PowerShell Remoting Demystified - Jordan Borean - PSConfEU 2024

The talk covered a thorough exploration of PowerShell remoting, emphasizing the capabilities, history, and practical application of the tool. The speaker introduced themselves as Jordan Borean, a software engineer at Red Hat, specializing in Ansible and Windows integration. They expressed their passion for Python, PowerShell, and C#, highlighting their enthusiasm for continuous learning, including delving into World War II history through YouTube videos.

PowerShell remoting was defined as a tool enabling the execution of commands and scripts on remote systems, with a brief history from its introduction in PowerShell 2.0 to its evolution in later versions. The speaker detailed various functionalities within PowerShell remoting, such as Invoke-Command for non-interactive scripting, Enter-PSSession for interactive components, and New-PSSession for creating long-lived sessions.

Custom transports in PowerShell 7.3 were discussed, allowing users to create their transport mechanisms, enhancing flexibility in remote connections. A personalized project, RemoteForge, was shared as an ongoing endeavor to simplify the use of custom transports with an intuitive API, offering varied connections like SSH, Hyper-V, and cross-language communication.

Demonstrations were provided to illustrate the practical implementation of PowerShell remoting, showcasing interactive inputs, host interactions, and the exchange of complex objects between different systems. The potential future applications of RemoteForge were outlined, including additional transport ideas like PSExec and S3/Azure Files bucket integration.

During the session, the speaker engaged with the audience, inviting questions and interaction, maintaining an open and informative atmosphere. Attendees were encouraged to explore the topic further with the speaker during the conference. Overall, the talk provided a comprehensive overview of PowerShell remoting, custom transports, and the innovative possibilities with RemoteForge, leaving the audience with a deeper understanding of remote connection tools in the PowerShell environment.

Chapters:
00:00:00 PowerShell Remoting Demystified - Jordan Borean - PSConfEU 2024
00:00:10 Introduction to PowerShell Remoting
00:03:54 Experience with PowerShell Remoting
00:07:21 Exploring PowerShell Remoting Features
00:11:50 Utilizing PowerShell Remoting for Commands
00:15:53 PowerShell 7.4.2 and UseWindowsPowerShell
00:18:48 Managing Streams in PowerShell Remoting
00:20:05 Understanding PowerShell Remoting Traffic
00:24:45 Introducing Custom Transports and Remote Forge
00:29:03 Simplifying PowerShell Remoting with Remote Forge
00:33:35 Future Prospects of RemoteForge