode (Visual Studio Code) as of insiders build version 1.17.0. I was hoping the region and endregion keywords would be case-insensitive unlike in the PowerShell ISE where they're case-sensitive. It looks like that's indeed what they intended since the region keyword is case-insensitive in VSCode, but unfortunately the endregion keyword is case-sensitive as shown in the following example. There's Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell, VSCode Tags PowerShell, VSCode

PowerShell Toolmaking session this Saturday, September 30th at Gulf Coast Code Camp 2017 in Mobile, Alabama

Mike F Robbins September 28, 2017September 27, 2017 0

Got no training budget? This Saturday, September 30th, is your opportunity to show some initiative by leveling up your skills on your own time and at your own expense (it's free) at Gulf Coast Code Camp 2017. The venue is at the University of South Alabama and features 16 speakers who are experts in the technology space. While I can't speak for everyone else who is presenting, my session begins at 9:40am central time where you'll learn the industry's best practices for PowerShell Toolmaking with Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Not Specifying a Verb in PowerShell is an Expensive Shortcut

Mike F Robbins September 27, 2017September 28, 2017 1

When working with PowerShell, there are lots of shortcuts that can be taken and while some of them may seem like a good idea at first, they usually end up costing you more trouble than they're worth in the long run. I recently saw a Tweet that a fellow PowerShell enthusiast Tore Groneng‏ responded to which referenced running commands in PowerShell without specifying a verb. Such as "Service" for Get-Service.

Service

Service

That works great, right? Not so fast. It might Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Detect the presence of and remove CCleaner with PowerShell

Mike F Robbins September 18, 2017September 24, 2017 3

Based on the news today, I thought I would share a couple of PowerShell code snippets to detect the presence of and silently uninstall CCleaner. You can detect the presence of CCleaner along with the version of it you have installed via the registry.

Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* |
Where-Object DisplayName -eq CCleaner

1 2	Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* \| Where-Object DisplayName -eq CCleaner

You can use a similar command to run its uninstaller silently if it's detected.

if (Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* |
    Where-Object DisplayName -eq CCleaner -OutVariable Results) {
    & "$($Results.InstallLocation)\uninst.exe" /S
}

if (Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* |

Where-Object DisplayName -eq CCleaner -OutVariable Results) {

& "$($Results.InstallLocation)\uninst.exe" /S

}

Give it a couple of minutes and then run the first command again to verify it has been removed.

Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* |
Where-Object DisplayName -eq CCleaner

1 2	Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* \| Where-Object DisplayName -eq CCleaner

If Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

PowerShell Version 2 Compatible Function to Determine Windows Firewall State

Mike F Robbins September 14, 2017September 14, 2017 0

I recently had a need to perform some security auditing on an environment that still has some servers running PowerShell version 2 (PowerShell version 2 is deprecated). One of the things I needed to determine was whether or not the Windows firewall was enabled on each of the servers in the environment. Luckily, all of the servers at least had PowerShell remoting enabled.

#Requires -Version 2.0
function Get-MrNetFirewallState {
<#
.SYNOPSIS
    Displays the per-profile state of the Windows Firewall.
.DESCRIPTION
    The Get-MrNetFirewallState function displays the current firewall state for the Domain, Private, and Public profiles.
.PARAMETER ComputerName
    The name of the computer(s) to retrieve the firewall state for.
.PARAMETER Credential
    Specifies a user account that has permission to perform this action. The default is the current user.
.EXAMPLE
     Get-MrNetFirewallState
.EXAMPLE
     Get-MrNetFirewallState -ComputerName Server01, Server02
.EXAMPLE
     Get-MrNetFirewallState -ComputerName Server01, Server02 -Credential (Get-Credential)
.INPUTS
    None
.OUTPUTS
    PSCustomObject
.NOTES
    Author:  Mike F Robbins
    Website: http://mikefrobbins.com
    Twitter: @mikefrobbins
#>
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param (
        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
        [string[]]$ComputerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME,
        [System.Management.Automation.Credential()]$Credential = [System.Management.Automation.PSCredential]::Empty
    )
    $ScriptBlock =
@'
    $Results = netsh.exe advfirewall show allprofiles | Select-String -SimpleMatch Profile, State
    for ($i = 0; $i -lt 6; $i += 2) {
        New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            ComputerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME
            Name = ($Results[$i] | Select-String -SimpleMatch 'Profile Settings') -replace '^*.Profile Settings:'
            Enabled = if ($Results[$i+1] -match 'ON') {
                          $true
                      }
                      else {
                          $false
                      }
        }
    }
'@
    $Params = @{
        Scriptblock = [Scriptblock]::Create($ScriptBlock)
    }
    if ($ComputerName -ne $env:COMPUTERNAME) {
        $Params.ComputerName = $ComputerName
        $Params.ErrorAction = 'SilentlyContinue'
        $Params.ErrorVariable = 'Problem'
        if ($PSBoundParameters.Credential) {
            $Params.Credential = $Credential
        }
        Invoke-Command @Params | Select-Object -Property ComputerName, Name, Enabled
        foreach ($p in $Problem) {
            if ($p.FullyQualifiedErrorId -match 'AccessDenied|LogonFailure') {
                Write-Warning -Message "Access Denied when trying to connect to $($p.TargetObject)"
            }
            elseif ($p.FullyQualifiedErrorId -match 'NetworkPathNotFound') {
                Write-Warning -Message "Unable to connect to $($p.targetobject)"
            }
            else {
                Write-Warning -Message "An unexpected error has occurred when trying to connect to $($p.targetobject)"
            }
        }
    }
    else {
        $Params.ScriptBlock.Invoke()
    }
}

#Requires -Version 2.0

function Get-MrNetFirewallState {

.SYNOPSIS

Displays the per-profile state of the Windows Firewall.

