I'm trying to connect to remote powershell from C# .NET WinForms app. My goal is to create my own version of Microsoft PowerShell ISE. So i need a way to execute PowerShell Scripts from my app on Remote Machines. I've created couple of methods and tested it on local machine from my app. If I don't use WSManConnectionInfo and use using (Runspace remoteRunspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace()) i can execute scripts locally as if it was true powershell (little scripts, usage of variables, output data using ft, fl, do a lot of other things I usually do with powershell. Problem starts when I add WSManConnectionInfo and point it to my Exchange Server instead of using local connection. It seems it's able to execute basic stuff like "get-mailbox" but as soon as i try to pipe things, use some scripting capabilities like $variables it breaks saying it's unsupported.
Similarly I have to disable powershell.AddCommand("out-string"); when not using it locally.
An unhandled exception of type 'System.Management.Automation.RemoteException' occurred in System.Management.Automation.dll.
Additional information: The term 'Out-String' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
The very same error doesn't appear if I don't force remote connection but simply do it locally. It seems like the SchemaUri is making it very strict to only execute basic commands. I saw other examples where people where using very direct information such us:
powershell.AddCommand("Get-Users");
powershell.AddParameter("ResultSize", count);
But with that approach I would have to define a lot of possible options and I don't want to go thru defining parameters and other stuff. I simply would like to load "script" and execute it just like in PowerShell window.. Here's an example of what I use now.
public static WSManConnectionInfo PowerShellConnectionInformation(string serverUrl, PSCredential psCredentials)
{
var connectionInfo = new WSManConnectionInfo(new Uri(serverUrl), "http://schemas.microsoft.com/powershell/Microsoft.Exchange", psCredentials);
//var connectionInfo = new WSManConnectionInfo(new Uri(serverUrl), "http://schemas.microsoft.com/powershell", psCredentials);
connectionInfo.AuthenticationMechanism = AuthenticationMechanism.Basic;
connectionInfo.SkipCACheck = true;
connectionInfo.SkipCNCheck = true;
connectionInfo.SkipRevocationCheck = true;
connectionInfo.MaximumConnectionRedirectionCount = 5;
connectionInfo.OperationTimeout = 150000;
return connectionInfo;
}
public static PSCredential SecurePassword(string login, string password)
{
SecureString ssLoginPassword = new SecureString();
foreach (char x in password) { ssLoginPassword.AppendChar(x); }
return new PSCredential(login, ssLoginPassword);
}
public static string RunScriptPs(WSManConnectionInfo connectionInfo, string scriptText)
{
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
// Create a remote runspace using the connection information.
//using (Runspace remoteRunspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace())
using (Runspace remoteRunspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(connectionInfo))
{
// Establish the connection by calling the Open() method to open the runspace.
// The OpenTimeout value set previously will be applied while establishing
// the connection. Establishing a remote connection involves sending and
// receiving some data, so the OperationTimeout will also play a role in this process.
remoteRunspace.Open();
// Create a PowerShell object to run commands in the remote runspace.
using (PowerShell powershell = PowerShell.Create())
{
powershell.Runspace = remoteRunspace;
powershell.AddScript(scriptText);
//powershell.AddCommand("out-string");
powershell.Commands.Commands[0].MergeMyResults(PipelineResultTypes.Error, PipelineResultTypes.Output);
Collection<PSObject> results = powershell.Invoke();
foreach (PSObject result in results) {
stringBuilder.AppendLine(result.ToString());
}
}
// Close the connection. Call the Close() method to close the remote
// runspace. The Dispose() method (called by using primitive) will call
// the Close() method if it is not already called.
remoteRunspace.Close();
}
// convert the script result into a single string
return stringBuilder.ToString();
}
Any advice on why this is happening and workaround how to get it to behave the same way? I've seen a lot of blogs like this but defining every simple command doesn't make sense to me. I also saw an option to create local connection and then execute remote connection within that but that's gotta be last resort since it relies on multiple other factors.
