Passing variable to several scriptblocks used in remote sessions Powershell - session

I have a script that runs from a domain server and 'does work' on a domain server.
The work is divided up into jobs that are in scriptblocks that are called with invoke-command using a stored PSsession.
Results are logged on the domain server in a log file that includes a datetime stamp in the logfile name.
Now, I need to add another log that needs to reside on the remote on which the work is done. The log name format also needs to include a date and time stamp.
My problem is passing the name of the log to each of the jobs so that they write to the same file. I've played around with -ArgumentList, #args, and $args which I can get to run without errors but do nothing so I am not passing the logfile name correctly.
Below is a super simplified version of how I've structured my script.
Is it a mistake to nest the Start-Job in another script block? How would I pass my unique log file name to a number of these scriptblocks to capture success/failure and specific points?
#log file names, ps session and other variables declared here
$DoDomainWorkScriptBlock = {
Try {
start-job -name DoDomainWorkjob -scriptblock{
$command = "C:\Program Files\someprogram\someprogram.exe"
& $command -f someargs
If ($? -ne "True") {Throw 'Do work failed’}
" Do non-domain work job completed. "
}
} Catch {$Error[0] | Out-File $ErrorLog -Append}
}
#other jobs nested in other scriptblocks like the one above here
Invoke-Command -session $RemoteSession -scriptblock $DoDomainWorkScriptblock | Out-File $DomainProgressLog -Append
Invoke-Command -session $RemoteSession -command{Wait-Job -name DoDomainWorkjob } | Out-File $DomainProgressLog -Append
Invoke-Command -session $RemoteSession -command{Receive-Job -Name DoDomainWorkjob } | Out-File $DomainProgressLog –Append
#invoke start, wait, and receive job commands for the other jobs

You can pass arguments to script blocks like this:
$code = {
param( $foo )
Write-Host $foo
}
$bar = "bar"
Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock $code -ArgumentList $bar

