Powershell robocopy one to many multithreaded

PowerShell Help
1

I am a PS binger, I am trying to get few poweshell lines working. The script read simple text file having list of remote server. using foreach loop, I am trying to copy a folder from single source to a destination on all servers on list. instead of running the copy sequentially, I need to run multiple concurrent copies about 30-50 robocopy instances. Can some one help.? thanks

$RP01 = Get-Content C:\admin_SF-Phase2\Multi-Robocopy-Test\RP01.txt
$MySource = “”“\MasterServer\Public\SQL”" "

#$MyDest = “”“\$RP01\C$\Admin\SQL”" "

$EXE = "robocopy "

$Options = “/r:0 /w:1 /log:C:\Admin_SF-Phase2\Multi-Robocopy-Test$RP01.log”

$RoboCmd = $Exe + $MySource + $MYDest + $Options

foreach($a in $RP01){

if (Test-Connection $a -Quiet)

start-job Invoke-Expression { $EXE + $MySource + $MyDest + “/r:1 /w:1 /log:C:\Admin_SF-Phase2\Multi-Robocopy-Test$a.log” }

}

I cant get this to work. once again thanks in adance

2

I’d avoid using Invoke-Expression here, as there’s no real need for it (and it’s sometimes a very bad idea, as it can open you up to code injection attacks.)

The tricky part of what you’re doing involves passing variables to the script block that’s used by Start-Job. Those jobs will be running in a separate process, which won’t have your source / dest variables available. In PowerShell 3.0 and later, the easy way to deal with this is to use the $using:variable syntax, which will automatically pass those values to the job. That would probably look something like this:

$RP01 = Get-Content C:\admin\_SF-Phase2\Multi-Robocopy-Test\RP01.txt
$MySource = '\\MasterServer\Public\SQL'

foreach($server in $RP01)
{
    if (Test-Connection $server -Quiet)
    {
        Start-Job { robocopy $using:MySource "\\$using:server\C$\Admin\SQL" /r:1 /w:1 /log:C:\Admin\_SF-Phase2\Multi-Robocopy-Test\$using:server.log }
    }
}

You should probably also have a step that makes a local copy of \MasterServer\Public\SQL before you upload it to the 30-50 other machines (or just run this script from \MasterServer). Either way, you avoid a lot of extra network traffic when the copy of the files on MasterServer has to pass through your local workstation for each remote computer, instead of only once.

3

HI Dave. Thanks for your response. Its great feeling to have a response. (::slight_smile:
I must be missing the very point you mentioned in your response. I would appreciate if clarified further. I am using
$RP01 = Get-Content C:\admin_SF-Phase2\Multi-Robocopy-Test\RP01.txt
$MySource = ‘\metrofs01\Public\SQL’
foreach($a in $RP01){

     start-job  { robocopy "$Mysource" "\\$a\C$\Admin\SQL"  + "/r:1 /w:1 /log:C:\Admin\_SF-Phase2\Multi-Robocopy-Test\$a.log"}

}

The script seem to start job for each sever in the text file, when I do get-job | fl it shows running command as
Command : robocopy “$Mysource” “\$a\C$\Admin\SQL” + “/r:1 /w:1 /log:C:\Admin_SF-Phase2\Multi-Robocopy-Test$a.log”
It seem it is not resolving the variables. At one stage was able to resolve variable when I highlighted the script block and ran but same scrip block in start-job does no seem to resolve variables.
Thanks a lot
Cheers

4

You haven’t added the using: scope modifier inside your script block yet. Notice that in my example, it’s robocopy $using:MySource, rather than robocopy $MySource. That “using:” part is what tells PowerShell to inject the values of your local variables when it creates the job.

5

(There are other instances of “using:” in my example, not just for $mySource. That’s just the one that I called out in my reply.)

6

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you… Dave.
It worked like a charm.
Great stuff
Cheers
SA