BSonPoSH

blog: Import/Export XenApp Applications with Powershell

If there is one functionality that has been requested from myself and Citrix it is the ability to import/export applications.

With the XenApp cmdlets this is super trivial.

This is the SUPER COMPLEX Script

Get-XAApplication -full | Export-Clixml .MyApps.txt
# Make sure the Apps are as you want
Import-Clixml .MyApps.txt
# To Import
Import-Clixml .MyApps.txt| New-XAApplication
# Lets see what apps we have now (I added the Imported)
Get-XAApplication | select BrowserName

Not at all complex is it? Great stuff.

Here is a demo that shows how to do it.
Download XenAppExport Demo

From BSonPoSH

tshell :: May.15.2009 :: Active Directory, All :: No Comments »

Import/Export XenApp Applications with Powershell

If there is one functionality that has been requested from myself and Citrix it is the ability to import/export applications.

With the XenApp cmdlets this is super trivial.

This is the SUPER COMPLEX Script

Get-XAApplication -full | Export-Clixml .\MyApps.txt
# Make sure the Apps are as you want
Import-Clixml .\MyApps.txt
# To Import
Import-Clixml .\MyApps.txt| New-XAApplication
# Lets see what apps we have now (I added the Imported)
Get-XAApplication | select BrowserName

Not at all complex is it? Great stuff.

Here is a demo that shows how to do it.
Download XenAppExport Demo

tshell :: May.11.2009 :: All :: No Comments »

My R2/Win7 Experience

I have now been using Windows 2008 R2 for 2 months and Windows 7 client for about a month (two weeks on my production laptop) and I have to say I am thoroughly impressed. I have beta tested every MS OS since 2000 and this is the first time I can honestly say I am excited.

Lets start with Window 2008 R2.
This OS is rock solid. They could release it now and I think it would fair very well. It has enough of a feature increase it is worth the upgrade. I was impressed with 2008 but R2 simply blows it away. It is quicker and I love the taskbar. I am a bit OCD when it comes to my computer and R2 caters to this quite nicely. I wouldn’t be fooling anyone if I didn’t say I was excited about the native Powershell support, but I think that goes without mention. All and all… it is has exceeded any expectations I had. I haven’t had a chance to play with the advance functionality that was introduced, but I plan to get to that this week.

The client…
All I can say is WOW! I think this is first time MS changed the interface in a way that was simply just better. We all know MS has a way of changing the interface that drives people crazy, but this time the changes are relatively noninvasive and worth the aggravation of learning. They truly help efficiency and finally allow keyboard jockeys to put down the mouse and move seamlessly around the screen and apps with keyboard strokes. Some of the new changes seem trivial and just eye candy, but once you get a hold of the usefulness of the new GUI it will change the way you use your computer. GUI changes aren’t the only thing that is noticeable in Win7, the performance is awesome and everything seems snappier. I haven’t got to use the enterprise usability yet, but I hope to get a beta going at work.

Both
The last thing and this goes for both R2/Win7 is User Account Control (UAC.) This was introduced in Vista and while the idea was good, the execution was… ummmm, less than grand. The new OS’s continue down the UAC path (as they should) but have made the process more intelligent and it doesn’t annoy you as much.

The Future
These products are both Beta1 and I would guess a year or so off, but if the final product is even as good as the beta… it will be awesome. Shortly, I hope to start reviewing all the new Powershell cmdlets (+100) soon.

tshell :: Feb.04.2009 :: All :: No Comments »

joe’s Response to my perf testing.

I really appreciate him taking the time to post. He didn’t have to. It can be found HERE

A couple of things here:

1) I don’t want to pretend to be a software developer. I have not the first clue when it comes to writing apps. I am just now learning how data types affect performance. It is quite a leap from scripter to developer. My point here is that adfind is an app that has grown over time and has what is called “feature creep.” Most of the features were not intended and joe has just squeezed them in. I have no doubt if joe wanted to he could re-write adfind in a way that would absolutely blow my little feature lacking script away.

