Category Archives: MS Scripting

Add-VMNetworkAdapterExtendedAcl – allow only specific traffic to a VM and allow all outgoing traffic from a VM on Windows server 2016 – Hyper-V

Import and set TSGateway / RDGateway certificate with Powershell

How to change TXT record value on Micorosft DNS server using Powershell

As Let’s Encrypt anounced wildcard certificates I just wanted to make my life easier with automating the process of renewal and inserting values in TXT records to prove domain identity.

I am running all my DNS zones on Microsoft Windows server 2016 with DNS role installed where I will need to modify TXT record value every (little less) than three months to renew my *.domain.xyz cerificate. So how can we do it in Powershell just by modifing the existing value.

First time you will probably need to create the record by using:
Add-DnsServerResourceRecord

Add-DnsServerResourceRecord -Txt -Name _acme-challenge -DescriptiveText “SomeTextThatYouReceiveFromLet’sEncryptACME2Process” -ZoneName mydomain.xyz -TimeToLive 00:00:10

*I am keeping TTL very low here just in case you will need to repeat the process to expire soon (in 10 seconds).

Later on you will need just to modify the value of TXT record _acme-challenge
We have here a new cmdlet to the rescue: Set-DnsServerResourceRecord but it can not be simply used just to modify the value – you need to use two fill two parameter values called -OldInputObject (old record values) and -NewInputObject (new modified values).

Let’s take a look at the example:

$oldvalue = Get-DnsServerResourceRecord -ZoneName mydomain.xyz -RRType Txt -Name _acme-challenge
$newvalue = Get-DnsServerResourceRecord -ZoneName mydomain.xyz -RRType Txt -Name _acme-challenge
$newvalue.RecordData.DescriptiveText = “SomeNEWTextThatYouReceiveFromLet’sEncryptACME2Process”
Set-DnsServerResourceRecord -ZoneName mydomain.xyz -OldInputObject $oldvalue -NewInputObject $newvalue

What we did here is to declare two values where current values of the record are stored – $oldvalue and $newvalue.
Then I modified the $newvalue element called “DescriptiveText” that represents the text string of TXT record to some new data that I receive from ACME2 process when requesting Let’s Encrypt wildcard certificate.
At least I applied this new value to the record by using Set-DnsServerResourceRecord cmdlet and parameters.

Hyper-V virtual machine backup script…

13 Replies

Today my friend Marko Cepe sent me his VBS script that does great job to backup virtual machines that are running on Hyper-V.
This script does shut down virtual machine by sending shut down command to machine using integration services, then it waits virtual machine to enter stopped state, after that it does export of the machine and turns the machine back on.

Usage:

C:SKRIPTE> ExportVM.vbs VMName ExportDirectory

Example:

C:SKRIPTE> ExportVM.vbs TestVM X:BackupTestVM

Click, download and enjoy the script.

Comments appreciated…

Get IP address of virtual machines running on Hyper-V – FIXED!

1 Reply

Big thank you – goes to Max Trinidad my fellow MVP from Powershell group…

Here is errorless script – much better than mine! 🙂

Copa, paste and save as .ps1 – then run on your Hyper-V server and you will get IP’s of your virtual machines…

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

## – Use Line below to list all your Virtualization Class
#get-wmiobject -namespace “root/virtualization” -list

## – Load filter (or function first)
filter Import-CimXml{

    $CimXml = [Xml]$_
    $CimObj = New-Object -TypeName System.Object

    foreach ($CimProperty in $CimXml.SelectNodes(“/INSTANCE/PROPERTY”)){
        if ($CimProperty.Name -eq “Name” -or $CimProperty.Name -eq “Data”){
            $CimObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name $CimProperty.NAME -Value $CimProperty.VALUE
        }
    }

    $CimObj
}

## – Collect WMI Virtual information
$getWmiVirtual = Get-WmiObject -Namespace “rootvirtualization” -Query “Select * From Msvm_ComputerSystem” | sort-object elementname

## – Build your results from your collected objects
ForEach($v in $getWmiVirtual){
    $vm = $v.ElementName;
    $VmObj = Get-WmiObject -Namespace “rootvirtualization” -Query “Select * From Msvm_ComputerSystem Where ElementName=’$vm'”;
    $KvpObj = Get-WmiObject -Namespace “rootvirtualization” -Query “Associators of {$VmObj} Where AssocClass=Msvm_SystemDevice ResultClass=Msvm_KvpExchangeComponent”;
    if($KvpObj.GuestIntrinsicExchangeItems -ne $null){
        write-host $vm;
        $KvpObj.GuestIntrinsicExchangeItems | Import-CimXml | where {$_.NAME -match “NetworkAddressIPv4”} | ft;
    }
}

## – End of Script

Get IP address of virtual machines running on Hyper-V

2 Replies

I have been searching for an easy solution to somehow “scan” virtual machines and get their IP addresses becouse sometimes you need to find your virtual machines and it is more practical to somehow get a whole list of machines + IPs in stead of loging in from machne to machine and check IP… Well it can be done using Powershell… I have encountered an article but the problem is that here you need to put machine name on which you want to get data… I modified this script a bit so it looks like:

Get-WmiObject -Namespace rootvirtualization -Query “Select * From Msvm_ComputerSystem”| sort-object elementname | ForEach-Object {$vm = $_.Elementname
write-host $vm
filter Import-CimXml
{
    $CimXml = [Xml]$_
    $CimObj = New-Object -TypeName System.Object
    foreach ($CimProperty in $CimXml.SelectNodes(“/INSTANCE/PROPERTY”))
    {
if ($CimProperty.Name -eq “Name” -or $CimProperty.Name -eq “Data”)
{

$CimObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name $CimProperty.NAME -Value $CimProperty.VALUE

}
}
$CimObj
}
$VmObj = Get-WmiObject -Namespace rootvirtualization -Query “Select * From Msvm_ComputerSystem Where ElementName=’$vm'”
$KvpObj = Get-WmiObject -Namespace rootvirtualization -Query “Associators of {$VmObj} Where AssocClass=Msvm_SystemDevice ResultClass=Msvm_KvpExchangeComponent”
$KvpObj.GuestIntrinsicExchangeItems | Import-CimXml
} | where {$_.NAME -match “NetworkAddressIPv4”} | ft
read-host

So… Copy paste this script to an text file and save it as getip.ps1 and run it using powershell – it does need any other modules you should only run it on Windows Server where you have Hyper-V role installed… (I do not remember but I think you should enable execution policy for ps1 scripts… If you have truble executing your ps1 check here…)

By the way… This script has an error first virtual machine name will not fit in table (I do not know why 🙂 ) and you will get an error when this script will try to analyze your Hyper-V host machine… I do not know how to solve this two errors if someone out there solves it please provide feedback. 🙂 Thank you!

SBS 2011 – Import PST in Exhange 2011

6 Replies

To enable import and export of mailboxes on SBS 2011 you need to:

Go to Windows SBS console and create a security group – that shuld be universal (by default) for example: Mailbox management

Add administrator / admin account to the group

Then you need to enable “import / export” feature on members of this group. To do that you need to open Exchange Management Shell (Powershell with Exchange 2010 modules) as administrator and write:

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Name “Import Export Mailbox Admins” -SecurityGroup “Mailbox management” -Role “Mailbox Import Export”

After that you can folow my article to import or export mailboxes…

Luka Manojlovic

Luka's technical blog