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Vendors who Embrace Powershell
Misc
(97% upvoted)
(self.PowerShell )
submitted 2 years ago * by michaeltlombardi
https://redd.it/3v6uyu
shortlink:
I've been thinking about this recently. When I look for software to deploy in my environment (to solve a problem, not just because), I make a conscious effort, wherever possible, to make sure the software supports powershell for management. If a vendor's software offers no powershell but does offer a good API, I might still pick it, but I do have a non-zero preference for software with vendor-supported powershell management. That all being said, I feel like it's important to note vendors who do supply good APIs and/or powershell modules/toolkits.
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Vendor and Software API/Powershell Support Matrix Vendor List VMWare Splunk Veeam Pure Storage Chef Puppet Cisco EMC NetApp Okta ServiceNow Symantec DataCore SolarWinds Citrix ?
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PowerShell
If you've got other vendors you think should be on the list, let me know and I'll update. If you think I'm stupid/insane/etc, state that too. I'm interested in the community's thoughts on this.
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Update: Based on the input of /u/ramblingcookiemonste, I've made a gist for documentation of which vendors support powershell/useful api's/DSC and how well they do it. I'll update as I go along but if you've got personal experience with a given software/vendor, well...
202 users here now ABOUT POWERSHELL Windows PowerShell (POSH) is a command-line shell and associated scripting language created by Microsoft. Offering full access to COM, WMI and .NET, POSH is a full-featured task automation framework for distributed Microsoft platforms and solutions.
When responding, please provide the Vendor, Software, and your rating of the API/Powershell Module/DSC Resources. Reasons for these ratings are good. 117 comments
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[–] KoboldJoe 6 points 2 years ago
Amazon AWS. I find it easier to use than the Python boto library.
Script Sharing
https://aws.amazon.com/powershell/
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Misc [–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
RESOURCES
Excellent point. How would you mark AWS? Best-in-class across the board or...? permalink
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SCRIPT REPOSITORIES
[–] real_parbold 3 points 2 years ago
VIRTUAL LABS & BOOKS
Jumping in ...
BLOGS & PODCASTS
I'd give AWS Powershell integration a 7 Very good overall - comprehensive and constantly being updated Individual product teams mean cmdlet sets from separate products can behave differently They have been know to completely break API backwards compatibility between major version releases for some calls (very few calls, but VERY frustrating tbh) Their API documentation can sometimes leave you in tears Excellent 'Feedback' process, where annoyances / bug fixes actually get fixed permalink
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NORTH AMERICAN USER GROUPS EUROPEAN USER GROUPS a community for 9 years
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
What types of non-standard behavior have you seen from different cmdlet groups? Can you elaborate a bit? What sucks/rocks the most about their API documentation? Do they have powershell specific documentations and reference? Glad to hear the feedback process is effective. How would you rate them against this rubric? permalink
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[–] real_parbold 2 points 2 years ago
message the moderators
malice8691 Davotronic5000 derekhans
I'll have to answer this after the weekend - prod me if I forget :D In brief - using different parameter names for the same things in different cmdlets. Documentation omitting the fact that for role based access, the -Region parameter is required for almost every command, yet it is rarely (if ever) mentioned in documentation Documentation for a cmdlet that only works in a single reason, to actually say on that info that you have to use the 'us-east-1' region. Also, the cmdlet responds with a vague unhelpful error message if you use any other region
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PowerShell - I wish ----
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[–] real_parbold 2 points 2 years ago
Rated against rubric :Published as example snippets targeting the API YES but very few examples Published as a Powershell snap-in YES Published as a Powershell Module with DLL(s) YES Published as a Powershell module YES Published as a Powershell module in the Gallery NO - if you mean TechNet Gallery Comment-Based Help for Cmdlets YES but often incomplete, and lacking in examples Use-Case Coverage (per percent) Near 95% I would estimate Pester Test Coverage (per percent) Unknown - I really need to start learning Pester Documentation Reference (Extensive) YES All commands have documentation, but it may not be as complete as I would like More comments -Verbose ; inconsistent support -WhatIf ; I cannot remember a single cmdlet that supports this, and I gave up trying from fear - I have my own $Armed switch I use now -Debug ; inconsistent support Some modules used to use console.out rather than powershell streams (now fixed after I made a comment that I could not trap/hide the messages) permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
