Running a powershell script against all the computers in Active Directory

Question

I have written a script that generates some information but I need to run it on over 160 computers in an active directory. I don't want to run this script on each machine individually, is there any way of executing this script all all the machines from one centralized location?

invoke-command -ComputerName test-pc -ScriptBlock {gwmi win32_service | Select-object Name, PathName | where-object {$_.PathName -notlike '"*' -and $_.PathName -like "*\* *\*"}}

I don't want to be logging on to each machine individually. Is there quicker way? There must be.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Sohail.

Updated version:

invoke-command -ComputerName @(Get-ADComputer -Filter {Name -like "GBST*"} | Select-Object Name)  -ScriptBlock {gwmi win32_service | Select-object Name, PathName | where-object {$_.PathName -notlike '"*' -and $_.PathName -like "*\* *\*"}}

Error message:

invoke-command : One or more computer names are not valid. If you are trying to pass a URI, use the -ConnectionUri parameter, or pass URI objects 
instead of strings.
At line:1 char:2
+     invoke-command -ComputerName @(Get-ADComputer -filter {Name -like "GBSU1*"} | S ...
+    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (System.String[]:String[]) [Invoke-Command], ArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PSSessionInvalidComputerName,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeCommandCommand

What if you apply your command to a list of computers ? Would that fit ? Do you know how to list computers in AD ? (you can reply by editing your question and adding more information) — sodawillow
– sodawillow, Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 15:24
"apply your command to a list of computers"? Please can you elaborate? Example maybe? — Muhammad Sohail Arif
– Muhammad Sohail Arif, Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 15:24
Or you can take Mathias's perfect one-liner but I advise you to try to understand the code BEFORE running it. Imagine this is malicious and deletes every found object ? ^_^ — sodawillow
– sodawillow, Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 15:27
Should it not be @(Get-ADComputer -Filter {Name -like "GBST*"} | Select-Object -Expand Name) Note the expand so you get a string array. — Matt
– Matt, Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 15:44
@MuhammadSohailArif Notice the -Expand parameter with select — Mathias R. Jessen
– Mathias R. Jessen, Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 15:59

sodawillow · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-18 20:57:50Z

3

Just to make it shorter :

(Get-ADComputer -Filter 'Name -like "GBSU*"').Name | % {
    Get-WMIObject Win32_Service |
    Select-Object Name, PathName |
    Where-Object { $_.PathName -notlike '"*' -and $_.PathName -like "** **" }
}

As pointed out by @bluuf :

This is actually not a 'good' solution since Get-WmiObject supports the ComputerName parameter : Invoke-Command shouldn't be used at all in this case.

edited Nov 18, 2015 at 20:57

answered Nov 18, 2015 at 16:55

sodawillow

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1 Comment

Muhammad Sohail Arif Over a year ago

This command works in respects to displaying all the services, but it does not display the results I was expecting. The 'solution' provided by @McKenning was useful in a way that it displayed service path names that contained spaces and that were not enclosed between quotations.

McKenning · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-18 15:56:07Z

2

There is a syntax error in your revised example where you kept the "*" in the Filter. You can't filter for all then narrow your results. Asterisk is implied when filtering based on properties.

I also added the ".Name" property to the computer search to only pass that to the invoke-command section. I tried the following code and it seemed to work.

invoke-command -ComputerName @((Get-ADComputer -Filter 'Name -like "GBST*"').Name) -ScriptBlock {gwmi win32_service | Select-object Name, PathName | where-object {$_.PathName -notlike 'C:\Windows\system32\*' -and $_.PathName -like 'C:\Program Files\*'}}

answered Nov 18, 2015 at 15:56

McKenning

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3 Comments

Muhammad Sohail Arif Over a year ago

I placed your command in PS and it still gave me a few errors, but this is the script I finished with and it worked. So thumbs up for your answer: invoke-command -ComputerName @((Get-ADComputer -Filter 'Name -like "GBSU*"').Name) -ScriptBlock {gwmi win32_service | Select-object Name, PathName | where-object {$_.PathName -notlike '"*' -and $_.PathName -like "** **"}}

bluuf Over a year ago

This is actually not a 'good' solution since Get-WmiObject supports the -computername parameter : invoke-command shouldn't be used at all in this case.

McKenning Over a year ago

@bluuf is correct. It will probably be faster than invoke-command as well. The following should work with that model:

(Get-ADComputer -Filter 'Name -like "GBSU*"').Name | % {gwmi win32_service -ComputerName $_ | Select-object Name, PathName | where-object {$_.PathName -notlike 'C:\Windows\system32\*' -and $_.PathName -like 'C:\Program Files\*'}}

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