CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellcmdpowershell-remotingpowershell-cmdlet
pesky_programmer
pesky_programmer

Reputation: 149

Accessing cmd remotely using PowerShell

I need to run a couple of bcdedit commands on a remote computer's cmd using a PowerShell script that runs on my computer. I am able to create a PSSession but I'm not sure how I can run cmd on the remote computer. When I run the code in the 'Invoke-Command' line, I get an error Connection to remote server failed with the following error message: Access is denied. When I just run Invoke-Command, I am prompted to enter the ScriptBlock, but when I do, I get yet another error: "Cannot bind parameter 'ScriptBlock' Cannot convert the "cmd /c 'bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Description"'} value of type System.String to type System.Management.Automation.ScriptBlock

I have never worked with PowerShell before. I need to do this in a couple of hours, and I am absolutely clueless right now.

Enable-PSRemoting -Force
Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts $ip -Concatenate -Force
$session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $ip -Credential $cred -ConfigurationName $config -UseSSL -SessionOption $sessopt

#problematic code
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $ip -ScriptBlock {cmd /c 'bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Description"'}

#works fine
Restart-Computer -ComputerName $ip -Force
ping.exe -t $ipaddr | Foreach{"{0}-{1}" -f (Get-Date -f "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss"), $_}

Assume that $ip, $ipaddr, $config, $sessopt and $cred store valid parameters.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2812

Answers (2)

pesky_programmer
pesky_programmer

Reputation: 149

Thanks for all the suggestions, I was able to fix the error by adding -Credential to the Invoke-Command and Restart-Computer commands:

#problematic code
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $ip -Credential $cred -ScriptBlock {cmd /c 'bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Description"'}
Restart-Computer -ComputerName $ip -Credential $cred -Force

Upvotes: 0

mklement0
mklement0

Reputation: 437062

  • You can run bcedit.exe directly in PowerShell, but because in PowerShell { and } are metacharacters, you need to quote identifiers such as {current}:

    • bcdedit /copy '{current}' /d 'Description'
    • See this answer for a discussion and list of PowerShell's metacharacters.

  • If you get an error on connecting to a remote computer, the implication is that your user account either doesn't have sufficient privileges to connect remotely or the target computer isn't set up for PowerShell remoting.

    • Note that Enable-PSRemoting -Force must be run on the target (server) machine, not on the calling (client) machine.

    • See the conceptual about_Remote_Troubleshooting topic.

    • The Restart-Computer cmdlet's -ComputerName parameter does not use PowerShell remoting, so the fact that it succeeds does not imply that PowerShell remoting, such as via Invoke-Command, works.

When I just run Invoke -Command, I am prompted to enter the ScriptBlock

PowerShell's automatic prompting feature for mandatory parameter values that weren't specified on the command line has severe limitations, and not being able to prompt for a script-block parameter value is one of them - see GitHub issue #4068; however, this additional problem is incidental to your real problem.

Upvotes: 2

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