I somehow missed this earlier. Thanks for responding with the scorecard results! What're your thoughts on the rubric? Do you think it's a sufficient grading mechanism for a PowerShell module? What would you change or add? RE: Pester - It's got a definite learning curve if you're not familiar with writing unit tests, but it's worth it. RE: The Gallery - I was referencing the PowerShell Gallery which is the default source for PowerShell modules via PSGet. It looks like they do actually have their module published there. RE: More Comments - I really, really do not like that inconsistency. I want WhatIf to work for every single command I call that might wreck something... permalink
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[–] real_parbold 2 points 2 years ago
No problems - I cannot comment on the rubric - the questions asked are to baseline a specific set of requirements. If it suits your grading schema then it is effective :) Pester - yes, I am not a tester, more a hacker (in the old-school sense) Gallery - due to the nature of work that I do, we do not use modules from very many sources. Re-inventing the wheel is commonplace so that we have full control of what is on our systems No WhatIf - could not agree with you more !!! permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Rubric/Matrix: Is it a project you consider valuable to the community? Pester: I have had a very bad habit of cobbling solutions together step-by-step testing against a system as I go. I have only beaten this bad habit by writing my tests first and code second. Gallery: I'm intending to set up in-house package management and powershell module mirrors of approved items for us. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Thanks for the info and clarity! Anxiously awaiting more. ;) permalink
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[–] real_parbold 2 points 2 years ago
OK, here are some more The more I look at this, the more I think that I am being overly pedantic. It has, however, caused me a fairly substantial loss of time when perceived patterns have been disrupted in some cases - I've not used all API section sets, but the ones I have - are inconsistent. This has also started to become a minor rant - so I will stop whilst I retain some of by objectivity :) Most people would look for Add/Remove as the verbs to add and remove items. In most AWS Sections (eg... CloudWatch, CloudFront, CloudSearch, EC2, etc ) However the verb pairs New/Remove and Register/UnRegister are also commonly used (eg... Containers, EC2Addresses, EC2Images, EC2Routes). One particularly annoying one is the 'EC2Image' suite) PS > ( Get-Command -Module AWSPowerShell ).Name | Where-Ob ject { $_ -imatch 'EC2Image$' } Copy-EC2Image Get-EC2Image New-EC2Image Register-EC2Image Unregister-EC2Image New-EC2Image : Creates an AMI from an instance (In effect - the same as New-Snapshot(s) followed by Register-EC2Image) Register-EC2Image : Builds an AMI reference - from one or more preexistent snapshots Unregister-EC2Image: Destroys an AMI reference - leaves the snapshots intact 1. Where is the Remove-EC2Image ? (this would be the collation of snapshot IDs referenced in the AMI, followed by an Unregister-EC2Image, followed by a series of Remove-EC2Snapshot calls) 2. Why is Register-EC2Image not New-AMIReference 3. Why is Unregister-EC2Image not Remove-AMIReference I do know why these namings are the way they are - they harken back to the underlying AWS API operation names, but they still fail to implement consistency, making the transition between one API set and another even more confusing. Anyone who uses a single API layer should be fine, once they learn the peculiarities. New-EC2Image --> CreateImage Register-EC2Image --> RegisterImage Unregister-EC2Image --> DeregisterImage To further demonstrate naming inconsistencies ElastiCache has Add-ECTag and Remove-ECTag EC2 has New-EC2Tag and Remove-EC2Tag Elastic Load Balancers have Add-ELBTags and Remove-ELBTags So we have a mix of verbs combinations and a mix of pluralisation My personal favourite at the moment - Get-ASATrustedAdvisorChecks Cmdlet Synopsis Invokes the DescribeTrustedAdvisorChecks operation against AWS Support API. Syntax Get-ASATrustedAdvisorChecks -Language No mention that it needs a -Region parameter, and it MUST be us-east-1 Amazon is very very focussed on security, and are trying to get people to adopt instance roles rather than keeping credentials on the filesystem. The API calls will look to see if a credentials profile file exists in the .aws sub folder of the users home folder - this keeps the default region, access key and secret key. Instance Roles do not need this information and so the Access Key and Secret Key are not on the filesystem - but the API knows how and where to get them. With all the effort Amazon are putting into getting people to use roles, I'd have thought they would update their documentation to include the region parameter requirement ? permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
It's not pedantic if the discrepancies cause lost productivity and/or failuremodes when they shouldn't. That's part of proper API and management tooling design. I'm kinda glad I haven't had to deal with any of that. How responsive have they been when you request documentation updates? permalink
