This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://blog.ironmansoftware.com/powershell-universal-v4-roadmap/
Good read,
This line made me chuckle though
good replacement for Task Manager
PSU is an absolute Heavy Task Manager Client Task Scheduler replacement thoughā¦
Glad to read about better Multi Admin Support, looking forward to 4.0.1
Client side events will also bridge the connections between PSU server and Desktop!
That is a very nice feature!
This would be really nice, I donāt care much for C# personally, but Iām a huge python and Bash fan.
An option to use Python as Execution engine, would increase my daily workflow with a factor 100.
I write logs to files, so when my users complaint about something I can go back and see the state and what they clicked when the error accrued. To have this a centralized place with all the necessary info would be amazing!
Iām looking forward to beta-test v4
Whoopsā¦typoā¦
I bet we could create a Task Manager with PSUā¦
Great job Adam. I think youāve definitely got a good vision for the future of PSU.
Especially looking forward to the modularity and documentation plans.
I canāt say enough how excellent this product is and how much I enjoy using it.
One noteā¦Iām actually not excited about the drag/drop designer idea.
The āpageā UI is one corner of PSU that I donāt particularly like. Iām guessing thereās a place for it but itās not for me.
Thanks, Mike!
I have to admit, I find the Pages as they are currently implemented to be not very useful, confusing and often broken. Itās one of the reasons to mention it on the roadmap. The v4 designer may end up being a tool for quickly laying out components rather than a full-fledged designer (like windows forms). I do often see new users gravitate towards pages, reach some basic limitation and then decide to use a dashboard.
I do have to admit that UD pages do have a tendency to be more dynamic than a page designer could probably account for but Iād like to find a way to make it faster to prototype simple tools. I have some ideas that blend together the simplicity of a designer but with the high customization of the dashboard scripts. Weāll see how it all shakes out.
Either way, the existing way to develop dashboards isnāt going away so there should be no worry about being forced into the designer in whatever implementation it ends up with.
Now this is exciting stuff!
āPowershell Universal Agentā is an interesting stretch goal when combined with client side events.
Speaking for myself, Iām the Desktop/Endpoint guy. My use case with PSU covers a few different areasā¦
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Endpoint data collection. Currently I just have scripts running as scheduled tasks to collect computer information. This information is then fed back to PSU through an API, where it is stored in a DB.
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I have a dashboard that provides a front-end for pulling information from said DB, along with āconnectingā the data to other sources (Intune for endpoint management, Snipe-IT for asset tracking). In this case, itās the āglueā which keeps all these disparate products aligned with their information.
Now for Modularityā¦
I have long wondered how I could possibly extend management capabilities of client devices using PSU. The biggest point to me is: how to make sure the client-server connection cannot be abused or used maliciously. I think the āAgentā could solve this. I would be very excited to try my hand at a open source RMM tool which uses PSU to do the āhard stuffā like security and auth, so I can focus on features.
So all in all, very cool stuff and I look forward to playing around. Thank you for all your hard work in providing such a great platform
Sadly as a ānewā user, I agree. Even though I see a lot of untapped potential in them. The way to build them is so far removed from how I build almost everything else through PSU. Just donāt see the value in investing time into leveraging them over Dashboards.
If somehow as you mention you can take the visual aspect of it, and combine it in some way with the code editor style of Endpoints or dashboards. I would be all over that in a heartbeat!
Thatās what Iām hoping to achieve. I think the current Pages are too āno codeā and what we really need is ācode in the right spots with a dash of visual designerā.
Good work! In particular fond of pipelines and single pane logging here.
Excellent post.
I would personally love to see the following as an evolution of the following:
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Enhanced Git support
The ability to apply Git at the Dashboard level, so I can have a Git repo per Dashboard.
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Multi Arch support.
This has been briefly touched on here and here in Forum posts. Currently, PSU is built from a Microsoft provided image of Ubuntu with PowerShell included. It would be good to see a move to the official Docker Hub hosted image of Ubuntu and then PowerShell installed as part of the build process.
The reason for this is that the Microsoft images only support a single arch type per image (AMD64/x86_64). We are beginning to see a new generation of enterprise ready vmās and single board devices of the not so new ARMv8 architecture, which has good compute using low power levels. Adding the emulation layer needed to get PSU 3 working wipes out any saving, and with AWS offering a new line of ARM64/ARMv8 services, this would be a massive win on the compatibility front.
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Support for another Database engine.
Currently, If I would like to use an external database, I have the choice of hosting my own SQL Server or using a cloud hosted SQL database. I would like to see something like MariaDB, MySQL or PostgreSQL (which ever works best) so I can add this to my Docker environment without the need to go down the Microsoft SQL route and deal with the licencing requirements which come with it. This would also allow me to run a database on ARM or another non x64_64 architecture.
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Work towards Kubernetes functionality
At some point, most likely the next time I re-architect. I would like to be able to have the option of hosting a Kubernetes deployment pretty much anywhere I decide to go. Items 2 & 3 are what stop me from testing this without incurring quite a cost. I would like to be able to host a full licence deployment of something like a Raspberry Pi4 or cluster of nodes. If we get the PSU agent mentioned on the post, this would be a perfect āworker nodeā option.
I know there is a lot there. I hope this list does not give @adam any type of hypertension at the pure scope of some of it. The above would enable me to run a more dynamic cost-effective and more environmentally friendly (if that will boost my case) deployment of PSU.