Now that you are moving from Server 2003, time to learn PowerShell

While the received wisdom might be that everyone working as a Windows Server administrator already knows PowerShell or has parachuted out of the industry to pursue opportunities in the golf buggy driving industry, the reality is that a great number, perhaps even a majority, of Windows Server administrators don’t actually know PowerShell.

I spend quite a bit of time talking to everyday Windows Server admins. While there are certainly a good number of us that evangelize PowerShell to the heavens, I find that many IT Pros who work with Windows Server have still yet to “get around” to coming to terms with PowerShell.

One of the things I find myself saying to them is that they shouldn’t feel embarrassed about not having gotten around to learning PowerShell yet – but that the stuff about golf buggies isn’t entirely off base. If you want to do your job in a more efficient manner, then PowerShell is a solid bet. If you don’t get around to learning it, you might not run the risk of getting into golf buggy driving, but in a decade you might find yourself sidelined from the rest of the IT team in the manner of Office Space’s Milton Waddams. We’ve all worked with a Milton Waddams – and as much as our corporate masters might like us to believe that it’s only the dead wood that gets fired, some organizational dead wood has managed to develop a startling ability to stay employed.

A better bet is to get more efficient by learning PowerShell.

If you’re moving off Windows Server 2003 (and lets be honest, there are still a large number of servers out there running the OS even at this late point in time), take this as an opportunity to make the resolution to learn PowerShell. While you could certainly use PowerShell with Windows Server 2003, it’s in the more recent versions of Windows Server where a “PowerShell First” approach is more effective. In the next post I’ll give you a bunch of quick cmdlets you can use to “ease you into it” – as most administrators I know learn best by having tools immediately available, rather than starting off with a bunch of theory and having to wait for a few chapters to get to the good stuff.