Effective Error Handling in PowerShell Scripting

24th of July, 2016 / / 6 Comments

There are two typical cases we meet almost everyday while writing PowerShell scripts. Seeing red-coloured error messages is the one and number of result messages displayed on the screen is the other. Have you ever thought you wanted to see nothing or, at least, minimise those messages? In this post, we are going to run a few tricks not to see those error (or unwanted) messages for your happy PowerShell scripting.

Hiding Execution Messages

By design, PowerShell shows result messages after running cmdlets.… [Keep reading] “Effective Error Handling in PowerShell Scripting”

PowerShell error “Run Login-AzureRmAccount to login.” in AzureRM when already logged in

12th of July, 2016 / / 5 Comments

Usually when I’m writing PowerShell scripts I do it from a development virtual machine with a known environment state. However, yesterday I was trying to do something simple and quick and was writing it on my everyday laptop.

My script was using Windows Management Framework 5.0 and I was creating a new burn environment in AzureRM. I was authenticated and could query and enumerate most of my AzureRM environment, however I was getting erroneous responses on some cmdlets and was unable to create a new resource group.… [Keep reading] “PowerShell error “Run Login-AzureRmAccount to login.” in AzureRM when already logged in”

Managing SPO User Profiles with FIM/MIM and the Microsoft PowerShell Connector

23rd of June, 2016 / / 5 Comments

Back in March, my colleague Darren Robinson published this post which nicely explains how to use Søren Granfeldt’s FIM/MIM PowerShell MA to manage SharePoint Online profiles. While Darren’s post covers everything you need to connect to SPO and manage user profiles via FIM/MIM, some of your clients may prefer to use the Microsoft equivalent for reasons of perceived support and product quality. This post will cover off what is required to get the Connector up and running.… [Keep reading] “Managing SPO User Profiles with FIM/MIM and the Microsoft PowerShell Connector”

Office365 & Windows 10 Profile Pictures

20th of June, 2016 / / 2 Comments

At a customer recently, we were asked if we could provide a non-technical way of controlling profile pictures for both Office 365 and Windows 10. So straight away I thought, time for some PowerShell. I came up with the solution of having a number of shares on a server, which can be permission’d as required…

.\Source – for adding images
.\Replace – if a user wanted to change their picture
.\Remove – if a user opted out of the profile picture setup

As this was a new setup, I requested that they name the images UPN.jpg,… [Keep reading] “Office365 & Windows 10 Profile Pictures”

Access Azure linked templates from a private repository

22nd of May, 2016 / / 1 Comment

I recently was tasked to propose a way to use linked templates, especially how to refer to templates stored in a private repository.  The Azure Resource Manager (ARM) engine accepts a URI to access and deploy linked templates, hence the URI must be accessible by ARM.  If you store your templates in a public repository, ARM can access them fine, but what if you use a private repository?  This post will show you how.

In this example, I use Bitbucket – a Git-based source control product by Atlassian.  … [Keep reading] “Access Azure linked templates from a private repository”

Using saved credentials securely in PowerShell scripts

21st of April, 2016 / / 30 Comments

One of the most common tasks out in the field is the need to run PowerShell scripts that require credentials to be saved in some form of another so that they can be fed into scripts to be executed autonomously.  This is particularly common in cloud environments where the current user context in which the scripts are run (e.g. within a scheduled task) are insufficient or not appropriate for the remote execution.   Office 365 management is a perfect example of this, where often a credential object must be passed in order to connect and execute the cmdlets.… [Keep reading] “Using saved credentials securely in PowerShell scripts”

Entity Framework 7 Data Migration through KUDU

16th of April, 2016 / / 1 Comment

From DevOps perspective, everything needs to be automated in regards to application setup and deployment. There’s no exception for database migration. If database schema change occurs, it should be automatically applied before/after the application deployment. Unlike Entity Framework 6.x using PowerShell cmdlets for database migration, Entity Framework 7 (EF7) uses DNX for it.

Applying Database Migration with EF7

In EF7, updating database change can be done by running the following command:

… [Keep reading] “Entity Framework 7 Data Migration through KUDU”

Creating Accounts on Azure SQL Database through PowerShell Automation

12th of April, 2016 / / 6 Comments

In the previous post, Azure SQL Pro Tip – Creating Login Account and User, we have briefly walked through how to create login accounts on Azure SQL Database through SSMS. Using SSMS is of course the very convenient way. However, as a DevOps engineer, I want to automate this process through PowerShell. In this post, we’re going to walk through how to achieve this goal.

