Trouble passing arguments

PowerShell Help
1

Hello folks,
I am running this script against remote machines, but I cannot seem to get the .exe to execute. I believe my syntax is off. I am trying to get it installed silently:

Start-Process -FilePath “C:\Temp\Setup.exe” -ArgumentList “/s /v '”/qn’“” -NoNewWindow

If i run this locally it works, it installs the setup silently:
.\setup.exe /s /v"/qn"

Any ideas why my string is not working?

Thanks!

2

Please share how you are executing it remotely. My initial thought is you’ll need to add -Wait to start-process otherwise the remote connection will terminate taking setup.exe with it since it thinks its work is done.

3

Hey Matt,

do you get any errors on the remote machine? is it installshield setup? i had an issue recently deploying application using sccm.

I was running below powershell script:

$arg = "/s /f1$PSScriptRoot\myinstall.iss"
$setup = "$PSScriptRoot\someapp.exe"

Start-Process -FilePath $setup -ArgumentList $arg -NoNewWindow -wait

This worked on my machine, but when i packaged it on sccm the deployment failed. i got the error

The installation cannot be run by directly launching the MSI package. You must run setup.exe

searching the error online found that i needed to add ISSETUPDRIVEN=1

The deployment ended up working after adding it.

$msi = '/v" /qn ISSETUPDRIVEN=1"'
$arg = "/s /f1$PSScriptRoot\myinstall.iss $msi"
$setup = "$PSScriptRoot\someapp.exe"
Start-Process -FilePath $setup -ArgumentList $arg -NoNewWindow -wait

only suggesting this because i saw the switch /v"/qn"
hope it helps

4

Im connecting with Invoke-Command

Thanks mawazo and krzydoug, I tried both suggestions, It doesnt error, it just hangs when it says agent found, installing:

Here is a bigger clip of the script:

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $remotecomputer -ScriptBlock {
    $servicename = 'BesClient'
    $hostname = hostname
	$msi = '/s /v"/qn ISSSETUPDRIVEN=1"'
	$arg = "/i c:\temp\setup.exe $msi"
    $bes = Get-Service -Name $servicename -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    If ($bes.Status -eq 'Running') {
        Write-Host "BigFix is already Installed and Running!" -ForegroundColor Yellow
        Get-Service -DisplayName "Bes Client" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        Get-Service -DisplayName "Bes Client" | Out-File -FilePath "C:\Temp\$hostname-BESService.txt"
        Read-Host -Prompt "Press Enter key to continue"
        Break
    }
    else {
        Write-Host "BigFix agent found, starting install" -ForegroundColor Yellow
        Start-Process -FilePath "C:\temp\setup.exe" -ArgumentList $arg -NoNewWindow -wait
        Get-Service -DisplayName "*Bes*"
        write-host "BigFix is installed"
    }
5

You provide the executable via -FilePath and again via -ArgumentList … are you sure that’s correct? :wink:

Why using all these variables? That makes your code harder to read.

If you want to install something remotely and silent you should not have a Read-Host in your code. :wink:

Especially for trouble shooting I’d reduce the code to the bare minimum:

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $remotecomputer -ScriptBlock {
    $bes = Get-Service -Name 'BesClient' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    If ($bes.Status -eq 'Running') {
        Write-Host "BigFix is already Installed and Running!" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    }
    else {
        Write-Host "BigFix agent found, starting install" -ForegroundColor Yellow
        Start-Process -FilePath "C:\temp\setup.exe" -ArgumentList '/s /v"/qn ISSSETUPDRIVEN=1"' -NoNewWindow -wait
        Get-Service -DisplayName "*Bes*"
        write-host "BigFix is installed"
    }
}

And just to have it mentioned at least once … the setup executable has to be saved on the remote computer - not your local computer. :point_up_2:t4:

2 Likes
6

Olaf, That did it. Yea I didnt really give that version a good look over. I use this just as a tool for myself, I was going to make another version completely silent that can be run against a .txt file of multiple systems. But yea I use these as tools just for myself for now, so I use read-host etc…

I saw I had a typo in ISSETUPDRIVEN also, had an extra S in there, not sure if that was the problem. I like it with less variables as well :+1:

Yes, I copy the exe to the remote machine before that clip of the script.

Thanks for all help everyone!

-Matt

7

My bad with the typo matt

8

mawazo,
No worries, thanks for the help!

-matt