Related

Logging off from all servers in a domain

Occasionally I forget to log off from a server or am disconnected through an error and I don't remember the name of the server. And my domain account starts getting periodically locked out, so I have to access logs on DC to find out which server(s) keep locking my account and log off from it/them. So I wanted to write to script in powershell that would log me off from all servers in a domain (with the exception of the server where I run the script on of course) without me needing to search which to log off from. This is what I have:
$ErrorActionPreference = "Silentlycontinue"
$Servers = (Get-ADComputer -Filter *).Name
$ScriptBlock = {
$Sessions = quser | ?{$_ -match $env:USERNAME}
if (($Sessions).Count -ge 1)
{
$SessionIDs = ($Sessions -split ' +')[2]
Write-Host "Found $(($SessionIDs).Count) user login(s) on $Server."
$SessionIDs | ForEach-Object
{
Write-Host "Logging off session [$($_)]..."
logoff $_
}
}
}
foreach ($Server in $Servers)
{
if ($Server -isnot $env:COMPUTERNAME)
{
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Server -ScriptBlock {$ScriptBlock}
}
}
But when I launch the script, nothing happens. The script doesn't return any errors but doesn't log me off from any server, nor does it write any of the messages from Write-Host cmdlet, obviously. I noticed the $SessionIDs variable definition only returns ID of the first session. Usually this shouldn't be a problem, since it's unlikely I will have more than one session on a server, but I'd like to have this insurance. Can anyone tell me what's wrong in the script?
I notice a few things...
"First, I don't think quser | Where-Object {$_ -match $env:USERNAME} will ever return anything. The output of quser will not contain the hostname."
Try this for getting logon sessions:
$Sessions = (query user /server:$Env:ComputerName) -split "\n" -replace '\s\s+', ';' |
ConvertFrom-Csv -Delimiter ';'
Next, when you reference the $Server variable on the remote machine in your script block, it is out of scope. You would need to use $Using:Server in the script block.
Lastly, the -isnot operator doesn't compare value, it compares type. So in your last foreach, the if statement evaluates to "if type string is not type string" and will not run. Try -ne or -notlike instead.
Working with objects is much easier if you can just parse the output of QUser.exe. Given your scenario, here's my take on it:
$servers = (Get-ADComputer -Filter '*').Name.Where{$_ -ne $env:COMPUTERNAME}
foreach ($server in $servers)
{
if (-not ($quser = ((QUser.exe /server:$server) -replace '\s{20,39}',',,' -replace '\s{2,}',',' 2>&1) | Where-Object -FilterScript { $_ -match $env:USERNAME })) {
Continue
}
Write-Verbose -Message "$($quser.Count) session(s) found on $server." -Verbose
($quser.Trim() | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header 'USERNAME','SESSIONNAME','ID','STATE','IDLE TIME','LOGON TIME').foreach{
Write-Verbose -Message "Logging user [$($_.UserName)] off." -Verbose
LogOff.exe $_.ID /server:$server
}
}
Filtering should always happen before hand meaning, filter out your computer name on your first call to Get-ADComputer. Since you're using QUser.exe and LogOff.exe to begin with, I'd recommend the use of it all the way through since LogOff accepts an ID value that QUser outputs.
Next, placing the call to quser inside your if statement does two things in this case.
Filters for all users matching $ENV:UserName
Returns $true if anything is found, and $false if not found.
So, switching the results using -not will turn $false into $true allowing the execution of the code block which will just continue to the next server.
This in turn doesn't bother with the rest of the code and continues onto the next computer if no matching names were found.
The use of $quser inside the if statement is so you can save the results to it if more than one name is found; (..) allows this as it turns the variable assignment into an expression having the output pass through onto the pipeline where it is either empty, or not.
Finally, referencing the $quser variable we can convert the strings into objects piping to ConvertFrom-Csv. Only step left to do is iterate through each row and passing it over to LogOff to perform the actual logoff.
If you've noticed, the headers are manually-specified because it is filtered out by the Where-Object cmdlet. This is a better approach seeing as there could be "more than one" RDP Session, now you're just left with those sessions matching the name which can be saved to $quser, so no extra filtering is needed down the line.
So I modified the script this way and it works, sort of. It logs off account from servers, which is the main goal. There are still some glitches, like the message it sends from the first Write-Host doesn't give server's name, the message from second one gives a different value than it should (it gives [1] value after -split instead of [2] for some reason; but those are not really that important things, even though I will try to make at least the first message right) and $SessionIDs still gives only the first value, but usually you shouldn't have more than one RDP session per server. I've seen more sessions of one user, but that is very rare. But I'd also like to fix this if possible. Nevertheless, the script basically does the most important thing. But if someone has a suggestion how to fix the glitches I mentioned I would be grateful.
$ErrorActionPreference = "Silentlycontinue"
$Servers = (Get-ADComputer -Filter *).Name
$ScriptBlock = {
$Sessions = quser | ?{$_ -match $env:USERNAME}
if (($Sessions).Count -ge 1)
{
$SessionIDs = , ($Sessions -split ' +')[2]
Write-Host "Found $(($SessionIDs).Count) user login(s) on $Server."
Foreach ($SessionID in $SessionIDs)
{
Write-Host "Logging off session $SessionID..."
logoff $SessionID
}
}
}
foreach ($Server in $Servers)
{
if ($Server -ne $env:COMPUTERNAME)
{
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Server -ScriptBlock $ScriptBlock
}
}

How to call powershell ps1 file with argument in runspacepool with powershell module

