Command Set for Windows PowerShell by Compellent

Compellent Technologies, Inc. announced the availability of its Storage Center Command Set for Microsoft Windows PowerShell, designed to automate management and recovery of Compellent data storage and Windows enterprise environments including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V platforms.

Compellent is one of the first storage area network (SAN) vendors to integrate Windows PowerShell scripting with the efficiency of virtualized storage to accelerate server and storage management.

For example, an enterprise deploying 50 new servers typically must image all the servers, provision storage volumes, create new user accounts and configure snapshots for backup and recovery — a process that can be highly repetitive and manual. With Compellent’s Command Set, administrators can create scripts with PowerShell commands (‘cmdlets’) to automate all the steps to significantly reduce the time and effort.

The Compellent-developed Storage Center Command Set for PowerShell comprises more than 60 cmdlets for streamlining tasks such as:

• Creating storage for Microsoft Exchange e-mail environments
• Mapping storage to each node in high-availability clusters
• Booting new servers from the Compellent SAN to recover quickly from data loss, or speed testing, development and deployment
• Automatically migrating, cloning and monitoring hundreds of virtual machines across a virtualized data center.

Detailed documentation includes sample scripts for common operations, including syntax and sample usage. Compellent’s PowerShell community forum provides customers the ability to share best practices with their peers for Command Set for Windows PowerShell script development, a script repository, Compellent-moderated discussion groups, and other user-driven features. Additional resources will be available to customers in the coming months.

The Storage Center Command Set for Windows PowerShell version 4.1 is available immediately to customers without charge from Compellent. Windows PowerShell, which supports Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V among other platforms, is available as a free download from Microsoft.

"The scripting enhancements to the Compellent SAN give users greater administrative control in Windows data centers and can help speed installation, migration and recovery of their applications and data," said Bruce Kornfeld, vice president of marketing, Compellent. "Compellent’s Command Set for PowerShell and peer-to-peer network will help customers spend their time more efficiently by accelerating automation rather than being bogged down in repetitive enterprise management."

"System administration is a time-intensive task in a large virtual environment, but with tools like the Storage Center Command Set for Windows PowerShell, we’re now able to create Windows server volumes in just minutes, rather than days," said Ryan Jones, product manager, Maximum ASP, a Microsoft Gold Certified Web hosting and IT services provider. "By integrating Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, PowerShell and the Compellent SAN, we’ve been able to upgrade our end-user offerings, and launch our latest virtualization solution, MaxV. As a result, we can offer all customers a complete service portfolio, while simultaneously reducing our hardware costs by 70 percent and dramatically increasing efficiency."