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[–] real_parbold 2 points 2 years ago
I asked via one of our quarterly sessions direct with AWS about two years ago - nothing has changed. I've not used the feedback button for Documentation, as there are simply too many pages to click and report :( When I used the AWS developer forums to report the inconsistent behaviour of the screen display for 'Assume-STSRole' - I got a response within 24 hrs, and the code was indeed changed to correct the behaviour (along with a few other commands with the same fault) I cannot fault AWS response to the code change, but I cannot comment on the efficacy regarding documentation changes as I did not go through the 'normal' channels to make comments on that ;) permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Thanks so much for following up on this. :) Very good historic information. permalink
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[–] keseykid 3 points 2 years ago
Okta, Service Now permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 2 points 2 years ago
Updated, thanks. Do you find their modules adequate for your use case? permalink
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[–] joerod 1 point 2 years ago
Okta powershell cmlets are meh, rather just use the API with invoke-restmethod permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
So the API is in the 7+ range, powershell in the 3-4? Do they have any DSC resources? I'm assuming not. permalink
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[–] [deleted] 3 points 2 years ago
Backup Exec. Not kidding. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
I had no idea. I haven't touched Symantec for a long while. permalink
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[–] [deleted] 2 points 2 years ago
I still use it to push my Veaam disk jobs to tape once a week. It's a lot of data and BUExec is rock solid for simple tape jobs. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
I didn't think about doing that. I do like simple solutions though. Did you have BUExec prior to this and just used it for the solution, or did you do it because your other software didn't meet the need? permalink
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[–] [deleted] 2 points 2 years ago
Did you have BUExec prior to this and just used it for the solution
Kind of. This is a 100% virtual environment and this place never got a good backup strategy in place once they cut over from physical. They were running BU Exec during their physical days and tried to make it keep working once the environment was virtual and failed miserably. They went 2 years without a proper backup and finally they called in a consultant. I immediately implemented Veeam got some good disk backups running but their tape library was not supported on ESXi. I repurposed the old physical Exchange server as a media server and just run a weekly job that captures the Veeam disk repositories and pushes them to tape. It just requires 1 backup exec server license and 1 agent. I haven't had a single failure in 1.5 years and have performed plenty of restores. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 2 points 2 years ago
Very nice. This is the way to do it. Is there a plan in place to replace the hardware when it reaches end-of-life with something that plays nicer with ESXi? If so, will you drop BUExec altogether or no? permalink
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[–] [deleted] 1 point 2 years ago
Holy shit this is a great question. I'm about to actually upgrade the fucking thing and I can't believe I didn't think about asking my vendor if this thing is ESXi supported. I was just going to keep rolling like it was since it's so rock solid but really I should use a minimalist solution. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Haha, glad to have done at least one good thing today. ;) Yeah, wherever possible, I try to reduce the amount of variance in my environment as general practice. I have no idea if it's optimal, I just don't like remembering things. permalink
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[–] ramblingcookiemonste Community Blogger 3 points 2 years ago
Yep, PowerShell support is often an important criteria, at least where my input is taken : ) IMHO a usable API is an absolute minimum. If the technology is commonly used in a Microsoft ecosystem, a PowerShell module should absolutely be written by the vendor - an API is not enough. Back on topic... You might consider breaking this down by technology, rather than vendor. Microsoft themselves have a few groups that have turned out garbage "PowerShell support". VMware's PowerCLI is great, but have you tried to manage View? I could be wrong, but most documentation for controlling EMC systems via PowerShell includes a strange middleware component, EMC Storage Integrator (I'm assuming and hoping that this isn't a requirement). Citrix... PVS was the golden standard for "how not to support PowerShell." Thankfully this has been addressed in a tech preview. How about their NetScaler? Nope. Cheers! permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Good points all around. What about a matrix then, rating the individual software of given vendors on both their powershell module (if any) and API? A scale of 1-10 seems simple. I may go ahead and make a gist or something for this so other people can edit too, if that makes sense. permalink
