Microsoft PowerShell Automation for IT Administrators Training Course

Course overview

IT administrators are frequently asked to complete repeatable work at scale: provision accounts, inspect server health, collect audit evidence, apply configuration changes, resolve incidents and produce reports. Completing these tasks through consoles and remote desktop sessions is slow, difficult to reproduce and prone to inconsistent results. This five-day Microsoft PowerShell Automation for IT Administrators course enables administrators to replace manual routines with controlled, reusable scripts that operate across Windows endpoints, servers and Microsoft services.

Participants build practical PowerShell capability from structured command discovery through to production-minded automation. The course covers objects and the pipeline, filtering and formatting, variables and data structures, functions, modules, error handling, logging, remoting, CIM/WMI management, Active Directory administration, file and registry operations, REST API integration, scheduled execution and Pester testing. Participants learn to write scripts that validate inputs, produce useful output, handle failures predictably and create an auditable record of what changed.

Delivery combines instructor demonstrations with guided labs based on common IT operations scenarios, including onboarding users, collecting server inventories, remediating configuration drift and generating operational reports. Each participant develops an automation runbook and a tested PowerShell script package for a selected administrative process, including parameters, error handling, logging and deployment notes. The result is work that can be adapted directly to an operational environment rather than isolated command-line knowledge.

The course is designed for IT professionals who already administer Windows-based systems and need to standardise recurring work, reduce reliance on manual procedures and create automation that colleagues can safely review and maintain.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Use the PowerShell pipeline, objects and command discovery tools to retrieve and transform administrative data
• Build parameterised PowerShell scripts using variables, arrays, hashtables, functions and comment-based help
• Administer users, groups and computers with Active Directory PowerShell cmdlets
• Query Windows systems through CIM sessions and use remoting to execute commands across multiple hosts
• Create structured CSV, JSON and HTML reports from system inventory and operational data
• Implement validation, try/catch error handling, transcript logging and actionable status messages in automation scripts
• Test reusable PowerShell functions with Pester and manage script versions in Git
• Produce a documented automation runbook and script package for a recurring IT administration task

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Windows Systems Administrators — who need to automate repeatable server, endpoint and identity tasks
• IT Infrastructure Engineers — who manage Windows platforms and require reliable scripts for operational change
• Service Desk Team Leads — who want to standardise account, access and device-management procedures
• Microsoft 365 Administrators — who need transferable PowerShell methods for reporting and administration
• IT Operations Analysts — who collect infrastructure data and produce recurring service reports
• Technical Support Engineers — who troubleshoot Windows environments and need repeatable diagnostic scripts

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable administering Windows systems, using File Explorer and Command Prompt, and performing routine tasks such as managing services, files, local settings or Active Directory objects. Familiarity with basic networking terms, including hostnames, IP addresses and credentials, is assumed. Attendees should have used PowerShell interactively at least occasionally, such as running cmdlets and reading command output; they do not need to write scripts confidently before the course. Prior programming experience, software development experience and advanced mathematics are not required. Access to a Windows 10 or Windows 11 workstation with appropriate local permissions is helpful for practice.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short technical briefings and live PowerShell demonstrations before participants complete hands-on labs in a Windows administration environment. Labs progress from inspecting objects and building pipeline commands to creating functions, managing remote hosts, automating Active Directory tasks and testing scripts with Pester. Scenario workshops use realistic requests such as new-starter provisioning, server inventory collection and failed-job investigation. Participants review script design decisions with peers, then use the final day to refine an automation runbook, test their script package and plan safe adoption in their own environment.

Course outline

Day 1: PowerShell foundations for administrative work

• PowerShell console, profiles and execution policy
• Command discovery with Get-Command, Get-Help and Get-Member
• Objects, properties and methods in the pipeline
• Filtering and selection with Where-Object and Select-Object
• Sorting, grouping and measuring administrative data
• Formatting output versus exporting operational data
• Providers for files, registry, certificates and environment variables

Workshop: Build a system discovery script that gathers local services, disks, event log entries and installed software into a filtered administrative report.

Day 2: Writing reusable and safe PowerShell scripts

• Variables, arrays, hashtables and ordered data
• Conditional logic and loop constructs for batch administration
• Functions, parameters and parameter validation attributes
• Pipeline input and output design for reusable functions
• Comment-based help and script documentation conventions
• CSV, JSON and HTML report generation
• Script signing concepts and execution policy implications

Workshop: Create a parameterised function that imports a CSV request list, validates records and generates a results report.

Day 3: Windows and identity automation at scale

• PowerShell remoting with WinRM and PSSessions
• Invoke-Command for parallel remote administration
• CIM sessions and Get-CimInstance for system management
• Windows services, processes, event logs and scheduled tasks
• Active Directory users, groups and computer objects
• Bulk onboarding and offboarding workflow design
• Credential handling and least-privilege execution

Workshop: Develop a remote administration script that inventories named servers and performs a controlled Active Directory group membership update.

Day 4: Reliable automation, APIs and testing

• Try/catch/finally blocks and terminating error behaviour
• ErrorAction, error records and custom exception messages
• Transcript logging, verbose output and audit trails
• REST API requests with Invoke-RestMethod
• JSON payload construction and API response parsing
• Pester 5 tests for functions and expected results
• Git repositories, commits and script review workflow

Workshop: Test and version a PowerShell function that calls a REST endpoint, records failures and returns validated structured output.

Day 5: Production-ready automation and operational handover

• Designing idempotent scripts for repeatable operations
• WhatIf and Confirm support for controlled changes
• Task Scheduler configuration for unattended execution
• Module structure and manifest fundamentals
• Configuration files and environment-specific settings
• Performance considerations for large object collections
• Automation runbooks, ownership and support handover

Workshop: Complete an end-to-end automation capstone by packaging, testing and documenting a scheduled IT administration workflow with a runbook.

Tools & standards covered

PowerShell 7.4, Visual Studio Code, Pester 5, Git

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions