So this rant is about powershell. Having worked in the IT industry for 20+ years, the majority of those doing system administration type stuff, I've seen a lot of things come and go over the years. Powershell is now on my most recent "this is getting annoying" list.
Hear me out first....
Powershell is a great tool because Microsoft has standardized methods of customizing a lot of different attributes either in the o/s itself or within Active Directory or other apps that touch it, like Exchange, whereas previously you'd be stumbling through WMI queries or whatever else flavor of the day was used to build it and it stuck around for a while. I'm glad to see that powershell can be used for so many different things and you don't have to screw around with other irrelevant junk.
Now on to my rant.
Powershell is a tool like any other. I've found that powershell is great for handling repetitive tasks or instances where you need to make the same change to a lot of objects. It's a tool. Like any tool it has its uses. It is not be all, end all of everything regarding computing or admin work. It's really starting to piss me off because I come across people now who have drunk so much of the powershell koolaid that they want to devise a powershell solution for every freaking task imaginable. I'm not making this crap up when I say we now have support techs in our department who want to sit and code powershell for a problem that impacts all of about 20 workstations. It will take them over 2 hours to come up with a proper script and even then they haven't tested it. Meanwhile I physically walked up to each of those workstation, made the changes manually, and was finished in about 35 minutes.
The other thing that's pissing me off is how, as an example, Microsoft is going full speed ahead with this crap for everything that even very basic tasks (such as in Exchange) you have to execute some long ass powershell command just to see a certain status on a server, or retrieve the state of a user's mailbox. Why can I not actually see this in the admin console? Who the hell knows!
Folks I've got news for you. Some of the most big iron server operating systems back in the day were Unix, and unix uses command line for everything. People back then wanted graphical interfaces because they were easier to navigate, control and you had the ability to get a better view of many tasks all at once. Yet now we're trying to sell everyone on the fact that going back to command line is better? I should be able to click a freaking button to enter maintenance mode on a server (maybe include a confirmation), not have to execute some longass script to kick it off, and oh of course I also have to remember specifically which script to kick off and in what order. If I didn't have the scripts saved then I'd have to execute each and every damn command by hand, in order, and I'd have to remember all this crap. Tabbing through commands is not helping jack. And I know I'm not the only who feels this way! When I mentioned earlier about the Exchange console not being able to display certain properties or status, you have to use powershell to find it out. You know it's pretty bad when a third party company now SELLS software that executes all of those powershell commands needed to display the status and then puts it into a graphical display in your browser - exactly what I wanted in the first place!
I suppose what I'm really getting sick of is the people who just buy into this crap so readily and can't seem to properly troubleshoot a problem or think of a solution if their life depended on it. They know of only one way to tackle the issue and one tool to use.
Hear me out first....
Powershell is a great tool because Microsoft has standardized methods of customizing a lot of different attributes either in the o/s itself or within Active Directory or other apps that touch it, like Exchange, whereas previously you'd be stumbling through WMI queries or whatever else flavor of the day was used to build it and it stuck around for a while. I'm glad to see that powershell can be used for so many different things and you don't have to screw around with other irrelevant junk.
Now on to my rant.
Powershell is a tool like any other. I've found that powershell is great for handling repetitive tasks or instances where you need to make the same change to a lot of objects. It's a tool. Like any tool it has its uses. It is not be all, end all of everything regarding computing or admin work. It's really starting to piss me off because I come across people now who have drunk so much of the powershell koolaid that they want to devise a powershell solution for every freaking task imaginable. I'm not making this crap up when I say we now have support techs in our department who want to sit and code powershell for a problem that impacts all of about 20 workstations. It will take them over 2 hours to come up with a proper script and even then they haven't tested it. Meanwhile I physically walked up to each of those workstation, made the changes manually, and was finished in about 35 minutes.
The other thing that's pissing me off is how, as an example, Microsoft is going full speed ahead with this crap for everything that even very basic tasks (such as in Exchange) you have to execute some long ass powershell command just to see a certain status on a server, or retrieve the state of a user's mailbox. Why can I not actually see this in the admin console? Who the hell knows!
Folks I've got news for you. Some of the most big iron server operating systems back in the day were Unix, and unix uses command line for everything. People back then wanted graphical interfaces because they were easier to navigate, control and you had the ability to get a better view of many tasks all at once. Yet now we're trying to sell everyone on the fact that going back to command line is better? I should be able to click a freaking button to enter maintenance mode on a server (maybe include a confirmation), not have to execute some longass script to kick it off, and oh of course I also have to remember specifically which script to kick off and in what order. If I didn't have the scripts saved then I'd have to execute each and every damn command by hand, in order, and I'd have to remember all this crap. Tabbing through commands is not helping jack. And I know I'm not the only who feels this way! When I mentioned earlier about the Exchange console not being able to display certain properties or status, you have to use powershell to find it out. You know it's pretty bad when a third party company now SELLS software that executes all of those powershell commands needed to display the status and then puts it into a graphical display in your browser - exactly what I wanted in the first place!
I suppose what I'm really getting sick of is the people who just buy into this crap so readily and can't seem to properly troubleshoot a problem or think of a solution if their life depended on it. They know of only one way to tackle the issue and one tool to use.