Reddit reviews Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches

If you're fairly new, I think you should start something like Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches. You'll find this recommendation everywhere and for good reason. I personally was an peer reviewer of the 3rd edition and read it page-for-page slowly and provided a lot of feedback. It's a good book to get started with.

After that then move into the advanced tool making books like Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches.

Of course this just help get you started. You'll need to get a lot of practice with realistic projects to become familiar with how to build tools. I would highly recommend becoming very familiar with Git. There are a TON of tutorials out there (both web pages and YouTube videos).

Honestly to become a good toolmaker you'll need a lot of practice, but in terms of material these are a good source to get you started. Be patient and try to find small projects that you can grab onto. I would also recommend Windows PowerShell in Action for a more under-the-hood kind of view of how things work.

Powershell in a month of lunches (as you've already seen), Powershell Toolmaking in a month of Lunches as a follow up looks good. Check out the sidebar of /r/PowerShell, Master-PowerShell was helpful for me, but ymmv. There's also the Hey, Scripting Guy! blog.

The things that always help me out when I'm just getting started is how do I find help, and how do I find commands/functions.

Finding commands

get-command [verb]

and

get-help [command]

also, check out get-help get-help, there are quite a few useful flags attached with get-help like -examples, which is really nice when you're just learning PowerShell.

It's pretty early for me, so this is just kind of a quick brain dump and I'm not entirely sure the coffee has hit my brain, yet, so I hope this helps.

I really like the books /u/joerod suggested.

Links:

PowerShell in a Month of lunches

Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches


For the MVA PowerShell courses:

MVA PowerShell - A plethora of good resources


Good luck! PowerShell is incredibly helpful and fun in both work and every day life!

Edit: Other recommendations from my old self

i recommend using the windows task scheduler and just getting good at logging your powershell scripts either to text, csv, or event logs. i know it's a generic answer, but it's what i've got.

http://www.amazon.com/Learn-PowerShell-Toolmaking-Month-Lunches/dp/1617291161

That's not really a good intro book. It focuses too much on using PowerShell interactively and as a consumer of pre-existing code, rather than on how to actually program. The follow-up book, Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches, goes into more depth on using PowerShell as a programming language, but still not nearly as much as an actual "How to program" textbook would.

That being said, PowerShell in general is not a good beginners language for someone that's just starting to learn programming. There's a dearth of beginner-level resources, and it has numerous idiosyncrasies as a result of its split role as a shell and a programming language that don't map well to other languages and would simply be distracting to a novice.

Python is a much better language for someone just starting out. As an added bonus, it has a lot more applications than just Windows system administration, so learning Python gives you a tool that you can leverage throughout your technical career.

Another "lunches" book to read after the first is Powershell Toolmaking in a month of lunches there's another book coming out on the matter of Scripting later this year.

Also, for reference see if you can get Powershell in Action

It was written by the man who architected and designed the bloody thing, so you're in good hands. I've not read it cover to cover, but it's certainly the definitive reference on the subject.

All above books rated 5/5 stars on amazon by a lot of people.

If you're so bogged down, stitched up and scared to even think about automating anything, then I'd absolutely recommend The Phoenix Project this is the paradigm shift IT has gone through over the past decade. Essentially, IT has taken on board efficiency and best practices that have been standard in the manufacturing industry for decades, to incredible success.

Seriously, "Bag of Nails" IT shops are on their way out. If they're that unwilling to take a step back and do things the smart way, they're a shit company to work for. Learn about technical debt and why it's critical to pay it off.

DevOps and Site Reliability are in essence the latest buzzwords in IT service management, but there's a lot of positive change going on in the industry off the back of it. There's a sort of productivity Gold Rush.

If you're bogged down your current job sounds like the perfect place to cut your teeth and leapfrog off the back of it to move into a better organisation who wants to work smart.

Have fun!

That is great for getting you comfy with the language but if you're like me you need to use it a lot / have a practical purpose in mind to help focus you so with that in mine, the follow-up book may be quite useful

A lot has come from on the job experience, but it also comes from setting goals for myself.

In December I knew nothing about Windows PowerShell, so I started researching. I bought Learn Windows PowerShell 3 in a Month of Lunches. I used that to start making some automated AD reports.

My other goals for this year are Security+ by June 31st. Then read Learn Windows PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches in July. And finally get Linux+ by December 31st.

This is my most aggressive year, mainly because I am starting to feel stagnant in my current job.