Need to include the computer name in return values from Invoke-command so I know which computer the output is from

Question

I have a simple one line script that runs against a list of computers and returns the path of a file if the file contains certain text. This works.

I do however, need to run this against hundreds of computers and when I run it with Invoke-command, I don't know which computer has returned the path ... here is where I need your help please.

This is the command in its simplest form

invoke-command -computername $computers -erroraction silentlycontinue -scriptblock {get-childitem 'C:\' -rec -force -filter *.txt -ea silentlycontinue | foreach {select-string "<lookup.text>" $_} | select -exp Path}

The output comes in this form:

c:\path\filename

But there is no indication as to which server that path came from and I know that I am seeing multiple paths from multiple computers just from files I have dropped for my early testing.

Is it possible to amend the -scriptblock to get the computer name.

Answer 1

This should get you what you're looking for, there are a few considerations.

• If you don't use -ExpandProperty on your Script Block, the result of Invoke-Command should be an object[] that has the property PSComputerName attached to it. If you wish to use a specific property name instead, like in this example "ComputerName", you can use a calculated property in addition to the use of -HideComputerName switch.
• Select-String can be piped directly to Get-ChildItem, there is no need to use ForEach-Object.

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $computers -ScriptBlock {
    Get-ChildItem 'C:\' -Recurse -Force -Filter *.txt -EA SilentlyContinue |
        Select-String "<lookup.text>" |
        Select-Object Path, @{
            Name = 'ComputerName'
            Expression = { $env:ComputerName }
        }
} -HideComputerName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue