Learn to love PowerShell…its the preferred management interface in the new server OS.

The preferred deployment model is going to be the “Server Core” installation. This is generally a Good Thing® in that it will drastically lower the attack surface for operating system exploits…But most Windows admins I know don’t even know the legacy VBScript that they should. I actually had a guy ask me how to get to the “search” feature that was on the XP start menu.

This is why UNIX admins seem better at their job.

Regardless, it really seems like MS really gets how big of a pain it is to run lots of machines at once. Things that used to require either expensive third party tools or custom development are baked in. In fact, the new Server Manager interface is actually just surfacing PowerShell commands. You can actually save the command text from the newest version of the Active Directory Administrative Center. This should ease the learning curve.

I guess I’ve finally read enough PowerShell examples that I’m starting to come around. Up until now I have mainly used C#, VBScript, and C++ (when forced) to do my work. One thing that I can say for the PowerShell ‘methodology’ is that its incredibly consistent.

Get-Help Some-Command –examples

It’s consistent patterns like the above that seem to pervade the whole system.

Speaking of ADAC…ADAC actually depends on the Active Directory Web Service. Some places might have reservations on deploying ADWS since it needs to be installed on every domain controller. (That’s the entry level recommendation at least.) I know quite a few places that didn’t deploy it just because it had “Web” in the name. Insert groan tag. The benefits really do out weigh any deployment or management costs whether real or mythological.

One really neat feature of PowerShell is that HKCU, HKLM, the certificate store, and IIS are all drives. So is Active Directory.

This image illustrates what I mean…

It’s been a long time coming. Windows really didn’t have good scripting story before PowerShell.