Unable to activate a conda virtual environment on a remote computer on the same network in Powershell

Question

I am using Windows Powershell to remote into another computer on the same network by using the following command:

C:\Users\User1>powershell
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PS C:\Users\User1> Enter-PSSession -ComputerName REMOTECOMPUTER1

After that, I want to activate a conda virtual environment by doing the following:

[REMOTECOMPUTER1]: PS C:\Users\User1\Documents> C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\condabin\conda activate User1_Env

However, the command above doesn't seem to do anything. The returned prompt doesn't have the virtual environment name in the front.

[REMOTECOMPUTER1]: PS C:\Users\User1\Documents>

To test if the virtual env has been activated, I run a simple python script that imports a package that is installed in the virtual env (but not in the base env), I get an error message saying there is no such module, suggesting that the virtual env has not been activated.

Any suggestions and pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Did you ever find a workaround for this? – Saaru Lindestøkke Sep 16 '21 at 08:28 — Saaru Lindestøkke, Sep 16 '21 at 08:28

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 28 '22 at 12:25

It turns out that you need to register a remote configuration on the remote server, and specify that configuration in your Enter-PSSession call.

The -StartupScript in the remote configuration should point to the file that contains your profile settings (with the conda initialize block) on the remote machine. For example this can be %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WinwdowsPowershell\profile.ps1 (but this might differ on your machine).

This answer goes into detail about configuring the PSSessionConfiguration.

Unable to activate a conda virtual environment on a remote computer on the same network in Powershell

1 Answers1