Good morning, I was trying to write a script that will get computer names and then would ping them to check if they are online.
#This script will get a list of names for all the computers in that room
$comps=Get-ADComputer -filter 'name -like "Building*roomnumber*"' | Select-Object -property name
foreach ($comp in $comps){
ping $comp}
When I run the above, I get:
Ping request could not find host @{name=COMPNAME} Please check the name and try again. I thought it might just be ping, so i tried the Test-Connection cmdlet, but I get the same sort of problem.
How do I get a list of the computer names that will pipe into ping or test-connection so that I can see if the computers are online?
First of all, you’ve got a logic error. Get-ADComputer produces objects of the type ADComputer; Select-Object is therefore producing “Selected” objects of that type. Those objects have a Name property, which contains a string. Ping.exe has no clue what to do with that, and PowerShell is likely producing a string representation like “@{name=COMPNAME}” which is why you’re seeing what you are.
In Select-Object, use -ExpandProperty instead of -Property. That will “extract” the string computer name value from the property, producing a simple string. “The Big Book of PowerShell Gotchas” has a bit on this, I think, and I go into it pretty well in Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches. Understanding the difference between an object that has a property which contains a string, and a string by itself, is a massively important concept in PowerShell.
Ping is probably not as easy to use as Test-Connection. But, look at the -Quiet parameter of Test-Connection, which makes it return just a True/False rather than a status.
if ((Test-Connection $comp -quiet)) {
# comp is pingable
} else {
# comp is not pingable
}