The following script can be used to change all the websites on a server or group of servers to the same webroot.
#==============================================================================================
#
# Microsoft PowerShell Source File -- Created with SAPIEN Technologies PrimalScript 2009
#
# NAME: Set-Webroot.ps1
#
# AUTHOR: Jason Rydstrand
# DATE  : 5/15/2009
# VERSION: 1.1
#
# COMMENT: This script is for changing the Webroot on systems.
#
# REQUIREMENTS: 1. Powershell V2
#    2. RPC Access from system script is running on.
#
# CHANGED: 1. Created functions for each step.
#     2. Added comments.
#     3. Added Powershell version checking.
#     4. Added UserValidation before Changes are made.
#     5. Added capability for more then one sytsem to change at a time.
#
# TODO: 1. Pull system from VIP (Not implimented in this version.)
#  2. Wait for system connections to drop. (Not implimented in this version.)
#  4. Do a HTTP Get to spin up IIS. (Not implimented in this version.)
#  5. Put back in VIP. (Not implimented in this version.)
#
#==============================================================================================

#==============================================================================================
# End of Main Script Body

While on the phone with Microsoft I needed a way to check the version of the mommodules.dll on alot of systems to see if the patch was applying.

So, I tweaked a script I found long ago and then made it work in Powershell V1 (with help from #powershell user JasonMArcher). I would give credit to the original author, but I don’t remember who it was. (aka, if you are reading this, please let me know so I can give proper credit.)

$erroractionpreference = "Continue"

$a = New-Object -comobject Excel.Application
$a.visible = $True

$b = $a.Workbooks.Add()
$c = $b.Worksheets.Item(1)

$c.Cells.Item(1,1) = "Machine Name"
$c.Cells.Item(1,2) = "File Name"
$c.Cells.Item(1,3) = "Version"
$c.Cells.Item(1,4) = "Report Time Stamp"

$d = $c.UsedRange
$d.Interior.ColorIndex = 19
$d.Font.ColorIndex = 11
$d.Font.Bold = $True

$intRow = 2

$colComputers = get-content E:\SCOMScripts\patching\Servers.txt

foreach ($strComputer in $colComputers)
{
$c.Cells.Item($intRow,1) = $strComputer

Function GetFileInfo
{

$Path = "\\"+ $strComputer + "\C$\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\MOMModules.dll"

$File = get-item $Path

$c.Cells.Item($intRow,2) = $File.Name
$c.Cells.Item($intRow,3) = [System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo($Path).ProductVersion
}

GetFileInfo

$c.Cells.Item($intRow,4) = Get-date
$intRow = $intRow + 1
}

$d.EntireColumn.AutoFit()

I did some modifications and here is another version that get’s the machine names from SCOM. This has to be ran from the Operations Manager Console.

$erroractionpreference = "Continue"

$a = New-Object -comobject Excel.Application
$a.visible = $True

$b = $a.Workbooks.Add()
$c = $b.Worksheets.Item(1)

$c.Cells.Item(1,1) = "Machine Name"
$c.Cells.Item(1,2) = "File Name"
$c.Cells.Item(1,3) = "Version"
$c.Cells.Item(1,4) = "Report Time Stamp"
$c.Cells.Item(1,5) = "Reporting Node"

$d = $c.UsedRange
$d.Interior.ColorIndex = 19
$d.Font.ColorIndex = 11
$d.Font.Bold = $True

$intRow = 2

$colComputers = get-agent

foreach ($strComputer in $colComputers)
{
$c.Cells.Item($intRow,1) = $strComputer.ComputerName

Function GetFileInfo
{

$Path = "\\"+ $strComputer.ComputerName.ToString() + "\C$\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\MOMModules.dll"

$File = $Path

$c.Cells.Item($intRow,2) = $File
$c.Cells.Item($intRow,3) = [System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo($Path).ProductVersion
}

GetFileInfo

$c.Cells.Item($intRow,4) = Get-date
$c.Cells.Item($intRow,5) =  $strComputer.PrimaryManagementServerName
$intRow = $intRow + 1
}

$d.EntireColumn.AutoFit()

While at work, one of my coworkers was attempting to read a XML file with powershell, and couldn’t get it to work.

After looking at it a moment, it dawned on me of a way to have server lists that one can use for automation.

Let us say you have a XML file like the following:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-16″ ?>
<Objs Version=”1.1.0.1″ xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/powershell/2004/04″>
   <DataCenter1>
       <FrontEnd>
           <Servers>webserver1</Servers>
           <Servers>webserver2</Servers>
          <Servers>webserver3</Servers>
      </FrontEnd>
      <BackEnd>
          <Servers>datalayer1</Servers>
          <Servers>datalayer2</Servers>
      </BackEnd>
   </DataCenter1>
</Objs>

This is a very simple XML file, that one might use to tell the difference between the front end systems and the back end systems in a datacenter.

Now, how would you load this into powershell?
PS C:\Powershell> [xml]$Servers = gc .\servers.xml
Once that is done, you can now grab things from the XML loaded into $Servers.
PS C:\Powershell> $Servers.Objs.DataCenter1.FrontEnd.Servers
webserver1
webserver2
webserver3
As you can see, this gave me the list of servers under the FrontEnd element.

So to use this, in a foreach loop for example, just do the following foreach.
foreach($Server in $Servers.Objs.DataCenter1.FrontEnd.Servers)
{
Write-Host "$Server is a Front End Server."
}
foreach($Server in $Servers.Objs.DataCenter1.BackEnd.Servers)
{
Write-Host "$Server is a Back End Server."
}
This will give you the following.
webserver1 is a Front End Server.
webserver2 is a Front End Server.
webserver3 is a Front End Server.
datalayer1 is a Back End Server.
datalayer2 is a Back End Server.
Very basic XML usage, but it was enough to give my co-worker a running start.

Later