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[–] kittH 3 points 2 years ago
F5 permalink
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[–] BootsOrHat 2 points 2 years ago
I'd love to see some examples. My experiences with the F5 PowerShell API so far has been subpar. Just throwing the C# api into PowerShell isn't the greatest experience. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
I take it from the sounds of things that they have some tooling for C#? Do they have separate support for Powershell, or are you building powershell functions around the C# libraries/sdk/whatever? permalink
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[–] BootsOrHat 3 points 2 years ago
The SDK below; it was terrible to work with. There's nothing inheritantly PowerShell about it. https://devcentral.f5.com/d/microsoft-powershell-with-icontrol permalink
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[–] kittH 2 points 2 years ago
Yeah, it's basically a wrapper for their WSDL but they do help with authentication and persisting your session. I was able to do everything I wanted to with it but I did have to write a lot of functions to wrap their methods. permalink
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[–] Lord_NShYH 2 points 2 years ago
Yeah, it's basically a wrapper for their WSDL
I'm OK with that as long as the cmdlets follow PowerShell semantics. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
How would you rate the API/Powershell Module/DSC? permalink
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[–] DerBootsMann 3 points 2 years ago
Microsoft (Storage Replica and Storage Spaces Direct, later ones have no or sparse GUI control) Starwinds HP VSA permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 2 points 2 years ago
How would you rate Starwinds and HP VSA against this rubric? Pretty high scoring or no? What are your complaints/praises for both? permalink
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[–] DerBootsMann 3 points 2 years ago
Starwinds 85-90% HP VSA 60-65% If HP developers port over their VSA to Windows... permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
That score for Starwinds is pretty impressive. Thanks for getting back with me! I really do appreciate it. What did you think of the rubric? Do you think it's a reasonable starting point for judging a product's PowerShell support? Also, do you mind posting the actual results for both products based on the rubric? IE, the published type, the documentation, the coverage, etc? permalink
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[–] McAndersDK 2 points 2 years ago
Cisco have som excellent powershell module support for the UCS platform. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Updated post. How often do you find yourself using Cisco's module? What do you love/hate about it? permalink
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[–] drew_russell 2 points 2 years ago
If you're looking to automate UCS deployments PowerShell is the way go. One of the Cisco engineers put together a script that will connect to the system and automatically export the relevant PowerShell commands based on what you do in the GUI. This makes learning the relevant commands extremely easy. permalink
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[–] ButterCupKhaos 2 points 2 years ago
Can you link to the script? Interested in this for our IronPort mgmt. permalink
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[–] drew_russell 2 points 2 years ago
Convert to UCS Cmdlet PowerShell Script permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Are you aware of any APIs or powershell cmdlets for other Cisco software? How would you rate the implementation for UCS from 0-10? Sounds like an 8+? permalink
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[–] drew_russell 2 points 2 years ago
Cisco actually has a pretty extensive list of APIs. A full list can be found on the Cisco Devnet. As for the UCS PowerShell ranking, easily an 8+. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Excellent, thank you! Reviewing the list now, will update the gist today. permalink
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[–] gblansandrock 2 points 2 years ago
EMC offers a PowerShell module for their XtremIO all-flash arrays. permalink
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[–] redyouch 2 points 2 years ago
This is untrue. They have a REST API but no native PowerShell modules. Source: Guess who wrote the modules for our organization ;-) permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Is this still the case though? Also, how well formed and documented did you find the API? Have you considered making the module(s) available more widely? permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Updated. Can't believe I forgot about EMC. NetApp too. Do you find yourself using EMC's module frequently? permalink
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[–] No1Asked4MyOpinion 2 points 2 years ago
...Microsoft permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 2 points 2 years ago
Well played. permalink
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[–] IANALAMA 2 points 2 years ago
