Running a PowerShell script on a live server

Question

I have been tasked with creating a report on our current SharePoint 2010 server (on prem). In this report I need to have the user/group permissions on every site and sub sites. Now I believe I have found a script that will do this for me, but this will be the first time I am running PowerShell Script ever...so I am afraid of messing anything up since it will be run on a live server.

so My question is what are the dangers of running a script on a live server and are there any pit falls I should be aware of before running the script?

link to the script I found: http://johanmeyer.ukuvuma.co.za/2013/02/22/export-all-user-permissions-from-a-sharepoint-2010-site-to-csv/

my background: IT Intern (but not really an intern?) New to scripting but have some background in Java/code in general Being groomed for SharePoint administration

thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Running the script on live farm is not a big deal. If you tested it thoroughly in your test / lower farm 1st.

We ran the script in our SharePoint everyday i.e migrate user, restore site collections, create site collections etc. But we tested these before in our test farm.

Another things, how big is your farm? May be you need to schedule it after hours(non-peek hours). Just to avoid any performance issue.

Answer 2

As you are only reading data from Sharepoint, i don't think there is any harm. You should test the script on a test server to check the results.

Answer 3

I downloaded the script and ran it in one of my dev VM's, and it worked pretty well. (Sp 2010).

But in the end of the script you need to add -global parameter to Stop-SPAssignment.

I would recommend that if you decide to run it, open PowerShell ISE as administrator, type Add-pssnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell to load the SharePoint cmdlts.

Add The script in the script panel ( View > Show Script Panel ) and change the following in the bottom of the script (Marked with *):

$site = $gc | Get-SPSite  *http://YourSiteCollectionUrlHere/*
$groups = $site.RootWeb.sitegroups

 foreach ($grp in $groups) {
    foreach ($user in $grp.users) 
        {
            $user = $user.LoginName
            $webPermissions = $site | Get-SPWeb –Limit All | Get-SPUserEffectivePermissions $user
            $listPermissions = $site | Get-SPWeb –Limit All | %{$_.Lists | Get-SPUserEffectivePermissions $user}
            ($webPermissions + $listPermissions) | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation | Add-Content -Path c:\perms.csv 
        } 
        Add-Content -Path c:\perms.csv -Value $justData -Encoding UTF8
}
$site.Dispose()

$gc | Stop-SPAssignment *-global*

After the script have successfully executed, you should find your excel file under c:\perms.csv, but you can of course change the path to anything of your choice.

Remember that you are still doing it in your production so reconsider one last time before you run the script.