Set Environment Variable on Remote Computer via PowerShell

Question

I'm trying to set an environment variable via TFS Releasemanagement by invoking a powershell script which should open a remote session on a machine and set the environment variable.

param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][String]$RemoteComputers,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][String]$UserName,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][String]$Password,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][String]$Environment
)

$credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($UserName , (ConvertTo-SecureString -String $Password -AsPlainText -Force));
$remoteMachines = $RemoteComputers -split ","

$remoteMachines | ForEach-Object {
    $machineBlock = {
        $machineName = $args[0]
        $credentials = $args[1]

        Write-Host $machineName

        $scriptBlockSetEnvironmentVariable = {
            $environment = $args[0]

            Write-Host "ScriptBlockSetEnvi$environmentVariable $environment"
            [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT', $environment , [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine)
        }

        Write-Host "========================================================================================"
        Write-Host "@#@#@ Opening remote session to $machineName"
        $session = New-PsSession -ComputerName $machineName -Credential $credentials
        Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock $scriptBlockSetEnvironmentVariable -ArgumentList $Environment
        Remove-PSSession -Session $session
        Write-Host "@#@#@ Session Closed"
        Write-Host "========================================================================================"
    }

    Write-Output "Starting job on $_"
    Start-Job -Name $_ -ScriptBlock $machineBlock -ArgumentList $_, $credential
}

Write-Host "Waiting for all jobs to finish"
Wait-Job -Name $remoteMachines
$remoteMachines | ForEach-Object {
    Write-Host "Getting output for $_"
    Receive-Job -Name $_
    Write-Host "------------------------------------------------"
}

When starting the script from my machine like this:

PS C:\temp\ps> .\setEnvVarRemote.ps1 MYSERVER -UserName "MYUSERNAME" -Password "MYPASSWORD" -Environment "Test"

I get the following output

Starting job on MYSERVER

Id     Name            PSJobTypeName   State         HasMoreData     Location             Command
--     ----            -------------   -----         -----------     --------             -------
9      MYSERVER        BackgroundJob   Running       True            localhost            ...
Waiting for all jobs to finish
1      MYSERVER        BackgroundJob   Completed     False           localhost            ...
3      MYSERVER        BackgroundJob   Completed     False           localhost            ...
5      MYSERVER        BackgroundJob   Completed     False           localhost            ...
7      MYSERVER        BackgroundJob   Completed     False           localhost            ...
9      MYSERVER        BackgroundJob   Completed     True            localhost            ...
Getting output for MYSERVER
MYSERVER
========================================================================================
@#@#@ Opening remote session to MYSERVER
ScriptBlockSetEnvi
@#@#@ Session Closed
========================================================================================
------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately the environment variable is not set and I don't get an error message... what am I doing wrong?

My user has admin rights and the password is correct.

Thanks in advance

Why are you running a job on localhost that runs Invoke-Command on a remote host? Just run Invoke-Command -Computer $remoteMachines .... Add -AsJob if required. Also, what makes you think the environment variable is not set? How did you verify? — Ansgar Wiechers
– Ansgar Wiechers, Commented Oct 17, 2019 at 10:32
I did check the command that you inported from System.Environment locally and it worked. My question is why do you dont run TFS task of "Run Powershell on target machines" ? It is a built in job that you can entry there the credentials,list of machine names And all job left to done is to fire the SetEnvironment command. — JimShapedCoding
– JimShapedCoding, Commented Oct 17, 2019 at 11:30
As an aside: Please avoid pseudo method syntax: instead of New-Object SomeType(arg1, ...), use New-Object SomeType [-ArgumentList] arg1, ... - PowerShell cmdlets, scripts and functions are invoked like shell commands, not like methods. That is, no parentheses around the argument list, and whitespace-separated arguments (, constructs an array as a single argument, as needed for -ArgumentList). — mklement0
– mklement0, Commented Oct 17, 2019 at 11:56
The way you build your credential is insecure. Either ask for input of the credential each time if this is an interactive script ($cred = Get-Credential or $cred = Get-Credential "[email protected]" will suffice), or use Get-Credential to create the credential object, then dump the credential object to disk using Export-CliXml for which can be later read by Import-CliXml by that same user on that same machine for automation later. — codewario
– codewario, Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 15:13

codewario · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-21 15:09:01Z

4

This should be enough, you're over-complicating the code with the use of sessions and your Foreach-Object loop:

$result = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $remoteMachines -Credential $credentials -ArgumentList $Environment {
  [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable( 'ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT', $args, [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine )
}

answered Oct 21, 2019 at 15:09

codewario

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