I'm learning the powershell. Currently I have a tough requirement. I need to call an powershell script(ps1) in parallel from an powershell module(psm1). The ps1 task is like following
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[String] $LogMsg,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[String] $FilePath
)
Write-Output $LogMsg
$LogMsg | Out-File -FilePath $FilePath -Append
The FilePath is like "C:\Users\user\Documents\log\log1.log"
And in the psm1 file, I use the runspacepool to do async task. Like the following demo
$MaxRunspaces = 5
$RunspacePool = [runspacefactory]::CreateRunspacePool(1, $MaxRunspaces)
$RunspacePool.Open()
$Jobs = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
Write-Host $currentPath
Write-Host $lcmCommonPath
$Filenames = #("log1.log", "log2.log", "log3.log")
foreach ($File in $Filenames) {
Write-Host "Creating runspace for $File"
$PowerShell = [powershell]::Create()
$PowerShell.RunspacePool = $RunspacePool
$FilePath = -Join("C:\Users\user\Documents\log\",$File)
$PowerShell.AddScript("C:\Users\user\Documents\foo.ps1").AddArgument($FilePath) | Out-Null
$JobObj = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property #{
Runspace = $PowerShell.BeginInvoke()
PowerShell = $PowerShell
}
$Jobs.Add($JobObj) | Out-Null
}
But there are two serious problem.
Can't pass the parameters to ps1 file.
I just try to create the file path in the ps1 file side, it works and file created. But when I try to pass the argument from psm1 file. The files are not created. I also try to use script block and it can pass the parameters. But since my ps1 code is too large(The above is just part of it), using script block is unreal. I need a method to pass parameter to ps1 file.
Can't get write-host information in ps1 file while psm1 is still running
If the runspacepool has limitation for passing the parameters to ps1 file, is there any other solution to deal with the async task for powershell script? Thanks.
Can't pass the parameters to ps1 file.
Use AddParameter() instead of AddArgument() - this will allow you to bind the argument to a specific parameter by name:
$PowerShell.AddScript("C:\Users\user\Documents\foo.ps1").
AddParameter('FilePath', $FilePath).
AddParameter('LogMsg', 'Log Message goes here') | Out-Null
Can't get write-host information in ps1 file while psm1 is still running
Correct - you cannot get host output from a script not attached to the host application's default runspace - but if you're using PowerShell 5 or newer you can collect the resulting information from the $PowerShell instance and relay that if you want to:
# Register this event handler after creating `$PowerShell` but _before_ calling BeginInvoke()
Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $PowerShell.Streams.Information -EventName DataAdded -SourceIdentifier 'WriteHostRecorded' -Action {
$recordIndex = $EventArgs.Index
$data = $PowerShell.Streams.Information[$recordIndex]
Write-Host "async task wrote '$data'"
}

