Category Archives: Scripting

Run Disk Cleanup tool on Windows Server without Installing

If you are getting a low disk space alert on a Windows Server, the safest way to free some space is to run the Disk Cleanup wizard. However on Windows Server, by default Disk Cleanup is not installed. Installing it through “Add Windows Features” would trigger a reboot. To avoid this you can simply install it by copying two files cleanmgr.exe and cleanmgr.exe.mui with following commands:

copy C:Windowswinsxsamd64_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_c9392808773cd7dacleanmgr.exe %systemroot%System32
copy C:Windowswinsxsamd64_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_en-us_b9cb6194b257cc63cleanmgr.exe.mui %systemroot%System32en-US

Note: the above commands are for Windows Server 2008 R2. Check this website for other windows versions:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff630161(WS.10).aspx

Install PowerShell and Powershell ISE on Windows Server

Windows Server 2003

For Windows server 2003, PowerShell V1 was released as KB ( hotfix). Download and install KB926139 – Windows PowerShell 1.0 English-Language Installation Package for Windows Server 2003

If you need PowerShell V2, make sure you have SP2 installed and then install Windows Management Framework from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968929

Windows Server 2008

For Windows Server 2008 run the following command in an elevated Command Prompt.

servermanagercmd -install PowerShell

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 has PowerShell V2 built in and enabled by default, however, PowerShell ISE is not. It is installed on Windows 7 client OS, but an Optional Component on Windows Server 2008 R2. To Install PowerShell ISE on R2, run the following command in a Windows PowerShell Modules prompt

Import-Module ServerManager
Add-WindowsFeature PowerShell-ISE

OR

  1. In Server Manager, start the Add Roles and Features wizard.
  2. On the Features page, select Windows PowerShell ISE.

Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012 has both PowerShell V3 built in and installed. PowerShell ISE needs to be added as it’s an optional Windows PowerShell feature, same as Windows Server 2008 R2.

Also checkout How to run PowerShell scripts to start your first PowerShell script.

Using SCVMM 2012 Cmdlets in PowerShell

SCVMM Cmdlets allow SCVMM admin/users to do everything they can do in SCVMM AdminConsole in windows PowerShell command line. In SCVMM 2008 R2, you can run following command in PowerShell to run SCVMM cmdlets.

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager

But this does not work in SCVMM 2012 as SCVMM 2012 uses PowerShell module. For SCVMM 2012 now you need run following in PowerShell instead

Import-Module "C:Program FilesMicrosoft System Center 2012Virtual Machine ManagerbinpsModulesvirtualmachinemanagervirtualmachinemanager"

(This assumes that you have SCVMM 2012 installed on the default location C:Program FilesMicrosoft System Center 2012 )

The PowerShell cmdlets in SCVMM 2012 change a lot in SCVMM 2012, you can get a list of all SCVMM 2012 cmdlets by typing the following at the PowerShell command shell prompt

Get-Command -Module virtualmachinemanager -Type cmdlet

And you can run Get-Help on any of the cmdlets to get the syntax for that cmdlet.

Get-Help <cmdlet name> -detailed

Update: Microsoft has published the SCVMM 2012 cmdlets help to TechNet, check it out http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh801697.aspx

Configure PowerShell to use DotNet 4.0

You might get following error when you load a snap-in that is written by DotNet 4.0.

This assembly is built by a runtime newer than the currently loaded runtime and cannot be loaded.

This is because by default, PowerShell uses DotNet version 2.0 CLR. To use powershell load DotNet 4.0 assemblies, the following settings need to be added in PowerShell.exe.config under C:WindowsSysWOW64WindowsPowerShellv1.0.

<configuration>
    <startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
        <supportedRuntime version="v4.0.30319"/>
        <supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
    </startup>
</configuration>

Note:

  1. Above applies to 64bit windows server 2008 r2. On a 32 bit machine, PowerShell.exe.config can be found at C:windowsSystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0
  2. Create PowerShell.exe.config if this file is not found.

How to run ps1 scripts

PowerShell scripts are text files with ".ps1" extensions that contain PowerShell commands. Starting with Windows Server 2008, PowerShell is built into the OS. For earlier OS versions, you will need to download PowerShell at Microsoft PowerShell Site and install it.

To run ps1 scripts, you first need to enable scripts by running:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Otherwise, you will get this error message:

File <script> cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see "get-help about_signing" for more details.

The most common way to run PowerShell scripts is from Windows PowerShell command prompt. You must specify a path to the script to run it. If the script is in your current folder, then you can run it with:

.script.ps1

If the script is in another folder, you need specify the full path:

c:scriptsscript.ps1

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    Install PowerShell From Command Line

    To install PowerShell on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, following features needs to be installed.

    1. NetFx2-ServerCore
    2. NetFx3-ServerCore
    3. MicrosoftWindowsPowerShell

    Because Powershell is built on DotNet framework, DotNet 2.0 and 3.5  has to be installed prior to PowerShell installation.

    To install PowerShell from command line, run following from elevated command prompt

    DISM.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx2-ServerCore DISM.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3-ServerCore DISM.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:MicrosoftWindowsPowerShell

    Or run following command if it’s an 64bit machine

    DISM.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx2-ServerCore-WOW64 
    DISM.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3-ServerCore-WOW64 
    DISM.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:MicrosoftWindowsPowerShell-WOW64 

    Disable standby/sleep

    powercfg.exe is a windows built in tool to config power management. powercfg.exe is a command line utility, it’s easy to integrate powercfg.exe into scripts.

    Turn hibernation off

    powercfg -hibernate OFF

    Set the power configuration to High Performance

    powercfg -setactive 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

    Set the absentia power scheme (the scheme used when no one is logged in)

    powercfg.exe -setabsentia 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c