So the first one out is the simple backup/restore stsadm operations. The problem with this is that when doing the restore it’s not possible to specify what database to restore it to. So to be able to do this you need to lock the other content databases except the one you want to add it to. This might not be possible and the you could use a maintenance farm.

A much better option is the mergecontentdbs stsadm operation that was introduced in SP1 of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and allows 3 different options. The first option only analyse the situation and calculate the amount of site collections in the content database and their size. The second option is to move all sites in the specified source content database and move them to the specified destination content database. Our last option is to use an xml file containing the sites that we want to move as an input file to the command and the operation will only move the sites specified in that xml-file

The best thing with the last option is that we can use the enumsites operation to get an xml file of all sites for our a specific web application.

Example: stsadm -o enumsites -url [webAppUrl] -showlocks > "D:tempsites.xml"

The only problem with the above is that if you have a large amount of site collection and a number of content databases you will need to modify the list and remove the site collections that should not be moved to another content database. Later in this post I will show you how this problem can easily be addressed using PowerShell

Before using the mergecontentdbs operation you should consider two things. The first one is that since the mergecontentdbs operation is using the Content Deployment API it’s not suitable for sites larger then 10 GB. The other is that if content is changed during the operation you will not only risk losing the content but it could also cause database corruption as described in this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969242. So before moving the sites it’s a good recommendation to lock the site collections before the move.

To solve this I created a PowerShell script that does the following:

1. Exports all the site collection for specific web application to an xml-file
2. Remove all sites in the file that is not located in the database I have specified
3. Sets the site collections to no access to prevent data loss
4. Move the sites from the source database to the destination database using the xml file
5. Offers you to make an IISreset on all WFEs in the farm (Recommended after the stsadm operation)
6. Set the site collection lock back to it’s original

$env:PATH = $env:PATH +
";C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions12BIN" 

$webAppUrl = "http://myWebAppUrl"
$sourceContentDB = "SourceContentDB"
$destinationContentDB = "DestinationContentDB"
$xmlfile = "d:tempsites.xml" 

# enumerate through all site collections and save them to the XML-file
Write-Host "Retreives all site collections located at"
$webAppUrl "and save it to " $xmlfile
stsadm -o enumsites -url $webAppUrl -showlocks > $xmlfile | out-null 

# Import the XML file content $sites = [xml](Get-Content $xmlfile)
# Remove only the site collections located in the source database
Write-Host "Cleaning up the" $xmlfile "file and remove sites that should not be affected"
$sites.Sites.Site | Where-Object {$_.ContentDatabase -ne $sourceContentdb} |
ForEach-Object { $_.ParentNode.RemoveChild($_) | out-null } 

# Enumerate through all the sites in the xml file and make necessary preparations 

foreach($site in $sites.sites.site) {
# Lock the sites to prevent errors when migration and data loss
Write-Host "Locking the site" $site.url "to prevent data loss"
stsadm -o setsitelock -url $site.URL -lock Noaccess
} 

# Moving sites
stsadm -o mergecontentdbs -url $webAppUrl -sourcedatabasename $sourceContentDB
  -destinationdatabasename $destinationContentDB -operation 3 -filename $xmlfile 

# Get the farm object to find get all the WFEs in the farm
[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")
$farm = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm]::Local
Write-Host "To complete the move you need to make an IISreset on all WFEs in the farm"
Write-Host "You will now get the option to make an IISreset on all your WFEs"
Write-Host "" 

# Enumerate through all servers in the farm 

foreach ($svr in $farm.Servers) {
  foreach ($svc in $svr.ServiceInstances) {
    # If the server has the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service it
    # is most likely it's a WFE.
    if($svc.TypeName -eq "Windows SharePoint Services Web Application"){
      # Ask if we should make an IISReset on the server
      $IISReset = Read-Host "Do you want to make an IIS-reset on"
      $svr.DisplayName "server (yes/No)?"
      if($IISReset.ToLower() -eq "yes") {
        iisreset $svr.DisplayName
      }
    }
  }
}
# Enumerate through all the sites in the xml file and finalize the move
foreach($site in $sites.sites.site) {
  # Set the original lockstate for the site collection
  Write-Host "Setting the original lock state for site" $site.url "to prevent data loss"
  stsadm -o setsitelock -url $site.URL -lock $site.Lock
}

You can download the script [Download not found]. Just make sure you run it with an account that has sufficient permissions as described in the enumcontentdbs TechNet article and to modify the first 4 paramaters.