Solarwinds, citrix permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Updated. I've actually poked around with the Solarwinds stuff a bit, shouldn't have forgotten them. I am scatterbrained today. permalink
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[–] IANALAMA 1 point 2 years ago
Forgot another one myself, add F5 load balancers to the list! permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
How would you rate Solarwinds and Citrix on their API, Powershell Module, and DSC support (if any)? permalink
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[–] IANALAMA 3 points 2 years ago
We leverage citrix heavily for deploying our various farms pretty regularly, so it seems pretty strong. I haven't had to develop any new scripts for it, only modify and maintain ones already in place. We're just starting to get into SolarWinds management via PowerShell, but so far we're making great strides with auditing, next phase is to leverage PowerShell to take the same reports, now updated, and vomit them back into Orion and hope for the best! permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
RE: Citrix scripts: Are those powershell scripts/functions wrapped around their API or leveraging Citrix's powershell cmdlets directly? RE: SolarWinds: Sounds like you're leveraging powershell after the system has been stood up and configured. Is this so? How are you finding the coverage so far? Where would you rate them on a scale of 0-10 for their cmdlets and API both? permalink
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[–] [deleted] 2 years ago
[deleted] [–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Are you writing scripts that work against the API directly or utilize Citrix's provided cmdlets? How do you find the coverage to be? Is there anything you've tried to do with powershell you haven't been able to accomplish? permalink
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[–] [deleted] 2 years ago
[deleted] [–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
The cmdlets can't be used remotely? That's interesting. permalink
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[–] [deleted] 2 years ago
[deleted] [–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Can you provide some more details and/or ratings for the API? Is it restful, is the company responsive to queries about targeting it with powershell? permalink
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[–] [deleted] 2 years ago
[deleted] [–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Going through the link now, thanks! So you'd rate the API a 8-9, or? They don't have an official powershell module (yet?) it looks like, which would put PS/DSC ratings at 0. Updating the gist. permalink
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[–] [deleted] 2 years ago
[deleted] [–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
I'm currently doing just that (building an unofficial module) for GlobalScape's EFT. It's, er, interesting. I wish it was a REST API.
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[–] HeXDeMoN 2 points 2 years ago
We use geneos at work it's amazing after you understand it, I run all kinds of crazy powershell scripts through it. https://www.itrsgroup.com/products/geneos-overview permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Is it difficult to understand because of documentation or complexity or? permalink
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[–] HeXDeMoN 1 point 2 years ago
There KnowledgeBase is pretty good but the complexity is huge it's very customizable. FYI I wasn't involved in setting up the backend/gateway I just have been involved in connecting servers to the gateway and configuring the add-ons which they have a good number prepackaged ones but making custom scripts is what I do mostly. Wish I could share more of what it looks like but I'm sure I'd be fired. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Fair enough. I hope that attitude (clamping down on useful code) erodes from management. It's going to take a long time though, I expect. Still, thanks for sharing your knowledge! How would you rate the API? Is there an actual Powershell Module or is it just Powershell-friendly? permalink
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[–] HeXDeMoN 2 points 2 years ago
Basically there's a "toolkit" module/addon and you can have it execute anything (ps1,bat,vb,exe,ect.ect.) really as long as it returns data in a csv format assuming you want to see a return of some sort. We also use scripts that dont show a return of data for example , we have script built into Geneos that monitors an error directory when it finds something in that error folder it triggers an email alert and kicks off another script that generates a bat file that we can manually run that will rename the file and redrops it in the proper folder for us. We could have it kick off the bat file also but we dont want to cause an endless loop. Seems pretty tough to find a real screenshot of Geneos heres the only one I could find, it shows the active console which is where basically the support staff would watch. You can picture how an output of the script will look by this screenshot you have to output in csv format for it to display properly.Also Each cell you see the in the screen cap can have a custom rule that either just sends an email alert or kicks off another script or changes color of