Powershell Invoke-Command Usage Examples + Remote execution

What is Invoke-Command Cmdlet

Powershell Invoke-Command usage has many useful implementations.
You can run a command, a set of commands, on local, remote, or several computers. For remoting, you also can check the Cmdlet of “New-PSSession.”
As of Powershell 6.0, you also can connect to a remote computer through a Secure Shell connection (SSH) with Invoke-Command.

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Powershell Invoke-Command Usage Examples

Let’s say you want to run a file “*.ps1” with Powershell Invoke-Command usage on a local computer:

Invoke-Command -FilePath c:\scripts\test.ps1

If you want to run several Cmdlets in a script block:

Invoke-Command -Scriptblock {
    Get-Process
    Get-Host
}

If you want to save the script block as a variable and then run it:

$Command = {
    Get-Process
    Get-Host
}
Invoke-Command -Scriptblock $Command

Sometimes if you get errors, you can add Parentheses “()” to the variable:

$Command = ({
    Get-Process
    Get-Host
})
Invoke-Command -Scriptblock $Command

Executing Command on a remote computer with Powershell Invoke-Command usage (in most cases, you will need credentials to run a command on a remote computer):

$Computer = "KitchenComputer001"
$Credential = Get-Credential
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computer -Credential $Credential -ScriptBlock { 
    Get-Host
}

Invoking Commands and sending variables to the remote computer:

$Computer = "KitchenComputer001"
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computer -Credential $Credential -ArgumentList $Credential.UserName,$Admin -ScriptBlock { 
    Get-LocalUser -Name $args[0]
    Get-LocalUser -Name $args[1]
}

The first argument always will be “$args[0]” (Arguments are an array). Second will be “$args[1]”, third will be “$args[2]”, etc.
You cannot use the argument with quotations (“”) inside the Script Block. If you need your argument as a string, use it in the argument itself or a variable. For example, you want to add Computer Account “RoomComputer001” to the Local Administrators Group of “KitchenComputer001”:

$Computer = "KitchenComputer001"
$ComputerAccount = "RoomComputer001"
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computer -Credential $Credential -ArgumentList $ComputerAccount -ScriptBlock { 
    Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member $args[0]
}

The action above will give you “Principal KitchenComputer001 was not found.” Error. The error means you must add “$” to the string so that it will be “RoomComputer001$”. You can create another variable and then use THAT variable instead, but it will be much simpler to add to the args[0] parameter with quotes, like

Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member "$args[0]$"

the action will give you “Principal KitchenComputer001[0]$ was not found.” Error. So, we’ll use the quotes in the argument itself:

$Computer = "KitchenComputer001"
$ComputerAccount = "RoomComputer001"
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computer -Credential $Credential -ArgumentList "$ComputerAccount$" -ScriptBlock { 
    Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member $args[0]
}

You can return the output of Powershell Invoke-Command usage to a variable or an array:

$Array = Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-Content c:\Computers.txt) -Credential $Credential -ScriptBlock { Get-Process -Name "WmiPrvSE" }

The switch “-ComputerName” gets all the computer names from another Cmdlet, “Get-Content,” which reads the file “c:\Computers.txt”. Instead of putting Get-Content from Computers.txt into a variable, we can set it inside parentheses like: (Get-Content c:\Computers.txt). Then in the script block, we want to know all instances of the process “WmiPrvSE” on all the computers. Now “$Array” will contain all the process instances on all the computers. A property “PSComputerName” will have the computer names

$Array.PSComputerName

Another Powershell Invoke-Command usage is with the correlation of New-PSSession:

$RemoteComputer = "KitchenComputer001"
$Credential = Get-Credential
$RemoteSession = New-PSSession -ComputerName $RemoteComputer -Credential $Credential
Invoke-Command -Session $RemoteSession -ScriptBlock {
    Get-Host
}

Sometimes, you need to use a specific Powershell Module (like SCCM / Exchange), and you can execute only on a particular server, so Powershell Invoke-Command usage is very useful in this case.