Help formatting output

PowerShell Help
1

I’ve got a script that gathers information for a server from a couple of different places. The cmdlets for each location return objects, and I attach those as properties for my main output object. Like this:

PS C:\scripts> $output

DNSARecord      : @{_ref=record:a/ZG5zLmJpbmRfYSQuX2RlZmF1bHQuY29tLmVwcm9kLHRzY
                  mxkaW5mMDFjb3JwLDEwLjk2LjEwOS4xMzc:servername.domain.com/d
                  efault; ipv4addr=10.10.10.10;
                  Credential=System.Management.Automation.PSCredential;
                  GridServer=DNSServer.domain.com}
DNSPTRRecord    : @{_ref=record:ptr/ZG5zLmJpbmRfcHRyJC5fZGVmYXVsdC5hcnBhLmluLWF
                  kZHIuMTAuOTYuMTA5LjEzNy50c2JsZGluZjAxY29ycC5lcHJvZC5jb20:10.
                  10.10.10.in-addr.arpa/default; ipv4addr=10.10.10.10;
                  Credential=System.Management.Automation.PSCredential;
                  GridServer=DNSServer.domain.com}
LandeskAccount  : {Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewWebserviceProxy.Autogenerat
                  edTypes.WebServiceProxy1_mbsdkservice_msgsdk_asmx_wsdl.Device
                  , Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewWebserviceProxy.Autogenera
                  tedTypes.WebServiceProxy1_mbsdkservice_msgsdk_asmx_wsdl.Devic
                  e}
DNSCNameRecord  :
ComputerAccount : CN=SERVERNAME,OU=SMS,OU=Test,OU=Servers,DC=eprod,DC=com

Each of the output properties are objects themselves:

PS C:\scripts> $output.dnsarecord

_ref                ipv4addr            Credential          GridServer
----                --------            ----------          ----------
record:a/ZG5zLmJ... 10.10.10.10       System.Managemen... DNSServer.domain.com

PS C:\scripts> $output.DNSPTRRecord

_ref                ipv4addr            Credential          GridServer
----                --------            ----------          ----------
record:ptr/ZG5zL... 10.10.10.10       System.Managemen... DNSServer.domain.com

PS C:\scripts> $output.LandeskAccount


DisplayName                : SERVERNAME
MaintenanceWindow          :
LastVulnerabilityScanTime  : 6/26/2014 2:58:50 AM
LastStartUpTime            : 6/24/2014 9:20:13 AM
Type                       : Server
OperatingSystem            : Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Standard
                             Edition (full installation), 64-bit
OperatingSystemServicePack : 0
LastHardwareScanTime       : 6/26/2014 1:04:13 AM
Model                      : ProLiant BL460c G7
SerialNumber               : MXQ0420X8K
AgentConfigurationName     : ServerOps
AgentVersion               : 9.50.3.1
GUID                       : {2688A755-9424-EA4F-BC46-9259A378D005}
DeviceName                 : SERVERNAME
DomainName                 : domain.com
LastLogin                  :
IPAddress                  : 010.096.109.137
SubNetMask                 : 255.255.255.000
MACAddress                 : 68B599B1DD10
OSName                     : Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Standard
                             Edition (full installation), 64-bit

PS C:\scripts> $output.ComputerAccount


DistinguishedName : CN=SERVERNAME,OU=SMS,OU=Test,OU=Servers,DC=eprod,DC=com
DNSHostName       : SERVERNAME.domain.com
Enabled           : True
Name              : SERVERNAME
ObjectClass       : computer
ObjectGUID        : 7eb9f8e7-2034-4649-a310-40725d9cbacf
SamAccountName    : SERVERNAME$
SID               : S-1-5-21-1327060583-1562144247-1555438652-151332
UserPrincipalName :

Is there a way to have the output expand out all the properties for easier viewing? Maybe with a ps1xml file or something? Kind of want it to look like this:

PS c:\scripts> $output

DNSARecord		:_ref		:record:a/blahblah
			:ipv4addr	:10.10.10.10
			:credential	:blah
			:gridserver	:dnsserver.domain.com
ComputerAccount	:DistinguishedName	:blah
			:dnshostname		:servername.domain
			:SID			:blah

Edit: ok the above is kind of wonky in the editor, but basically just want to expand out the objects in the properties and have it all in one screen. kind of like a select-object -expandproperty * or something.

2

I don’t know of a way to get output like that with the built-in cmdlets. Format-Custom does display the object graph down to a certain depth (2 by default, I believe), but the formatting isn’t as user-friendly.

3

ok, format-custom is pretty cool. Will have to mess around with that and see what it can do, the depth parameter gets me most of the way there. thanks!