Scripting is addictive, it is the tool of the lazy and the weapon of the efficient. While some like me are hooked onto scripting, most do not share this passion. In my few years in the industry, I have noticed that while most Systems Engineer’s do leverage scripts, they do not truly take to it. Some would be hesitant to develop a script, some are happy picking up some one liner from the web and being done, while some would opt not to script at all.
In this post I thought to list out some of the reasons I have seen why people don’t script and dispel some of the myths :
1) But මචං (pal) I am not a programmer
This is the most common answer I get when I ask “why don’t you make a script for it?”. While I do come from a background of Software Engineering, in my opinion System’s Engineers do the hardest part of coding – debugging someone else’s code!
If you think about it systems and datacenters today are all software based. Troubleshooting system/infrastructure errors is actually troubleshooting issues in code that someone else has made – which is the toughest thing possible!
If you are able to troubleshoot logically the issues of a code, that means you can definitely write a small piece of code that simplifies your work! It’s just a matter of mindset.
2) Not using coding elements that make life a lot easier
Scripting can get cumbersome and not save as much time as advertised if you’re not using coding elements. I’ll admit, here is where some coding background would come useful, but they are not difficult to pick up.
Here’s a little example, say you have to power down a bunch of virtual machines in your vCenter, you can do it like this:
Get-VM VM1 | Shutdown-VMGuest
Get-VM VM2 | Shutdown-VMGuest
Get-VM VM3 | Shutdown-VMGuestThis does get the job done, but its terribly inefficient. Say this list is 100s of VMs, you would be writing 100s of lines to get this done. Would be easier to go to the vCenter and do it manually at that point! And if your application team says “Oops, sorry guys that was the wrong list of virtual machines” well all that effort is down the drain!
Here’s another, more simple way of doing the same thing :
$vmList = "VM1", "VM2", "VM3"
ForEach ($vm in $vmList){
Get-VM $vm | Shutdown-VMGuest
}This is a much more efficient piece of script. If you need to edit the list of VMs all you have to do is edit that one array variable. Your script is only a few lines long and the application team can edit this as much as they want and you don’t have to sweat about it. Also now you have a ready made script that you can use whenever another request like this comes along!
3) Not making scripts for the long term
Okay, this point also directly relates to the last point. One thing we’ve all done when we get a problem we need a script for is find a script/one-liner, execute and be done. But for scripts to be truly time-saving and effective they need to be applicable in the long term. For that you have to be mindful of concepts like code extend-ability and efficiency.
Now they might sound like boring, complex terms but the concepts are really simple. When making a script, make sure that if you have to re-use it the parts you have to change are minimal and what you have to change is clear. This is where the use of variables with names that make sense and comments come in to play.
Let’s take an example about increasing the Memory of a virtual machine:
Connect-VIServer vCenter1
Get-VM VM1 | Set-VM -MemoryGB 8 This is perfectly fine and gets the job done… for this Virtual Machine.
Now take a look at this script:
#Set the parameters
$vcenter_name = "vCenter1"
$vm_name = "VM1" #for multiple VMs go as "VM1", "VM2" ...
$memory_amount = 8
Connect-VIServer $vcenter
ForEach($vm in $vm_name){
Get-VM $vm | Set-VM -MemoryGB $memory_amount
}With few lines of code added we have created a clear, extensible script that you can share with your colleagues and be a hero. We went from a script focused on a particular virtual machine to one that we can easily choose a different vCenter, have multiple VMs, and change the memory amounts easily. By using comments we have ensured that even if you dig this script up a year later, you can easily pick up what to do!
4) Uhh… I had a script for this, but I can’t find it now
Remember when you got that one problem, and you searched the web for a script/one-liner, got it done then forgot about it? Well now it has come up again and now you have to do the same thing again? Or your friend is asking for the script and now you’re the dumdum who can’t find it? Yes, we’ve all been there.
Programmers use a code repository or repo to keep the code, and you as a Sys Admin can do the same thing. It doesn’t have to be as fancy as a GitHub repo (even though it makes life easier with version controls and all), it could very well be a Google drive or even just a well organized folder in your PC! Just ensure that your scripts are stored somewhere which is easily accessible and searchable in the long term.
Your future-self will thank you for it!
In Summation
Just follow these simple tips to make your life easier with scripting:
- Believe that you are able to script – don’t just dispel it thinking its something that only “some people” can do. All you need is a little practice.
- Learn a few coding tips and tricks to make a more versatile script.
- When you’re making a script keep in mind to make a script that you can dig up years later and use it easily. Think of your future-self!
- Most importantly make sure you have saved your script somewhere that you can easily find!
And that is it! Hope you’ve enjoyed this post and feel like making more scripts that you’ll be proud of!
If you liked/hated this post, want me to share some detailed tips and tricks or elaborate more, please do hit me up in the comments, or on my social media linked below!
Thanks for reading and happy scripting!!!