2) My point in this exercise is that when it comes to AD and Perf is concern there is a potential option out there if you do not mind the extra work.

3) I respect joe not only for his developer skills but as a person with a ton of knowledge about AD and a willingness to share that knowledge. joe does not advertise on his site and he gives all his tools away for free. He doesnt ask for anything in return.

4) My testing is not over. IMO for this to be a real success I need to be able to achieve similar performance returning objects… I mean that is the whole point right?

5) I will be working with Darren (GPOGuy) from SDMSoftware to produce a CMDLet version of my script with a ton more features so watch his site.

tshell :: Jun.18.2008 :: All :: No Comments »

Get-CitrixApplication.ps1 (Citrix Top 10)

This script returns Citrix Application Objects.
- With no -AppName passed it will return All application Objects
- With -AppName it will return all apps that match (regex.)

# Get-CitrixApplication.ps1
# Brandon Shell [MVP]
# www.bsonposh.com
# Returns Citrix Application Objects for AppName passed or RegEx
Param($AppName=".*",$server=$env:ComputerName)
$type = [system.Type]::GetTypeFromProgID("MetaframeCOM.MetaFrameFarm",$server)
$farm = [system.Activator]::CreateInstance($type)
$farm.Initialize(1)
$farm.Applications | ?{($_.AppName -match $AppName) -or ($_.BrowserName -match $AppName)}

tshell :: Apr.09.2008 :: All, Citrix, Powershell, Scripting :: No Comments »

Set-CitrixServerLogon.ps1 (Citrix Top 10)

Here is a useful little script. This Creates a MFCom Server Object and disables or Enables Logons for that Server.

# Set-CitrixServerLogon.ps1
# Brandon Shell [MVP]
# www.bsonposh.com
# Sets the Server to Enable or Disable Logons
Param($Server,[switch]$enable,[switch]$disable,[switch]$help)
function HelpMe{
Write-Host
Write-Host " Set-CitrixServerLogon.ps1:" -fore Green
Write-Host " Sets the Server to Enable or Disable Logons"
Write-Host
Write-Host " Parameters:" -fore Green
Write-Host " -Server : Optional. Server to Set Logon"
Write-Host " -Enable : Optional. Checks Hours of Idle Time (Default)"
Write-Host " -Disable : Optional. Checks Minutes of Idle Time"
Write-Host " -Help : Optional. Displays This"
Write-Host
Write-Host " Examples:" -fore Green
Write-Host " To disable the Logon for a Server" -fore White
Write-Host " Set-CitrixServerLogon.ps1 -server <serverName> -Disable" -fore Yellow
Write-Host
}

if(!$Server -or $help){helpme;Write-Host;return}

Write-Host

Write-Host " Getting Server [$Server]"
$mfsrv = New-Object -ComObject MetaFrameCOM.MetaFrameServer

Write-Host " – Initializing Server"
$mfsrv.Initialize(6,$Server)

if($enable)
{
Write-Host " – Setting to EnableLogon = 1"
$mfSrv.WinServerObject.EnableLogon = 1
}
if($disable)
{
Write-Host " – Setting to EnableLogon = 0"
$mfSrv.WinServerObject.EnableLogon = 0
}

Write-Host " – Server [$($mfSrv.ServerName)] is set to [$($mfSrv.WinServerObject.EnableLogon)] for EnableLogon"

Write-Host

Another option would be to remove the Apps from the Server all together.

# Unpublish-CitrixServer.ps1
# Brandon Shell [MVP]
# www.bsonposh.com
# Removes all App from Server
Param($Server)
$mfsrv = New-Object -ComObject MetaFrameCOM.MetaFrameServer
$mfsrv.Initialize(6,$Server.ToUpper())
$mfsrv | foreach{$_.Applications} | foreach{$_.LoadData(1);$_.RemoveServer($Server.ToUpper());$_.SaveData()}

tshell :: Apr.09.2008 :: All, Citrix, Powershell, Scripting :: No Comments »

An Interactive Case for Powershell (Yet more Citrix Fun!)

