Use Jobs to Run Parallel Queries or Remove Objects from Active Memory

ScriptingGuy1

January 14th, 20110 0

Summary: Learn how to use jobs to run parallel queries, remove objects from active memory, work with text files and use the Get-Member Cmdlet to go behind the scenes of PowerShell commands in this edition of Quick Hits Friday. In this Post:

Use Jobs to Run Parallel Queries with Windows PowerShell

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a (hopefully) simple question. I’m developing a script to measure the size of user home directories on multiple servers for billing purposes. In my example below, there are only two, but later there will be more than 50 servers to challenge. Is there a way I can run the queries in parallel in order to save time? The script below only does them one after the other.

$dir = “server1.mydomain.com”, “server2.mydomain.com”

foreach ($server in $dir){
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $server -ScriptBlock{
$parent = Get-ChildItem ‘e:users’

foreach ($child in $parent){
        $check = “e:users” + $child.name
                $colItems = (Get-ChildItem $check -recurse | Measure-Object -property length -sum)
                $mem = “{0:N2}” -f ($colItems.sum / 1MB) + ” MB ”
                $check + “…..” + $mem
}}} — MH Hello MH, Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. You may want to use the –asjob switch for your Invoke–Command command. It will allow your job to run in the background. Here are some Hey, Scripting Guy! posts where I talking about how to run and receive jobs. You may also consider specifying the –throttleLimit parameter. By default, the Invoke-Command cmdlet will maintain 32 concurrent connections. You may want to bump that number up , depending on the resources that are available to your machine.

Remove Application Objects from Active Memory

Hey, Scripting Guy! You make it very clear how to create an object (such as an Excel application) within VBScript code but after that object is created and opened, it remains in memory even after the script is closed. I cannot seem to find any method of removing that created Excel application from active memory. Please help. — BC Hello BC, you have to call the quit method from the application object. Here is an example of a VBScript that I wrote that creates an instance of the Excel.Application object, opens a particular Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and reads particular information from that spreadsheet. After it is finished reading the spreadsheet, it calls the quit method.

Option Explicit

on error resume next

Dim objExcel, objWorkbook

Dim intRow

Dim strSheet

strSheet = “D:VBSworkshopLabsExtrasNewUsers.xls”

Set objExcel = CreateObject(“Excel.Application”)

Set objWorkbook = objExcel.Workbooks.Open (strSheet)

intRow = 2 ‘this is the row in the sheet we start reading.

Do Until objExcel.Cells(intRow,1).Value = “”

Wscript.Echo “CN: ” & objExcel.Cells(intRow, 1).Value

Wscript.Echo “sAMAccountName: ” & objExcel.Cells(intRow, 2).Value

Wscript.Echo “GivenName: ” & objExcel.Cells(intRow, 3).Value

Wscript.Echo “LastName: ” & objExcel.Cells(intRow, 4).Value

WScript.Echo “”

intRow = intRow + 1

Loop

objExcel.Quit ‘closes out the excel object – YOU MUST include this or Excel.exe will keep running.

Add Information to Text Files with VBScript

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am a VBScript lover from China. I am having problems with a script right now. I want to add some information to a specified file. I have learned some information from MSDN to realize the CIM_LogicalFile Class is not implemented by WMI so what else can I do to use it with VBScript? — SL Hello SL, the best way to add information to a text file from within VBScript is to use the FileSystemObject. I have a large number of Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog posts that talk about how to work with text files from within VBScript. In addition, there are 50 VBScripts that illustrate working with text files on the Scripting Guys Script Repository. In addition to those two resources, if you find yourself in need of assistance while you work on your script, you may want to post a question to the Official Scripting Guys Forum.

Go Behind the Scenes of a PowerShell Command with Get-Member

Hey, Scripting Guy! I’ve used following code so that I could ‘copy’ permissions from one folder, and assign them to another folder.

$ACL = Get-Acl “\TESTSTO01s$Democorp”
Set-Acl “\TESTSTO01$Driveletter$$Company” $ACL It did work correctly, but I cannot see what is happening. Can I see the script behind this? That would be very helpful to understand this process! — NT Hello NT, that is the cool thing about Windows PowerShell, there is no script behind the scenes. The Windows PowerShell cmdlets interact directly with the .NET security classes to perform the commands. If you want to see what is going on “behind the scenes” you have to use the Get-Member cmdlet. Here is an example. Here I use the Get-Acl Windows PowerShell cmdlet to retrieve security information from a particular file on my computer. I store the security information in the $acl variable. If I examine what is contained in the $acl variable, I have an overview of the information that is contained in the variable. This is seen here.

PS C:> $acl = Get-Acl -Path C:fsoa.txt

PS C:> $acl

Directory: C:fso

Path Owner Access

—- —– ——

a.txt NORTHAMERICAedwils BUILTINAdministrators Allow … If I want to know what is going on behind the scenes, the Get-Acl Windows PowerShell cmdlet has obtained a FileSecurity .NET Framework class. This class is located in the System.Security.AccessControl .NET Framework namespace. This particular class has a number of things it can do (methods) and several things it can describe (properties). The Get-Member Windows PowerShell cmdlet will display the members of the FileSecurity class. This is seen here.

PS C:> $acl | get-member

TypeName: System.Security.AccessControl.FileSecurity

Name MemberType Definition

—- ———- ———-

Access CodeProperty System.Security.AccessControl.AuthorizationRuleCo…

Group CodeProperty System.String Group{get=GetGroup;}

Owner CodeProperty System.String Owner{get=GetOwner;}

Path CodeProperty System.String Path{get=GetPath;}

Sddl CodeProperty System.String Sddl{get=GetSddl;}

AccessRuleFactory Method System.Security.AccessControl.AccessRule AccessRu…

AddAccessRule Method System.Void AddAccessRule(System.Security.AccessC…

AddAuditRule Method System.Void AddAuditRule(System.Security.AccessCo…

AuditRuleFactory Method System.Security.AccessControl.AuditRule AuditRule…

Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)

GetAccessRules Method System.Security.AccessControl.AuthorizationRuleCo…

GetAuditRules Method System.Security.AccessControl.AuthorizationRuleCo…

GetGroup Method System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference GetGr…

GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()

GetOwner Method System.Security.Principal.IdentityReference GetOw…

GetSecurityDescriptorBinaryForm Method byte[] GetSecurityDescriptorBinaryForm()

GetSecurityDescriptorSddlForm Method string GetSecurityDescriptorSddlForm(System.Secur…

GetType Method type GetType()

ModifyAccessRule Method bool ModifyAccessRule(System.Security.AccessContr…

ModifyAuditRule &nbs