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Jakub Šindelář edited this page Sep 15, 2020 · 4 revisions

You will learn how to use Lazy Admin as user in the following pages.

You can either read the short overview on this page or you can read detailed pages about each component on the following pages. Or you can do both.

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Complete Overview

Lazy Admin is an application, which allows you to use functions and scripts easily, without dealing with console. It is still mainly application for administrators or helpdesk operators. Depending on commands defined by your PowerShell developer, actions performed within Lazy Admin still may have big impact on your environment and your company. You should always use Lazy Admin with caution and be fully informed by experienced coworkers or consultants.

Login Page

When you launch Lazy Admin, you will land on Login Page. You can enter your credentials for privileged account, which will be used to perform administrative tasks on computers or other resources within your company. If you already launched Lazy Admin with privileged account, you can skip loggin by toggling Login button with Skip button on the side of the button. If you skip login, certain commands may be unavailable, because PowerShell session cannot be created on your computer, which may be utilized by some commands.
If you have installed CredentialManager module on your computer, your credentials can be saved in Windows Credential Manager, meaning you do not have to enter your credentials again on your next Lazy Admin launch. If you change your password, you can either change it in Credential manager, or hit Change user button to enter your new credentials.

You can also change display language on Login Page.

If you need more information about Login Page, you can read them on Login Page wiki page.

Scripts Page

After you log in the Lazy Admin, you will see table of scripts you can run. Each commands is displayed in separate row, displaying its icon, commands name, friendly name, description and help and launch buttons.

If you press Help button, external help will be loaded from defined URL. If no URL is defined, description will be shown instead.

When you click Launch button for certain command, Parameters dialog will pop up. There, you can specify parameters, which will be used for chosen command. Each paramter contains information about its name, type and whether it is required or optional parameter. Parameters can be on of the following types:

  • String
  • Number
  • ScriptBlock
  • Switch
  • Boolean
  • Select
  • Multiselect

Additionaly, Parameters dialog can contain buttons for online services login and read-only parameters from previous steps.

After you launch your commands, you may be presented with Confirmation dialog, which prompts you to review your final command before execution. You can set visibility of this dialog on Settings Page.

When your commands launches, you may be presented with Progress dialog, which shows you current output of PowerShell's console. You can set visibility of this dialog on Settings Page.

After receiving end of output from PowerShell's process, Results dialog will be shown. Results may be displayed either as raw text or in table, depending on whether the results are parsable as JSON or not.

You may also encounter workflow commands, which allow you to chain commands together, passing results from previous commands to another. When workflow command is used, you will be able to transition to next workflow's step by pressing Arrow button on Results dialog, optionally allowing you to choose one or multiple results from table results.

Each command you run is saved to history. History tab can be accessed by pressing History button, which is located on the right of the Search bar in the title bar. History tab allows you to view results or run command again, prelaoding parameters from previous run.

Search bar allows you to filter both Scripts table and History table. Scripts can be also filtered based on Definition file they belong to in the Application's left menu, accessed via Menu icon on the left of the Search bar.

If you need more information about Scripts Page, you can read them on Scripts Page wiki page. We highly recommend to read all information for this page, as it is crucial part of the application.

Settings Page

Settings Page can be accesed with Settings button from Application's left menu.

On Settings Page, you will be able to customize all settings for Lazy Admin.

Each setting is descriptive on its own, but you can read all the details for each one on Settings Page.

About Page

About Page can be accesed with About button from Application's left menu.

On About Page, you will be able to view Application's and definitions' versions and manually check for updates.

List of updates, which happens automatically:

  • Application update
  • Master definition update
  • Scripts definitions updates
  • Custom language update

When you press Update button, you will force update for application and definitions.

Workflows

Workflows are special types of command definitions, which allows you to chain multiple commands together, passing results from previous commands as parameters to next one.

Workflows are more complex, that is why there is separate page for them. If you end up using workflows, please read all the details on Workflows wiki page.

Optional components

If you want to save your credentials for logging in to Lazy Admin, you need to have CredentialManager module installed. For more information, read How to Install CredentialManager Module.

We recommend you to use new PowerShell Core, instead of Windows PowerShell. For more information, read How to Install PowerShell Core.

Where next

If you still need more information, continue reading detailed pages about each component. Head over to Login Page to learn more about using alternate credentials to be used within Lazy Admin.

Links

Getting started

User's guide

Administrator's guide

Contributor's reference

Base module example

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