Another option to move site collections is to use the Batch Site Manager that is included in the SharePoint Administration Toolkit. This tool is packaged as a solution that you deploy to your farm. When deployed (and activated), it will then have a new option in Central Administration under Application Management.

The tool allows you to very nicely see all site collection for each content database, select the ones you want to move and create a timer job for the move. The Batch Site Manager is using the stsadm operations backup and restore in the background. It usually takes a bit longer then the mergecontentdbs but you get the option to specify when the timer job should be run, where to store the temporary file and you can get a email notification telling you the status of the move. As you can see in the screenshot above the tool also offers you to batch locking and deletion of sites.

The Batch Site Manager is recommended to use with sites up to 15 GB. The mentioned recommendations for the both tools should be seen as recommendation and it’s possible to test your way forward and what works in your environment.

So what about really large site collections?
When moving really large sites none of the mentioned tools might work and you will then have to take on a different approach. In short this is what you need to do.

1. Set the site collection that needs to be moved (farm 1) to read only and make a SQL backup of the content database (ContentDB A).
2. Restore the content database with a new name (ContentDB B) and attach it to your Maintanence farm (Farm B) or if you don’t have one to a different web application. Make sure you use the –assignnewdatabaseid since we will later on restore the database back to it’s original location
3. When it’s attached to farm B, use the stsadm -deletesite operation using the -gradualdelete parameter (introduced in the April CU) to remove the sites from ContentDB B that should not be moved.
4. Backup the ContentDB B and restore it (but don’t attach it yet) to your Farm A
5. Delete the large site from ContentDB A using stsadm and -gradualdelete.
6. When the site is deleted you can attach ContentDB A to Farm A
7. Unlock the site collection when done.

In some scenarios these rules are not applicable for you. For instance you might know that you have a content database over the recommendation then you don’t want to get an alert every hour it is run. This can easily be changed from central administration but if you want to script it using PowerShell to build it into e.g. your installation script this is how you do.

Open up the SharePoint management shell.

First we need to connect to the list containing all the health rules. This is done from through the SPHealthReportsList class.

$haList = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Health.SPHealthRulesList]::Local.Items

Next thing we need to do is to get the ID of the specific rule. This can be done from Central Administration by clicking on an item. Right click on the page and take properties. In the Querystring in the Address field you will find the ID.

You can of course get the ID through PowerShell as well. The below line shows all the name of all items and their ID.

$haList | Select-Object title, id | Format-List

When you know the ID of the rule to disable (or enable) you simply get the item and set the HealthRuleCheckEnabled to True or False. When that is done we just update the item with the Update() method.

$healthRule = $haList.GetItemById(1)
$healthRule["HealthRuleCheckEnabled"] = $false
$healthRule.Update()

That’s all for today, hope you found it useful and now it’s time for weekend!

Microsoft has developed a way to calculate “problems”  within a solution based on a number of different metrics. To see what matrics are used you can use PowerShell and type the two following line of code in the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell: 

PS > $spCodeService = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUserCodeService]::Local
PS > $spCodeService.ResourceMeasures | select name

Name
----
AbnormalProcessTerminationCount
CPUExecutionTime
CriticalExceptionCount
IdlePercentProcessorTime
InvocationCount
PercentProcessorTime
ProcessCPUCycles
ProcessHandleCount
ProcessIOBytes
ProcessThreadCount
ProcessVirtualBytes
SharePointDatabaseQueryCount
SharePointDatabaseQueryTime
UnhandledExceptionCount
UnresponsiveprocessCount

This will generate a list of all the Resource Measures. Each item has a number of properties that defines how the points should be calculated. If we take a closer look to the first item by typing: 

PS > $spCodeService.ResourceMeasures["AbnormalProcessTerminationCount"]

