PowerShell Invoke-Command

In PowerShell, the purpose of Invoke-Command is to get the output by running commands on remote or local computers. It allows the user to write a script or a command block and then run that script or command in the PowerShell session. In addition, the Invoke-Command returns all the output, including errors as well. Moreover, users can utilize it on multiple computers with a single Invoke-Command.

In this post, we have explained the working and usage of the Invoke-Command.

How Does the Invoke-Command Work?

The Invoke-Command enables the user to use a variety of commands according to their needs. For a better overview, the following command will list down all the possible usages of the Invoke-Command cmdlet:

Get-Help Invoke-Command -full

After executing the above code, it will provide a list of parameters and their syntax.

Each syntax has its own purpose according to its situation or requirements. The screenshot of a piece of syntax code is as follows.

In PowerShell, different parameters influence the working of the commands. The most common and popular parameters are described in the following table:

Parameter	Description
ArgumentList:	ArgumentList: For passing the variables to the remote command.
Application Name:	To specify the application name for Connection URI. Users can use this parameter only if they do not use the Connection URI.
Authentication:	To define a procedure to authenticate the remote computers. This service is available only on Windows Server 2008, Windows, and Vista.
Computer Name:	To specify the computer’s name where the user runs the script. If the user does not specify the computer name.
ConnectionURI	The command represents the connection of URI.
HideComputerName	It omits the computer’s name from the display.
InputObject	To describe the input object in PowerShell.
JobName	It specifies that the user should write the name of the job.
ThrottleLimit:	To describe the number of concurrent connections established, the condition is only applied to the current command.

In PowerShell, there are some examples of how to use the invoke commands for different purposes.

How to Use PowerShell Invoke-Command

In PowerShell, the Invoke-Command executes the script on local and remote machines. To get the process information of the local machine, the following Invoke-Command is used:

Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock {Get-Process}

The above display shows the list of processes currently being executed on the local machine.

Using the Invoke-Command to Access the Host Version

Here is an example of how to get the updated host version of a local machine. The command to get this information in PowerShell is provided below:

invoke-command -scriptblock {(get-host).version}

The output in PowerShell gives information about the host version by using the above command.

Using the Invoke-Command to Access the Host Information

The Invoke-Command is used to get the complete information about the host in PowerShell. In our case, the command below will print all the host details:

Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock {Get-Host}

The output represents the host’s complete details, including the name, version, and user interface, and some additional information.

Using Invoke-Command to Access the Cultural Information

One of the examples in PowerShell is getting the specific cultural information of the host. For this purpose, the Invoke-Command cmdlet can be used as shown below:

Code

Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock {Get-Culture}

The above script provides the cultural information of the host in PowerShell.

Output

The display shows that using the Invoke-Command, users can get the cultural information in PowerShell.

Conclusion

The Invoke-Command cmdlet is used to execute various commands on multiple machines. It returns the output obtained from the commands(including the errors if any). This blog post has provided a detailed knowledge about the working and usage of the Invoke-Command cmdlet in PowerShell. For a better understanding, a various use cases of the Invoke-Command cmdlet are also explained.

PowerShell Invoke-Command | Explained