[...] Comparing installed hotfixes on server (dealing with the side indicator) [...]

Hi, great script – however as a newbie to powershell I cannot get it to run. I get the below error “Parameter declarations are a comma-separated list of variable names with optional initializer expres
At E:\compare.ps1:3 char:41
+ [parameter(Mandatory=$true,Position=0)] <<<<"

Aside from that, the thing is that how can I run this without specifying the fact that I want to run the function? I thought I would need to put "Compare-InstalledHotfix" at the end of the script so that when I run "compare.ps1" it knows I want to execute the function "Compare-InstalledHotfix" – excuse my dumbness in this

thanks

Are you on PS V2 ?

Nice Script and article. Mayby with a switch you van make the output return objects.

By the way .. may i add this script to my Powershelltips ? offcourse with name and website

Sure thing! Thanks Bernard!

Hello,

Thanks a lot for this fantastic script. Very usefull !

However the compare-object cmdlet can’t works without specifying the -SyncWindow parameter.

The value of this parameter must be set to half of the size of the smaller collection, so i put this code before the compar-object line :

$count1 = $server1HotFix.length
$count2 = $server2HotFix.length
if($count1 -lt $count2){
$MySynWindow = [Math]::Round($count1/2)
}
else{
$MySynWindow = [Math]::Round($count2/2)
}

$comparedHotfixes = compare-object $server2HotFix $server1HotFix -IncludeEqual -SyncWindow $MySynWindow

Then it seems that there is on more problem with the comparison :

$server1HotFix = get-hotfix -computer $server1 -Credential $credential | select HotfixId

I have used this instead :

$server1HotFix = get-hotfix -computer $server1 -Credential $credential | ?{$_.HotfixId -notlike “*File 1*”} | %{$_.hotfixid}

and then :

$c.InputObject instead of $c.InputObject.hotfixid each times it is used in the foreach statement

… Then, now it works fine !

When I say “can’t works without specifying the -SyncWindow parameter”… in fact it works but not for a list of hotfix greater than 11…

Source : http://dmitrysotnikov.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/compare-object-gotcha/

And the result is not good if I use “select Hotfixid”, that the reason why I used “%{$_.hotfixid}”.

Hey Matthew,

Thanks for the note about -syncWindow. I hadn’t seen that before. However, I am still not sure what the concern was that made you add | ?{$_.HotfixId -notlike “*File 1*”} | %{$_.hotfixid}

I specifically used select-object to create a new PSOBject with just the HotFix property and nothing else so I was just comparing collections of HotFixID.

Thanks for your great feedback !

Hello Andy,

Yes sure, Iwould prefered that : using PSOBject is a better solution … But I don’t know why, the result is not the same (I made several tests).

It’s OK with “string” comparison but not with collections (our servers have more than 100 KBs installed).

I’d like to understand why…