PowerShell 1.0 introduced us to some very handy cmdlets, like Get-Process and Get-Service. Unfortunately, they only worked locally. If you wanted to run Get-Process and filter out the high memory processes on a remote server, you had to go to that server, logon, open PowerShell and run your command. Or figure out how to do it using Get-WMIObject.
Happily, these cmdlets in PowerShell 2.0 now sport a long needed -Computername parameter:
PS C:\> get-service -computername File01
You can now run the Get-Process command from your desktop, like this:
PS C:\> ps -ComputerName JDHIT01 | sort ws -desc | select -first 10
Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName
------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- -----------
388 9 4328 162140 181 472 services
1172 44 22528 31876 125 936 svchost
960 86 25580 30540 97 484 lsass
5199 777 23300 22760 70 1352 dns
522 48 9944 13996 95 1508 inetinfo
612 65 9268 13216 64 424 winlogon
303 331 8464 11532 102 1788 tcpsvcs
351 8 7836 11464 83 2028 iexplore
211 8 5340 8092 47 1172 spoolsv
239 16 6156 7104 89 1716 wins
These parameters do NOT require that PowerShell 2.0 be installed on the remote machine. However you probably still will need it, as you'll run into some limitations. For example, the Stop-Service cmdlet does not have a -computername parameter, so you can't do this, for example:
PS C:\> gsv spooler -computername "jdhit01" | stop-service
Well, technically you can run this without error, as it will stop the spooler service on your machine. If you tried this, it will definitely fail:
PS C:\> gsv spooler -computername "jdhit01" | stop-service -computername "jdhit01"
The Stop-Service cmdlet simply doesn't support it.
The other limitation, before you get too excited, is that cmdlets like Get-Service and Get-Process, while now connecting to remote computers, can't use alternate credentials. The cmdlets will use the current credentials. If you need alternate credential support, you'll have to turn back to Get-WMIObject.
What I really want you to take away from this lesson is that you should re-read the help documentation for cmdlets in PowerShell 2.0 -- even those you have used in the past. You might be surprised by a new parameter or two.
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About the Author Jeffery Hicks (MCSE,MCSA,MCT) is a Microsoft MVP and an IT veteran with almost 20 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT consultant specializing in Windows server technologies. He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant. Jeff has co-authored or authored several books, courseware, and training videos on administrative scripting and automation. His latest book is Managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell: TFM (SAPIEN Press 2008). You can follow Jeff at twitter.com/jeffhicks and jdhitsolutions.com/blog.
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