1 00:00:00,690 --> 00:00:01,930 So let's go and have a look at how we 2 00:00:01,930 --> 00:00:05,740 create remote background jobs. Okay, so 3 00:00:05,740 --> 00:00:08,780 we're back in our PowerShell console. Now, 4 00:00:08,780 --> 00:00:09,960 of course, one of the things that we can 5 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,360 do to actually identify commands that we 6 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,520 can use for remoting is to use the Get 7 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:19,300 command. We can then use the Where option 8 00:00:19,300 --> 00:00:21,420 and then, of course, using our squirrelly 9 00:00:21,420 --> 00:00:26,530 brackets as always, we can use this $, and 10 00:00:26,530 --> 00:00:27,910 I'm going to use parameters, which is a 11 00:00:27,910 --> 00:00:31,970 value, and then keys, and then I can say 12 00:00:31,970 --> 00:00:37,710 ‑contains ComputerName. So what this will 13 00:00:37,710 --> 00:00:41,930 do is, this will show me any commands that 14 00:00:41,930 --> 00:00:45,060 take a property of ComputerName. So you 15 00:00:45,060 --> 00:00:46,020 can see we've got this, like, 16 00:00:46,020 --> 00:00:49,180 New‑PSSession, Invoke‑Command, Remove, 17 00:00:49,180 --> 00:00:52,360 Restart‑Computer, etc., Connect‑PSSession. 18 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:54,030 Now, what we're not going to do is really 19 00:00:54,030 --> 00:00:57,370 talk about just connecting directly to a 20 00:00:57,370 --> 00:00:59,710 remote machine and just running something. 21 00:00:59,710 --> 00:01:00,910 For example, I'm not going to talk about 22 00:01:00,910 --> 00:01:02,870 Restart‑Computer or Stop. This is really 23 00:01:02,870 --> 00:01:06,130 focused on being able to get a specific 24 00:01:06,130 --> 00:01:09,260 session to actually run some specific 25 00:01:09,260 --> 00:01:13,050 things. So the way that we utilize this 26 00:01:13,050 --> 00:01:15,490 and execute a remote background job is 27 00:01:15,490 --> 00:01:18,220 really focused on using, for example, 28 00:01:18,220 --> 00:01:21,020 either interactive or non‑interactive 29 00:01:21,020 --> 00:01:23,790 PowerShell sessions. Now this is achieved 30 00:01:23,790 --> 00:01:26,980 by either using, entering into a 31 00:01:26,980 --> 00:01:31,080 new‑PSSession or invoking a command to do 32 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:33,010 the non‑interactive. Now you understand 33 00:01:33,010 --> 00:01:33,930 the difference here between a 34 00:01:33,930 --> 00:01:35,880 non‑interactive and interactive. 35 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:39,370 Interactive means that my session here 36 00:01:39,370 --> 00:01:42,300 gets overtaken by the remote session on 37 00:01:42,300 --> 00:01:45,590 the machine, and then my non‑interactive 38 00:01:45,590 --> 00:01:47,390 means that I don't have a command prompt 39 00:01:47,390 --> 00:01:50,450 whatsoever. Now one of the commands that 40 00:01:50,450 --> 00:01:53,170 is available to us here is what's called 41 00:01:53,170 --> 00:01:57,650 Enter‑PSSession. This will then take a 42 00:01:57,650 --> 00:02:00,360 ‑ComputerName, which I'm going to use my 43 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:01,920 IP address of the machine that I'm 44 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:04,160 connecting to because I don't have a name 45 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:06,410 resolution for it. And then, of course, 46 00:02:06,410 --> 00:02:08,080 one thing that we want to do is pass a 47 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:10,650 credential. And this is my TRAINER 48 00:02:10,650 --> 00:02:15,940 machine, and it's my liamcleary account. 