cell. https://www.itrsgroup.com/sites/default/files/styles/action/public/insert_media/Secure,%20holistic%20and%20shar able%20views.png?itok=2hj96Tvw I can give another example of what it could do , we have an load balanced RDS farm and we have Geneos setup to collect all the user counts for each server in a central location and we have rules set up to populate cells using math to determine if things are actually load balanced and if one server is taking to much load or not enough load we can get an alert on it because usually means there is an issue with one of the boxes not taking on additional load. Theres other things it can do like "Dashboards" basically you get a visio like tool where you can create a dashboard showing off any kind of data you have inside Geneos mem info,cpu info,uptime,certificates expire dates,amount of jobs processed today, amount of errors.. whatever you can think of http://image.slidesharecdn.com/geneoscorporateoverviewjune2010-12772147688793-phpapp02/95/geneoscorporate-overview-june-2010-16-728.jpg?cb=1277196859 Well I'm going all over the place .. I wish I could just show it off lol because I am very impressed with it and I have given several walkthroughs to internal teams in my company showing it off. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
This is an excellent response. Thanks for the time and detail. I wish you could show off the module too! I'll have to settle for this though. :) I'll update the gist today. Is there anything you've tried to do but haven't been able to accomplish? Is there anything you'd like to see changed from the current implementation? How would you rate it overall? permalink
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[–] cryospam 2 points 2 years ago
Cloudberry backup supports powershell commands. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Well or poorly? How do you find the coverage of management tasks into powershell to be? permalink
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[–] cryospam 2 points 2 years ago
Well, the answer is that depends. The powershell module is actually a full on PS plugin that you can use if you're using Amazon E3 storage. If you have powershell installed before you install the Cloudberry Explorer, it will automatically install it for you (so on customer servers that you're backing up...yaaay). HERE is some info about it. You can do a TON of stuff with powershell and the E3 plugin. I haven't tried it for Microsoft Blob or any of the other supported cloud file locker locations. An Amazon, however, it's fucking awesome. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
It seems to only support use with Amazon based on that page. Is there anything that you need to do with Cloudberry that can't be done via this snapin but can be accomplished via API? I've got zero experience with Cloudberry. permalink
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[–] cryospam 1 point 2 years ago
Honestly...I'm not sure, I don't use anything other than the Amazon integration. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Fair enough. permalink
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[–] buickman 2 points 2 years ago
As far as VMware is concerned, their free version actually now has powershell support. So with the free version you can now schedule jobs to run automatically and determine how long to keep them etc... I used it for a client site and it seems to be holding up well. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 2 points 2 years ago
VMWare seems dedicated to improving both the API and Powershell module both. permalink
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[–] WIGGLE_DINOSAUR 2 points 2 years ago
LogRhythm. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
With what quality? They support Powershell in general, have a module, have a good api? Can you provide some more context? permalink
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[–] KevMar Community Blogger 2 points 2 years ago
StorMagic for their vSan permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
How's the powershell module's coverage? Pretty much the whole API? How would you rate it (0-10)? permalink
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[–] KevMar Community Blogger 1 point 2 years ago
I only just started looking at it. They have a module that looks fairly basic, but then they have a large amount of samples on how to work with it. Those samples cover just about everything you would want to do with it. I honestly think they should have rolled those example functions into the module. It's almost like the module is just low level access and the commands you would expect are in the samples. I'm sure I'll end up making an internal module out of them. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
You might want to consider providing them exactly that feedback and see if they're receptive to updating their module offering. At least the foundation is well laid. Would you rate the module in the 5-6 range then? Do you ever have to interact with their API directly? permalink
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[–] Crossbeau 2 points 2 years ago
A10, slack, Jenkins, octopus deploy, elastic box permalink
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[–] mrkurtz 2 points 2 years ago
