PowerShell Scheduled task fails with error code: 0xFFFD0000 and 4294770688 if Run Hourly Every Day - scheduled-tasks

On a Windows Server 2012 R2 Build 9600, I have a Scheduled Task that runs successfully on demand.
I need it to run every hour every day.
if I change it to "Run Hourly, Every Day", it fails with error codes: 0xFFFD0000 and 4294770688, which stands for "The field “Add arguments (optional)” contains an invalid file name".
This is a bit odd, because everything is ok on that field and this only happens with that schedule combination.
As example, If I schedule it to run once a day at some time, it runs ok.
Best Regards to All


I got it to work.
I had to set it up to "Run Once, Every Hour, Indefinitely"
Like: Run "One time, Start at 0h00, Repeat Task Every 1 hour, Indefinitely"
Also do not use the trigger option Stop Task if it runs longer than because it will throw back the 0xFFFD0000 error. Use it on the Settings instead.


In my case, I had an action which called powershell. I had to quote the script file path in double quotes (") instead of single quotes (').
So, this error code may have different reasons.


I got the same error code and have fixed it by moving powershell script to a folder with no spaces in the file path. In full, the Add arguments field is:
-noprofile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\users\myname\powershell_testing\my_powershell_script.ps1

Related

Module cannot be loaded error running PowerShell script in TFS 2015 build

I've got a PowerShell script that I'm using to validate that some SQL programming requirements are met.
The script is being run at the start of a Gated Build within TFS 2015 and seemingly completes successfully. I added a Write-Host line at the very end of the script with nothing after it and the logging for the step shows that text so I know the line is being hit before the error is thrown.
Despite everything seemingly completing without error or issue, I am getting a "ObjectNotFound" exception claiming that the module cannot be loaded.
What is interesting is that the module it is trying to load is the "DOMAIN\UserName". As I've noted, there is no more script after the last line written to the log.
Has anyone experienced this issue before and/or does anyone know why this might be happening?

So I figured out the issue.
I was passing in a TFS variable for the source branch (in this case, the shelve-set created for the gated build) but I was not wrapping the value in quotes. What I didn't realize is that the source branch value in this instance consists of the shelve-set name and the user name associated with it :
e.g. Gated_2019-03-18_01.40.16.1334;DOMAIN\UserName
By not wrapping the argument in quotes I was causing it to be split on the semicolon separator and the "DOMAIN\UserName" associated with the Gated Build shelve-set was being treated as if it were a module to load.
As soon as I wrapped the argument in quotes the issue went away.

Can a PowerShell script be dependent of another script's execution?

I have a situation where I want to make the execution of my scripts smarter. I have a set of scripts that execute at a given time, but because sometimes the input files are not posted at the correct times the scripts run into errors and get unexpected results. so one of the solutions I was thinking of is to make the execution of the scripts dependent of each other. Here is what I mean:
script 1 runs at 6 pm
validates that the file is there
if it's there, set a flag
the flag is active so execute script 2 at 9 pm
if it's NOT there, the flag is not set
the flag is not set so script 2 is not executed
Right now script 1 and script 2 are set with the Task Scheduler at those times, I checked the Scheduler for those type of conditions, but didn't find anything.

You can set triggers in Task Scheduler, like when an event happens for basically everything you can see in eventviewer.
I would suggest Write-Eventlog from the script which works on the file, and depending on the result the sched task would get triggerd.

I suggest you to have single script running every N-minutes on single scheduled task via Task Scheduler.
The master script will analyze activities and have all logical conditions those determine when and which external script to run. You can also have flag files.

Can run an .exe successfully from command line, but not from Task Scheduler

I am able to run a .exe from the command line, but when I try and run it using the Task Scheduler, I get the error "The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003)"
I am running this on a server, so I have tried mapping the drive and also using the full path. Both of these methods work using the command line.
This is how I have the Program/script set to run:
D:\scripts\lilt\NewFile.exe \err00\root\LILT\ILL\ \pcc02\Inter\I040\ILL\Inbox\"
What do I need to do, to get this to run on the scheduler? Thanks!