49 00:02:15,940 --> 00:02:17,650 Now notice what happens. It'll say okay, 50 00:02:17,650 --> 00:02:19,250 prompt me for the credentials. Now, of 51 00:02:19,250 --> 00:02:22,050 course, if my machine was on the same 52 00:02:22,050 --> 00:02:23,920 domain as the other machine, then I 53 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:25,450 wouldn't get prompted if I was logged in 54 00:02:25,450 --> 00:02:27,760 with the same account. So let me just log 55 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:33,100 in like so. And then of course you'll see 56 00:02:33,100 --> 00:02:35,920 it entered the remote session, and I'm now 57 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:37,890 what it looks like is connected to that 58 00:02:37,890 --> 00:02:41,010 machine. We can test this by simply saying 59 00:02:41,010 --> 00:02:42,910 hostname, and you'll see comes back as 60 00:02:42,910 --> 00:02:45,690 TRAINER, which clearly isn't my machine. 61 00:02:45,690 --> 00:02:48,370 If I exit that session and then type 62 00:02:48,370 --> 00:02:49,790 hostname again, you can see I'm actually 63 00:02:49,790 --> 00:02:53,000 on OFFICE. So entering the PSSession will 64 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,230 take me into the existing session. Now of 65 00:02:56,230 --> 00:02:58,250 course, what we can do is‑‑‑that was an 66 00:02:58,250 --> 00:03:00,780 interactive PowerShell session. Now what 67 00:03:00,780 --> 00:03:03,440 about if we wanted to create a 68 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:05,960 non‑interactive PowerShell? Well, that 69 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:08,700 one's done using the same process that we 70 00:03:08,700 --> 00:03:11,430 did previously, where we're using the 71 00:03:11,430 --> 00:03:15,210 Invoke‑Command, and we can invoke a 72 00:03:15,210 --> 00:03:17,590 session. Now, in order for us to do that, 73 00:03:17,590 --> 00:03:19,010 we're not actually going to invoke it 74 00:03:19,010 --> 00:03:21,370 first; we're going to actually say I want 75 00:03:21,370 --> 00:03:23,640 to create a new session. Now notice the 76 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:26,030 difference here. We used Enter‑PSSession 77 00:03:26,030 --> 00:03:29,090 to get an interactive one. New‑PSSession, 78 00:03:29,090 --> 00:03:31,120 which you would think is going to create 79 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:33,250 an interactive one, doesn't. It creates 80 00:03:33,250 --> 00:03:35,790 the non‑interactive one. So I'm going to 81 00:03:35,790 --> 00:03:38,590 say ‑ComputerName, and I'll type my IP 82 00:03:38,590 --> 00:03:40,320 address again to the machine that I'm 83 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:42,120 using, and I'm going to pass my 84 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:44,360 credentials because I'm obviously not on 85 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:52,440 that machine. And I'll put my password in. 86 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:54,980 Okay, so I now have a session. But notice 87 00:03:54,980 --> 00:03:56,950 what happened this time. I didn't get an 88 00:03:56,950 --> 00:04:00,060 interactive session. But if I choose 89 00:04:00,060 --> 00:04:04,210 Get‑PSSession, you'll see it scrolls right 90 00:04:04,210 --> 00:04:06,170 to the bottom, and you can see I have a 91 00:04:06,170 --> 00:04:09,720 remote machine connected with an ID of 4. 92 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:11,910 So that allows me to create a 93 00:04:11,910 --> 00:04:15,410 non‑interactive session. Now, once we have 94 00:04:15,410 --> 00:04:17,230 these types of sessions, I'm just going to 95 00:04:17,230 --> 00:04:20,440 clear that out, obviously we're trying to 96 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:22,930 execute certain types of commands. So what 97 00:04:22,930 --> 00:04:24,770 I'm going to do first is, I'm going to get 98 00:04:24,770 --> 00:04:31,300 that PSSession again. There we go, 99 00:04:31,300 --> 00:04:34,030 PSSession. It's number 4. I'm going to say 100 00:04:34,030 --> 00:04:41,240 Remove‑PSSession ‑Id, and 4. Okay, so what 101 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:43,570 we'll do is, we'll look a just using the 102 00:04:43,570 --> 00:04:46,620 Invoke‑Command to execute something on the 103 00:04:46,620 --> 00:04:49,560 other device. So two