Take PowerShell beyond simple scripts and build time-saving automations for your team, your users, and the world.In Practical Automation with PowerShell you will learn how Practical Automation in PowerShell reveals how you can use PowerShell to build automation solutions for a huge number of common admin and DevOps tasks. Author Matthew Dowst uses his decades of experience to lay out a real blueprint for setting up an enterprise scripting environment with PowerShell. The book goes beyond the basics to show you how to handle the unforeseen complexities that can keep automations from becoming reusable and resilient. From the console to the cloud, you'll learn how to manage your code, avoid common pitfalls, and create sharable automations that are adaptable to different use cases.Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.About the TechnologyThe PowerShell scripting language is a force multiplier, giving you programmatic control over your whole data center. With this powerful tool, you can create reusable automations that radically improve consistency and productivity on your Ops team. This book shows you how to design, write, organize, and deploy scripts to automate operations on systems of all sizes, from local servers to enterprise clusters in the cloud.About the BookPractical Automation with Effective scripting from the console to the cloud shows you how to build PowerShell automations for local and cloud systems. In it, you'll find tips for identifying automatable tasks, techniques for structuring and managing scripts, and lots of well-explained example code. You'll even learn how to adapt existing scripts to new use cases and empower non-technical users through easy-to-understand SharePoint frontends.What's InsideAbout the ReaderFor sysadmin and IT professionals who manage backend systems.About the AuthorMatthew Dowst has over 15 years of experience in IT management and consulting.Table of contentsPART 11 PowerShell automation2 Get started automatingPART 23 Scheduling automation scripts4 Handling sensitive data5 PowerShell remote execution6 Making adaptable automations7 Working with SQL8 Cloud-based automation9 Working outside of PowerShell10 Automation coding best practicesPART 311 End-user scripts and forms12 Sharing scripts among a team13 Testing your scripts14 Maintaining your code