Step #1: Create Azure SQL Database

First of all, we need an Azure SQL Database.… [Keep reading] “Creating Accounts on Azure SQL Database through PowerShell Automation”

Consuming CSV files from an Exchange Mailbox via Exchange Web Services and FIM/MIM 2016 using the Granfeldt PowerShell MA

30th of March, 2016 / / No Comments

This solution on first look is quite random. A management agent that consumes a flat file (comma separated file) isn’t ground breaking, but when the twist is that the CSV file is in an email in an Exchange Inbox, it’s quite a different scenario.

Background

My customer uses a Cloud Service for their recruitment processes. The cloud service does have a SOAP API that I could potentially develop a FIM/MIM solution for using the Microsoft Web Services Management Agent, however my customer does not have API access to their tenant, the vendor isn’t overly responsive and I need a solution in days not weeks.… [Keep reading] “Consuming CSV files from an Exchange Mailbox via Exchange Web Services and FIM/MIM 2016 using the Granfeldt PowerShell MA”

Managing SharePoint Online (SPO) User Profiles with FIM/MIM 2016 and the Granfeldt PowerShell MA

22nd of March, 2016 / / 5 Comments

Forefront / Microsoft Identity Manager does not come with an out-of-the-box management agent for managing SharePoint Online.

Whilst the DirSync/AADConnect solution will allow you to synchronise attributes from your On Premise Active Directory to AzureAD, SharePoint only leverages a handful of them. It then has its own set of attributes that it leverages. Many are similarly named to the standard Azure AD attributes but with the SPS- prefix.

For example, here is a list of SPO attributes and a couple of references to associated Azure AD attributes;

  • UserProfile_GUID
  • SID
  • SPS-PhoneticFirstName
  • SPS-PhoneticLastName
  • SPS-PhoneticDisplayName
  • SPS-JobTitle
  • SPS-Department
  • AboutMe
  • PersonalSpace
  • PictureURL
  • UserName
  • QuickLinks
  • WebSite
  • PublicSiteRedirect
  • SPS-Dotted-line
  • SPS-Peers
  • SPS-Responsibility
  • SPS-SipAddress
  • SPS-MySiteUpgrade
  • SPS-ProxyAddresses
  • SPS-HireDate
  • SPS-DisplayOrder
  • SPS-ClaimID
  • SPS-ClaimProviderID
  • SPS-ClaimProviderType
  • SPS-SavedAccountName
  • SPS-SavedSID
  • SPS-ResourceSID
  • SPS-ResourceAccountName
  • SPS-ObjectExists
  • SPS-MasterAccountName
  • SPS-PersonalSiteCapabilities
  • SPS-UserPrincipalName
  • SPS-O15FirstRunExperience
  • SPS-PersonalSiteInstantiationState
  • SPS-PersonalSiteFirstCreationTime
  • SPS-PersonalSiteLastCreationTime
  • SPS-PersonalSiteNumberOfRetries
  • SPS-PersonalSiteFirstCreationError
  • SPS-DistinguishedName
  • SPS-SourceObjectDN
  • SPS-FeedIdentifier
  • SPS-Location
  • Certifications
  • SPS-Skills
  • SPS-PastProjects
  • SPS-School
  • SPS-Birthday
  • SPS-Interests
  • SPS-StatusNotes
  • SPS-HashTags
  • SPS-PictureTimestamp
  • SPS-PicturePlaceholderState
  • SPS-PrivacyPeople
  • SPS-PrivacyActivity
  • SPS-PictureExchangeSyncState
  • SPS-TimeZone
  • SPS-EmailOptin
  • OfficeGraphEnabled
  • SPS-UserType
  • SPS-HideFromAddressLists
  • SPS-RecipientTypeDetails
  • DelveFlags
  • msOnline-ObjectId
  • SPS-PointPublishingUrl
  • SPS-TenantInstanceId

My customer has AADConnect in place that is synchronising their On Premise AD to Office 365.… [Keep reading] “Managing SharePoint Online (SPO) User Profiles with FIM/MIM 2016 and the Granfeldt PowerShell MA”