SharePoint 2010 Products administration by using Windows PowerShell

This article describes how to use Windows PowerShell with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products and provides an overview of basic Windows PowerShell cmdlets and concepts necessary to get the most benefit from this powerful functionality.

Overview

Windows PowerShell is a command-line scripting tool that provides an administrator full access to applicable application programming interfaces (APIs), along with the ability to unlock the capability to interact directly with SharePoint 2010 Products to manipulate Web applications, site collections, sites, lists and much more. In addition, the administrator has the ability to script cmdlets (pronounced "command-lets"), which makes for an improved experience from past product versions.

Windows PowerShell 2.0 is a pre-requisite for installing SharePoint 2010 Products. It will be installed, if necessary, when you run the Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool. By default, Windows PowerShell is located at the following path: <%SystemRoot%>\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell.exe.

Note:

Windows PowerShell 2.0 is backward compatible with Windows PowerShell 1.0 and subsequently installs to the v1.0 folder.

We recommend that you use Windows PowerShell when performing command-line administrative tasks. The Stsadm command-line tool has been deprecated, but is included to support compatibility with previous product versions.

Accessing Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2010 Products

After installing SharePoint 2010 Products, the applicable Windows PowerShell cmdlets are available by using the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, or by using the Windows PowerShell console. With the management shell, you can manage every aspect of SharePoint 2010 Products. You can create new site collections, Web applications, user accounts, service applications, proxies, and more. The commands from the management shell output SharePoint objects based on the Microsoft .NET Platform. These objects can be applied as input to subsequent commands or stored in local variables for later use.

With the management shell, you do not have to register the snap-in that contains the cmdlets. Registration of the Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.dll module for SharePoint 2010 cmdlets is automatic, as a result of the line Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell in the SharePoint.ps1 file located in %CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\Config\PowerShell\Registration. If you choose to use the Windows PowerShell console, you must register this snap-in manually.

Whether you are using the management shell or the Windows PowerShell console, you can also load additional snap-ins.

To access the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell

1. On the Start menu, click All Programs.
2. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.
3. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

Note:

The SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and the Windows PowerShell console also differ in the use of the ReuseThread option, which defines how the threading model is used. The management shell's use is defined by this line, {Host.Runspace.ThreadOptions = "ReuseThread"}, which is in the SharePoint.ps1 file

Permissions

Before you can use the management shell and the Windows PowerShell cmdlets, verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: See Add-SPShellAdmin.

If you do not have membership in the SharePoint_Shell_Access role or WSS_Admin_WPG local group, use the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet. When the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet is used, the user is added to the WSS_Admin_WPG group in all front-end Web servers and is added to the SharePoint_Shell_Access role. If the target database does not have a SharePoint_Shell_Access role, the role is automatically created. Once the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet has been run, the user can run SharePoint 2010 Windows PowerShell cmdlets in a multiple-server farm environment.

When you run the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet to add a user to the SharePoint_Shell_Access role, you must have the following security permissions:

• Securityadmin server role access on the SQL instance and the db_owner role in a database.
• Administrative permission on the local computer.

Note:

Typically, the person that will use the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet must be associated with the user account that was used for Setup.

You must run the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet for all databases to which you want to grant access. If no database is specified, the farm configuration database is used. If you do specify a database, the farm content database will be included in addition to the farm configuration database you specify.

To see a list of all of the *SPShellAdmin cmdlets, from a Windows PowerShell command prompt, type Get-Command -Noun SPShellAdmin.

Scripts and execution policies

Although you can use Windows PowerShell to perform a single administrative task, the real benefit of using Windows PowerShell cmdlets is the ability to use a script to automate a series of tasks. A script is a plain text file that contains one or more Windows PowerShell commands. Windows PowerShell scripts have a .ps1 file name extension.

When using a script, be aware that the minimum required execution policy for SharePoint 2010 Products is RemoteSigned, while the default policy for Windows PowerShell is Restricted. If the policy is left as Restricted, the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell will change the policy for Windows PowerShell to RemoteSigned. This means the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell must be launched with elevated administrative permission by selecting Run as administrator. This change will apply to all Windows PowerShell sessions.

Source : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee806878(office.14).aspx#section2