MinimumThreshold                : 0
ResourcesPerPoint               : 1
AbsoluteLimit                   : 2
DiskSizeRequired                : 0
CanSelectForBackup              : False
CanRenameOnRestore              : False
CanSelectForRestore             : True
CanBackupRestoreAsConfiguration : True
Name                            : AbnormalProcessTerminationCount
TypeName                        : Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPResourc
                                  eMeasure
DisplayName                     : AbnormalProcessTerminationCount
Id                              : 9056369d-768e-42bd-bd9c-67d810ad7936
Status                          : Online
Parent                          : SPUserCodeService Name=SPUserCodeV4
Version                         : 2410
Properties                      : {}
Farm                            : SPFarm Name=SharePoint_SP2010TestFarm_ConfigD
                                  B
UpgradedPersistedProperties     : {} 

In the above case the RecourcesPerPoint value is set to one. This means that whenever an Abnormal Process Termination occurs it will generate one “point”. You can also see that there is a AbsoluteLimit value. If any specific ResourceMeasure hits its AboluteLimit it will shut down the solution even if the daily quota of points is not reached. By typing the following you can see each ResourceMeasure’s ResourcesPerPoint and AbsoluteLimit values:

PS > $spCodeService.ResourceMeasures | select name, resourcesperpoint, absolutelimit

Name                                ResourcesPerPoint             AbsoluteLimit
----                                -----------------             -------------
AbnormalProcessTerminat...                          1                         2
CPUExecutionTime                                  200                        60
CriticalExceptionCount                             10                         3
IdlePercentProcessorTime                          100                        10
InvocationCount                                   100                       100
PercentProcessorTime                               85                       100
ProcessCPUCycles                         100000000000              100000000000
ProcessHandleCount                              10000                      5000
ProcessIOBytes                               10000000                 100000000
ProcessThreadCount                              10000                       200
ProcessVirtualBytes                        1000000000                4000000000
SharePointDatabaseQuery...                        400                       100
SharePointDatabaseQuery...                         20                        60
UnhandledExceptionCount                            50                         3
UnresponsiveprocessCount                            2                         1

It is possible to change the these values if you want to tweek how the points are calculated. To change the AbsoluteLimit on the AbnormalProcessTerminationCount you simply type: 

PS > $spCodeService.ResourceMeasures["AbnormalProcessTerminationCount"] `
.AbsoluteLimit = 2

If you want to change the Max Point quota for a specific site collection you can do that by typing: 

PS > (get-spsite http://SPsiteURL).Quota.UserCodeMaximumLevel = 200

Or of you want to change the quota on all site collections this is how you do. Get all site collections using the Get-SPSite cmdlet and then you pipe it to a foreach-object and then set the new value. 

PS > Get-SPSite | foreach-object {$_.Quota.UserCodeMaximumLevel = 200}

Open up PowerShell with an account that has access to the sites and type:

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")
$spsite = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http://yoursite")
($spsite.AllWebs | where {$_.WebTemplate -eq "BLOG#0"}).count

I tested this on a quite small site collection ~500 webs. If it’s a large site collection (number of sites) you should be a bit careful since it might take up a lot of resources. If you use PowerShell V2 then you should first set the ThreadOption to ReuseThread like below.
$host.Runspace.ThreadOptions = “ReuseThread”

If you want to search for another type of built-in or custom template you can do so by just changing the value “BLOG#0″. If you want to see all available templates and their internal name you type (where 1033 is your LCID):

$spsite.GetWebTemplates(1033) | select Name

That’s all for now!

One of the cmdlets that needs to be used when scripting a 2010 farm using PowerShell is the Initialize-SPResourceSecurity This does the same as psconfig -cmd secureresources. A have used this hundreds of times and knows that it is, according to the technet command line reference  ”Performs SharePoint Products and Technologies resource security enforcement on the server. For example, security is enforced on files, folders, and registry keys”. Earlier I have been happy with that explanation since it’s quite obvious what it does right? But what does this really mean, what security is set and on what folders and files? It turns out that if you Google on it, everyone mentioning it says more or less the same as the sentence mentioned on Technet. This made me even more curios, and to find out you can actually run the command from the command line and get the result there or you can pipe it out to a txt file like this:

psconfig -cmd secureresources > c:tempsecureresources.txt

The below is a copy of the result (Moss) and should give you a hint on what it actually does and what files, foldres and registry keys are affected.

