Powershell Get-mailboxdatabase and Create Shared Mailbox Script - database

Question

I have some basic Powershell knowledge and i am trying to revise an existing script on our Service Desk to make a shared mailbox in Exchange 2010.
The current version was setup so the user can input the database to assign the mailbox to.
The revised version i am trying to do is suppose to pull the Databases and display the size of each database. Then the idea is the user can simply input a number value to represent a database, rather than writing out the whole database.
So after doing some research i tried out the following;
$mailboxname=Read-Host “Enter mailbox name”
$alias=Read-Host “Enter Email Alias”
$User=$alias + "#domain.com"
Get-MailboxDatabase -Server "Server" -Status | Where-Object {$_.name -like "Database*"} | Sort-Object -Descending -Property #{Expression = "name"; Descending = $true} | Select Name,Databasesize
$script:ChosenDatabase=Get-MailboxDatabase
function Get-MailboxDatabase
{
$database=Read-Host "Enter database using a value of 1 to 4 to add the mailbox to"
Switch ($database)
{
1 {$Chosendatabase="Database-1"}
2 {$Chosendatabase="Database-2"}
3 {$Chosendatabase="Database-3"}
4 {$Chosendatabase="Database-4"}
}
return $Chosendatabase
}
New-mailbox -shared -Name $mailboxname -alias $alias -UserPrincipalName $User -OrganizationalUnit "Domain.com/Resources-OU" -Database $Chosendatabase
Get-mailbox -Identity $User | ft DisplayName,Database
read-host "hit enter to close window"
This kinda works, but it doesn't show the Mailbox Database and as can be seen in the example below it did a double up of the readhost to enter the database
Enter mailbox name: testscript2
Enter Email Alias: testscript2
Enter database using a value of 1 to 4 to add the mailbox to: 2
Enter database using a value of 1 to 4 to add the mailbox to: 2
Name Alias ServerName ProhibitSendQuota
---- ----- ---------- -----------------
testscript2 testscript2 Server unlimited
DisplayName Database
----------- --------
testscript2 Database-2
hit enter to close window:
So i found Show output before Read-Host, which i tried out to see if this will help show the mailboxdatabase before inputting a value.
Changed;
Get-MailboxDatabase -Server "Server" -Status | Where-Object {$_.name -like "Database*"} | Sort-Object -Descending -Property #{Expression = "name"; Descending = $true} | Select Name,Databasesize
To;
$getDB=Get-MailboxDatabase -Server "Server" -Status | Where-Object {$_.name -like "Database*"} | Sort-Object -Descending -Property #{Expression = "name"; Descending = $true} | Select Name,Databasesize | Out-String;
Write-Host $getDB
But got the following errors
Enter mailbox name: testScript
Enter Email Alias: testscript
Name DatabaseSize
---- ------------
Database-4 762.8 GB
Database-3 376.3 GB
Database-2 249.3 GB
Database-1 829.8 GB
Cannot process argument transformation on parameter 'Database'. Cannot convert the
"System.Collections.ArrayList" value of type
"System.Collections.ArrayList" to type "Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.DatabaseIdParameter".
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [New-Mailbox], ParameterBindin...mationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentTransformationError,New-Mailbox
+ PSComputerName : Domain.com
The operation couldn't be performed because object 'testscript#domain.com' couldn't be found on
'Domain.com'.
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-Mailbox], ManagementObjectNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : 8D2D2EF6,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.RecipientTasks.GetMailbox
+ PSComputerName : Domain.com
hit enter to close window:
Is anybody able to help shed some light on what i am doing wrong and why I am getting a double of the read-host.

Answer 1

Figured this problem out awhile ago and thought to post the solution here.
My mistake was the function was incorrect and shouldn't of been named
function Get-MailboxDatabase
This caused the issue as i was creating a function using an existing cmdlet name (DERP)
I changed my script to the following
$data = Get-MailboxDatabase -Server "Server" -Status | Where-Object {$_.name -like "DATABASE*"} | Sort-Object -Property #{Expression = "name"} | Select Name,Databasesize | ft | Out-String
function WORK
{
Write-host $data
Write-host "Pick the database with the lowest size"
Write-host
$database=Read-Host "Enter the database using a value of 1 to 4 to add the mailbox to"
Switch ($database)
{
1 {$Chosendatabase="DATABASE-1"}
2 {$Chosendatabase="DATABASE-2"}
3 {$Chosendatabase="DATABASE-3"}
4 {$Chosendatabase="DATABASE-4"}
}
return $Chosendatabase
}
$date=Get-Date -format d
$mailboxname=Read-Host “Enter the mailbox name”
$alias=Read-Host “Enter Email Alias”
$User=$alias + "#domain.com"
$ticket=Read-Host "Enter the Ticket number"
$notes="Mailbox created - $ticket - $date"
Read-Host "hit enter to Continue"
$script:ChosenDatabase = WORK
New-mailbox -shared -Name $mailboxname -alias $alias -UserPrincipalName $User -OrganizationalUnit "domain.com/Resources-OU" -Database $Chosendatabase
Set-user -identity $alias -notes "$Notes"
##This command is to make sure a copy of sent emails are stored on the shared mailbox as well as the senders mailbox
Set-MailboxSentItemsConfiguration -Identity $alias -SendAsItemsCopiedTo SenderAndFrom -SendOnBehalfOfItemsCopiedTo SenderAndFrom
##bring back confirmation the script has done as tended
Get-mailbox -Identity $User | ft DisplayName,Database
Get-mailboxsentitemsconfiguration -Identity $alias
read-host "hit enter to close window"
This has been working fine for us for the past few months