A few days back my team member asked, Is there an easy way to convert YAML to JSON and JSON to YAML using scripts? As expected, my answer was: Yes, with PowerShell!

In some scenarios like in configuration management and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) spaces, use JSON or YAML files to store configuration data. This article is for you if you need to convert data from YAML to JSON format. In this article, you will learn ways to convert data YAML to JSON format & JSON to YAML format. To create the YAML to JSON conversion PowerShell script, follow these instructions. This PowerShell module is a thin wrapper on top of YamlDotNet that serializes and un-serializes simple PowerShell objects to and from YAML.

Converting YAML to JSON format:

STEP:1 Get the YAML file path and assign it to Variable

$YAMLFilePath = “C:\dotnet-helper\Build&Release.yml”

STEP:2 Get the YAML Content using Get-Content Cmdlet

$YAMLContent = Get-Content -Path $YAMLFilePath

STEP:3 Convert the YAML file to Hash Value using ConvertFrom-Yaml cmdlet

Read the YAML file using Get-Content and convert the data to a hashtable using ConvertFrom-Yaml (as shown below script).

hash_Value = ($YAMLContent | ConvertFrom-Yaml)

STEP:4 Convert the hashtable object to JSON format using ConvertTo-Json cmdlet & Finally save the file using Set-Content.

Set-Content -Path “C:\dotnet-helper\Build&Release.json” -Value ($hash_Value| ConvertTo-Json)

Full Code:

#Get the YAML file path and assign to Variable
$YAMLFilePath = "C:\dotnet-helpers\YML_Build&Release.yml"

#Get the YAML Content using Get-Content Cmdlet
$YAMLContent = Get-Content -Path $YAMLFilePath

#Convert the YAML file to Hash Value using ConvertFrom-Yaml cmdlet
$hash_Value = ($YAMLContent | ConvertFrom-Yaml)

#Convert the hashtable object to JSON format using ConvertTo-Json
#Finally save the save the file using Set-Content.
Set-Content -Path "C:\dotnet-helpers\JSON_Build&Release.json" -Value ($hash_Value| ConvertTo-Json)

OUTPUT:

Converting JSON to YAML format:

STEP:1 Get the JSON file path and assign it to Variable

$JsonFilePath = “C:\dotnet-helpers\JSON_Build&Release.JSON”

STEP:2 Get the JSON Content using Get-Content Cmdlet

$JsonContent = Get-Content -Path $JsonFilePath

STEP:3 Convert the JSON file to Hash Value using the ConvertFrom-Json cmdlet

Read the JSON file using Get-Content and convert the data to a hashtable using ConvertFrom-Json (as shown below script).

$hash_Value = ($JsonContent | ConvertFrom-Json)

STEP:4 Convert the hashtable object to YML format using ConvertTo-Yaml cmdlet & Finally save the file using Set-Content.

Set-Content -Path “C:\dotnet-helpers\YML_Build&Release.yml” -Value ($hash_Value| ConvertTo-Yaml)

Full Code:

#Get the JSON file path and assign to Variable
$JsonFilePath = "C:\dotnet-helpers\JSON_Build&Release.JSON"

#Get the YAML Content using Get-Content Cmdlet
$JsonContent = Get-Content -Path $JsonFilePath

#Convert the YAML file to Hash Value using ConvertFrom-Json cmdlet
$hash_Value = ($JsonContent | ConvertFrom-Json)

#Convert the hashtable object to YML format using ConvertTo-Yaml
Set-Content -Path "C:\dotnet-helpers\YML_Build&Release.yml" -Value ($hash_Value| ConvertTo-Yaml)

OUTPUT:

Requirement: One of my clients requested to check the status of the CPU utilization and Memory usage before starting the deployment. If any utilization is beyond the threshold (by taking the N samples of utilization with N intervals), the deployment process needs to stop in the remote machine and share the email notification with the support team.

Post by automation, though to write the post on the same and with sample examples. In Windows PowerShell, there is no exclusive cmdlet to find out the CPU and memory utilization rates. You can use the get-wmi object cmdlet along with the required parameters to fetch the Memory results.

STEP #1: Get the IP and hostname of the Remote server 

Param ( [string]$iP, [string]$hostName )

STEP #2: Assign the username and password to connect the server to execute the remote script

$username = $env:serviceUsername
$password = $env:servicePwd
$userPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $password -AsPlainText -Force
$userCredential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $username, $userPassword

STEP #3: Use Invoke-Command to connect the server and execute the script inside the connected Machine.

In the Invoke-Command pass the IP of the remote server which going to check the CPU & Memory usage.

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $iP -ScriptBlock {
#…Enter your Logic
} -credential $userCredential

STEP 4: Get the sample CPU usage with an interval of 2 seconds and Find the average.

We can achieve this by using the Get-Counter cmdlet in Powershell. It will get performance counter data directly from the performance monitoring instrumentation in the Windows family of operating systems. Get-Counter gets performance data from a local computer or remote computers. For this example, we fetched the CPU samples 5 times at 2-sec Intervals.

$CPUAveragePerformance = (GET-COUNTER -Counter “\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time” -SampleInterval 2 -MaxSamples 5 |select -ExpandProperty countersamples | select -ExpandProperty cookedvalue | Measure-Object -Average).average

Write-Host “Average of CPU usage (calculated with 5 Sample with an interval of 2 sec):” $CPUAveragePerformance

STEP 5: Get the Memory usage using Get-WmiObject cmdlet.

$ComputerMemory = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $env:COMPUTERNAME -Class win32_operatingsystem -ErrorAction Stop

$Memory = ((($ComputerMemory.TotalVisibleMemorySize – $ComputerMemory.FreePhysicalMemory)*100)/ $ComputerMemory.TotalVisibleMemorySize)

$RoundMemory = [math]::Round($Memory, 2)
Write-Host “Memory usage percentage of the system :” $RoundMemory

You can save this script as .PS1 (DEVMachine_ServerHealthCheck.ps1) and call in automation bypassing the IP & Hostname as parameters to get the result.

Full Code:

#Check the CPU & Memory Usage in the Remote Machine

Param ( [string]$iP, [string]$hostName  )

$username = $env:serviceUsername
$password = $env:servicePwd
$userPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $password -AsPlainText -Force
$userCredential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $username, $userPassword

try {

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $iP -ScriptBlock { 
$CPUAveragePerformance = (GET-COUNTER -Counter "\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time" -SampleInterval 2 -MaxSamples 5 |
select -ExpandProperty countersamples | 
select -ExpandProperty cookedvalue | Measure-Object -Average).average
Write-Host "Average of CPU usage (calculated with 5 interval of 2 sec) :" $CPUAveragePerformance

$ComputerMemory = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $hostName -Class win32_operatingsystem
$Memory = ((($ComputerMemory.TotalVisibleMemorySize - 
$ComputerMemory.FreePhysicalMemory)*100)/ $ComputerMemory.TotalVisibleMemorySize) 
$RoundMemory = [math]::Round($Memory, 2)
Write-Host "Memory usage percentage of the system :" $RoundMemory

}  -credential $userCredential
}
catch{
Write-Host $error[0]
}

Output: