In the first part of this LAB setup guide, I described the hardware selection process.
In the second part, I described the hypervisor selection and installation.
In the third part, I described VM guest considerations and preparations.
In the fourth part, I described Configuring Server 2012 VM as DC with DNS and DHCP using PowerShell
In the fifth part, I described easily creating (many) proper AD users with PowerShell

In this post I will describe creating a local PowerShell v3 Help Repository.

First of all, let me explain what a local PowerShell v3 Help Repository is and why you might want it. With PowerShell v3 not all help files are included. You can however always selectively download the latest versions of the help files (for specific commands). This saves space and also makes for a more flexible system where help files can be updated more easily.

Downloading the updates to the help files requires an internet connection however, and this might not be possible or desirable in many situations. Also if every server would download these files from the internet, this would waste internet bandwidth. Microsoft realizes this and provides you with the option to create a local PowerShell v3 Help Repository.

My script to create this local PowerShell v3 Help Repository can be found here. The basic steps include:

1. Create a folder where the Help files will be stored.
2. Share the folder.
3. Create a scheduled task to daily update the help files in .the share
4. Create a file in the share that contains the command that needs to be run from another server to update its help files using the local repository (so you don’t have to remember the command).

As stated in step 4, you can manually update the help files. Personally I prefer creating a GPO that creates a scheduled task on every other system to update the help files on a regular basis using the local repository share you just made. This way when you need the help files, you don’t have to wait until the update has been completed and you also don’t have to rely on internet access.

Personally I would have preferred it if Microsoft also offered an option to deploy the help file updates using WSUS. But for now, this will have to do.