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0LoadBalancerSettings’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘LocalService’ ‘Read’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0WebServicesRoot’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘Users’ ‘Read, Execute’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0LoadBalancerSettings’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesVSS’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0LauncherSettings’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘LocalSystem’ ‘Read’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0′ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read, Execute’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0WebServicesRoot’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘NetworkService’ ‘Read, Execute’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftShared ToolsWeb Server Extensions12.0WSSDiagnostics’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office Servers12.0Data’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0Diagnostics’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0′ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘Users’ ‘Read, Execute’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0WebServices’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTAPPID{6002D29F-1366-4523-88C1-56D59BFEF8CB}’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0Logs’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftShared ToolsWeb Server Extensions12.0Search’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘C:WINDOWSSystem32driversetcHOSTS’ of type ‘File’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0Bin’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘LocalService’ ‘Read, Execute’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0LauncherSettings’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0Logs’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘Users’ ‘Read, Execute, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0Logs’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftShared ToolsWeb Server Extensions12.0WSSComponentsToRegister’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office Servers12.0DataOffice Server’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0Search’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTAPPID{58F1D482-A132-4297-9B8A-F8E4E600CDF6}’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0Bin’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘Users’ ‘Read, Execute’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0SearchSetup’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘NetworkService’ ‘Read’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘C:WINDOWSTasks’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0LoadBalancerSettings’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftShared ToolsWeb Server Extensions12.0Search’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server12.0′ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server12.0′ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0WebServices’ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘E:Microsoft Office servers12.0′ of type ‘Directory’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Full Control’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice12.0Registration{90120000-110D-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice Server12.0LauncherSettings’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_WPG’ ‘Read, Write’ permissions .

Successfully secured resource ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server’ of type ‘RegKey’ by granting security group ‘WSS_ADMIN_WPG’ ‘Read’ permissions .

Thanks for the tip Andrija!

SYNTAX:
SP-Upgrade -help
Displays the help topic for the script

SP-Upgrade -Binaries
Installs the wss and MOSS Binaries on the local machine

SP-Upgrade -Binaries -DetacheContentDBs
Detaches all content databases and installs the wss and MOSS Binaries on the local machine

SP-Upgrade -PSConfig
Runs the SharePoint Product and Configuration Wizard

SP-Upgrade -PSConfig -AttachContentDBs
Runs the SharePoint Product and Configuration Wizard and attaches all content databases

SP-Upgrade -OnlyAttach
Attaches all Content databases found in ContentDatabases.xml

SP-Upgrade -OnlyExport
Exports all Content databases found to ContentDatabases.xml

1. Log the amount of time it takes to install the updates to estimate downtime in produciton environment
2. Be able to reuse it without having to change any code
3. Be able to choose if I wanted to detach all content databases before the binaries and then attach it after psconfig and then have that automated.

The first two things are actually not that tricky but the last point needed some more efforts.

1. This is how you work with the script:
   Download it from [Download not found] of from the download section, and put it on the SharePoint server/servers that are about to be upgraded.
2. Create a folder on the same level as the SP-Upgrade.ps1 file and name it Media.
3. Download and extract the CU or the patches that should be installed and put it in the Media folder.
4. Rename the .exe files in the Media folder so that they have a digit in the beginning representing in what order they should be installed.
   For instance, if you want to upgrade your MOSS environment you have both the WSS and MOSS CU name the WSS CU 01[WSSFilename].exe and 02[MossFileName].exe
5. Open up a PowerShell command window with enough priviliges to run the setup.
6. Depending on your environment and what approach you want to use, run SP-Upgrade with any of the following switches.

When the script is run it will create a Log folder and put all logs in that folder. Except for the log files generated by the installation I create a log file named Upgradelog.log and will contain the steps taken by the script together with time stamps. The time stamps are also printed to the screen and can display installation times, detach and attach times of content db’s.

