PowerShell for Business Intelligence and Big Data Analytics LiveLessons

Video description

8+ Hours of Video Instruction


Big data and business intelligence have been two of the major IT trends in the last five years. This video shows the viewer how they can capitalize on those trends by using tools that they already own.


Description


Business intelligence is the science of mining data and using it to derive business value. It typically requires complex tools such as Microsoft’s Power BI. The goal of this video series is to show how to perform custom business analytics and build business dashboards using nothing but PowerShell. This video series is entirely hands on. It explains key concepts while actually building PowerShell-based business intelligence dashboards and applications.

Skill Level

  • Intermediate - Advanced

What You Will Learn

  • How to use PowerShell as a data mining tool
  • How to build a PowerShell GUI
  • How to create charts using PowerShell
  • How to build financial and IT dashboards
  • How to build a number of interactive reports

Who Should Take This Course

  • IT professionals, system administrators, and developers

Course Requirements

  • Working knowledge of PowerShell

Table of Contents


Summaries: PowerShell for Business Intelligence and Big Data Analytics


Lesson 1 is intended to be introductory in nature. This lesson explains what Business Intelligence is and how it is commonly used. This lesson also demonstrates Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft’s off the shelf Business Intelligence solution, before finishing off by making the case for using PowerShell as a business intelligence tool.


Lesson 2 explains how to use PowerShell as a data mining tool. This lesson demonstrates how to use PowerShell to extract data from a number of different sources including the Active Directory, the Windows operating system, event logs, CSV files, SQL Server, and remote servers.


Lesson 3 describes the process of building a GUI interface for PowerShell. It also provides instructions for adding various GUI controls including labels, text boxes, buttons, list boxes, radio buttons, and check boxes.


Lesson 4 is an introduction to creating charts in PowerShell. It describes how to install the charting controls, and how to build a basic chart. From there, the lesson goes on to demonstrate the creation of a number of different types of common charts, before moving on to a discussion of charts that use multiple data series.


Lesson 5 starts out by explaining how to sort PowerShell’s output, with an emphasis on ordered hash table data. From there, the lesson focuses on less commonly used chart types such as bubble, area, pyramid, funnel, and doughnut charts.


Lesson 6 is designed to take many of the concepts discussed in the first five lessons, and combine them into some sample scripts. This lesson explains how to build full blown GUI applications using PowerShell, how to create interactive charts, and how to build business dashboards.


Lesson 7 demonstrates PowerShell’s ability to be used as a business analysis tool. The lesson demonstrates the creation of a number of financial reports, all of which are based on live business data from a backend SQL Server. The reports that are created include top 5 customers, projected accounts receivable, recent payments received, and top 5 overdue accounts. In addition, the video shows how to build a customer summary tool and how to integrate this tool and all of the reports into an interactive business dashboard.


Lesson 8 demonstrates PowerShell’s ability to be used as a server virtualization management tool for the IT department. This lesson demonstrates how to build a number of interactive reports for host memory consumption, VM memory consumption, multi-host memory consumption, and VM summary information. This video also demonstrates how PowerShell can be used to create a GUI-based live migration tool, and how this tool can be combined with the various reports into an IT dashboard.

Table of contents

  1. Introduction
    1. PowerShell for Business Intelligence and Big Data Analytics LiveLessons: Introduction
  2. Lesson 1: An Introduction to Business Intelligence
    1. 1.0 Learning objectives (or Topics)
    2. 1.1 What is Business Intelligence?
    3. 1.2 Microsoft Power BI as an example
    4. 1.3 Common uses for Power BI data
    5. 1.4 Why use PowerShell for BI and data analytics
  3. Lesson 2: Accessing Data Sources from PowerShell
    1. 2.0 Learning objectives (or Topics)
    2. 2.1 Access Active Directory through PowerShell
    3. 2.2 Use PowerShell to extract objects and attributes
    4. 2.3 Parse event logs through PowerShell
    5. 2.4 Use PowerShell to read CSV files
    6. 2.5 Query SQL Server with PowerShell
    7. 2.6 Compile data from remote hosts
  4. Lesson 3: Create a GUI Interface
    1. 3.0 Learning objectives (or Topics)
    2. 3.1 Understand PowerShell GUI fundamentals
    3. 3.2 Create GUI labels
    4. 3.3 Display text boxes
    5. 3.4 Create buttons–Part 1
    6. 3.4 Create buttons–Part 2
    7. 3.5 Build list boxes
    8. 3.6 Generate radio buttons
    9. 3.7 Create check boxes
  5. Lesson 4: The Basics of Data Charting
    1. 4.0 Learning objectives (or Topics)
    2. 4.1 Install charting controls
    3. 4.2 Understand charting fundamentals
    4. 4.3 Learn common charting elements–Part 1
    5. 4.3 Learn common charting elements–Part 2
    6. 4.4 Create common chart types–Part 1
    7. 4.4 Create common chart types–Part 2
    8. 4.5 Work with multiple data series
  6. Lesson 5: Create Advanced Charts
    1. 5.0 Learning objectives (or Topics)
    2. 5.1 Sort PowerShell's output
    3. 5.2 Create bubble charts
    4. 5.3 Build area charts
    5. 5.4 Produce pyramid charts
    6. 5.5 Create funnel charts
    7. 5.6 Make doughnut charts
  7. Lesson 6: Put the GUI to Work
    1. 6.0 Learning objectives (or Topics)
    2. 6.1 Create a simple GUI application
    3. 6.2 Create an interactive chart–Part 1
    4. 6.2 Create an interactive chart–Part 2
    5. 6.3 Build a simple business dashboard–Part 1
    6. 6.3 Build a simple business dashboard–Part 2
  8. Lesson 7: Build a Financial Dashboard
    1. 7.0 Learning objectives (or Topics)
    2. 7.1 Create a sample database
    3. 7.2 Create a top five customers report–Part 1
    4. 7.2 Create a top five customers report–Part 2
    5. 7.3 Display projected accounts receivable–Part 1
    6. 7.3 Display projected accounts receivable–Part 2
    7. 7.4 Report recent payments received
    8. 7.5 Show the top five overdue accounts
    9. 7.6 Build a customer summary tool–Part 1
    10. 7.6 Build a customer summary tool–Part 2
    11. 7.7 Assemble the financial dashboard
  9. Lesson 8: Build an IT Dashboard
    1. 8.0 Learning objectives (or Topics)
    2. 8.1 Monitor host memory consumption
    3. 8.2 Track VM memory consumption
    4. 8.3 Report multi-host memory consumption
    5. 8.4 Display VM summary information
    6. 8.5 Create a live migration tool
    7. 8.6 Assemble the IT dashboard
  10. Summary
    1. PowerShell for Business Intelligence and Big Data Analytics LiveLessons: Summary

Product information

  • Title: PowerShell for Business Intelligence and Big Data Analytics LiveLessons
  • Author(s): Brien Posey
  • Release date: February 2017
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 0134691520