《Automation Using PowerShell》.pdfVIP

Chapter 8 Automation Using PowerShell Virtual Machine Manager is one of the first Microsoft software products to fully adopt Windows PowerShell and offer its users a complete management interface tailored for script- ing. From the first release of VMM 2007, the Virtual Machine Manager Administrator Console was written on top of Windows PowerShell, utilizing the many cmdlets that VMM offers. This approach made VMM very extensible and partner friendly and allows customers to accomplish anything that VMM offers in the Administrator Console via scripts and automation. Windows PowerShell is also the only public application programming interface (API) that VMM offers, giving both developers and administrators a single point of reference for managing VMM. Writing scripts that interface with VMM, Hyper-V, or Virtual Server can be made very easy using Windows PowerShell’s support for WMI, .NET, and COM. In this chapter, you will learn to: ◆ Describe the main benefits that PowerShell offers for VMM ◆ Use the VMM PowerShell cmdlets ◆ Create scheduled PowerShell scripts VMM and Windows PowerShell System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2007, the first release of VMM, was one of the first products to develop its entire graphical user interface (the VMM Administrator Con- sole) on top of Windows PowerShell (previously known as Monad). This approach proved very advantageous for customers that wanted all of the VMM functionality to be available through some form of an API. The VMM team made early bets on Windows PowerShell as its public management interface, and they have not been disappointed with the results. With its consis- tent grammar, the great integration with .NET, and the abundance of cmdlets, PowerShell is quickly becoming the management interface of choice for enterprise applications. Unlike other traditional public APIs that focus on developers, VMM’s PowerShell interface is designed for the administrator. W