Set up a PowerShell and .NET Development Environment with AWS Cloud9 and Amazon EC2

Background Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud9 provides a cloud-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) where you can author, test, and deploy your .NET Core and PowerShell-based applications. You can connect to your Cloud9 IDE using a web browser. One of my favorite features offered by Cloud9, that enables developers to comfortably use it, is the support … Read moreSet up a PowerShell and .NET Development Environment with AWS Cloud9 and Amazon EC2

Initialize a Byte Array in PowerShell

Sometimes you’ll need to initialize a new buffer as an array of bytes. For example, if you want to generate random data using the NextBytes() method on the System.Random class,  you need to pass in a byte array buffer for the method to write to. Creating a byte array in PowerShell may not be immediately … Read moreInitialize a Byte Array in PowerShell

Keep AWS PowerShell Module Updated on Mac OS

Are you on Mac OS and need to keep your AWS PowerShell module up-to-date? As you’ve probably noticed, there are frequently new versions of the AWS PowerShell module being released, to keep pace with new services and service features being added to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. Updating PowerShell modules manually can take up extra … Read moreKeep AWS PowerShell Module Updated on Mac OS

PowerShell Intellisense: ScriptBlock Handler Parameters

I keep forgetting the names of the parameters that are passed into the ScriptBlock handlers for PowerShell Intellisense (aka. tab-completion / auto-completion). Hence, I’m posting the list of parameters here, along with a simple example. $commandName – the name of the PowerShell command that Intellisense was invoked for. $parameterName – the name of the parameter … Read morePowerShell Intellisense: ScriptBlock Handler Parameters

CloudFormation YAML: EC2 Instance with PowerShell UserData

Someone recently was asking for an AWS CloudFormation template, in YAML format as opposed to JSON, that would deploy an EC2 instance running Windows Server, and supported a PowerShell-based UserData script. In response to this, I created the YAML snippet below. Note that the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID is unique to the us-west-2 (Oregon) … Read moreCloudFormation YAML: EC2 Instance with PowerShell UserData

Restore Default PowerShell Gallery Repository

If you’ve accidentally deleted the PowerShell Gallery (PSGallery) repository from your system, you can restore it using the following command. Register-PSRepository -Default In fact, if you try to re-register the PowerShell Gallery using the same method that you’d register a custom repository (see below) … $Repository = @{ Name = ‘PSGallery’ SourceLocation = ‘https://www.powershellgallery.com/api/v2/’ PublishLocation … Read moreRestore Default PowerShell Gallery Repository

Retrieve AWS AccountID using PowerShell

As an AWS customer writing programs against AWS service APIs, using the AWS Tools for PowerShell, you’ll often need to reference your AWS AccountID. For example, some service API calls require passing in an Amazon Resource Name (ARN), which contains your AWS AccountID as one of its parts. Much of the time, you won’t have … Read moreRetrieve AWS AccountID using PowerShell

Amazon EC2 Instances Will Support Per-Second Billing

In an exciting, new announcement on their blog, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has just announced that EC2 Instances running Linux, and “are launched in On-Demand, Reserved, and Spot form,” will support per-second billing. This includes AWS Batch and Elastic Map Reduce (EMR). Since 2006, when EC2 was launched, EC2 Instances were elastically billed by the hour. … Read moreAmazon EC2 Instances Will Support Per-Second Billing

Develop Binary Cmdlets for PowerShell Core on Mac OS X

2017-07-13: This article was updated to reflect a new beta of the PowerShell SDK. Have you wanted to develop binary cmdlets using C# .NET for PowerShell Core on Mac OS X or Linux? If so, you and I are in the same boat. In this document, I’ll cover the steps necessary to develop C# cmdlets … Read moreDevelop Binary Cmdlets for PowerShell Core on Mac OS X

Change VSCode Integrated Terminal to PowerShell

Visual Studio Code :: Integrated Terminal Setting

Visual Studio Code is an excellent developer tool for PowerShell projects. However, regardless of which type of project you’re developing (C#, Node.js, Python, etc.), you can benefit from changing your default shell to the powerful, object-oriented PowerShell shell. Now, you may not want to change your default shell for the entire operating system. VSCode thankfully … Read moreChange VSCode Integrated Terminal to PowerShell