PowerShell + SCCM : Run CM cmdlets remotely

Today I saw a tweet about using implicit remoting to load the Configuration Manager on my machine by Justin Mathews. It caught my eye as I have never really tried it, but theoretically it can be done.

Note - The second tweet says "Cannot find a provider with the name CMSite", resolution to which is in the Troubleshooting section at the end.

Use Import-Module

Below is a video showing how you can use Import-Module as mentioned in the tweet, if everything goes without any errors :

Below is the code snippet used in the video :

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# Create the PSSession $Session = New-PSSession -ComputerName sccm # Load the CM Module using Implicit Remoting Import-Module -Name "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1" -PSSession $Session # Check the module is available locally Get-Module -Name ConfigurationManager # run the CM cmdlets locally Get-CMSite # Oops! We need to set the CMSite as our current location to run the CM cmdlets Invoke-Command -Session $Session {Set-Location -Path DEX:} # Run the cmdlet again Get-CMSite

Use Export-PSSession

Now one can easily be tempted to run the Export-PSSession and store the module locally and next time just import the earlier exported module and start using the CM cmdlets, but it is not that straight forward at-least with the CM cmdlets. 

But there is a way to run the exported cmdlets (or Proxy Functions) by explicitly loading the CM module on the remote session and changing to CMSite provider as the current location ( which I think is pointless as the exported Module should be doing it).

Below is a video showing how to do that :

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Below is the first code snippet (as in above video) used in first PowerShell ISE tab :

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# Create the PSSession $Session = New-PSSession -ComputerName sccm # Load the CM Module in the Remote PSSession and change the current location to your CMSite Invoke-Command -Session $Session {                                     Import-Module -Name "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1"                                     Set-Location -path DEX:                                     } # Export the Module Locally Export-PSSession -OutputModule RemoteCMModule -Session $Session -Module ConfigurationManager # This will work in the current PowerShell session Import-Module RemoteCMModule # run the CM cmdlets Get-CMsite

Now on another ISE Tab, we have to do below :

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# check the current PSSessions Get-PSSession # On a new PowerShell session , Import the module Import-Module -Name RemoteCMModule # try running a CM cmdlet now Get-CMsite # check the current PSSessions $session = Get-PSSession # One has to explicitly run this Invoke-Command -Session $Session {                                     Import-Module -Name "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1"                                     Set-Location -path DEX:                                     } # try running a CM cmdlet now Get-CMsite

Use Invoke-Command

One can always just simply use PowerShell remoting like below :

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# Create the PSSession $Session = New-PSSession -ComputerName sccm # Load the CM Module in the Remote PSSession and change the current location to your CMSite Invoke-Command -Session $Session {                                     Import-Module -Name "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1"                                     Set-Location -path DEX:                                     } # run the Cmdlets remotely Invoke-Command -Session $Session {Get-CMSite}

TroubleShooting:

One must remember that even though you are using a PSSession, the ConfigurationManager module should be loaded in the PSSession and your current location should be in the CMSite PSProvider in order to run the CM cmdlets.

You may come across a scenario (similar to mentioned in the tweet) where the CMSite PSProvider might not have loaded correctly when you connected to the PSSession. You can always load the CMSite PSDrive manually , see below video where I deliberately remove the CMSite PSDrive and map it again :

Note - Did you notice, I later used ABC as the name of the PSDrive instead of my CMSite DEX ;)

Hope this gives you a better insight on running CM cmdlets remotely. One has to understand that Remoting should be enabled on the CM server where you are connecting.

Cheers !

Resources:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/09/08/remoting-the-implicit-way.aspx