In preparation for my latest course in the AWS Networking Deep Dive series, I wanted to install PowerShell Core on an Amazon Linux instance to test out cross-platform compatibility for some scripts.
Specifically, I wanted to see if I could use methods in the System.Net.Dns class to perform name resolution. The dnsclient PowerShell module provides some cmdlets for this very purpose, but that module is Windows-only, and I needed something that would work on across different platforms.
I know what you’re thinking. “Why use Visual Studio Code instead of the PowerShell ISE?” Well, if you’re using Mac OS or Linux, you don’t have the option to use the PowerShell ISE natively. And that’s a problem if you want to take advantage of the cross-platform capabilities of PowerShell Core. In this article, I’ll show you how to use Visual Studio Code (free!) to perform the key functions of the PowerShell ISE, namely:
Recently I needed a way to copy a certificate file from within a PowerShell session to another Windows machine without opening a nested PowerShell session. But I ran into a little snag along the way: Copy-Item‘s dreaded Access is denied error.
Here’s my setup: A Windows 10 laptop, from which I’m remoting NC1, a Server 2016 virtual machine I’m remoted into. It’s a member of a domain. HYPERV1, the Server 2016 machine I want to copy a certificate file to.
After upgrading my Lenovo ThinkPad to Windows 10, I was so pumped. The upgrade went smoothly, all my apps worked, but then I noticed something: some apps had blurry, fuzzy text.
Ugly, blurry, fuzzy text on Windows 10:
This might not bother some people, but to me it felt like trying to read a wet book with my glasses off. Most everything else looked sharp and normal, so I knew it wasn’t a native resolution or global DPI scaling issue, which is what most of my Google-fu turned up.
Sometimes you just need to create a file share.
With Windows Server Core, you don’t have all the old GUI tools that we’re all used to. So you have to make do with PowerShell and the old fake DOS prompt. Fortunately, with a little help, it’s pretty easy.
First, create the folder you want to share. In this case, c:\share
Next, modify the ACL to grant the DOMAIN\File Server Admins group full control
Windows Server 2012 offers two installation options: Server Core or “Server with a GUI”. This begs the question: Why would you want to install Server Core instead of the GUI? One reason may be that you have limited physical hardware resources and want to keep the footprint as small as possible.
Recently I needed to build a domain controller, DHCP, and DNS server for a branch office. This office has a Riverbed Steelhead WAN optimization appliance which runs a nested VMware ESXi hypervisor. The appliance has limited memory and disk space, so I needed to keep the installation as small as possible (Incidentally, if I only needed DNS and DHCP, I would have just installed RedHat Enterprise Linux, but having the server be an Active Directory domain controller was also a requirement.)
I’m going to show you step-by-step how I configured Active Directory Services, DNS, and DHCP on a Windows Server 2012 Server Core installation.
In many Citrix environments it’s common to have a large variety of ICA client versions. One thing that sometimes surprises users and IT folks alike is how much of a performance increase can be seen after upgrading an old ICA client. But how do you know which clients need upgrading?
One of the biggest challenges has been deciphering what ICA client version the cryptic “client build number” in a user’s session information translates to.