If you want to run any of the Exchange PowerShell commands from a standard PowerShell environment then you simply need to add in the following line in order to run it as if it is an Exchange Management Console:
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010
For example, the script below will output the size of the Exchange Databases to a file and can be run as a scheduled task:
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010
Get-MailboxDatabase –Status | fl name, databasesize | out-file C:dbsize.txt
What we can do then is save the above script to a .ps1 file and then edit the action to start PowerShell.exe and put the arguments as the script that you want to run:
This can be set up with the usual Scheduled Task settings and with the PowerShell snap-in for Exchange added in should be able to use the Exchange PowerShell commands.
Cheers
Paul
We had a request from on of our clients where they wanted to create new user accounts for around 50 new employees. In order to do this we created a simple PowerShell script that used a populated CSV file to create the users in a certain OU and with a default password.
The CSV file had the following headings:
After saving it to a location we ran the following PowerShell script that created the users:
import-module activedirectory
$inputFile = Import-CSV C:usersToBeCreated.csv
foreach($line in $inputFile)
{
new-aduser -SamAccountName $line.UserName -Name $line.FullName -AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText "Password" -Force) -Enabled $true -Path "OU=Domain Users,DC=TEST,dc=LOCAL" -DisplayName $line.FullName -GivenName $line.FirstName -Surname $line.SurName -UserPrincipalName $line.UserPrincipalName -ChangePasswordAtLogon $True
}
You can copy and paste the script above where you will only need to change the bold text which is the CSV location, the temporary password for the new users and the OU that you want to put the users into.
As long as you use the same headings in your CSV file then this should work ok. You can, of course add in more details that are accepted by the new-aduser command which are outlined in the URL below:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee617253.aspx
Cheers
Paul
Below is PowerShell command which can be run to force a reboot on a remote machine:
(gwmi win32_operatingsystem -ComputerName ComputerName -cred (get-credential)).Win32Shutdown(6)
There is a quick way to record your session in PowerShell to a text file so you have a record of every command you have typed.
In PowerShell run the following command (Change location to wherever you would like)
Start-Transcript c:Powershell.txt –Append
Now use PowerShell as you usually would, once you have finished with PowerShell run the following command “Stop-Transcript”
If you now open the “PowerShell.txt” you will see everything you have just done in your PowerShell session.
**********************
**********************
Windows PowerShell Transcript Start
Start time: 20110810173323
Username : Test
Machine : Test (Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7600.0)
**********************
Transcript started, output file is c:MySession.txt
[PS] C:>Get-Mailbox –Identity Dan
Name Alias ServerName
—- —– ———-
Dan Dan Test
[PS] C:>Get-User -Identity risual
Name RecipientType
—- ————-
Dan UserMailbox
[PS] C:>Stop-Transcript
Below is PowerShell command which can be run to force shutdown on a remote machine:
(gwmi win32_operatingsystem -ComputerName ComputerName -cred (get-credential)).Win32Shutdown(5)
Here is a good command to use if you want to find out the size of all your mailbox databases in Exchange 2010:
Get-MailboxDatabase –Status | fl name, databasesize
It should output something similar to this:
You can simply copy and paste the above command into an Exchange 2010 PowerShell window and run. Hope this helps.
Paul
Here’s a few quick PowerShell commands that will allow you to Disable or Enable a Service and Start or Stop a particular service.
To Enable a particular service run the following command. (Please Edit ServiceName to the desired service)
Set-Service ServiceName -StartupType Automatic
To Disable a particular service run the following command.
Set-Service ServiceName -StartupType Disabled
To Stop a particular service run the following command.
Stop-Service ServiceName
To Start a particular service run the following command.
Start-Service ServiceName
You can also combine the commands in a ps1 file , for example if you want to Disable and Stop a Service you would run the following.
“Set-Service ServiceName -StartupType Disabled
Stop-Service ServiceName”
Just a quick command here to logoff remote machines via PowerShell
“(gwmi win32_operatingsystem -ComputerName ComputerName -cred (get-credential)).Win32Shutdown(4)”
This will log every user off the machine specified above.
If you have PowerShell 2.0 installed on machines in your environment, then you are able to execute PowerShell scripts on remote machines straight from your local machine.
First make sure you enable remote script execution on your Local and Remote machine by running the following in PowerShell.
Enable-PSRemoting –force
Now place the PowerShell script you want to execute on a location on your local machine.
Now we can run the following PowerShell command to execute the script on the remote machine 
(Edit the below highlighted in red to match the remote machine name and the PowerShell file location)
Invoke-Command -ComputerName machinename -FilePath C:FileLocationfilename.ps1
We had a request recently to list what users have rights to a specific users mailbox.
This can easily be done using the following command.
Get-MailboxPermission –Identity “UserName” | fl user, accessrights
This gives an output like below.
If you would like to see permissions for every users mailbox run the following command
Get-MailboxPermission -Identity * | fl user, accessrights , identity > C:Perms.txt
(You can change the file location to wherever you would like)
The list of the Users and Permissions will all be in the Perms.txt file.