Remote powershell on server says argument for parameter is empty string

I have a powershell script on machine A that uses PSSession to invoke a command on Machine B. Machine B has a powershell script which accepts 4 parameters. When I call this script with the 4 arguments as variables (which they MUST be), they are passed as empty strings/null. When I pass them as strings (For example -Argument1 "Hello"), that string will be passed as "Hello" and not as NULL/empty string.
Can anyone tell me why these are not passed correctly and how to fix it?
The powershell version on the client is 5.1.17134.112. The remote machine uses 5.1.14393.2248. These versions have been obtained by running $PSVersionTable.PSVersion.
The client is using Windows 10 Pro 10.0.17134. The server is using Windows 2016 Datacenter 10.0.14393 and is run as a VM on Azure.
I have tried using Script.ps1 -Argument1 $ClientArgument1 -Argument2 $ClientArgument2 ... to pass variables AND to use ArgumentList to pass the values comma separated to the script but both these attempts resulted in things not being printed.
I have noticed that when I use -Argument1 "Hello" -Argument2 $ClientArgument2 -Argument3 $ClientArgument3 -Argument4 $ClientArgument4, the Hello DOES get printed.
Code
Client that connects to the remote machine
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
#Create credentials to log in
$URL = 'https://url.to.server:5986'
$Username = "username"
$pass = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText 'password' -Force
$SecureString = $pass
$MySecureCreds = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $Username,$SecureString
$ClientArgument1 = "Argument 1"
$ClientArgument2 = "Argument 2"
$ClientArgument3 = "Argument 3"
$ClientArgument4 = "Argument 4"
#Create the remote PS session
$sessionOption = New-PSSessionOption -SkipCACheck -SkipCNCheck -SkipRevocationCheck
$session = New-PSSession -ConnectionUri $URL -Credential $MySecureCreds -SessionOption $sessionOption
#Call the remote script and pass variables
Invoke-Command -Session $session -Command {C:\Path\To\Script\On\Remote\Machine\Script.ps1 -Argument1 $ClientArgument1 -Argument2 $ClientArgument2 -Argument3 $ClientArgument3 -Argument4 $ClientArgument4}
#Note: Command is used because Command allows me to execute a script that is located on disk of the remote machine
The called script of the remote machine
param(
[String]$Argument1,
[String]$Argument2,
[String]$Argument3,
[String]$Argument4
)
Write-Host 'Results of the 4 parameters passed into this script:'
Write-Host $Argument1
Write-Host $Argument2
Write-Host $Argument3
Write-Host $Argument4
Write-Host "The results have been printed"
Expected and actual results
Expected results:
Results of the 4 parameters passed into this script:
Argument 1
Argument 2
Argument 3
Argument 4
The results have been printed
Actual results
Results of the 4 parameters passed into this script:
The results have been printed
Thank you very much for your time!
Since what inside the scriptblock in a different scope as the rest of your script, the $ClientArgument variables are undefined inside the scriptblock. The easiest solution if you are using PowerShell 3 or newer is to use the $using: scope. Otherwise an argumentlist for the Invoke-Command would be required.
Invoke-Command -Session $session -Command {C:\Path\To\Script\On\Remote\Machine\Script.ps1 -Argument1 $using:ClientArgument1 -Argument2 $using:ClientArgument2 -Argument3 $using:ClientArgument3 -Argument4 $using:ClientArgument4}
Try to execute it this way:
Invoke-Command -Session $session -Command {
C:\Path\To\Script\On\Remote\Machine\Script.ps1 `
-Argument1 $args[0] -Argument2 $args[1] `
-Argument3 $args[2] -Argument4 $args[3]
} -ArgumentList $ClientArgument1,$ClientArgument2,$ClientArgument3,$ClientArgument4

How to run PowerShell script in a different process and pass arguments to it?

