Powershell commands not working via PSRemote

Question

I'm having some issues with trying to install various programs via powershell. This is an example (trimmed down) of the component of the module I've built:

Function TEST-INSTALL-Scripts
{
    Param($basepath,$Arguments)

    $command = @"
cmd.exe /C msiexec /package `"$basepath`" $Arguments
"@
    Invoke-Expression -Command $command
}

When I try to invoke it via

Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock {TEST-INSTALL-Scripts -Basepath $basepath -Arguments $args}

The command doesn't seem to do anything so I tried using a PSRemote tab to try to get some more details and I used this command:

$basepath = "\\$Server\d$\Files\Install\3rd Party\SQL Server Native Client\sqlncli_x64.msi"
$Arguments = '  /quiet /passive'
TEST-INSTALL-Scripts -basepath $basepath -Arguments $Arguments

And I get a response back saying the file cannot be accessed or its not a valid file.

T h i s i n s t a l l a t i o n p a c k a g e c o u l d n o t b e o p e n e d . V e r i f y t h a t t h e p a c k a g e e x i s t s a n d t h a t y o u c a n a c c e s s i t , o r c o n t a c t t h e a p p l i c a t i o n v e n d o r t o v e r i f y t h a t t h i s i s a v a l i d W i n d o w s I n s t a l l e r p a c k a g e .

When I RDP onto the machine itself, the exact same command works without any issue.

My research is pointing toward this being a double hop issue, but short of copying the file to the machine, is there a way of dealing with this that isn't a nightmare?

`-ScriptBlock {TEST-INSTALL-Scripts -Basepath $basepath -Arguments $args}` - that won't work; see: https://stackoverflow.com/q/36328690/478656 and https://stackoverflow.com/q/40247384/478656 and linked questions — TessellatingHeckler, Sep 26 '17 at 19:53
Also why are you calling `cmd.exe` inside of Powershell `cmd.exe /C msiexec /package \`"$basepath\`" $Arguments` -> `msiexec /package \`"$using:basepath\`" $Arguments` — BenH, Sep 26 '17 at 20:28
@BenH I'm using cmd because there are some legacy tools I also need to install using cmd and I find it easier to keep the same flow (you are only seeing a trimmed version) — Xanderu, Sep 26 '17 at 21:19
@TessellatingHeckler I did notice that and fixed it, but the bigger problem is that it throws the permission error when I use PSRemotetab which is essentially the same as a PSSession. I started getting the same error when I fixed passing the Args. — Xanderu, Sep 26 '17 at 21:19
Then .. duplicate of [Double hop access to copy files without CredSSP](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15242248/double-hop-access-to-copy-files-without-credssp) because your question is "I don't want to have to deal with security, please can I skip it?" and the answer is "if you could skip it, we could all skip it, and if that were an option, the existing answers wouldn't be a nightmare because nobody would answer with nightmare options if there were easy options" — TessellatingHeckler, Sep 26 '17 at 21:36
fair enough... I did get a workaround built that is minimal which I'll post — Xanderu, Sep 27 '17 at 13:15

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 27 '17 at 13:18

I was able to build a minimal workaround that I put in just before the remote call where I pass the install path. I also built a function to make it easier to manager but I put an example IF statement here (I built Get-InstallerLocal which does the same copy based on type)

        If($installPath.StartsWith("\\"))
        {
            $DeployPath = Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock {$env:TEMP}
            $drive=(Get-Item $DeployPath).PSDrive.Name
            $localpath = $DeployPath
            $DeployPath = $DeployPath.Replace("$($drive):","\\$machine\$drive$")
            If(!(Test-Path "$DeployPath\3rd Party\Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable"))
            {
                Copy-Item -Path "$installPath\3rd Party\Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable" -Destination "$DeployPath\3rd Party\Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable\" -Force -Recurse
            }
            If($ODBCDriver){Get-InstallerLocal -installPath $installPath -deployPath $DeployPath -Type "SQL Driver"}
            $installPath = $localpath
        }

Powershell commands not working via PSRemote

1 Answers1