Great forum here.  I am truly a newb when it comes to scripting and the likes.  I was just moved into a NetAdmin position from a HelpDesk position and was asked to learn PowerShell to help out.  I've been doing HelpDesk and lite NetAdmin stuff for 14 years so I know the ins and outs of PC's.  My question is "Where do I start?"  I've only done some small Batch scripting and that's it.  I'm working in a Server 2003, 2008 and Exchange environment.  Any suggestions and pointers to where I should go would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance for all your help.

Ray K.  8-)

For free Exchange videos:
http://www.exclusivelyexchange.com/index.html

Intro to using PowerShell in Exchange 2007:
http://www.exclusivelyexchange.com/ExchangeClips/Ex17.flv

That site had a video or 2 on PowerShell, but I don't see them anymore.

You'll find all kinds of videos here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/cc138021.aspx

Also, check this link:
http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/archive/2008/11/30/technet-webcasts-about-powershell.aspx

Live PowerShell intro webcast this coming Monday!

There's plenty of books available also...

Whenever you want to script something which you may have done in batch before, try doing it in powershell. If you want, you can paste a batch file in this forum and we'll help get you started.

Ray

i'm also a newb, ive been using Powershell for a few months now and i started by doing exactly as Hal suggests, find a task that i would normally do and then do it in Powershell. I found a good place to start is the Daily, Weekly, Monthly Tasks such as AD account totals, and checking disabled accounts or disk space reports. These are repetative tasks that can be easily scripted and can save so much valuable time. And I have found that by scripting them the results are more consistant.

Another resource I would recommend from one newbie to another, is Don Jones' CBT Nuggets. Of course it means you have to spend a few pounds (unless your employer isn't as tight as mine that is) but the ROI is well worth it in my opinion.

Hope this helps

Lee

Picking a task is definitely good. Picking a task that you have already accomplished in another language can potentially be better depending on how you as an individual learn. Converting an existing solution from another language to powershell has the advantage that you can spend less time working out the algorithm for the solution and more time focusing on the differences between the language you know and powershell.

I'm a newb as well, (hello every1...!) I've tried to learn scripting for Windows 2000 and its completely new language to learn and who has the time.  I've done a few exercises from the internet and its quite fun; which if the time permits be willing to learn a bit more.

I've come onboard to work for a company that utilizes BAT scripts to map drive, rename and move files.  Without any experience, I was able to view, edit and run just to check how it works.
I know that there's a few scripting programs out there, and I've heard that vbscript is easy to learn just to get it started.

Well, that's my input.

I'll post a script on mapping drives that I ran for my home network, in case I could use it in PowerShell.

I'm out!

Hi,

yep I'm a noob to powershell as well, have been scripting in vbscript a bit with wmi and adsi. It's a big change.. think getting my head around dotnet will be the most difficult part.

on my new job I get to work a lot with exchange and active directory, even some vmware I might get to play with. really looking forward to doing more in powershell

see you around!

Welcome aboard!

I am also a newbiein scripting but I've been into SQL Server Admin for 3 years now.
But I am task to do scripting using powershell cause oracle and DB2 are both heavy in scripting...

I see a lot of materials here
Hope to enjoy my stay here with you guys...

I'm also a newb. Thanks for posting as you did RayKilmer because you described myself exactly.

Hello everybody - I'm just another Powershell newb...:)
My current experience is about SQL Server (admin & dev) and .NET framework - so I can understand the Powershell "philosophy"...:)
I started with a routine task I'm doing here - database backup and deleting the "old" backups. However some "classical" instruction is always welcome, so now I'm reading http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/ebook/ - a fairly good introduction (thank you, Dr. Weltner...).
Another free ebook:
http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2007/05/11/free-powershell-book.aspx