A10 has powershell, puppet, chef, and I think api access. At least the load balancers we're getting do. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Can you expand a little on your opinion of the level of usefulness for each? permalink
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[–] Crossbeau 2 points 2 years ago
sure, We have Octopus Deploy run all of our powershell to deploy webs and code, but it also makes API calls to our a10 to pull stuff out of loadbalancer when making code changes. Jenkins either runs our powershell for machine deploys or can recieve api calls to carry out tasks Elastic Box is a really awesome provisioning tool with a lot of Rest functionalities for deploying that we are not utilizing yet Slack is a really powerful chat program that can recieve and send webhooks to be useful! permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Thanks! Sounds like they're all in the 8+ range for API. Do any/all of them have actual vendor-supplied powershell modules? permalink
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[–] Crossbeau 1 point 2 years ago
possibly but I havent really looked. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Fair enough. permalink
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[–] Xibby 2 points 2 years ago
Dell and HP have PowerShell modules for their hardware. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/server-software/product-detail.html?oid=5440657 http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/7727.powershell-cmdlets-for-poweredgeservers permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Good point, completely forgot about the hardware vendors. How have you found either/both to be in terms of usefulness and documentation? permalink
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[–] Xibby 2 points 2 years ago
HP's have been really useful. I haven't done as much with Dell's due to much smaller footprint (thousands of HP servers vs. maybe 100 or so Dells.) Documentation has been OK. Not as good as VMware's PowerCLI documentation on documenting what cmdlets return, but sufficient to get my scripting done. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Okay, thanks for the updated info, definitely appreciate it. I'll update the gist today for both. permalink
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[–] sid351 2 points 2 years ago
WinSCP have a .Net assembly you can use in PowerShell, and they link to a wrapper module someone wrote as well (although I use my own, purely because I wrote it before the other one was made available). Really good documentation too, makes SCP/SFTP/FTPS connections nice and easy from a Windows box. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
TIL. Do you have any examples or links? I'm googling as time permits. :) permalink
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[–] sid351 2 points 2 years ago
WinSCP Their .Net Assembly PowerShell Library Examples The 3rd party module I've not used that module, as I ended up writing my own before that one was available. My module isn't perfect so you're probably better off with the one they link to. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Excellent, thank you! Precisely what I was looking for. :) permalink
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[–] moikederp 2 points 2 years ago
My employer does (DH2i). We ship a PS module that can do almost anything the UI can do. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 2 points 2 years ago
Awesome! :) What can your UI do that powershell cmdlets can't (yet)? Is this for all software or just one specific component? I'm not familiar with your employer, sorry. permalink
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[–] moikederp 2 points 2 years ago
The company is DH2i, and the flagship product is called DxEnterprise. It manages applications, most commonly SQL Server, and basically clusters it within a Vhost (virtual host) container without the need for MSCS/MSFC, AD, or Enterprise licenses for SQL or OS (regardless of cluster size), across mixed versions of Windows Server. So instead of using the full UI, you can script deployments, re-hosting of instances to other nodes, query the state of the cluster, or if you wanted, you could build your own dashboard or OPs console. Functionally, you can do any administrative set or get operation. The UI has a list of real-time charts/graphs for CPU/memory/disk/network, which doesn't have an analogue in the PS module. So basically, the pretty pop-up charts aren't there. I'm not a sales guy, just someone who thinks what we do is pretty cool - I hope my description isn't too hamhanded. I just thought I'd point out that even us smaller folks dig Powershell :) [I should also note, that I'm not speaking on any official capacity on behalf of the company - I'm just some reddit person for the moment] permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 2 points 2 years ago
Definitely appreciate you taking a minute to inform me. :) DxEnterprise sounds like a pretty interesting piece of software. Let someone in your company know that providing the ability to manage it completely from powershell is desirable and much appreciated according to at least one sysadmin. :) Do you know if there's any plan to include DSC resources or tooling? Do you have a separate API in addition to the powershell module? permalink
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[–] moikederp 1 point 2 years ago
