CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
Curt
Curt

Reputation: 1

How do others collect server names into a file like C:\Servers.csv

Nearly all PowerShell code leans heavily on a list of computer names. Maintaining this list is crucial for an up to date data center.

I used to gather computer names from my WSUS boxes. We have now switched to an inferior product which does not give up secrets easily! How are others gathering accurate lists of computer names with which to fuel your code?

Grabbing names from Active Directory works well, however not ALL servers are in the domain. However all servers need updates so let's get a list from the update server. Ahhh, there is the rub, inferior updating software! How is everyone gathering computer names for future processing?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 87

Answers (2)

Ben Personick
Ben Personick

Reputation: 3264

For our datacenters, I always query each of the domain controllers to get a list of systems instead of relying on csv files (we no longer keep anything unjoined).

we used to have stand alone boxes, when we did I would simply get their IPs or netbios names by using the VMWare Power CLI to query that info from vCenter.

Alternatively, if you only have VMs, you can just go that route directly.

If you have stand-alone physical machines, then you would want to scan all of your IP range (after converting items you got from the previous two steps into IPs, so that you can exclude all IPs that are already accounted for by replies to netbios (to check the OS reported to make sure they are Windows systems)).

Alternatively, if all of the servers are in DNS, then just query the DNS entries from your domain controller, slap a parallel computer-exists check on the results, select unique where result is good and that is your list.

Upvotes: 2

ncfx1099
ncfx1099

Reputation: 367

I'm not sure where you're getting this idea that people are composing CSV lists of machines for data centers. Most data centers I'm aware of will have virtualization stacks and have complex monitoring software such as the various flavors of SolarWinds products. Usually these will allow you to export a customized CSV of the machines they monitor. Of course, like anything else, there are quite a few of these monitoring services out there.

For small and mid-sized companies, admins may or may not maintain an inventory of company assets. I've been contracted to come out to companies who have let their asset management system slip and have no idea where everything is, and I usually use a combination of command line tools such as nmap, fping, and the PSADUC module to do some network discovery over several site days.

PowerShell isn't a great tool for data center use anyway, since most infrastructure uses some sort of Linux to host their virtual machines. Increasingly, the industry has moved towards containerization and microservices as well, which make maintaining boxes less and less relevant.

Upvotes: 1

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