Learn the AWS PowerShell Tools on Pluralsight

I’ve authored a Pluralsight course on the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell. This is the official AWS PowerShell module for working with AWS resources. If you’re familiar with my work, you know I’m no stranger to AWS, and I have a lot of love for PowerShell. Authoring a course that combines those two things was an absolute joy.

Now, there are lots of courses on Pluralsight that cover a wide array of topics. Sometimes it can be hard to decide which course best suits your needs. That’s why I decided to write a bit about the course to help you decide whether it’s worth your time.

THE way to manage AWS in the Windows world

If you operate in an environment consisting mainly of Windows machines, you are already (or should be!) doing a lot with PowerShell. If you also manage AWS resources in your organization, you’re definitely going to want to know this module. Integrating AWS resources with other tools in your environment always requires a little custom coding to get things running smoothly. Some organizations have that taken care of using third party solutions. Even if that’s the case, I guarantee once you get used to the cmdlets it will be faster to spot-check AWS resources in an interactive PowerShell session than the web console.

Learn to fish

The Chinese proverb goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I worked hard to craft a learning experience that did more than just show how to do specific tasks. There are over 5,000 cmdlets in the AWS PowerShell module, so examples can only scratch the surface!

Instead, I focus on teaching methods you can use to discover cmdlets on your own and figure out how they work. I use concrete examples to illustrate those techniques. But, the goal is to enable you to any task no matter which AWS service it uses.

Reusable script template

The last module of the course focuses on building scripts with the AWS PowerShell cmdlets. And, I start by building a reusable script template you can download and use yourself. This template helps you create parameters with pipeline support and comment-based help for your script. It even recreates a couple of the parameters commonly used by the AWS PowerShell cmdlets. Your script will feel a lot like one of the existing AWS cmdlets. That makes knowledge of the native cmdlets a transferable skill for anyone using your script.

The remainder of the courses showcases some full examples of using and extending the script template in various ways. What you need in your own organization will undoubtedly vary, but that’s why I provide all of the code from these examples for your reference.

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If any of this sounds like it would benefit you, I encourage you to check out my Pluralsight course, Automating Cloud Operations with AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell. The skills I teach will make you a consummate expert in working with AWS resources from PowerShell. And, the majority of the design guidelines and techniques are not specific to the AWS PowerShell cmdlets. These valuable skills will transfer effortlessly to your other projects and make you a stronger IT professional.

At the end of the day, anything that helps you grow as a professional is worth looking into. As I say at the end of the course (spoiler alert?): always keep on learning.