I'd like to sync all services and startup processes across my network with a powershell script.
I already have a list of the services i'd like to copy in XML, TXT and HTM format, created by Powershell. My question is how do I push this list to the other PC's using Invoke-Command?
EDIT: This is for a non-domain environment.
Don't worry about the remoting, that's all sorted out.
Or is there any other way?
The services should be configured like the other main PC as well. Like Automatic startup, manual or disabled so i wont have to run the script over and over.. :-)
Your help will be greatly appreciated!
Related
I want to be able to push a new group policy out with a powershell script (or scripts most likely) that will make all computers on our active domain update to the windows OS that we want. Currently there are hundreds of users and we don't have a way to update their computers other than doing it via remote desktop for each computer individually. But every computer has the .exe file required to update, just hasn't been run yet. Something like
wuauclt.exe /updatenow
I am also open to other suggestion on how to do this. I was thinking of sending all the users a batch file and having them run that and they could do it themselves. Any help would be appreciated and if this post wasn't specific enough I can answer questions or take it down. Thanks!
Never and I mean NEVER let user deploy updates on his/her computer themselves by clicking on some batch or exe file. Two reasons:
It will just not work and big part of machines will not be updated.
You are teaching users that they can run various and unknown batch files / powershell scripts / exe files, because it's safe.
Since you said "hundreds of users" I believe that you have some domain there.
What you might be looking for are the Group Policies (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-wufb-group-policy) or WSUS (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-manage-updates-wsus).
I'm busy writing a script as a project to Audit Windows Servers for PCI compliance, One of the things my project lead has asked me to attempt to get to try to get a list of all hosts that are connected to a domain, however this script needs to be able to be run on any windows server without being able to import any modules, so I'm stuck with whatever tool already exists on a bare machine.
Ive already written parts of the script that can rely on the 'active directory' modules but I also need to find a way to get information without any DNS or Domain roles installed.
The closest I can get to achieving this is by using the 'netdom' command however this relies on usernames and passwords that I cannot query for in the auditing script.
Ive tried tools like nslookup and a few other things I've come across while looking for answers online, but most of it seems to rely on modules that I cannot install on the machines that the script will need to run on.
Does anyone know if this can actually be done? and if so how can I achieve this?
Edit: for a bit more clarity, I need a way to get a list of all machines in the domain from machines that are NOT a domain controller and I cannot alter these machines at all.
As per boxdog's comment "([adsisearcher]"objectcategory=computer").findall()" command works just fine
I am looking to collect data snapshot on a random interval from various machines in our network that we don't own, but may get access to install an agent to collect these data.
These machines are either in a domain or work-group and kind of data i get are based on the role they play and information they have. The machines are "Windows Server 2003" and above and I do not want to install anything on those machines before i get started, so thought I can use the PowerShell scripts that I can remote invoke form my server and pass the script it has to run to return the data.
I was wondering if this is possible to do that with the PowerShell scripts and as this is supposed to run in a secure environment, is there any major security implications with this approach. i.e. do I need to do anything on the client machines that can make them vulnerable to security threats.
BTW these machines are not exposed to internet and are behind a firewall.
I would appreciate if you point me to any other alternatives that can be useful for my analysis.
Regards
Kiran
I am working on an automated deployment process for a web application. The deployment will need to:
Deploy DB changes to database using sqlpackage.exe
Deploy reporting services reports to the reports server using the web service
Deploy web app to web server(s)
Deploy fonts for reports
among other things
The first two are reasonably straightforward to run from the web server, as the web service and db are contactable, and the tools to deploy run over the network.
From reading it appears that powershell remoting should be the way to go, and internally this would not be a problem. However when deploying to production, this will be being carried out in a datacentre, where the machines (2web, 1db) are not on a domain at all. I'd like to come up with a generic process that can run both internally and externally with the appropriate configuration. Powershell remoting, with machines not in a domain appears to require a fair bit of configuration using https etc., as NT credentials can't be validated.
Should I battle out configuring powershell remoting, or would configuring this to just use psexec to execute a powershell script directly on the remote machien, copying the deployment artifacts to a drop folder on the remote machine be the best way to go?
psexec seems to "just work". It appears powershell remoting comes with a lot more pain.
Why not use psexec then? You can restrict it's role to just getting you on to the remote machine, and not let it infect your scripts. I have not attempted to get ps remoting working on a non-domain, but it general I have found it to be fairly high effort to get going. Psexec, as you say, can often be simpler.
Excuse the peddling, but the open source framework I helped build called PowerUp essentially does all this for your. It uses a model in which the powershell (well psake) scripts can move execution to another machine by calling a specific function. This can either be done with powershell remoting or psexec - you wouldn't need to change the script, it just requires a setting per environment to say which you would like to use.
Check other the sample at https://github.com/AffinityID/PowerUpSamples/tree/master/SimpleWebsite.
Hopefully that shows you enough, but if not let me know and we can go into more detail.
I've developed a Powershell script to deploy updates to a suite of applications; including SQL Server database updates.
Next I need a way to execute these scripts on 100+ servers; without manually connecting to each server. "Powershell v2 with remoting" is not an option as it is still in CTP.
Powershell v1 with WinRM looks the most promising, but I can't get feedback from my scripts. The scripts execute, but I need to know about exceptions. The scripts create a log file, is there a way to send the contents of the log file back to the "client" (the local computer making the remote calls)?
Quick answer is No. Long version is, possible but will involve lots of hacks. I developed very similar deployment script/system using PowerShell 2 last year. The remoting feature is the primary reason we put up with the CTP status. PowerShell 1 with WinRM is flaky at best and as you said, no real feedback apart from ok or failed.
Alternative that I considered included using PsExec, which is very much non-standard and may be blocked by firewall. The other approach involves using system management tools such as MS's System Center, but that's just a big hammer for a tiny nail. So you have to pick your poison...
Just a comment on this: The easiest way to capture powershell output is to use the start-transcript cmdlet to pipe console output to a file. We have a small snippet at the start of all our script that sends a log file with the console output from each script to a central file share, and names the log file with script name and date executed so that we'll have an idea of what happened. Its not too hard to pipe all those log files into a database for further processing either. Probably won't seolve all your problems, but would definitely help on the "getting data back" part.
best regards,
Trond