Tips and Tricks

Here are a few tips and tricks that will improve your experience with the API.

  • When typing PowerShell commands, use the Tab button to auto-complete the command.
  • Use pipelining within your commands to string together a series of actions.
  • If you want to view the output when performing a patch scan, be sure to use the Watch-PatchScan parameter.

    • Example:

    Start-PatchScan –MachineGroups “Sample Group” | Watch-PatchScan

  • You can assign the result of any command to a variable and interact with that variable later in the same PowerShell session.

    • Examples:

    $credReference = Get-STCredential

    $credReference | Where-Object

    { $_.UserName.Contains(“foo”) }

    $myScan = Start-PatchScan –MachineGroups “My Machine”

    Wait-PatchScan –Uid ($myScan.Uid)

  • If you want to perform a patch deployment against the results of a particular patch scan, store the patch scan in a variable and pipe it to the deployment operation.

    • Example:

    $myScan = Start-PatchScan –MachineGroups “Sample Group”;

    $myScan | Watch-PatchScan

    Start-PatchDeploy –ScanUid ($MyScan.Uid) –TemplateName “Sample Deploy Template”

  • If you are scripting a patch scan followed by a patch deployment, be sure to use the Wait-PatchScan parameter to allow time for the scan to complete before the deployment is initiated.

    • Example:

    $MyScan = Start-PatchScan –MachineGroups “Sample Group” | Wait-PatchScan

    Start-PatchDeploy –ScanUid ($MyScan.Uid) –TemplateName “Sample Deploy Template”

  • Be sure to load any additional modules that might be needed.

    • Example: When interacting with a SQL cluster you might load the following modules:

    • Import-Module ServerManager
    • Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-Clustering
    • Import-Module FailoverClusters
  • To minimize downtime, you can use the Invoke-DownloadMissingPatches command before deploying.

    • This would enable you to perform a scan one day and then use the Get-PatchScan command to deploy from that scan on a different day.