The term SharePoint Server may not be new to the corporate world but its latest version, i.e., SharePoint 2010 may not be very old as well. Yes, the story for SharePoint Administrators has improved considerably. The recent SharePoint version have lot of added features which helps manage and support SharePoint Farm much better. For instance, lets talk about one of the significant feature of SharePoint Server 2010 Windows PowerShell 2.0.
Windows PowerShell is Microsofts task automation framework, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language built on top of, and integrated with the .NET Framework. A new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation. There are some 550+ new Windows PowerShell cmdlets provided in the SharePoint Administration shell, making the ability to script deployment and administration tasks incredibly powerful. PowerShell has become a *must have* skill set for any SharePoint Administrator.
Windows PowerShell is available in various versions. Initally, PowerShell was first exhibited using the code name Monad in September 2003. At present, there are the following two versions of Windows PowerShell Version 1.0 and 2.0.
Features of Windows PowerShell 2.0 are as follows:
o PowerShell Remoting: Using WS-Management, PowerShell 2.0 allows scripts and cmdlets to be invoked on a remote machine or a large set of remote machines
o Background Jobs: Also called as PS Job, it allows a command sequence (script) or pipeline to be invoked asynchronously. Jobs can be run on the local machine or on multiple remote machines. A PS Job cannot include interactive cmdlets
o Transactions: Enable cmdlet and provider developers to perform transactional operations. PowerShell 2.0 includes transaction cmdlets for starting, committing, and rolling back a PS transaction as well as features to manage and direct the transaction to the participating cmdlet and provider operations. The PowerShell Registry provider supports transactions
o ScriptCmdlets: These are cmdlets written using the PowerShell scripting language
o Steppable Pipelines: This allows the user to control when the BeginProcessing, ProcessRecord, and EndProcessing functions of a cmdlet are called
o Modules: This allows script developers and administrators to organize and partition PowerShell scripts in self-contained, reusable units. Code from a module executes in its own self-contained context and does not affect the state outside of the module. Modules can define a restricted runspace environment by using a script. They have a persistent state as well as public and private members
o Data Language: A domain-specific subset of the PowerShell scripting language that allows data definitions to be decoupled from the scripts and allow localized string resources to be imported into the script at runtime (Script Internationalization)
o Script Debugging: It allows breakpoints to be set in a PowerShell script or function. Breakpoints can be set on lines, line and columns, commands and read or write access of variables. It includes a set of cmdlets to control the breakpoints via script
o Eventing: This feature allows listening, forwarding, and acting on management and system events. Eventing allows PowerShell hosts to be notified about state changes to their managed entities. It also enables PowerShell scripts to subscribe to Object Events, PS Events, and Wmi Events, and process them synchronously and asynchronously
o Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE): PowerShell 2.0 includes a GUI-based PowerShell host (formerly known as Graphical Windows PowerShell) that provides integrated debugger, syntax highlighting, tab completion and up to 8 PowerShell Unicode-enabled consoles (Runspaces) in a tabbed UI, as well as the ability to run only the selected parts in a script
o Network File Transfer: Native support for prioritized, throttled, and asynchronous transfer of files between machines using the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
o New Cmdlets: It includes out-grid view, which displays tabular data in the WPF GridView object
o New Operators: -Split, -Join, and Splatting operators
o Exception Handling with Try-Catch-Finally: Unlike other .NET languages, this allows multiple exception types for a single catch block.
o Nestable Here-Strings: PowerShell Here-Strings have been improved and can now nest
o Block Comments: PowerShell 2.0 supports block comments using as delimiters
o New APIs: The new APIs range from handing more control over the PowerShell parser and runtime to the host, to creating and managing collection of Runspaces (Runspace Pools) as well as the ability to create Restricted Runspaces which only allow a configured subset of PowerShell to be invoked. The new APIs also support participation in a Windows PowerShell managed transaction.
Take advantage of SharePoint product family that also includes SharePoint Foundation, MOSS 2007, and free SharePoint templates or web parts.
Adrian Gates (adrian@apps4rent.com) is a Business Manager with Apps4Rent; which offers Microsoft Exchange Hosting, Windows SharePoint Services, SharePoint Foundation 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and virtual dedicated servers.