Invoke-Command does not return IIS Provider data

Taking it to the Community... I want to retrieve IIS AppPool information from remote computers, and eventually update them. As seen in the code snippet below, if the GCI for, the File System Pro...

Windows PowerShell

T_rey_S

Copper Contributor

May 31, 2023

LainRobertson
Thank you for your analysis.
Per your suggestion, I added EA Stop within the scriptBlock.

The scriptBlock seems to run without incident, but not return AppPool(s).
I added a simple file creation to the scriptBlock, and it executes as expected, indicating the connection, authentication, permissions, etc. are correct.

Initially I was running Invoke-Command with an alternate credential. I moved the script to another computer where it runs with the same account required on the target server, and removed the -Credential argument from Invoke-Command. No difference.

If I run the GCI command locally on the target server it returns object(s) of type,
Microsoft.IIs.PowerShell.Framework.Configurationelement

When running remotely, with Invoke-Command, it returns a single empty/null object of type,
System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject

The EventViewer logs, App, System and PowerShell show no errors on source or target computers. The GCI command seems to run happily and produce nothing.

I noticed a slight difference in syntax between your sample command and mine, in the -Path component. Yours includes a backslash, "IIS:\AppPool". I had used "IIS:AppPool". Testing showed both yield the same result.

This has turned into a battle of wills. I've spent more time troubleshooting this than it will eventually save, versus running locally on each server. But I am stubborn...

$sbCmdL = { $strTimeL = ( Get-Date ).ToString()
            $strTimeL | Out-File -FilePath 'C:\Temp\TimeStamp.txt'
            Import-Module WebAdministration
            $colPoolsL = Get-ChildItem  -Path "IIS:AppPools" `
                                        -ErrorAction 'Stop'
          }#End sb

$colPoolsL = Invoke-command -ComputerName $Server `
                            -ScriptBlock  $sbCmdL `
                            -ErrorAction  'Stop'

I wasn't absolutely sure of syntax within the scriptBlock, so I added semicolon statement terminators, but they had no effect.

$sbCmdL = { $strTimeL = ( Get-Date ).ToString();
            $strTimeL | Out-File -FilePath 'C:\Temp\TimeStamp.txt';
            Import-Module WebAdministration;
            $colPoolsL = Get-ChildItem  -Path "IIS:\AppPools"   `
                                        -ErrorAction 'Stop';

LainRobertson

Silver Contributor

May 31, 2023

T_rey_S

Yeah, the semicolon is just my personal preference since it's prevalent in other languages I use, though it's quite handy when I choose to be lazy and put multiple short commands on a single line.

Looking at your last script block, there seems to be a missing closing "}". If I assume it was meant to be at the very end - let's say as line 6, then the issue you have is that on line 5, you've assigned the output to a variable but have not then re-stated that variable to send the contents of that variable onto the remote pipeline. This would be why you're only getting $null back.

Based on my assumption about the closing "}", it should looks like this:

$sbCmdL = {
    $strTimeL = ( Get-Date ).ToString();
    $strTimeL | Out-File -FilePath 'C:\Temp\TimeStamp.txt';
    Import-Module WebAdministration;
    $colPoolsL = Get-ChildItem  -Path "IIS:\AppPools"   `
                                -ErrorAction 'Stop';
    $colPoolsL;     # This is what send content to the remote pipeline.
}

Cheers,

Lain

T_rey_S
Copper Contributor
Jun 01, 2023
Sorry for the confusion. There was, in fact, a closing brace on the next line. Lack of the closing brace would create a compile-time error.

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Invoke-Command does not return IIS Provider data

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