different types of 104 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:51,850 remote background jobs. One is to just 105 00:04:51,850 --> 00:04:55,040 execute a job on the other machine. The 106 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:58,780 other one is to create a non‑interactive 107 00:04:58,780 --> 00:05:00,910 way of doing it. So I'm actually going to 108 00:05:00,910 --> 00:05:04,910 say Invoke‑Command. Now notice 109 00:05:04,910 --> 00:05:08,300 Invoke‑Command has a ComputerName also, so 110 00:05:08,300 --> 00:05:12,440 I'm going to type my IP address. I'm going 111 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:19,520 to pass my credential, TRAINER, and then 112 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:23,660 my username and then my ScriptBlock, which 113 00:05:23,660 --> 00:05:26,070 we can always pass, remember. I'm going to 114 00:05:26,070 --> 00:05:28,420 choose Get‑Process and I'm going to enter 115 00:05:28,420 --> 00:05:30,110 that. Now of course it's going to prompt 116 00:05:30,110 --> 00:05:34,330 me for credentials and this will now go 117 00:05:34,330 --> 00:05:37,210 ahead, connect to that with a machine, and 118 00:05:37,210 --> 00:05:39,810 then return the results instantly back. 119 00:05:39,810 --> 00:05:41,590 Now, of course, it's going to stream them 120 00:05:41,590 --> 00:05:43,640 from the other machine so it can take some 121 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:45,650 time to execute back. But you'll see it's 122 00:05:45,650 --> 00:05:47,260 kind of slowly bringing them back. I've 123 00:05:47,260 --> 00:05:48,890 got Skype running and a whole bunch of 124 00:05:48,890 --> 00:05:51,210 other bits and pieces. But when we ran 125 00:05:51,210 --> 00:05:53,620 that command, that created a background 126 00:05:53,620 --> 00:05:57,510 job that was on that specific machine. So 127 00:05:57,510 --> 00:05:59,050 what does that look like? Well, let's 128 00:05:59,050 --> 00:06:01,630 remember how we retrieve jobs. So I'm 129 00:06:01,630 --> 00:06:03,900 going to say Get‑Job. Now notice there was 130 00:06:03,900 --> 00:06:07,740 no jobs, but actually, I just created a 131 00:06:07,740 --> 00:06:11,340 job. So where did that job come from? 132 00:06:11,340 --> 00:06:12,730 Well, you have to remember that what's 133 00:06:12,730 --> 00:06:14,070 happening is, when we pass the 134 00:06:14,070 --> 00:06:17,100 Invoke‑Command to the other computer, the 135 00:06:17,100 --> 00:06:21,150 job is being executed over there, not on 136 00:06:21,150 --> 00:06:23,520 this machine over here. Now, if we go to 137 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:25,780 the the actual commands, you can see when 138 00:06:25,780 --> 00:06:27,890 we loop through them that there's no 139 00:06:27,890 --> 00:06:30,510 option to say I want to go and get the 140 00:06:30,510 --> 00:06:33,200 job, whatever it would be. I can't see 141 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:37,800 that. So what we can do is go back, and 142 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,000 I'm going to say IncludeChildJob, and I'm 143 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:45,220 going to execute this one. Now what am I 144 00:06:45,220 --> 00:06:48,240 doing here? I'm invoking another job to 145 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:50,430 get to the other machine, telling it to 146 00:06:50,430 --> 00:06:53,590 get the list of jobs and child jobs for 147 00:06:53,590 --> 00:06:55,180 that specific one. Now notice what 148 00:06:55,180 --> 00:06:56,430 happened. It comes back and says there's 149 00:06:56,430 --> 00:06:59,170 nothing, and that's because the jobs have 150 00:06:59,170 --> 00:07:01,220 completed and there's no jobs to be able 151 00:07:01,220 --> 00:07:04,120 to come back. So just be aware that when 152 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:06,230 you have jobs backwards and forwards, it's 153 00:07:06,230 --> 00:07:08,740 often quite hard to remember where they 154 00:07:08,740 --> 00:07:10,680 are. You think they may be local, but 155 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:13,800 actually they're more external. Now, the 156 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:15,980 other option is to create remote 157 00:07:15,980 --> 00:07:18,610 background jobs on either single or 158 00:07:18,610 --> 00:07:21,060 multiple computers. So what we can do this 159 00:07:21,060 --> 00:07:23,850 time is, we can use the same principle 160 00:07:23,850 --> 00:07:31,580 where we say New‑PSSession ‑ComputerName. 