{"id":40700,"date":"2022-12-13T13:42:48","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T13:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.n-able.com\/?p=40700"},"modified":"2022-12-15T13:57:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T13:57:21","slug":"leveraging-powershell-scripts-in-n-central-automation-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.n-able.com\/pt-br\/blog\/leveraging-powershell-scripts-in-n-central-automation-manager","title":{"rendered":"Leveraging PowerShell scripts in N‑central Automation Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure for most of you reading this, you are well aware of just how powerful PowerShell can be.\u00a0 Speaking with partners and prospects over the years who were either using or evaluating our software, I\u2019d often get asked: \u201cCan your products do X?\u201d. More often than not the answer would be \u201cYes\u201d, but every so often, I\u2019d have to say \u201cNo, but if you can do it through PowerShell, we should be able to leverage Automation Manager<\/span><\/a> to run it in N‑central.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In this blog I\u2019m going to look at some of the benefits of running your PowerShell scripts via Automation Manager in N‑central<\/span><\/a>, and give you some ideas of how you can leverage this.<\/span><\/p>\n

The key benefits of leveraging PowerShell scripts via Automation Manager<\/span><\/h2>\n

Right at the top of the list of benefits of leveraging PowerShell scripts via Automation Manager has to be the ability to enhance the monitoring capabilities of N‑central<\/span><\/a> beyond what\u2019s available out of the box. With PowerShell you can often pull the exact information you are looking for at any one time. But how do you pull that information regularly and\/or get alerts when anything changes? This is where Automation Manager comes into play.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can use the Run PowerShell Script cmdlet in Automation Manager<\/span><\/a> to execute your PowerShell script. This cmdlet also supports Output Parameters, which can define the output from your automation policy. Any automation policy<\/span><\/a> you create that provides output can be used for monitoring purposes in N‑central. So, for example, if you need to monitor a certain backup application and you have the PowerShell script to do this, leveraging Automation Manager will allow you to define what information you want to output from this script. Once you import this into N‑central, you can define thresholds for alerting based on the output that\u2019s being provided.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Defining Input Parameters<\/span><\/h2>\n

Using Automation Manager to output information from PowerShell scripts is a powerful tool for monitoring purposes, but did you know you can also use Automation Manager to define Input Parameters<\/span><\/a> into your PowerShell scripts? Thus making them more flexible. For example, you might have a PowerShell script that finds all Hyper-V checkpoints that are older than \u20187\u2019 days. However, with Automation Manager you can replace that \u20187\u2019 with an Input Parameter so that you can define the period of time you are looking for, as the requirement may change from server to server and customer to customer.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Using predefined cmdlets <\/span><\/h2>\n

Since Automation Manager is built on top of PowerShell and contains 600+ predefined cmdlets, you can also use these predefined cmdlets to enhance your PowerShell scripts. Say you run a PowerShell command to get the expiry date of a certificate on a device, however, for monitoring purposes you don\u2019t want to know the date of expiration. Instead you want to how many days are left before it expires. In this case, rather than outputting the date directly from the script, you can feed that information into the prebuilt Date Difference cmdlet. This calculates the difference between the date of expiry on the certificate and the current date, and then outputs the number of days left before the script expires rather than the expiry date itself. You can then set your thresholds in N‑central to be notified if a script is due to expire in X number of days.<\/span><\/p>\n

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These are just a few examples of how you can use PowerShell scripts via Automation Manager to enhance how you use N‑central<\/span><\/a> to manage and maintain your customers. Be sure to check out our PowerShell Automation Cookbook<\/span><\/a>, where you might find some PowerShell scripts you can enhance by leveraging them in Automation Manger. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you have questions join me on the N-Central Office Hours<\/span><\/a>, alternatively keep an eye on www.n-able.com\/events<\/span><\/a> to register for the live sessions. For deeper insight you can also check out the following on-demand N‑able Boot Camps:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n