Exchange Server 2007 WinRM PowerShell

Following on from this thread I thought I would post my findings in case anyone stumbled upon it.

For starters, remotely executing PS scripts against Exchange Server 2007 via WinRM is not supported. This is not isolated to APM, it does not work from any machine, even locally connecting in using Enter-PSSession-localhost doesn't work. You basically end up with the below error:

"An Active Directory error 0x80072020 occurred while searching for domain controllers in domain xxxx.xxxx.xxx: An operations error occurred."

For Exchange Server 2010 it appears that it is possible. See thisthread for more info on how to set it up.

Upgrading to Exchange 2010 will happen later this year but in the meantime I still want to monitor the database status on all my 2007 Mailbox servers. So I am now wondering if I can run a Version 1 PS script (not PowerShell v1.0) so that it executes locally on the APM server.

Before I move to an Exchange script (I have Exchange tools on APM server) and have to load the Exchange Snapin I want to run a basic script against the local APM server and this is what I have:

------------------------------------------

$Riley = @()
$Riley = Get-Process | where {$_.'ProcessName' -like 'System'}
if (!$Riley) {write-host "Statistic: 0" Exit(0)}
if ($Riley) {write-host "Statistic: 1" Exit(1)}

------------------------------------------

It does not work and gives the following error:

Testing on node orion.domain.co.uk: failed with 'Undefined' status Windows script execution error.

Running Get-Process | where {$_.'ProcessName' -like 'System'} within PowerShell console returns the process 'system'.

Also, when executing a PS command from within APM, does it use the 64 or 32 bit version of PowerShell?

Find more posts tagged with

exchange

2007

WinRM

2010

PowerShell

Accepted answers

MikeAsthalter

Please see the following kb article for information about how to run PowerShell scripts in 64bit mode with the Orion APM Windows PowerShell Monitor:

http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com/kb/questions/2374

Hope this helps,

Mike

All comments

qle

I don't know any more than you do but if I had to guess, I'd assume it's using the version located under the system32 folder. In that case, it would follow the "bit"ness of the OS, so if you're running on 64-bit, the PowerShell version using for APM would be 64-bit. Again, total guess on my part.

As to your script, it ran fine for me as well. There are only two suggestion I would make:

Combine the if statements so into one so it would be

if (!$Riley) {write-host "Statistic: 0" Exit(0)} else {write-host "Statistic: 1" Exit(1)}
Since you're executing more on one block command in the if and else statements, you either need to separate the by a newline or a semicolon. Therefore, updating the if statement again, it should look like:

if (!$Riley) {write-host "Statistic: 0"; Exit(0)} else {write-host "Statistic: 1"; Exit(1)}

Let me know if that produces that correct results through APM.

MikeAsthalter

Please see the following kb article for information about how to run PowerShell scripts in 64bit mode with the Orion APM Windows PowerShell Monitor:

http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com/kb/questions/2374

Hope this helps,

Mike

FormerMember

Thanks Mike,

That's really helped me as I'm now much closer but I'm still not quite there!!

I'm not sure if the bit that says:

Copy the following VBscript into the Script Body field in the Orion APM PowerShell Monitor:

Should actually say:

Copy the following VBscript into the Script Body field in the Orion APM Script Monitor:

The reason I think this is because if you open PowerShell and paste in the first line of the provided script:

Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

it just returns the error:

Set-Variable : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'CreateObject'.
At line:1 char:4
+ Set <<<< objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Set-Variable], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetVariableCommand

However, if I paste the whole completed script in a .vbs file and double-click it, it executes and displays the statistic perfectly

Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

Set objStdExec = objShell.Exec(%windir%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe –file c:\db_mount.ps1)

objStdExec.StdIn.Close()

WScript.Echo(objStdExec.StdOut.ReadAll)

wscript.quit objStdExec.ExitCode

The error when ran in an Orion PowerShell monitor is:

Testing on node MACHINE.domain.co.uk: failed with 'NotAvailable' status An expression was expected after '('.

The error when ran in an Orion Script monitor is:

Testing on node MACHINE.domain.co.uk: failed with 'Undefined' status Script output did not contain required field "Statistic:". Actual script output begins " "

FormerMember

Just to add the contents of the .ps1 file:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Admin
$Riley = @()
$Riley = Get-MailboxDatabase -status | where {$_.'Mounted' -like 'False'}
if (!$Riley) {write-host "Statistic: 0"; Exit(0)} else {write-host "Statistic: 1"; Exit(1)}

MikeAsthalter

Hello grahampriley,

You are absolutely correct in your post! You definitely need to use the Orion APM Windows Script Monitor to execute the vbscript which will run your Powershell script in 64bit mode.

I have corrected the KB (http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com/kb/questions/2374) as follows:

Copy the following VBscript into the Script Body field in the Orion APM Windows Script Monitor:

... <script as listed in the KB 2374>

Thanks again for your correction!

Mike