I'll definitely give that feedback! I'm not aware of any plans for DSC, but I can ask about it. To be honest, I'm not sure what it'd help with, since the software is stateful and manages configuration and resources in and of itself - that's kind of what we do (service state, permissions on disk/registry, network resources, disk resources; all across the cluster). Our Powershell module pretty much is our API. You can Import-Module of the DLL on any Windows machine with PS v3 and above, and as long as you have network connectivity and can authenticate to a node in the cluster, manage the entire thing from a workstation or remote server. Thanks for the great questions! permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Is there any setup or install or configuration of your software itself that could be handled via DSC? 100% love the ability to manage remotely. Sounds like the module is deployed as a dll? Any intention to add the module to the gallery? Does the software run only on windows? permalink
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[–] moikederp 2 points 2 years ago
There's not really much to do to install the software. It's a 7-click install manually, and we use a script with msiexec to deploy it unattended for daily builds and our Powershell cmdlets to join to an existing cluster if necessary. One of the cool things is that you can update/uninstall/install without any downtime for running applications, so it's pretty hands-off and transparent. I'd have to speak with the engineering folks to see if there's any benefit in DSC at the moment, but my understanding (admittedly weak for DSC) is that it's better suited to stateless or distributed workloads. The product itself handles the configuration for nodes in the cluster for applications, and uses shared or replicated disk for storage. The module is supplied as a DLL. I don't think there'd be any benefit to adding it to the gallery, since it's not really an open project - the only people who would benefit from it are people who have the product installed, which ships with the PS bits included in both the client and server bits. As of now, we support Windows 2008R2 x64 and above (newer OS which are not ready for production, the OS that is, has been tested with the 2016 Server CTP and SQL Server 2016 CTP as well). The current product is Windows-only at the moment. As for future plans, I could only guess. permalink
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[–] 0x0000ff 2 points 2 years ago
Doesn't really count when the Vendor is Microsoft but the integration on below is pretty amazing. SCCM SCVMM Probably all of System Center suite? I haven't looked into it but I imagine SCOrch doesn't have much in the way of PoSH integration. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
I've never played with it, so I'm not sure. I would hope so. I think as of 2016 and the Azure Management Pack for it, that will definitely be the case. permalink
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[–] andrie1 2 points 2 years ago
DataCore, everything in SANsymphony-V can be done with Powershell permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 3 points 2 years ago
That's exactly how it should be. :) permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Does any of their other software have powershell support? How's the API for SANsymphony-V? permalink
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[–] aperr13 1 point 2 years ago
AppAssure has a decent PowerShell module that is included. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Do you find that it covers most of the available API? How do you feel about the documentation? Are there any specific complaints you have about it or areas you think they could improve on? permalink
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[–] psrdrgz 1 point 2 years ago
Adobe Echosign has both a SOAP end point and a REST API which allows you to use New-WebServiceProxy and Invoke-RestMethod respectively. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
How do you find the API(s)? Pretty well formed, well documented, and useful? permalink
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[–] psrdrgz 2 points 2 years ago
The APIs themselves are very well documented and extremely useful. In my opinion it's the gold standard for what REST documentation should look like. However, it does take some work to create Powershell wrappers for them as there is no Powershell specific documentation. I assume it would be easier for someone who regularly works with REST/SOAP APIs or has previously created wrapper functions for such APIs. Depending on what version of the REST API you may be using the only thing that might cause a hiccup or two is Oauth. But the same can probably be said for any good REST API. FoxDeploy has a great write-up on how to handle Oauth using Powershell and provides a function called Show-OauthWindow which is very helpful. permalink
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[–] michaeltlombardi [S] 1 point 2 years ago
Okay, cool. So I'll mark Adobe Echosign in the gist as 10 for API but 0 for both powershell and DSC (since they don't have any official support). If you were writing a list of things you love about their API docs that other API docs lack, what would write? permalink
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