PowerShell: Working with NuGet Repositories to Store Scripts

One thing that seems to interest even the most advance PowerShell user is the concept of having an Internal Repository of scripts for their team to share and have version control over.  I will say for a Sys Admin this has been a very challenging experience in figuring out what to use and I want to share what I have learned. Starting in Windows PowerShell 5.0 Microsoft includes the PowerShellGet module (Powershell Gallery for more info) which allows users to download new modules and scripts from the online PowerShell Gallery.  These modules also allow users to create their own internal gallery and store custom scripts or modules within it.  In future post I will probably cover more info on package management.

Read up on Package Management Providers in Windows 10

Setting up the repo

Since Windows includes the NuGet provider it makes sense to set up a NuGet Server.  Most results from online searches require Visual Studio to do a NuGet.server install.  I decided I didn’t want to go this route and found a few solutions available online and I ended up using an open source demo solution on github called PSPrivateGallery.

NuGet.Server

Getting started once the repo is online

After I got PSPrivateGallery installed and configured  I decided to give it a try.

I updated to the newest version of PowerShellGet, at the time I wrote this version   1.1.3.2 was available in the PowerShell Gallery.

I had issues with the update-scriptfileinfo cmdlet until I updated it

 find-module PowerShellGet
 find-module PowerShellGet | install-module
 remove-module PowerShellGet
 Import-Module PowerShellGet

In PowerShell Add the Repository to the list of repo’s

 Register-PSRepository –Name PSPrivateGallery –SourceLocation "https://nugetreposervername:8080/api/v2" –InstallationPolicy Trusted`
     –PackageManagementProvider NuGet -ScriptSourceLocation https://nugetreposervername:8080/api/v2
  
 #validate
 get-psrepository

Now create a new script using the New-ScriptFileInfo  cmdlet.  This sets the metadata for a new script.

 #create new script file
 New-ScriptFileInfo C:\data\get-allservices.ps1 -version 1.0 -Author "chad.cox@microsoft.com" -Description "my first upload to the repo"
  
 #edit the script
 psedit C:\data\get-allservices.ps1

Add cmdlets, Save and close the file

Validate the script by running:

 Test-ScriptFileInfo -Path C:\data\get-allservices.ps1

Publish the script.

 $nugetkey = Place key here
 Publish-Script -Path C:\data\get-allservices.ps1 -Repository "PSPrivateGallery" -NuGetApiKey $nugetkey

Check and see if the script was published

 find-module get-allservices

Version 1.0 is now published for my team to share. Now lets say I make modifications to that script.  Once all the modifications are done I need to update the version number.

 update-scriptfileinfo -path C:\data\get-allservices.ps1 -version 2.0

Publish the modifications to the repo

 $nugetkey = Place key here
 Publish-Script -Path C:\data\get-allservices.ps1 -Repository "PSPrivateGallery" -NuGetApiKey $nugetkey

Validate the versions

 find-script get-allservices
 #or all versions available
 find-script get-allservices -AllVersions

Using the script

Make sure the repository is defined on the machine that needs the script. Using the register-psrepository cmdlet

Create a folder to download the script to and validate it is the current version.

 new-item c:\scripts -ItemType directory
  
 save-script get-allservices -Repository PSPrivateGallery -Path C:\scripts
  
 Get-ChildItem C:\scripts
  
 Test-ScriptFileInfo -path C:\scripts\get-allservices.ps1

Just like that admins can now publish and version their scripts.

That is all I have for today, thanks for reading and I hope you find this info useful.

Chad

Just a quick note, I use this blog as a way to share things I have discovered. Most of the time I’m in a rush to get it out and my grammar and spelling is horrific. I usually proof read after I post and try to fix things as I see them.