How to call Get-Counter in PowerShell with a variable

Question

As we all know we can do Get-Counter and than provide the path to the counter, e.g., Get-Counter "\\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time")

So now I want to do the same thing only then with a variable as path:

$myPath = "[THIS IS MY PATH]"           
$metricValue = [int] ((Get-Counter $myPath).countersamples | select -property
cookedvalue).cookedvalue

Unfortunately I get the following error:

Get-Counter : The called instance is not available    At [Path]    +            
$metricValue = [int] ((Get-Counter <<<<  -Counter $myPath).countersamples |

select -property cookedvalue).cookedvalue
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidResult: (:) [Get-Counter], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : 
        CounterApiError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCounterCommand

So I cannot put a variable after Get-Counter for the path, but I need to do that!

Is there a solution to do so?

John ClearZ · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-10 21:08:32Z

3

The following worked fine on my computer

$myPath="\\johns-pc\processor(_total)\% processor time"
$metricValue=[int]((Get-Counter($myPath)).countersamples | select -property cookedvalue).cookedvalue

answered Jan 10, 2014 at 21:08

John ClearZ

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Comments

northben · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-10 20:55:50Z

1

Construct your command as a String like this:

 $metricValueString = "[int] ((Get-Counter $myPath).countersamples | select -property cookedvalue).cookedvalue"

And execute it using Invoke-Expression

$metricValue = Invoke-Expression $metricValueString

Regards

** fixed broken line of code

edited Jan 10, 2014 at 20:55

northben

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answered Jan 10, 2014 at 20:52

Paul

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1 Comment

user2609980 Over a year ago

Nice trick thanks for sharing! Answer of John above is a bit cleaner so I marked that as answer.

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