PITCHME.md

PSGraph

PSGraph is a PowerShell module that allows you to script the generation of graphs using the GraphViz engine. It makes it easy to produce data driven visualizations.

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Install GraphViz from the Chocolatey repo

Register-PackageSource -Name Chocolatey -ProviderName Chocolatey -Location http://chocolatey.org/api/v2/
Find-Package graphviz | Install-Package -ForceBootstrap

Install PSGraph from the Powershell Gallery

Find-Module PSGraph | Install-Module

Import Module

Import-Module PSGraph

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Describe how items are connected

Using a custom DSL, describe how nodes are connected with edges

Graph "myGraph" {
    Edge start -To middle
    Edge middle -To end
}

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Export and show the Graph

Then we can render the graph as an image.

Graph "myGraph" {
    Edge -From start -To middle
    Edge -From middle -To end
}  | Export-PSGraph -ShowGraph

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Data driven graphs

The real fun starts when they are data driven

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Example: Server farm data

Imagine you wanted to diagram a server farm.

I'm generating example servers here:

# Server counts
$WebServerCount = 2
$APIServerCount = 2
$DatabaseServerCount = 2

# Server lists
$WebServer = 1..$WebServerCount | % {"Web_$_"}
$APIServer = 1..$APIServerCount | % {"API_$_"}
$DatabaseServer = 1..$DatabaseServerCount | % {"DB_$_"}

But you could source these from AD or your CMDB

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Example: Server farm graph

Then describe how those lists of servers are related

graph servers {
    node -Default @{shape='box'}
    edge LoadBalancer -To $WebServer
    edge $WebServer -To $APIServer
    edge $APIServer -To AvailabilityGroup
    edge AvailabilityGroup -To $DatabaseServer
} | Export-PSGraph -ShowGraph

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Example: Server farm graph image

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Example: Project structures

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Example: Parent and child processes

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Example: Network connections

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What will you graph?

For more information

• psgraph.readthedocs.io
• github.com/kevinmarquette/psgraph
• kevinmarquette.github.io