Timeout Get-WMIObject cmdlet - powershell

Question

I run a script which performs many WMI-querys - but the cmdlet hangs if the server doesn't answer..
Is there any way I can make this (or any other cmndlet for that matter) timeout and exit if X seconds has passed?
Edit
Thanks to a tip from mjolinor the solution is to run this as -asjob and set a timeout in a while loop. But this is run from within a job already (started with Start-Job). So how do I know I am controlling the correct job?
This is my code from inside my already started job:
Get-WmiObject Win32_Service -ComputerName $server -AsJob
$Complete = Get-date
While (Get-Job -State Running){
If ($(New-TimeSpan $Complete $(Get-Date)).totalseconds -ge 5) {
echo "five seconds has passed, removing"
Get-Job | Remove-Job -Force
}
echo "still running"
Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
}
PS: My jobs started with Start-Jobs are already taken care of..

Answer 1

You could try the get-wmiCustom function, posted here. Wouldn't it be nice if get-wmiObject had a timeout parameter? Let's upvote this thing.

Answer 2

I've modified Daniel Muscetta's Get-WmiCustom to also support passing credentials.
I know this post is a little old, hopefully this helps someone else.
# Define modified custom get-wmiobject for timeout with credential from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmuscett/archive/2009/05/27/get_2d00_wmicustom.aspx
Function Get-WmiCustom([string]$Class,[string]$ComputerName,[string]$Namespace = "root\cimv2",[int]$Timeout=15, [pscredential]$Credential)
{
$ConnectionOptions = new-object System.Management.ConnectionOptions
$EnumerationOptions = new-object System.Management.EnumerationOptions
if($Credential){
$ConnectionOptions.Username = $Credential.UserName;
$ConnectionOptions.SecurePassword = $Credential.Password;
}
$timeoutseconds = new-timespan -seconds $timeout
$EnumerationOptions.set_timeout($timeoutseconds)
$assembledpath = "\\$Computername\$Namespace"
#write-host $assembledpath -foregroundcolor yellow
$Scope = new-object System.Management.ManagementScope $assembledpath, $ConnectionOptions
$Scope.Connect()
$querystring = "SELECT * FROM " + $class
#write-host $querystring
$query = new-object System.Management.ObjectQuery $querystring
$searcher = new-object System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher
$searcher.set_options($EnumerationOptions)
$searcher.Query = $querystring
$searcher.Scope = $Scope
trap { $_ } $result = $searcher.get()
return $result
}

Answer 3

Glad my Get-WmiCustom function here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmuscett/archive/2009/05/27/get_2d00_wmicustom.aspx is useful.

Answer 4

when creating the job using get-wmiobject assign that job to a variable, then that variable can be piped into get-job for status or receive-job for results
$ThisJob = start-job -scriptblock {param ($Target) Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Service -ComputerName $Target -AsJob} -ArgumentList $server
$Timer = [System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch]::StartNew()
While ($ThisJob | Get-Job | where {$_.State -imatch "Running"}){
If ($Timer.Elapsed.Seconds -ge 5) {
echo "five seconds has passed, removing"
$ThisJob | Get-Job | Remove-Job -Force
} # end if
echo "still running"
Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
} # end while
$Results = $ThisJob | where {$_.State -inotmatch "failed"} | receive-job
$Timer.Stop | out-null

Answer 5

The only two solutions I've seen for this problem are:
Run the queries as background jobs and put a timer on them, then stop/remove the jobs that run too long.
Fix your servers.

Answer 6

In addition to what has been said, not a bullet proof solution but consider pinging your servers first (Test-Connection), it can speed up execution time in case you have no responding machines.