.DESCRIPTION

The Get-MrNetFirewallState function displays the current firewall state for the Domain, Private, and Public profiles.

.PARAMETER ComputerName

The name of the computer(s) to retrieve the firewall state for.

.PARAMETER Credential

Specifies a user account that has permission to perform this action. The default is the current user.

.EXAMPLE

Get-MrNetFirewallState

.EXAMPLE

Get-MrNetFirewallState -ComputerName Server01, Server02

.EXAMPLE

Get-MrNetFirewallState -ComputerName Server01, Server02 -Credential (Get-Credential)

.INPUTS

None

.OUTPUTS

PSCustomObject

.NOTES

Author: Mike F Robbins

Website: http://mikefrobbins.com

Twitter: @mikefrobbins

[CmdletBinding()]

param (

[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]

[string[]]$ComputerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME,

[System.Management.Automation.Credential()]$Credential = [System.Management.Automation.PSCredential]::Empty

)

$ScriptBlock =

$Results = netsh.exe advfirewall show allprofiles | Select-String -SimpleMatch Profile, State

for ($i = 0; $i -lt 6; $i += 2) {

New-Object PSObject -Property @{

ComputerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME

Name = ($Results[$i] | Select-String -SimpleMatch 'Profile Settings') -replace '^*.Profile Settings:'

Enabled = if ($Results[$i+1] -match 'ON') {

$true

}

else {

$false

}

$Params = @{

Scriptblock = [Scriptblock]::Create($ScriptBlock)

}

if ($ComputerName -ne $env:COMPUTERNAME) {

$Params.ComputerName = $ComputerName

$Params.ErrorAction = 'SilentlyContinue'

$Params.ErrorVariable = 'Problem'

if ($PSBoundParameters.Credential) {

$Params.Credential = $Credential

}

Invoke-Command @Params | Select-Object -Property ComputerName, Name, Enabled

foreach ($p in $Problem) {

if ($p.FullyQualifiedErrorId -match 'AccessDenied|LogonFailure') {

Write-Warning -Message "Access Denied when trying to connect to $($p.TargetObject)"

}

elseif ($p.FullyQualifiedErrorId -match 'NetworkPathNotFound') {

Write-Warning -Message "Unable to connect to $($p.targetobject)"

}

else {

Write-Warning -Message "An unexpected error has occurred when trying to connect to $($p.targetobject)"

}

else {

$Params.ScriptBlock.Invoke()

}

The PowerShell function shown in the previous code example is a wrapper for the Netsh.exe command. Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Remotely cleanup log and temp files from your Windows based servers with PowerShell

Mike F Robbins September 7, 2017September 6, 2017 2

Setting up a scheduled task or job on individual servers to cleanup log and temp files just doesn't scale very well because you have scheduled tasks or jobs setup on lots of individual servers that need to be maintained. Today it's this server and tomorrow it's two or three more. It's much easier to setup one scheduled task or job on a server that's designed for management to remotely cleanup the desired files on all of your servers. The following log and temp file cleanup script is provided as Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell Tags PowerShell

Using Out-GridView to simplify selecting the region when managing Microsoft Azure with PowerShell

Mike F Robbins August 31, 2017August 30, 2017 0

You've signed up for a Microsoft Azure account and you've installed the Azure Resource Manager PowerShell cmdlets on your computer.

Install-Module -Name AzureRM -Force

1	Install-Module -Name AzureRM -Force

You login to Azure from PowerShell. You'll normally see most people use Login-AzureRmAccount, but that command is an alias (Login isn't an approved verb).

Get-Alias -Definition Add-AzureRmAccount

1	Get-Alias -Definition Add-AzureRmAccount

Add-AzureRmAccount

1	Add-AzureRmAccount

Several of the cmdlets in Read more [...]

Categories Azure, PowerShell Tags Azure, PowerShell

How to install Visual Studio Code and configure it as a replacement for the PowerShell ISE

Mike F Robbins August 24, 2017August 30, 2017 14

If you follow me on Twitter, then I'm sure you're aware that I've been using nothing but VS Code (Visual Studio Code) as a replacement for the PowerShell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment) for the past couple of weeks and while I had tried it in the past, I didn't previously think it was ready for prime time. That's now changed with all of the updates and work that has gone into it. From what I've found, it works fairly well flawlessly so I've created a short and simple video to help others Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell, VSCode Tags PowerShell, VSCode

VS Code Rendering Problem in the PowerShell Integrated Terminal

Mike F Robbins August 16, 2017August 16, 2017 1

I recently discovered a rendering problem in VS Code where pressing escape doesn't delete a multi-line command in the PowerShell integrated terminal. I created a video to report the problem and I thought I would share it here since the quality was less than optimal when sharing it on Twitter. https://youtu.be/0dySuC0RV4o Here's a link to my original tweet to David Wilson and here's a link to the GitHub issue that Max Trinidad has created. µ Read more [...]

Categories PowerShell, VSCode Tags PowerShell, VSCode