Remote Powershell scripting and Jenkins not working - powershell

Question

I am having an issue running a remote script using Jenkins. I have installed the PowerShell plug-in and can run PowerShell scripts on the local build server, but when I try to run it on a remote server, it fails all the time. I can run the same script outside of Jenkins locally and remotely and it works just fine. My assumption is that there is a security setting I am missing but for the life of me, I can not find it.
Any insight/help would be greatly appreciate it.
The code below runs using PowerShell on the server but not through Jenkins:
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
# Create a PSCredential Object using the "User" and "Password" parameters
that you passed to the job
$SecurePassword = 'xxxxxxx' | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList 'ci-user', $SecurePassword
# Invoke a command on the remote machine.
# It depends on the type of job you are executing on the remote machine as
to if you want to use "-ErrorAction Stop" on your Invoke-Command.
Invoke-Command -ComputerName xxx.xx.xx.xxx -Credential $cred -ScriptBlock {
# Restart the W32Time service
Restart-Service -Name W32Time
}
The error below is what I get when I run it in Jenkins. I am using the same username and password when I run it outside of Jenkins and works:
Connecting to remote server xxx.xx.xx.xxx failed with the
following error message : WinRM cannot process the request. The following
error with errorcode 0x8009030d occurred while using Negotiate authentication:
A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have been terminated.
Possible causes are:
-The user name or password specified are invalid.
-Kerberos is used when no authentication method and no user name are
specified.
-Kerberos accepts domain user names, but not local user names.
-The Service Principal Name (SPN) for the remote computer name and port does
not exist.
-The client and remote computers are in different domains and there is no
trust between the two domains.
After checking for the above issues, try the following:
-Check the Event Viewer for events related to authentication.
-Change the authentication method; add the destination computer to the WinRM
TrustedHosts configuration setting or use HTTPS transport.
Note that computers in the TrustedHosts list might not be authenticated.
-For more information about WinRM configuration, run the following command:
winrm help config. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting
Help topic.
At C:\Windows\TEMP\jenkins3589460126620702793.ps1:12 char:1
+ Invoke-Command -ComputerName xxx.xx.xx.xxx -Credential $cred -ScriptBlock {
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OpenError: (xxx.xx.xx.xxx:String) [], PSRemoting
TransportException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : 1312,PSSessionStateBroken

Answer 1

This could be caused by a few different issues:
Are your remote machine and connecting machine on the same domain? If not, verify the domain of your ci-user and retry.
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList
'connectingserver/ci-user', $SecurePassword
Is WinRM enabled on your remote server, is the WinRM service running, are you setup to allow the appropriate remoting? Follow these steps to verify: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff700227.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
Are both the remote and connecting server setup with the same authentication method? You will want to use either Kerberos or CredSSP. I would consider CredSSP only if you are trying to solve the Double-Hop issue.

Answer 2

I found the error of my ways but hopefully this answer will help anyone else that encounters it.
The problem was that the user I am using is a local user and it needs to be treated as a workgroup user. So instead of ci-user, I needed to pass it as \ci-user. Once I did this, it works like a charm.
Thank you for all your input.