Copy a file to a remote computer - powershell

Question

I have made two instances on sky-high; cl1 and srv1. I am trying to copy a folder from cl1 to srv1. I can use the command
Enter-PSSession -Credential $cred IP_ADD_SRV1
from cl1 to get into srv1. I have been looking at the help site for copy-item and found this command called Copy a file to a remote computer. Is this right? The command is
$Session = New-PSSession -ComputerName "Server01" -Credential "Contoso\User01"
Copy-Item "D:\Folder001\test.log" -Destination "C:\Folder001_Copy\" -ToSession $Session
My questions are:
Is the ComputerName just the name I called them on my Microsoft Remote Desktop?
And what do I put as the credential?
My problem is that the path for the two folders I want to copy are almost the same. Someone told me I need to use the UNC path. Do I need to use this
both at the copy-item and destination? I am new to this, but does
this look right for the UNC path: \\cl1\C$\Users\Admin\Test. ?

Answer 1

You can copy a file or folder from a pc to a remote machine in several ways.
A 'Normal' copy (not using a Session object)
if the pc you are logged into is called cl1 and the file is on that computer (source), you need to specify the Destination in UNC format:
Copy-Item -Path 'C:\SourceFolder\TheFileToCopy.txt' -Destination '\\srv1\c$\DestinationFolder'
If however the file is on the remote machine and you need to copy that TO the machine you're logged into, then the Source should be in UNC format:
Copy-Item -Path '\\srv1\c$\TheFileToCopy.txt' -Destination 'C:\DestinationFolder'
Using the Session object
if the pc you are logged into is called cl1 and the file is on that computer (source) and you have established a session using $session = New-PSSession –ComputerName srv1 to the remote machine, then you need to specify both the Path and Destination parameters as LOCAL paths:
Copy-Item -Path 'C:\SourceFolder\TheFileToCopy.txt' -Destination 'C:\DestinationFolder' -ToSession $session
A Credential object contains user name and (encrypted) password to use to authenticate to the remote machine. Use the Get-Credential cmdlet for that
It seems you want to copy a directory from a source on computer Cl1 to a path on the remote server srv1.
From your comments, I see that the source is C:\Users\Admin\Test (that is the LOCAL path of the computer you are logged in to, i.e. Cl1) and that the destination would be C:\Users\Admin\Backup on the REMOTE machine.
That is why you need to use the UNC format for the destination path, C:\Users\Admin\Backup --> \\srv1\C$\Users\Admin\Backup.
Using the servers name needs DNS to be set up properly, so you can also use the IP address of that server instead of its name. Suppose that the server has IP 10.212.141.129, the UNC path for the destination would then become \\10.212.141.129\C$\Users\Admin\Backup.
However.. You are targetting the so-called Administrative Share (C$), and for that you need to have permissions. Also you are targetting a user folder for user Admin (which is user Admin on the remote machine, and that is not the same one as the Administrator on your computer.
Therefore, it is quite possible you do not have access permissions on the target folder.
You can give yourself permissions (if you know the correct credentials of course) by adding parameter -Credential $cred to the Copy-Item cmdlet. Such a credentials object is easily obtained by using
$cred = Get-Credential -Message "Please enter Domain Admin credentials"
For Copy-Item to be able to copy something to somewhere, you must make sure the destination path exists.
Try to navigate in File Explorer to that remote path using the same UNC naming convention.
If for instance the path \\srv1\C$\Users\Admin exists, but there is no folder Backup, (and you have permissions to do so), create that folder, either from within Explorer, or in PowerShell:
if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath '\\srv1\C$\Users\Admin\Backup' -PathType Container)) {
$null = New-Item -Path '\\srv1\C$\Users\Admin\Backup' -ItemType Directory
}
Next, you should be able to copy all files and subfolders from the source directory to that destination using
Copy-Item -Path 'C:\Users\Admin\Test' -Destination '\\srv1\C$\Users\Admin\Backup' -Recurse # -Credential $cred # can go here
# local source on cl1 ^^^^ ^^^^ to remote destination on srv1
Of course, you can also use the Session method I've described earlier., where in that case you should use local pathnames (C:\whatever) and don't need UNC paths, because the $session object takes care of that for you.
It could be that on the destination server, there is a share set-up for you that resides somewhere else. For instance a folder X:\Students\Course1\Output and that path has been shared as StudentMaterial$.
If this might be the case (ask your teacher) you can set the destination as \\srv1\StudentMaterial$ and you do not need to go all the way via the Administrative Share.
Hope this explains some more