I figured it out. I had to use the "Add arguments (optional)" section to indicate the drives and not put it in the Action line. (As some history, I'm moving this task from a PC to a server, and the PC had it all in the one line, as well, when running from cmd on the server, I could execute it successfully on one line, but it behaves differently once you make it a task apparently.
So this went in "Action":
D:\scripts\lilt\NewFile.exe
And this went in Add arguments (optional):
\err00\root\LILT\ILL \pcc02\Inter\I040\ILL\Inbox

Windows Scheduled task succeeds but returns result 0x1

I have a scheduled task on a Windows 2008 R2 server. The task includes a Start In directory entry. The task runs, and the batch file it runs does what it is supposed to do. When I run the batch file from a command prompt, I see no errors. The problem is that the "Last run result" is 0x1 (incorrect function call).
I did get this at one time with an incorrect DOS statement IF EXISTS file.txt DO (Copy file.txt file1.txt) that was corrected by dropping the DO statement. The current batch file does not show me any errors or warnings.
Why am I getting a 0x1 result?
Batch file that is run:
PUSHD \\JUKEBOX4\Archives\CallRecording
REM only move csv and wma together. wma should be created last.
IF NOT EXIST C:\CallRecording (MKDIR C:\CallRecording)
FOR /f %%f IN ('DIR /b *.wma') DO (
IF EXIST %%~nf.csv (MOVE /Y %%~nf.* C:\CallRecording\)
)
POPD
CD /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\Olim, LLC\Collybus DR Upload"
CollybusUpload.exe
POPD
Info on scheduled task setup:
Program to run: C:\Program Files (x86)\Olim, LLC\Collybus DR Upload\CallRecordingUploadFromH.cmd
Start in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Olim, LLC\Collybus DR Upload
Run whether user is logged on or not, highest privileges.
History screen, task completed entry
"Task Scheduler successfully completed task "\Call recording upload to portal from NH" , instance "{1449ad42-2210-427a-bd69-2c15e35340e6}" , action "C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\cmd.exe" with return code 1."
First screen of Task Scheduler shows "Run Result" of "Success"

It seems many users are having issues with this. Here are some fixes:
Right click on your task > "Properties" > "Actions" > "Edit" |
Put ONLY the file name under 'Program/Script', no quotes and ONLY the directory under 'Start in' as described, again no quotes.
Right click on your task > "Properties" > "General"
| Test with any/all of the following:
"Run with highest privileges" (test both options)
"Run wheter user is logged on or not" (test both options)
Check that "Configure for" is set to your machine's OS version
Make sure the user account running the program has the right permissions

I found that I have ticked "Run whether user is logged on or not" and it returns a silent failure.
When I changed tick "Run only when user is logged on" instead it works for me.

I've had the same problem. It is just a batch-file, working when manually started, but not working as a scheduled task.
there were drive-letters in the batch-file like this:
put z:\folder\file.ext
seems like you should not use drive-letters, they are bound to the user, who created them - for me this little change made it work again:
put \\server\folder\file.ext

For Powershell scripts
I have seen this problem multiple times while scheduling Powershell scripts with parameters on multiple Windows servers.
The solution has always been to use the -File parameter:
Under "Actions" --> "Program / Script" Type: "Powershell"
Under "Add arguments", instead of just typeing "C:/script/test.ps1" use -File "C:/script/test.ps1"
Happy scheduling!

Windows Task scheduler (Windows server 2008r2)
Same error for me (last run result: 0x1)
Tabs
Action: remove quotes/double-quotes in
program/script
and
start in
even if there is spaces in the path name...
General:
Run with highest privileges
and
configure for your OS...
Now it work!
last run result: The operation completed successfully

Probably not the cause of the OP's problem; for me the problem was caused by the fact that my program called a SQL function, and the service account the windows task was set up with did not have the required SQL permissions. That also gives a 0x1

This answer was originally edited into the question by the asker.
The problem was that the batch file WAS throwing a silent error. The final POPD was doing no work and was incorrectly called with no opening PUSHD.
Broken code:
CD /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\Olim, LLC\Collybus DR Upload" CALL CollybusUpload.exe POPD
Correct code:
PUSHD "C:\Program Files (x86)\Olim, LLC\Collybus DR Upload" CALL CollybusUpload.exe POPD

In my case it was an encoding issue. We wanted to start en existing batch file, and it resulted in "return code 1", and the desired action wasn't performed. I've accidentally found that the batch file was shown in Notepad as one with UTF-8 encoding (actually without any reason, as we have no special characters in the text). I saved it as ANSI, and it solved the problem for us. Might be, that it was a kind of encoding corruption in the file that prohibited Task Scheduler and cmd.exe to open the file, although it was displayed correctly in Notepad.

