Scripting Games 2013 - Advanced Event 1 - An Archival Atrocity

Last week I was one of the lucky PowerShell Summit attendees and had the chance to assist to the official launch of the Scripting Games 2013 !! (with a special video created by Sean ;-)

Apart from the PowerShell stars like Ed Wilson, Don Jones, Bruce Payette, Alan Renouf, Lee Holmes, Richard Siddaway, Jeffery Snover.... I met some awesome people there and It was really cool to talk about our passion for PowerShell, How this amazing tool is saving our life each days!

Scripting Games 2013 - Advanced Event #1 - An Archival Atrocity

For the first time, I decided this year to participate to the Scripting Games 2013 organize and hosted by the PowerShell.org team.

I chose the Advanced Track and here is the first script I submitted yesterday.

Feel free to comment and send me your critics.

2013 Scripting Games - Competitor Guide

Don Jones just released the Competitor Guide for the 2013 Scripting Games online.

This year the Games will be hosted by PowerShell.org (Previous ones where organize by the Scripting Guy Ed Wilson). This event is scheduled to start during the PowerShell Summit in Seattle (between the 22nd and the 24th of April).

Make sure to read the Guidelines and check the different tracks available to you (Beginner or Advanced).

Download the Competitor Guide [PDF]

The Scripting Games is a great event for those who want to learn more or improve their skills with Windows PowerShell. I'm planning myself to participate to the Advanced Event. My Script will be post and explained here.

PowerShell/WinForm - Active Directory User Unlocker

An Active Directory account may be automatically locked, if the domain's security policy has been configured to lock accounts after a number of unsuccessful logon attempts.

If an account has been locked out, the lockouttime attribute will contain a Win32 time value that indicates when the account was locked.

An easy way to search for locked out accounts is an LDAP query similar to
(&(objectClass=user)(lockoutTime=>0))




You can integrate this query in the saved queries of your Active Directory Users and Computers MMC.

Description

The following script will use PowerShell to generate a WinForm and give you the ability to unlock account right from the interface. The goal is to do something simple and functional, nothing fancy.

The GUI was created using PowerShell Studio from SAPIEN. You can try this tool by going on Sapien.com

No Module Required

The beautiful part of it is that no Active Directory Module or Quest Active Directory Snapin are required
In my case I used ADSI: [ADSISearcher]

If you want to know more about ADSISearcher check this article from the Scripting Guy

Graphical User Interface

Under Windows 8

Deploying and Configuring vCenter Server Appliance 5.1

In this post I will describe how I installed and configured vCSA in my Home Lab from the vSphere Client. I will also show how to access the vSphere Web client once the installation is completed.

What is VMware vCenter ?

Before I start, It should be good to revisit the definition of VMware vCenter.

VMware vCenter Server provides a centralized and extensible platform for managing virtual infrastructure. VMware vCenter Server, formerly VMware VirtualCenter, manages VMware vSphere environments allowing IT administrators simple and automated control over the virtual environment to deliver infrastructure with confidence.

• Provides centralized control and visibility at every level of virtual infrastructure
• Delivers the security and availability of vSphere through automated proactive management
• Empowers a broad partner ecosystem to extend virtualization capabilities