Questions about PowerShell Scripting

[ibex333]

I am considering a job as a Server/Systems admin as one of the job options in the future, and according to dice career website, PowerShell scripting appears on just about every list of requirements for System Admins.

I want to start learning this "powershell scripting" on my own since my college doesn't have any courses in it.

A quick Amazon search brought up books about Powershell 2.0. Is this the same thing as PowerShell? I want to make sure I am learning about what I need and not something completely different under the same name.

For those that work with PowerShell, how difficult is it to learn for someone who doesn't know anything at all about programming? What does PowerShell have to do with VB Script, and must I learn this too? What's the difference between Visual Basic and VB Script?

Thanks very much.


PS: Among Amazons book reviews I saw someone say something about how PowerShell is related to .NET framework, and someone else said that .NET is going to die and become useless with the coming of Windows 8. Will I be wasting my time diving into this stuff?

 

[Broheim]

I've never really used powershell as I'd rather use a prober CLI on a unix-like OS.

but I can tell you this, windows 8 wont "make .NET useless", almost a decade worth of software uses .NET so it would be suicide by M$ to screw around with that.

 

[ibex333]

I've never really used powershell as I'd rather use a prober CLI on a unix-like OS.

Yeah, but sometimes you have no choice, do you? Assume that the small business or a company you are working for doesnt use Linux or Unix. They use Server 2003 or 2008. Then scripting would supposedly be useful I guess....

 

[VinylxScratches]

There are so many things you can do with PowerShell. What are you trying to learn? Where I work, I am starting to automate a lot of things in PowerShell on Active Directory.

 

[Markbnj]

PS: Among Amazons book reviews I saw someone say something about how PowerShell is related to .NET framework, and someone else said that .NET is going to die and become useless with the coming of Windows 8. Will I be wasting my time diving into this stuff?

Windows 8 is not losing any APIs, but it is gaining a new one, WinRT. It's more of an extension-cum-replacement for Win32. The .NET framework will remain the primary API for applications.

 

[ibex333]

There are so many things you can do with PowerShell. What are you trying to learn? Where I work, I am starting to automate a lot of things in PowerShell on Active Directory.

As I understand, what I need to learn is exactly what you are talking about. Automating various tasks in servers on Active Directory in particular.


If any of you guys know any good websites that have good free tutorials for absolute beginners on this, please link me. I found some books online on PowerShell, but there is very few books on VB Script. Not sure if I need to know VB Script though?

 

[VinylxScratches]

I just found this one... not sure how good it is.

http://powergui.org/tutorials.jspa

 

[GeekDrew]

I've never really used powershell as I'd rather use a prober CLI on a unix-like OS.

If you're doing anything with Windows, PowerShell is as good as it gets (currently). You'd be stupid not to learn it. (If you don't admin Windows boxes, then disregard.)

Not sure if I need to know VB Script though?

PowerShell is quickly making VBScript irrelevant. It's not gone yet, and probably will still be used for quite a while, but there is very little reason to write anything new in VBScript, as opposed to PowerShell.