This second edition is a hands-on, practical book crafted to empower system administrators and PowerShell enthusiasts to efficiently perform everyday system administration tasks and to automate complex processes with confidence. This book will take you from the basics of PowerShell scripting to advanced techniques and beyond. You will gain hands-on experience with handling variables, data types, and loops while learning to create reliable scripts that manage files, folders, drives, and the Windows registry. You will be introduced to powerful features such as remoting, DSC, and integration with System Center Configuration Manager to ensure that you can manage and deploy configurations across distributed environments.

Additionally, the book covers the intersection of PowerShell with modern automation frameworks, including Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and popular CI/CD tools. Such integration helps you streamline deployments, orchestrate workflows, and maintain consistent configurations across Windows and cross-platform systems. It also covers advanced topics such as extending PowerShell through custom cmdlets, modules, and classes, as well as techniques to interact with external systems via RESTful APIs, Python, and Bash. With simple and straightforward examples, the book presents many aspects of system administration while also touching on more complex scenarios, giving you the insight you need to tackle challenging environments without overwhelming you.

Key Learnings

You will be up and running with PowerShell scripting for system administration tasks.
Use effective commands to manage files, folders, drives, and the Windows Registry.
Use PowerShell remoting to securely manage multiple systems.
Apply Desired State Configuration for automated, idempotent, and consistent infrastructure management.
Integrate SCCM to automate deployments, software updates, and system configurations.
Leverage advanced text manipulation with regular expressions for precise data extraction and transformation.
Develop custom modules, cmdlets, and functions to effectively extend PowerShell's native capabilities.
Employ multithreading and parallel processing to enhance script performance.
Integrate PowerShell with Ansible, Chef, and Puppet.
Safeguard PowerShell environments by implementing best practices, execution policies, and robust auditing techniques.