Remote location management copy and install large software updates to 50 LAN

Question

Initially posted to Stack Overflow and was directed here. I'm new to programming and am trying to write a powershell script to manage software updates. I'm in a windows domain environment with over 50 remote offices. Each office has 4 computers. One computer, "Computer A," has dropbox installed that we use for backups, and now software updates. I want to execute a script from my local machine that copies a folder (~1 GB) to the other computers in that LAN, and runs the setup.exe file in the directory to update software on these computers.

As far as I can tell in order to use the Enter-pssession cmdlet & run a copy-item and start process, I have to:

On remote machine enable winrm by: enable-psremoting -force
On remote machine enable CredSSP authentication by: enable-smancredssp -role server -force
On local machine enable CredSSP authentication by: enable-SmanCredSSP -role client -force

From here I can enter the Power shell session and begin the copy and install. Here is the code I'm running:

#Allow my computer to send credentials to remote computers
Enable-WSManCredSSP -Role Client -DelegateComputer * -Force
$credential = Get-Credential -Credential domain\user 
#Getting Content 
$path = "C:\computernames.csv"
Import-Csv -path $path | 
foreach-object {
    $computername = $_.Name
    if (Test-Connection -cn $_.Name -quiet) {
        #copy the batch file that allows remote powershell access
        $source = "c:\"
        $destination = "\\$computername\c$\install files\remoteaccess"
        robocopy $source $destination
        #open file to allow remote PS access
        & psexec \\$computername -a runas -u domain\user -p password -c -f -h "\\$computername\c$\install files\remoteaccess\remoteaccess.bat"
    #Initiates Power Shell session with remote computer
    Enter-PSSession -cn $_.Name -Credential $credential -Authentication Credssp
    #begin copy
        #be sure to refine destination 
    copy-item -path $_.Source -Destination $_.Destination -force -verbose -recurse | out-file c:\copylog.txt
    #begin silent install
        #code here
    #stop wsmancredssp accep
    disable-wsmancredssp -role server
    #close pssession
    exit-pssession 
    } else {
        "$computername is not online"
    }
}
Disable-wsmancredssp -role client

The computernames.csv has the headers: Name, Source, Destination with UNC directories for each LAN's computer with dropbox and where to copy the file.
The "remoteaccess.bat" file contains the following two lines of code:

powershell.exe enable-psremoting -force >>c:\remotelog.txt
powershell.exe Enable-WSManCredSSP -role Server -force >>c:\remotelog.txt

The powershell window freezes after initiating the psexec session with the remote computer and sends the first powershell command to enable remoting. No error is generated, or input requested. The output of this command is saved in the remotelog text file: "WinRM has been updated to receive requests. WinRM service started.

WinRM already is set up for remote management on this machine."

It appears the powershell command to enable wsmancredssp is never received. When I run the batch file on the remote computer from remote access software, both commands execute and are logged successfully. Where is my psexec command going wrong, or how can I setup these computers to allow remote sessions with a remote command without using GPO?

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 22 '15 at 14:09

The code is off in a number of ways:

If you are in a Windows Domain environment, why don't you just enable Powershell remoting via GPO?
Enter-PSSession is a command for interactive remote sessions, what you are looking for is New-PSSession and Invoke-Command with the session parameter
CredSSP is only required if you want to access remote systems from the remote system that you're connected to
Why do you copy 1GB of data over to the branch offices? Is the connection to the main office too unstable?
the robocopy command is copying all contents of C:\ to a remote destination, that is definitely not want you want (pagefile.sys, bootmgr, etc).

Remote location management copy and install large software updates to 50 LAN

1 Answers1