When detaching the content databases the following information is stored in the ContentDatabases.xml file:

Web Application URL
Content Database Name
Content Database Max Site Count
Content Database Site Warning Level
Content Database Read Only
Content Database Status
Content Database Server Name
Detached Time
Reattached Time (Used when attached)

Syntax examples

SP-Upgrade -help
Displays the help topic for the script

SP-Upgrade -Binaries
Installs the wss and MOSS Binaries on the local machine

SP-Upgrade -Binaries -DetacheContentDBs
Detaches all content databases and installs the wss and MOSS Binaries on the local machine

SP-Upgrade -PSConfig
Runs the SharePoint Product and Configuration Wizard

SP-Upgrade -PSConfig -AttachContentDBs
Runs the SharePoint Product and Configuration Wizard and attaches all content databases

SP-Upgrade -OnlyAttach
Attaches all Content databases found in ContentDatabases.xml

Feedback and ideas for improvement is more then welcome!

What the script does is that you specify a site, list and workflow name and then all workflows will be terminated so that you can run them again. I also included the option to include already running Workflows and also a Restart parameter that could actually be used to start multiple Workflows only.

This is how it looks:

DESCRIPTION:
NAME: Cancel-SPWorkflow
Cancel SharePoint Workflows and restart them if wanted

SYNTAX:
Cancel-SPWorkflow -help
Displays the help topic for the script

Cancel-SPWorkflow -site http://yourSPSite -list Listname -Workflowname YourWorkflow
Terminates all workflows with the specific workflow name

Cancel-SPWorkflow -site http://yourSPSite -list Listname -Workflowname YourWorkflow -Includerunning
Terminates all workflows with the specific workflow name and include running workflows

Cancel-SPWorkflow -site http://yourSPSite -list Listname -Workflowname YourWorkflow -restart
Terminates all workflows with the specific workflow name and then restart the workflow for all items

The key in the script is how we cancel the workflow. That is done through the SPWorkflowManager and done like.

[Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager]::CancelWorkflow($Workflow)

And when we want to start a workflow we first need the workflow association and association data together with the SharePoint item to start it for.

$SPList.Parentweb.site.workflowmanager.startworkflow($item, $WFAssociation, $WFAssociation.AssociationData)

You find the whole script [Download not found] or from the Downloads section

Hope you find it useful

But today I wanted to use the script to copy items to a specific folder in that list and it was a bit tricky at the first to understand how this could be done. But after some testing I figured it out and this is how you do.

# First open the list to create the new item in.
$TargetWeb = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite(http://yoursite)
$OpenTargetWeb = $TargetWeb.OpenWeb()
$OpenTargetList = $OpenTargetWeb.Lists[$TargetList]

# Then we need to get the folder name and set the objecttype
$FSObjectytype = [microsoft.sharepoint.SPFilesystemobjecttype]::File
$Folder = $targetweb.GetFolder(http://urlToFolder)

# Now we can create the new Item
$NewItem = $OpenTargetList.items.Add($Folder.Folder.ServerRelativeUrl, $FSObjectytype, $null)

# Add values
$NewItem["Title"] = “Yada Yada”

# Finally use update to create the new item
$NewItem.update()

My intention is to add this to my copy items script later on.

What it does basically is that it connects to the SPWebService and for each web application it find it lists all SharePoint Content Databases and writes it to either a xml or csv file named ContentDatabases in the folder where you run the script.

This is how you use it:

.SP-EnumContentDBs -OutPutFormat xml | csv

And now in the first version you will get the following information:
Web Application name
Content Database Name
Content Database ID(GUID)
Current amount of sites in DB
Maximum site count allowed in DB
Warning site level
Read only state
Database Server

But it’s easy to add more attributes by just adding more properties to the code. You can find all available properties at msdn: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spcontentdatabase_properties.

If you want to make a comparison to what you have on the SQL server you can easily run the script, import it to e.g. Excel and then run the following on the SQL server to get the list of databases:

select name from master..sysdatabases where dbid>4 order by name

I have started to move some of my PowerShell scripts to the codeplex project SharePoint Management PowerShell scripts This way I hope more people will find it usefull and others can participate in improving them. This script can be found here: http://sharepointpsscripts.codeplex.com/releases/view/53114

You can download the script by clicking here or it’s available at the download section.

Finally thanks to Travis Lingenfelder who with his blog post helped me with some strugeling getting the names out since it differs some from c#.

http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/tlingenfelder/archive/2009/06/26/using-non-cls-compliant-types-in-powershell.aspx