OutOfMemory error when running Invoke-Command on remote machines

Question

$Machines = Get-Content Machines.txt
    foreach($Machine in $Machines)
      {
        $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $Machine -Credential $creds 
        Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Machine -ScriptBlock {
           #Download 
           & 'wget' 'http://software/software.7z'
           #Extract
           & '7z' 'x' 'C:\software.7z'  '-r' '-y'
           $cleanscript = "Remove-Item C:\software.7z  -Force"
           $cleanscript  | Out-File C:\RemoveZip.ps1 -Encoding ascii
           & "C:\RemoveZip.ps1"
           $script = "CALL C:\software\setup.exe"
           $script  | Out-File C:\software.cmd -Encoding ascii
           & "C:\software.cmd"
       } -Credential $creds 
      }

After running through 30 machines, PowerShell and the machine running the script runs out of memory. How can this be avoided?

The shell consumes all 16 GBs of memory on running machine. Solutions like exceeding memory for the shell may not work e.g. OutOfMemory Exception on remote execution using Powershell Invoke-Command

Possible duplicate of OutOfMemory Exception on remote execution using Powershell Invoke-Command — Maxim
– Maxim, Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 17:26

Maximilian Burszley · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-09 20:37:57Z

1

If you want to use PowerShell, write PowerShell.

$Machines = Get-Content -Path Machines.txt
ForEach ($Machine in $Machines)
{
    Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Machine -Credential $creds -ScriptBlock {
        #Download 
        Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'http://software/software.7z' -OutFile 'C:\software.7z'

        #Extract
        Start-Process -FilePath '7z.exe' -ArgumentList 'x','C:\software.7z','-r','-y' -NoNewWindow -Wait
        Remove-Item -Path C:\software.7z -Force

        Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\software\setup.exe'
    }  
}

I suspect all that remote file writing and external calls may have caused problems (also, if you're on v5+, use the *Archive cmdlets over 7z). Additionally, you were generating a session but never using it.

answered Jan 9, 2018 at 20:37

Maximilian Burszley

19.9k7 gold badges39 silver badges68 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

10 Comments

Bill_Stewart Over a year ago

Start-Process with -Wait is a lot of extra typing when we can use the shorter & operator.

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

@Bill_Stewart In my experience using &, it has been asynchronous.

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

Also, why complain about "extra typing" when you're writing a script?

Bill_Stewart Over a year ago

Just pointing out that it's unnecessary. Also, the & operator blocks the script until the command completes (i.e., it's not asynchronous). This is easily demonstrated.

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

According to your link, the process spawns other tasks and closes the main thread so you end up with an async thing going on. You can mimic what the resolution did with the following: & vs_enterprise.exe --wait --quiet --norestart --installpath C:\VS\2017

|

CodeEmpower · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-11 15:23:01Z

1

I monitored the memory space for PowerShell during the execution of the script. The Memory instantly starts increasing when running the wget command, the progress output fills the console buffer and eating the PowerShell process memory. I used

        & 'wget' '-q' 'http://software/software.7z'

which kept memory usage stabilized and also speeded up the execution massively

Hide wget output in Linux

Of course if running PowerShell 5.1 Copy-Files over PSSession can be used instead

answered Jan 11, 2018 at 15:23

CodeEmpower

6631 gold badge12 silver badges32 bronze badges

Comments

Steve · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-10 16:56:56Z

0

Not sure about the memory issues but a few things you could try.

Your New-PsSession doesn't do anything, so either get rid of it, or use it. then you can do invoke-command several times on the same session, instead of sending the big block
Maybe running them in parallel with -nowait, and then wait-job'ing the objects would also help memory issues.
don't foreach, use the pipeline :) $machines | %{ invoke-command -machine $_...

answered Jan 10, 2018 at 16:56

Steve

1,06513 silver badges14 bronze badges

4 Comments

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

ForEach-Object is slower than ForEach unless you're on PSv5.1

Steve Over a year ago

Not sure what the speed of the loop really has to do with it when its wrapping a network call, also do you have a source for that?

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

Pipeline operations are always slower. Run a test on your own: Measure-Command {ForEach($i in 1..10000){$i}} versus Measure-Command { 1..10000 | % { $_ }}

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

On average, 6-7x slower.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

OutOfMemory error when running Invoke-Command on remote machines

3 Answers 3

10 Comments

Comments

4 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

10 Comments

Comments

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related