Copy files from one remote server to another remote server with Powershell

Question

I'm trying to copy files from serverA to serverB using Powershell. Both servers belong to our hosting provider so copying files from A to B is very fast compared to copying files from my local box to either server. I figured I could use Powershell to run a remote command on serverA and copy the files to serverB. This is what I came up with:

$SourceServerName = "serverA"
$SourceContentPath = "\\serverA\c$\testSrc"
$DestinationContentPath = "\\serverB\c$\testDest"

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $SourceServerName -ScriptBlock {param ($SourcePath,$InstallPath) 
                Copy-Item -Path $SourcePath\* -Destination $InstallPath -Recurse
            } -ArgumentList $SourceContentPath, $DestinationContentPath

But I get an error "System.Management.Automation.RemoteException: Access to the path 'testDest' is denied.

I'm an admin and WinRM is configured properly on both boxes. If I try to copy files remotely inside the same server (i.e. from \\serverA\c$\testSrc to \\serverA\c$\testDest) everything works fine.

What's the proper way to do this?

The account which runs powershell should be admin of both boxes. You should also check that c:\testDest on serverB has good permissions for the account you are using. — Mat M, Oct 29 '12 at 21:33

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 30 '12 at 08:06

0

Invoke-Command is executed under your current user (user you are currently logged into your machine). You should set -Credential parameter of your Invoke-Command to the admin user of target system

answered Oct 30 '12 at 08:06

Andrey Marchuk

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 19 '14 at 16:34

The cmdlet on Server A is not executed as you.

Two possible solutions:

Easiest:

$SourceServerName = "serverA"
$SourceContentPath = "\\serverA\c$\testSrc"
$DestinationContentPath = "\\serverB\c$\testDest"
$cred = Get-Credential # input your username and password of serverB here

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $SourceServerName -ScriptBlock {param ($SourcePath,$InstallPath, $cred) 
            Copy-Item -Path $SourcePath\* -Destination $InstallPath -Recurse -Credential $cred
        } -ArgumentList $SourceContentPath, $DestinationContentPath, $cred

Domain User Solution:

If you are a domain user, and could control these two machines you could just enable CredSSP in PowerShell via Enable-WSManCredSSP on both your local computer and serverA, then add the -Authentication CredSSP in Invoke-Command.

Copy files from one remote server to another remote server with Powershell

2 Answers2

Easiest:

Domain User Solution: