WSUS Command to decline updates - powershell

Question

I am currently trying to force my WSUS to decline updates through a command line because it is overloaded i cannot access the mangement snap in. This is a code that i found online but the only problem i am having is that my server has dashes in the name and is messing up the code. I tried placing qoutations around the name and it still spits back an invalid character after ":" from 3rd line
EDIT: New Error
Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed. at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.AdminProxy.CreateUpdateServer(Object[] args) at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.AdminProxy.GetupdateServer(String serverName, Boolean useSecureConnection, Int32 portnumber) at Callsite.Target(Closure , Callsite , Type , Object , Object , Object )
#Change server name and port number and $True if it is on SSL
$Computer = $env:common-n-sccm2012
$Domain = $env:airplane.black.low.com
$FQDN = "$Computer" + "." + "$Domain"
[String]$updateServer1 = $FQDN
[Boolean]$useSecureConnection = $False
[Int32]$portNumber = 8530
# Load .NET assembly
[void][reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration")
$count = 0
# Connect to WSUS Server
$updateServer = [Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.AdminProxy]::getUpdateServer($updateServer1,$useSecureConnection,$portNumber)
write-host "<<<Connected sucessfully >>>" -foregroundcolor "yellow"
$updatescope = New-Object Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.UpdateScope
$u=$updateServer.GetUpdates($updatescope )
foreach ($u1 in $u )
{
if ($u1.IsSuperseded -eq 'True')
{
write-host Decline Update : $u1.Title
$u1.Decline()
$count=$count + 1
}
}
write-host Total Declined Updates: $count
trap
{
write-host "Error Occurred"
write-host "Exception Message: "
write-host $_.Exception.Message
write-host $_.Exception.StackTrace
exit
}
# EOF

Answer 1

I think you mean the error pops up at this line:
$Computer = $env:common-n-sccm2012
because you are trying to get an environment variable with dashes in its name. You may try to format it as:
$Computer = ${env:common-n-sccm2012}
HOWEVER
I think you are 'Environmentifying' hardcoded values and that is the actual problem.
It is hard to believe that you do in fact have Environment variables with names like common-n-sccm2012 and airplane.black.low.com.
To get the actual Fully Qualified Domain Name from the computer you are on, you could do this:
$Computer = $env:COMPUTERNAME # --> "common-n-sccm2012"
$Domain = $env:USERDNSDOMAIN # --> "airplane.black.low.com"
$FQDN = "$Computer" + "." + "$Domain" # --> "common-n-sccm2012.airplane.black.low.com"
( or in one line: $FQDN = "$env:COMPUTERNAME.$env:USERDNSDOMAIN" )
You can also obtain this FQDN using WMI:
$FQDN = (Get-WmiObject win32_computersystem).DNSHostName + "." + (Get-WmiObject win32_computersystem).Domain
You can read about Environment Variables here