On our servers it was a problem with the system path. After upgrading PHP runtime (using installation directory whose name includes version number) and updating the path in system variable PATH we were getting status 0x1. System restart corrected the issue. Restarting Task Manager service might have done it, too.

I was running a PowerShell script into the task scheduller but i forgot to enable the execution-policy to unrestricted, in an elevated PowerShell console:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
After that, the error disappeared (0x1).

Just had the same problem here. In my case, the bat files had space " "
After getting rid of spaces from filename and change into underscore, bat file worked
sample before it wont start
"x:\Update & pull.bat"
after rename
"x:\Update_and_pull.bat"

For me the problem was the PowerShell script being ran had #Requires -RunAsAdministrator at the top, meaning it needs to run in an elevated command prompt as an Admin, but the user the Scheduled Task was set to run as wasn't an admin on the local computer. So even though Run with highest privileges was checked in the scheduled task, I still had to make the user an Administrator on the computer. Once I did that, the script ran as expected.

Since there is always more than one reason this could happen I thought I'd share some troubleshooting tips that helped me diagnose my issue.
Always adding a "start in" parameter first since thats an easy fix, even just adding the drive letter can help, e.g. C:\
If you're running "whether user is logged on or not" and it is failing it might be an issue with your user and/or user environment.
Switch the task to run only when user is logged in temporarily for
troubleshooting purposes.
Make sure you're actually logged in AS the user you're telling the task
to run as. (PATH and other environment variables are different by user
and if you see the task running on one user successfully that doesn't
necessarily mean it will run successfully for another user even if they're in the same security group.)
Add pauses or some other type of debugging to your script to give you
time to see any errors that may pop up.
Perform a manual run from the task scheduler window.
Fix any errors you see from your debugging statements. Rinse and repeat.
If it runs successfully switch back to run "whether user is logged on
or not" and try another manual run. If it works now you're all set.
If nothing has helped so far you might need to dig in deeper to your user and file privileges. My troubleshooting tips assume that you have been able to get a past task running using a specific user login already. They don't cover building a scheduled task from a fresh install necessarily. Luckily I haven't had to do that.

What solved it for me was that I was using a local administrator account instead of the domain account so I changed the "Run as" to the domain account.

It turns out that a FTP download call using winscp as last thing to do in the batch caused the problem. After inserting the echo command it works fine. Guess the problems source could be the winscp.exe which do not correctly report the end of the current task to the OS.
del "C:\_ftpcrawler\Account Export.csv" /S /Q
"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP\WinSCP.exe" /console /script="C:\_isource\scripte\data.txt"
echo Download ausgeführt am %date%%time% >> C:\_isource\scripte\data.log

Azure startup task, wait for all other task to finish

I have a startup task for my webrole that download some executable file from a blob and then proceed to the installation.
From a .cmd file, I start a power shell script that download the files, then I start the file from the .cmd.
The script works fine if I run it manually through RDP after the publishing is done.
But, when running as startup script, it sometimes (often) fail at different points.
The taskType is set to background.
Last time, the error was that the command PowerShell does not exists...
Also, I use powershell -command set-executionpolicy unrestricted before running my PS script, but I read here that other task may reset this setting and make mine fail.
Quite a mess.
So that makes me think that if I could wait for all other task to perform before starting mine, it would eliminate these kinds of problems
I suppose I could check if some process is running and wait for it to finish, but I have no clue wich process to check.
Or maybe there's another solution.
~edit~
I read here that the error about powershell not existing may be caused by the batch file being saved as UTF-8 in visual studio. I re-writed it from scratch in notepad++ and made sure it is save as ANSI. Then, same error. The full message is :
'PowerShell' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Again, the script run perfectly from command line in remote desktop.

It would be possible to set an environment variable at the end of the script that is required to finish, then in the script which is awaiting the dependencies, loop until the environment variable is set, then kick off its activities.
You could also run everything from a single powershell script and use the '-asjob' switch on your installer statement, use the 'wait-job' cmdlet to block until the task is complete then carry on. Powershell also offers a '?!' operator which ensures the last statement executed properly.

This might be caused by an encoding issue. As mentioned in this answer you should save your file in ASCII to ensure correct interpretation of your script.
From the linked answer:
Open your whatever.cmd file with your VS 2012 Ultimate. Click on File->Save whatever.cmd as -> on the dialog there is little arrow next to the [save] button. It will show up a menu that will have the option Save with Encoding.
Select it. Now choose "US-ASCII Codepage 20127" from the list of available encodings.