Brian Farnhill

PowerShell and Azure Premier Field Engineer

Moving my blog!

I've made the decision to move my blog to a personal website - don't worry though, I'll continue...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 10/26/2017

Using the launch.json file in VS code for improved PowerShell debugging

Anyone that has talked to me recently about how I write PowerShell scripts will know that Visual...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 09/27/2017

"The provided value for the template parameter is not valid" in ARM template deployments

I've come across this one before, but I hit it again today and I wanted to share the details of what...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 09/14/2017

Adding additional intellisense to VS Code when editing PowerShell scripts

Most people that I talk to about my experiences writing PowerShell scripts these days will know that...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 08/21/2017

Getting IDs to use with the Package DSC resource

One of the questions I get from customers who are looking at using the Package DSC resource to...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 07/04/2017

Running Azure Automation runbooks from IFTTT tasks

I recently had an idea (ok lets call it 'collaboratively came up with while talking to one of the...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 11/09/2016

xSharePoint is now SharePointDsc - what you need to know!

For just over 12 months now we have been working hard to grow the xSharePoint DSC module to let...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 06/08/2016

Consuming preview builds of xSharePoint through PowerShellGet

PowerShellGet is a new module that is installed as part of PowerShell 5 (in Windows Management...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 04/18/2016

Configuring SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups in Azure RM Virtual Machines

This week on a project I came up against the need to set up some AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AG's)...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 03/03/2016

Retrieving the URL of an app catalog site in SharePoint 2013

In some of my recent work with the xSharePoint resources we came up with a need to retrieve the...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 12/21/2015

Better approaches to unit testing PowerShell scripts that call SharePoint cmdlets

For those who have come across my blog before you would have seen my recent post on how to unit test...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 09/27/2015

How to unit test PowerShell scripts that call cmdlets from the SharePoint snap-in

Update: If you're reading this then be sure to have a read of the comments too - some good insight...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 09/09/2015

Cross server DSC dependency options with Azure Resource Manager templates

One of the topics I have been discussing a little lately around the use of the DSC extension for...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 09/08/2015

Deploying the Azure DSC extension through ARM

One of the things I have been working on a lot lately is PowerShell DSC, and to give me an easily...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 08/19/2015

Announcing the xSharePoint module for PowerShell DSC!

I am super excited to be able to get this one out there - PowerShell Desired State Configuration...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 04/27/2015

Using DSC to download from Azure file storage to an Azure VM

I've been exploring a lot PowerShell Desired State Configuration lately, and one of the things I've...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 03/15/2015

System.IO.FileLoadException for System.ServiceModel.dll in SharePoint 2013

I came across an interesting situation recently when doing a fresh installation of SharePoint 2013...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 01/15/2015

Multiple zones for host named site collections in SP2013

For those who haven't heard of host named site collections, the short version of what they are is...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 07/07/2014

Exception 'Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.DataCacheException: ErrorCode:SubStatus

As the title suggests this post is going to be about a specific issue I came across at a customer...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 06/24/2014

Using Windows Azure Automation Preview to manage Azure VMs

One of the great new features of Microsoft Azure that is currently in preview is the new Automation...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 05/15/2014

Calculating RPS statistics from IIS logs

Performance management is a key factor in a lot of modern web applications, and SharePoint is no...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 04/03/2014

Approaches to optimising SharePoint client side communication

The new SharePoint app model provides a great framework for creating rich SharePoint solutions that...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 03/11/2014

Opening RDP session to an Azure VM with PowerShell

UPDATE (4 March 2015): The method described in this post is now obsolete as a new PowerShell cmdlet...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 02/03/2014

Managing Windows Azure VMs through PowerShell

I make no secret of the fact that I love PowerShell - all the jokes about it being a mechanism to...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 01/21/2014

Using the CycleTile in Windows Phone 8 with images from the internet

I'm not shy about telling people that I'm a massive fan of Windows Phone, and the number 1 reason I...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 01/05/2014

Directly querying SharePoint databases

One of the first rules of SharePoint that you learn when you start diving in to the product is that...

Author: Brian Farnhill Date: 12/04/2013