Let's say I have a script:
write-host "Message.Status: Test Message Status";
I managed to run it in a separate process by doing:
powershell.exe -Command
{ write-host "Message.Status: Test Message Status"; }
The problem is I want to pass parameters to the script so that I can achieve something like this:
write-host "I am in main process"
powershell.exe -Command -ArgumentList "I","am","here"
{
write-host "I am in another process"
write-host "Message.Status: $($one) $($two) $($three)";
}
However -ArgumentList doesn't work here
I get:
powershell.exe : -ArgumentList : The term '-ArgumentList' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable
I need to run some part of PowerShell script file in a different process and I cannot use another file due to the fact that PowerShell script is uploaded to external system.
The -Command parameter is expecting a scriptblock in which you can define your parameters using a Param() block. Then use the -args parameter to pass in the arguments. Your only mistake was to put the -args after -command before you defined the scriptblock.
So this is how it works:
write-host "I am in main process $($pid)"
powershell.exe -Command {
Param(
$one,
$two,
$three
)
write-host "I am in process $($pid)"
write-host "Message.Status: $($one) $($two) $($three)";
} -args "I", "am", "here" | Out-Null
Output:
I am in main process 17900
I am in process 10284
Message.Status: I am here
You can use the -File parameter and follow it by the path to script. Any unnamed arguments which follows will be passed as script parameters. Something like below should do
powershell -File "C:\ScriptFolder\ScriptwithParameters.ps1" "ParameterOneValu" "valuetwo"
Ok so if you need another process entirely but not another file then your best bet is probably .NET runspaces. Basically wrap your code in a scriptblock
$SB = {
*Your Code*
}
Then set up a runspace like below, making sure to use the "UseNewThread" as the thread option. Note that $arg is whatever your argument to be passed to the script is
$newRunspace =[runspacefactory]::CreateRunspace()
$newRunspace.ApartmentState = "STA"
$newRunspace.ThreadOptions = "UseNewThread"
$newRunspace.Open()
$psCmd = [PowerShell]::Create().AddScript($SB).AddArgument($arg)
$psCmd.Runspace = $newRunspace
$data = $psCmd.BeginInvoke()
You'll likely need to tweak this if you need to get any data back from the runspace once it is complete but there are a few ways to do that(leave a comment if you need assistance). If you need synchronous execution rather than async then change .BeginInvoke() to .Invoke()
So should get you started, But it will require a few moving parts.
First we define a new function:
function Run-InNewProcess{
param([String] $code)
$code = "function Run{ $code }; Run $args"
$encoded = [Convert]::ToBase64String( [Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes($code))
start-process PowerShell.exe -argumentlist '-noExit','-encodedCommand',$encoded
}
This function will be what starts the new process. It uses the start-process cmdlet, The -Argumentlist is our arguments applied to the powershell.exe You can remove -noExit to make the new process close on completion or add other powershell flags, and flags on Start-Process to get the windows and behaviours tweaked to your requirements.
Next we define our script block:
$script = {
[CmdletBinding()]
Param (
[Parameter(Position=0)]
[string]$Arg1,
[Parameter(Position=1)]
[string]$Arg2)
write-host "I am in another process"
write-host "Message.Status: $($Arg1) $($Arg2)";
}
Here we define some parameters in the opening part of the block, They have a position and name, so for example any argument in position 0 will be in the variable $arg1 The rest of the code in the block is all executed in the new process.
Now we have defined the script block and the function to run it in a new process, All we have to do is call it:
Run-InNewProcess $script -Arg1 '"WHAT WHAT"' -Arg2 '"In the But"'
Copy past this code all in to your ISE and you will see it in action.
Start-Job will create a process for its scriptblock, and it's straightforward to pass arguments to it.
Write-Host "Process count before starting job: $((Get-Process |? { $_.ProcessName -imatch "powershell" }).Count)"
$job = Start-Job `
-ArgumentList "My argument!" `
-ScriptBlock {
param($arg)
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5;
Write-Host "All Done! Argument: $arg"
}
while ($job.State -ne "Completed")
{
Write-Host "Process count during job: $((Get-Process |? { $_.ProcessName -imatch "powershell" }).Count)"
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
}
Receive-Job $job -AutoRemoveJob -Wait
Write-Host "Process count after job: $((Get-Process |? { $_.ProcessName -imatch "powershell" }).Count)"

Running Invoke-Command on remote machine

I am trying to run any command I want on a remote machine. Example: gpupdate /force or copy file1 to file2 etc... so I have this code:
$ComputerName = Read-Host "Enter a remote computer name"
$RemoteCommand = Read-Host "Enter a remote command to run: Example gpupdate /force"
$s = New-PSSession -ComputerName $ComputerName
Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock {$RemoteCommand}
Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock { $? }
It runs without error and in fact it returns TRUE. But the file I have in c:\temp never gets copied to c:\temp\tmp
why not?
The problem is that you are passing a string variable to Invoke-Command in the scriptblock, which just evaluates to the content of the string. You are not passing it a scriptblock with actual commands.
To illustrate the difference see this code:
# Output is just the content of the string
$commandString = "Get-Service spooler"
Invoke-Command {$commandString}
# Output is the result of the commandlet
$scriptBlock = {Get-Service spooler}
Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock $scriptBlock
To get the result you want you can use the [scritpblock] accelerator, like this:
# Output is the result of the commandlet invocation defined in the string
$commandString = "Get-Service spooler"
$scriptBlock = [scriptblock]::Create($commandString)
Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock $scriptBlock
Try running the script like this:
Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock { powershell.exe -Command "$RemoteCommand"}
If you get problems with escaping characters, there is also the -encodedCommand switch. From the powershell help:
# To use the -EncodedCommand parameter:
$command = 'dir "c:\program files" '
$bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes($command)
$encodedCommand = [Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes)
powershell.exe -encodedCommand $encodedCommand

Resources