Nivot Ink - PowerShell 2.0 goes RTM for ALL Platforms

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

PowerShell 2.0 goes RTM for ALL Platforms

( from: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/968929 – downloads at foot of page )

Windows PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language that is designed for system administration and Automation. Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers to control and automate the administration of Windows and applications.

New features that are introduced in Windows PowerShell 2.0 include the following:

Remoting
Windows PowerShell 2.0 lets you run commands on one or more remote computers from a single computer that is running Windows PowerShell. PowerShell remoting allows for multiple ways of connecting. These ways include interactive (1:1), fan-out (1:many), and fan-in (many:1 by using the IIS hosting model).
Integrated Scripting Environment
PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) enables you to run interactive commands and edit and debug scripts in a graphical environment. The main features include color-coded syntax, selective execution, graphical debugging, Unicode support, and context-sensitive help.
Modules
Modules allow for script developers and administrators to partition and organize their Windows PowerShell code in self-contained, reusable units. Code from a module executes in its own self-contained context and does not affect the state outside the module.
Advanced functions
Advanced functions are functions that have the same capabilities and behavior as cmdlets. However, they are written completely in the Windows PowerShell language, instead of compiled C#.
Background jobs
Windows PowerShell 2.0 allows for running a command or expression asynchronously and "in the background" without interacting with the console.
Eventing
This feature adds support to the Windows PowerShell engine infrastructure for listening, forwarding, and acting on management and system events.
Script internationalization
This new feature enables Windows PowerShell scripts to display messages in the spoken language that is specified by the UI culture setting on the user's computer.
Script debugging
New debugging features were added to Windows PowerShell that let you set breakpoints on lines, columns, variables, and commands, and that let you specify the action that occurs when the breakpoint is hit.
New cmdlets
Windows PowerShell 2.0 introduces over 100 built-in cmdlets. These cmdlets, excluding other tasks, enables you to do computer-related, event log, and performance counter management tasks.

WinRM 2.0

WinRM is the Microsoft implementation of WS-Management Protocol, a standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)–based, firewall-friendly protocol that allows for hardware and operating systems from different vendors to interoperate. The WS-Management Protocol specification provides a common way for systems to access and exchange management information across an IT infrastructure.

WinRM 2.0 includes the following new features:

The WinRM Client Shell API provides functionality to create and manage shells and shell operations, commands, and data streams on remote computers.
The WinRM Plug-in API provides functionality that enables a user to write plug-ins by implementing certain APIs for supported resources and operations.
WinRM 2.0 introduces a hosting framework. Two hosting models are supported. One is Internet Information Services (IIS)-based and the other is WinRM service-based.
Association traversal lets a user retrieve instances of Association classes by using a standard filtering mechanism.
WinRM 2.0 supports delegating user credentials across multiple remote computers.
Users of WinRM 2.0 can use Windows PowerShell cmdlets for system management.
WinRM has added a specific set of quotas that provide a better quality of service and allocate server resources to concurrent users. The WinRM quota set is based on the quota infrastructure that is implemented for the IIS service.