Trying to Enable PSRemoting on a List of Devices - Help Please

PowerShell Help
1

I am trying to enable PSRemoting on a list of devices running the following code/script.

$Computers = Get-Content “C:\temp\list.txt”

foreach($Computer in $Computers){
psexec \$Computer cmd.exe /c \$Computers -s powershell Enable-PSRemoting -Force
}

When I run this I get the following output/error for each device in the list.

PsExec v2.2 - Execute processes remotely
Copyright (C) 2001-2016 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

psexec : The handle is invalid.
At C:\Temp\EnablePSremoting.ps1:4 char:5

  • psexec \$Computer cmd.exe /c \$Computers -s powershell Enable-P …
  • CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (The handle is invalid.:String) , RemoteException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError

Connecting to AMHRAOVDISD-008…
Couldn’t access AMHRAOVDISD-008:
Connecting to AMHRAOVDISD-008…

The machine name (AMHRAOVDISD-008) it tries to connect to is replaced in each error with the machine on that line.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can enable PSRemoting on a list of machines in a txt file?

2

Unable to test, how about this?

psexec \$Computer cmd.exe /c powershell -Command “& {Enable-PSRemoting -Force}”

The user the script is running under must have admin on the remote system.

3

I tried the script using psexec \$Computer cmd.exe /c powershell -Command “& {Enable-PSRemoting -Force}”

and got the exact same results.

I don’t know what it means when it says (psexec : The handle is invalid.)

it feels like it does not like something about the psexec command.

4

Possibly a permissions issue. I just tried the command I posted with no issues. I trust the list.txt has hosts listed one per line?

Also, have a look here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13663167/psexec-the-handle-is-invalid-when-running-the-command-as-system-user

And here near the bottom for PSExec:

https://4sysops.com/wiki/enable-powershell-remoting/

 

5

Yes there is only one machine name per line in the text file.

As for permissions I use the same creds to RDP into the same machines and it works fine the account I am using it a domain account that is added to the local administrators group of all the devices in out Domain.

So I am not sure why it would not work due to permissions.

6

Are they ping-able? Have you tried using IP instead?

I had similar situation working remotely and had to flush dns cache.

7

Hi Obijuan,

They are all pingable with the host names. I have another script to ping the devices to check or should I say test the connection before I ever run this script to enable PSRemoting. All are online and as I stated before from my computer I can use RDP with the machine name and connect and log into each device if I tried them all I have connected to about 8 of the devices successfully. I have not however tried to enable PSRemoting by using their IP addresses I suppose it is worth a shot. I will do that in the morning and see what happens with a few.

8

OK so I just tried it on one of the devices here are the steps I took

  1. I pinged the machine to ensure it was online successfully
  2. obtained the IP address from the successful ping
  3. Logged into the device to ensure I was able to connect with the creds being used.
  4. deleted all the NETBIOS names from the text file and replaced them with the single IP address
  5. saved the text file and opened it back up to be sure it was properly saved with a single IP address
  6. Closed the text file and ran the script again
below is the output I received in the PS console as a result of running the script using IP address in stead of NETBIOS name...

PS C:\Users\raf03576> C:\Temp\EnablePSremoting.ps1

PsExec v2.2 - Execute processes remotely
Copyright (C) 2001-2016 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

psexec : The handle is invalid.
At C:\Temp\EnablePSremoting.ps1:4 char:5

  • psexec \$Computer cmd.exe /c powershell -Command “& {Enable-PSRe …
  • CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (The handle is invalid.:String) , RemoteException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError

Connecting to 172.16.94.93…
Couldn’t access 172.16.94.93:
Connecting to 172.16.94.93…

 

Does anyone have a script that they have successfully used to enable PSRemoting on Windows devices on their network that I can use as a template?

My problem is when I try to install software via PowerShell remotely it fails with an error about WSMAN not being enabled so I try to enable PSRemoting which I was instructed to do and get this error of psexec : The handle is invalid.

9

Did you try the example given near the end of this article using PSExec ?? (as stated previously)

https://4sysops.com/wiki/enable-powershell-remoting/

10

I believe this is a PSExec issue, probably permissions related. Couple of questions is the computer your are running the script from on the same domain? If so, are you using domain account that is in the admin group?

Another option you might try is to just use the Get-Service cmdlet to start the WinRM service on the remote computers. That cmdlet does not require Windows PowerShell remoting to function remotely.

Get-Service -Name WinRM -ComputerName $Computers | Start-Service

Barring any firewall issues or group policy, once the WinRM service is running I think you should be able to do PowerShell remoting.

11

PS C:> $Username = ‘xxxxxxxxxx’
$Password = ‘xxxxxxxxxx’
$pass = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText $Password -Force
$Cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $Username,$pass
$Computers = get-content -path “C:\Temp\list.txt”
foreach ($Computer in $Computers) {Start-Service -Name WinRM -Verbose}

 

Error:
VERBOSE: Performing the operation “Start-Service” on target “Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) (WinR
M)”.
Start-Service : Service ‘Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) (WinRM)’ cannot be started due to the
following error: Cannot open WinRM service on computer ‘.’.
At line:6 char:40

  • … ach ($Computer in $Computers) {Start-Service -Name WinRM -Verbose}
  • CategoryInfo : OpenError: (System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController:ServiceController) [Star
    t-Service], ServiceCommandException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : CouldNotStartService,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StartServiceCommand

PS C:>

12

You can’t start the service remotely with just Start-Service because that cmdlet doesn’t have a computername parameter. You need to do it just like my last post (use Get-Service and pipe to Start-Service). There is no need to create a credential object either because Get-Service remoting will be based on the credentials you are running PowerShell locally. If you need to use different credentials, start PowerShell with the runas utility and the /netonly switch.

$Computers = Get-Content “C:\temp\list.txt”
Get-Service -Name WinRM -ComputerName $Computers | Start-Service

If you still get an error, please post it and I’ll see if I can help.

If you need to run with different credentials (use the runas utility), open cmd.exe and do this to open PowerShell or the ISE (whichever one you want to use) and then run the commands above in the new console.

C:\Users\micha>runas /netonly /user:domain.com\administrator powershell

or for the ISE

C:\Users\micha>runas /netonly /user:domain.com\administrator powershell_ise