OutOfMemory error when running Invoke-Command on remote machines

Question

$Machines = Get-Content Machines.txt
    foreach($Machine in $Machines)
      {
        $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $Machine -Credential $creds 
        Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Machine -ScriptBlock {
           #Download 
           & 'wget' 'http://software/software.7z'
           #Extract
           & '7z' 'x' 'C:\software.7z'  '-r' '-y'
           $cleanscript = "Remove-Item C:\software.7z  -Force"
           $cleanscript  | Out-File C:\RemoveZip.ps1 -Encoding ascii
           & "C:\RemoveZip.ps1"
           $script = "CALL C:\software\setup.exe"
           $script  | Out-File C:\software.cmd -Encoding ascii
           & "C:\software.cmd"
       } -Credential $creds 
      }

After running through 30 machines, PowerShell and the machine running the script runs out of memory. How can this be avoided?

The shell consumes all 16 GBs of memory on running machine. Solutions like exceeding memory for the shell may not work e.g. OutOfMemory Exception on remote execution using Powershell Invoke-Command

Possible duplicate of [OutOfMemory Exception on remote execution using Powershell Invoke-Command](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9665981/outofmemory-exception-on-remote-execution-using-powershell-invoke-command) — Maxim, Jan 10 '18 at 17:26

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 09 '18 at 20:37

1

If you want to use PowerShell, write PowerShell.

$Machines = Get-Content -Path Machines.txt
ForEach ($Machine in $Machines)
{
    Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Machine -Credential $creds -ScriptBlock {
        #Download 
        Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'http://software/software.7z' -OutFile 'C:\software.7z'

        #Extract
        Start-Process -FilePath '7z.exe' -ArgumentList 'x','C:\software.7z','-r','-y' -NoNewWindow -Wait
        Remove-Item -Path C:\software.7z -Force

        Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\software\setup.exe'
    }  
}

I suspect all that remote file writing and external calls may have caused problems (also, if you're on v5+, use the *Archive cmdlets over 7z). Additionally, you were generating a session but never using it.

answered Jan 09 '18 at 20:37

Maximilian Burszley

18,243
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`Start-Process` with `-Wait` is a lot of extra typing when we can use the shorter `&` operator. – Bill_Stewart Jan 09 '18 at 21:24
@Bill_Stewart In my experience using `&`, it has been asynchronous. – Maximilian Burszley Jan 09 '18 at 21:28
1

Also, why complain about "extra typing" when you're writing a script? – Maximilian Burszley Jan 09 '18 at 21:28
Just pointing out that it's unnecessary. Also, the `&` operator blocks the script until the command completes (i.e., it's not asynchronous). This is easily demonstrated. – Bill_Stewart Jan 09 '18 at 21:44
It may be that I have executables that spawn other things, then. I prefer to be explicit with telling my computer what to do. – Maximilian Burszley Jan 09 '18 at 21:55
this does not address the memory issues. in addition i had to use cmd, this is not a style problem. The software is VS 2017, start-process causes the bootstraper to get stuck https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/22456/vs2017-installer-vs-enterpriseexe-exits-after-load.html – CodeEmpower Jan 10 '18 at 15:44
I tried this, it does not work : Start-Process -FilePath "vs_enterprise.exe" -ArgumentList "arguments" – CodeEmpower Jan 10 '18 at 15:54
1

According to your link, the process spawns other tasks and closes the main thread so you end up with an async thing going on. You can mimic what the resolution did with the following: `& vs_enterprise.exe --wait --quiet --norestart --installpath C:\VS\2017` – Maximilian Burszley Jan 10 '18 at 15:56
those are the args i used – CodeEmpower Jan 10 '18 at 16:18
--norestart --quiet --wait – CodeEmpower Jan 10 '18 at 16:18

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 11 '18 at 15:23

I monitored the memory space for PowerShell during the execution of the script. The Memory instantly starts increasing when running the wget command, the progress output fills the console buffer and eating the PowerShell process memory. I used

        & 'wget' '-q' 'http://software/software.7z'

which kept memory usage stabilized and also speeded up the execution massively

Hide wget output in Linux

Of course if running PowerShell 5.1 Copy-Files over PSSession can be used instead

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 10 '18 at 16:56

0

Not sure about the memory issues but a few things you could try.

Your New-PsSession doesn't do anything, so either get rid of it, or use it. then you can do invoke-command several times on the same session, instead of sending the big block
Maybe running them in parallel with -nowait, and then wait-job'ing the objects would also help memory issues.
don't foreach, use the pipeline :) $machines | %{ invoke-command -machine $_...

answered Jan 10 '18 at 16:56

Steve

976
12
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ForEach-Object is slower than ForEach unless you're on PSv5.1 – Maximilian Burszley Jan 10 '18 at 17:16
Not sure what the speed of the loop really has to do with it when its wrapping a network call, also do you have a source for that? – Steve Jan 10 '18 at 18:20
Pipeline operations are always slower. Run a test on your own: `Measure-Command {ForEach($i in 1..10000){$i}}` versus `Measure-Command { 1..10000 | % { $_ }}` – Maximilian Burszley Jan 10 '18 at 18:30
On average, 6-7x slower. – Maximilian Burszley Jan 10 '18 at 18:30

OutOfMemory error when running Invoke-Command on remote machines

3 Answers3