I was recently in a discussion on Brian Madden Forums about listing Citrix Information and exporting to CSV. It seemed like a
perfect fit for Powershell so I converted the VBScripts to Powershell (of course taking an 85 line script to 3 lines. Convert is
hardly the correct term.)

Here is the Forum Topic

http://www.brianmadden.com/Forum/Topic/95285

Here is my Code. There were three scripts, so I made three as well.

# Apps by Server CTXApps_by_Server_w_Users
$MF = (New-Object -com MetaFrameCOM.MetaFrameFarm)
$MF.Initialize(1)
$MF.Servers | Select-Object ServerName -expand Applications | Select-Object ServerName,AppName,DistinguishedName,
@{n=‘Users’;e={$_.Users | %{$_.UserName}}},
@{n=‘Groups’;e={$_.Groups | %{$_.GroupName}}} | export-Csv C:\AppsByServer.Csv -noType

# Apps with Servers
$MF = New-Object -com MetaFrameCOM.MetaFrameFarm
$MF.Initialize(1)
$MF.Applications | Select-Object AppName,DistinguishedName,
@{n="Servers";e={$_.Servers | foreach{$_.ServerName}}} | export-Csv C:\AppsWithServer.Csv -noType

# Apps with Servers and Users CTXApps_w_Servers_w_Users
$MF = New-Object -com MetaFrameCOM.MetaFrameFarm
$MF.Initialize(1)
$MF.Applications | Select-Object AppName,DistinguishedName,
@{n="Servers";e={$_.Servers | foreach{$_.ServerName}}},
@{n=‘Users’;e={$_.Users | %{$_.UserName}}},
@{n=‘Groups’;e={$_.Groups | %{$_.GroupName}}} | export-Csv C:\AppsWithServerandUsers.Csv -noType

If you notice in my three scripts they all start with the same two lines. Effectively these are one liners that could be used
interactively. I think this does a great job of showing Citrix Admins how nicely Powershell will fit in to their daily lives.
Things that use to take 100s of lines of script writing can now be done interactively at a shell.

tshell :: Jan.28.2008 :: Citrix, HowTo, Powershell, Scripting :: 3 Comments »

Get-InstalledSoftware (what software is installed?)

nishant left a comment on my “Powershell, Remote Registry and You! Part 1 (Overview)” post.

Nishant asked “I want a complete list of software installed on a remote machine using Powershell.”

I decided to post on this because it is brought up a lot. Unfortunately, getting a complete list of install applications is not that straightforward. Some applications do not store information in the Registry so the best we can do is list software that provides Uninstall regkey info. That is what the script below does. While this is not perfect it does a pretty good job getting the info.

Param($srv=$env:ComputerName)
$regKey = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey([Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine,$Srv)
$key = $regKey.OpenSubkey("Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall",$false)
$key.GetSubKeyNames()

It is common to see people use Win32_Product to list installed apps, but it is important to point out this only list applications installed by an MSI installer.

Perhaps the best options is to combine both of these options.

# Get-InstalledSoftware
Param($srv=$env:ComputerName)
$regKey = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey([Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine,$Srv)
$key = $regKey.OpenSubkey("Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall",$false)
Write-Host
Write-Host "Getting Software in Uninstall Key" -Fore Green
Write-Host ("-"*60) -Fore Gray
$key.GetSubKeyNames()
Write-Host
Write-Host "Getting Software From Win32_Product" -Fore Green
Write-Host ("-"*60) -Fore Gray
get-wmiobject Win32_Product -comp $srv | foreach{$_.Name}
Write-Host

tshell :: Jan.24.2008 :: .NET, All, Powershell, Registry :: 1 Comment »

The “Power” of SHELL