Devfarm Software, a Windows 8 Launch Partner, today announced the release of version 2.7 of the award winning PowerWF. With this release, PowerWF begins the transition from a popular PowerShell workflow orchestration tool to a complete windows automation platform.
For the past 3 years PowerWF has seamlessly combined Windows PowerShell with Workflow technologies to provide users with PowerShell Orchestration. PowerWF provides a rich automation platform that lets IT Administrators harness the strengths and versatility of Windows PowerShell with a workflow Orchestration layer required to cross technical disciplines.
The latest version of PowerWF provides instant return on investment with one-click automation solutions for many common IT and VMware administrative tasks. The solutions can be run as-is, or easily modified using PowerWF’s visual authoring environment.
“The focus of this release has been jump starting the automation process,” said Ben Vierck, CTO of Devfarm Software. “We want our users to see the value of automation as soon as they launch the product.”
“PowerWF has always provided a powerful authoring environment,” added PowerWF Product Manager Kirk Munro. “This version ensures that users gain the benefits of automation even before exploring PowerWF’s authoring experience.”
PowerWF’s new features include:
- New Start Page - Immediately run dozens of automation workflows included with the product and leverage the power of Workflow and PowerShell without requiring the technical knowledge behind the automation scripts.
- Improved Microsoft System Center Service Manager (SCSM) support - Deploy management packs right from the Start Page. Management Packs for SCSM include: automatically close resolved incidents; expire inactive problem announcements; cancel pending activities for closed change requests; identify problems from incident trends; notify incident authors about unresolved incidents; and retrieving SCSM statistics.
- Improved Toolbox Search - search using command names or keywords.
PowerSE’s new features include:
- Easier Breakpoint Management - Breakpoints pane shows all breakpoints set in the scripting environment. Manage breakpoints using the breakpoint cmdlets.
- Breakpoints Preserved Across Sessions - Allows continued debugging of PowerShell scripts from one session to the next, even if the file is closed inside PowerSE.
- Improved Help Search - search using keywords topic headings. PowerSE includes a keyword search in command descriptions to allow users to discover commands using related terms, such as “vMotion”.
(view press release)
4 months ago - link
WindowsAzure.com has a nice primer on using PowerShell with Windows Azure Node.js.
What Is Windows Azure PowerShell for Node.js
Windows Azure PowerShell for Node.js provides a command-line environment for developing and deploying Node applications for Windows Azure through a few Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
The following tasks are supported:
- Import publishing settings to enable you to deploy services in Windows Azure.
- Generate configuration files and a sample application for a Node hosted service. Create a Windows Azure service that contains web roles and worker roles.
- Test your service locally using the Windows Azure compute emulator.
- Deploy your service to the Windows Azure staging or production environment.
- Scale and update services in Windows Azure.
- Enable and disable remote access to service role instances.
- Start, stop, and remove services.
If you are using Azure, this is worth a read.
5 months ago - link
If you are authoring your own PowerShell modules using PowerSE or PowerWF, you should check out this post on Module Installation Best Practices by PowerShell MVP Oisin Grehan.
I’m seeing a few errant companies have their installers throw their modules into ${env:systemroot}\WindowsPowerShell\1.0\Modules but this is not the right place. The only things that should go there are core operating system modules from Microsoft. So, where should you install them?
(read more)
5 months ago - link
Mike Pfeiffer has a nice write up on querying a list of conference rooms in Exchange 2010 using PowerShell.
If you work in an campus type of environment, where you have conference rooms spread out across multiple buildings or physical sites, you may have heard of the Room Finder functionality introduced with Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2010. The Room Finder allows users to easily locate a room resource when scheduling a meeting in Outlook. Instead of users having to scroll through the Global Address List (GAL) or try to guess which room resources are located in a particular location, they can select the appropriate room list, and see all of the available rooms.
Room lists are essentially just a special type of Distribution Group in Exchange. To populate the room list, you simply add one or more resource mailboxes to the group. After you’ve defined several room lists, you’ll probably get to the point where you need to generate a report listing all of the room lists and their associated resource mailboxes. The key to generating a report is to simply query the members of each distribution group that are designated as a room list.
(read more and view code)
5 months ago - link
I’ve been finding a lot of useful tricks and tips at Petri recently. The other day they posted information about how to launch PowerShell, in context, from the popup menu in Windows Explorer.
I am sure most of us prefer to use the quick menu that appears when we right click on any Windows object. Let’s have a look on the menu we get when we press shift +right click on a folder in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008
As you see above, by default, there is an option called “Open command window here”.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have also “Open PowerShell here” also? Now we are going to do it!
(View Step by Step Instructions)
This same trick can be used to launch PowerSE from the current directory. Just set the key under Directory\shell as “PowerSE”, and set the command to launch PowerSE instead of PowerShell.
5 months ago - link
St. Louis, MO (PRWEB) December 13, 2011
Devfarm Software, a Windows 8 Launch Partner, today announced the start of a PowerSE OEM Integration Program. PowerSE is the script editor that is embedded in Devfarm’s flagship product, PowerWF – Visual PowerShell Orchestration. The PowerSE OEM Integration Program allows third party applications to integrate quickly and easily with the state-of-the-art PowerShell editor the same way that PowerWF does.
“PowerShell is showing up in new applications at an incredible rate, and each application vendor that adds PowerShell integration needs to decide how they will handle editing and testing the PowerShell scripts,” said Kirk Munro, Product Manager, Devfarm Software. “Joining the PowerSE OEM integration program will allow these vendors to save significant development effort while providing a fully functional PowerShell editor and optionally an embedded PowerShell console as well.”
PowerSE makes PowerShell more accessible to everyone from the reluctant Administrator and casual user to the PowerShell Guru. Automatic PowerShell code generation and advanced debugging features like breakpoints and a watch window, provide instant value and time savings. PowerSE’s built in visualization can customize results and drill into complex data structures.
“We always look at existing technology for integration options before deciding to invest in new development. When we looked at PowerShell editors, we couldn’t find one that would easily integrate with our products to the level required,” said Brian Butler, CEO of Devfarm Software. “From day one, PowerSE was designed to function as both an embedded editor and a standalone application.”
(read more)
5 months ago - link
SQL Server Central [registration required], has a blog post on Johan Bijnens journey from being apathetic about PowerShell to becoming a PowerShell advocate for SQL Server.
If you’re involved with SQL Server, you will have noticed a lot of commotion around Powershell, as people push for it in the context of SQLServer. A good friend and inspiration of mine, Allen White (MVP/sqlblog/@SQLRunr) who I met at SQLPass 2003, is currently one of the people teaching us- a group of SQLServer admins, operational DBA, and developers, how Powershell really can help to ease our lives.
At first I was kind of wary about the new kid in town called Powershell; with regards to Windows (7/2008) as well as towards SQLServer, which is more my turf. The reason I didn’t initially learn Powershell V1.0 is that I’d been bitten by the economy coming to a halt in 2008. The company I work for decided to go fully into survival mode and all upgrades were postponed.
However, nowadays we are installing SQL2008R2 as well as Windows2008R2, so the need to upgrade ourselves to be able to support these two domains is essential. Another reason why I couldn’t withhold my curiosity is that we are also making progress with other software monitoring systems, and these tools also have Powershell features incorporated, or they have APIs to be used by Powershell.
(read more)
5 months ago - link