161 00:07:31,580 --> 00:07:36,220 I'm going to type my IP address, and I'm 162 00:07:36,220 --> 00:07:37,950 going to pass my credential because I know 163 00:07:37,950 --> 00:07:44,740 I'm going to get asked for that, okay, and 164 00:07:44,740 --> 00:07:50,160 password. Okay, now if I just do session, 165 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:51,660 you can see it gives me my session that's 166 00:07:51,660 --> 00:07:56,500 opened. What I can then do is actually run 167 00:07:56,500 --> 00:08:01,850 Invoke‑Command. I'm now going to inject 168 00:08:01,850 --> 00:08:06,050 into the current session my ScriptBlock, 169 00:08:06,050 --> 00:08:10,220 which is the same as before, Process, and 170 00:08:10,220 --> 00:08:12,690 then notice what I'm going to do now. I'm 171 00:08:12,690 --> 00:08:16,110 going to pass that as an AsJob statement. 172 00:08:16,110 --> 00:08:17,910 Now notice what happened the last time. We 173 00:08:17,910 --> 00:08:20,990 did Invoke‑Command, we didn't use AsJob. 174 00:08:20,990 --> 00:08:22,940 We tried to get the job and there was no 175 00:08:22,940 --> 00:08:25,170 job. And that's because we didn't pass in 176 00:08:25,170 --> 00:08:28,100 the AsJob. Now there we have the jobs that 177 00:08:28,100 --> 00:08:31,040 have come back. Now, let's just do Get‑Job 178 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:33,940 from here, okay. You can see that it's now 179 00:08:33,940 --> 00:08:36,400 listing me the jobs that have been 180 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,420 initiated, and so I could now manage those 181 00:08:39,420 --> 00:08:42,600 as I would any other job. So to initiate a 182 00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:45,810 remote background job, it's as simple as 183 00:08:45,810 --> 00:08:48,570 either invoking the command directly to 184 00:08:48,570 --> 00:08:50,890 the machine that you want to put the job 185 00:08:50,890 --> 00:08:54,280 on or simply passing in a New‑PSSession 186 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:56,680 object with a series of computers or 187 00:08:56,680 --> 00:08:59,030 single ones and then invoking the command 188 00:08:59,030 --> 00:09:02,570 as a Start‑Job. Now we also have the other 189 00:09:02,570 --> 00:09:05,200 approach that we can utilize, which, if we 190 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:07,180 were to go back to our command here and 191 00:09:07,180 --> 00:09:10,060 not use that, we could actually come in 192 00:09:10,060 --> 00:09:17,950 and say, Start‑Job. Let me get rid of all 193 00:09:17,950 --> 00:09:24,130 of my Get‑Process. And let me do name 194 00:09:24,130 --> 00:09:28,050 ScriptBlock. And notice how we can start 195 00:09:28,050 --> 00:09:31,340 to nest pieces in here, so I'm going to 196 00:09:31,340 --> 00:09:34,310 say Get‑Process. So what we've now done is 197 00:09:34,310 --> 00:09:38,170 initiated a new invoke‑Command. The 198 00:09:38,170 --> 00:09:40,700 ScriptBlock for that is to start a job, 199 00:09:40,700 --> 00:09:42,560 and then the Start‑Job is going to kick of 200 00:09:42,560 --> 00:09:46,990 to Get‑Process. So now if I put Get‑Job, 201 00:09:46,990 --> 00:09:50,290 notice locally I only get Job3, so where 202 00:09:50,290 --> 00:09:54,660 is Job1? Well, Job1 exists on that other 203 00:09:54,660 --> 00:09:57,400 machine. So just be aware that it can be 204 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,090 quite confusing when you're creating the 205 00:09:59,090 --> 00:10:03,000 remote background jobs of where those jobs actually get created.