Expert Solution for the 2011 Scripting Games Advanced Event 2: Use PowerShell to Identify Services Dependent on Windows

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Summary: Microsoft PowerShell MVP Brandon Shell solves 2011 Scripting Games Advanced Event 2, and identifies Windows service dependencies.

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, here. Today Brandon Shell offers his solution to the Windows PowerShell 2011 Scripting Games Advanced Event 2.

Brandon is a Microsoft MVP, and a moderator for the Official Scripting Guys Forum.
Brandon’s contact information:
Blog: BSonPoSH: The Power of Shell

Worked solution

When reviewing the specs for this challenge, I wanted to focus on the portability and reusability of the script. This is generally my approach unless there is a very specific need. In this particular case, it was very difficult. I say difficult because it has a very specific need: “report on dependent services.” I would normally output objects and stay away from the strings, but the design spec was pretty specific about this. The important thing to note is that there are often reasons to “break” best practices.

Although it was difficult to make it portable and reusable, I did what I could. I added piping support for the built-in Active Directory (AD) cmdlets and text files. I also chose to avoid adding the AD stuff directly to the function so that users can use whatever source they would like to for the information (such as adfind, Quest AD cmdlets, Microsoft AD cmdlets, or SQL).

Examples of use:

# To get a report from a single machine

Get-DependentServiceReport MyServerX

# To get a report from all the machines in a text file

get-content C:\data\myservers.txt | Get-DepenentServiceReport

# To get a report from all servers in a domain with at least one 2008 R2 domain controller

Get-ADComputer -Filter {operatingSystem -like “*Server*”} | Get-DependantServiceReport

# To get a report from all servers using adfind

c:\tools\AdFind.exe -f ‘operatingsystem=*server*’ dnshostname -list | Get-DependantServiceReport

# To get a report using the all servers using Quest AD cmdlets

Get-QADComputer -OSName *Server* | Get-DependantServiceReport

The complete Get-DependentServiceReport function appears here.

Get-DependentServiceReport

function Get-DependentServiceReport

{

    [Cmdletbinding()]

    Param(

        [alias(‘ComputerName’)]

        [Parameter(ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True,ValueFromPipeline=$True)]

        [string]$DNSHostName = $Env:COMPUTERNAME

    )

    process 

    {

        “”

        $Message = “****** {0} ******” -f $DNSHostName

        “*” * $Message.Length

        $Message

        “*” * $Message.Length

        “”

        $Services = Get-Service -ComputerName $DNSHostName

        foreach($Service in $Services)

        {

            “{0}” -f $Service.DisplayName

            “-” * ($Service.DisplayName).Length

            “{0,-20} {1,-60} {2}” -f $Service.Name,$Service.DisplayName,$Service.Status

            $Dependents = $Service | Get-Service -DependentServices -ComputerName $DNSHostName

            if($Dependents)

            {

                foreach($Dependent in $Dependents)

                {

                    “{0,-20} {1,-60} {2}” -f $Dependent.Name,$Dependent.DisplayName,$Dependent.Status

                }

            }

            “”

        }

    }

}

Thank you, Brandon, for providing this solution to Advanced Event 2.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy

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