Doing a remote delete using powershell and seeing the results of the operation (success/fail+exception)

Question

The below command is using

$results = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $remoteComputers -ScriptBlock{
     (get-childitem "C:\tmp" | where-object {$_.Name -like "*MATCHINGfiles*"} | foreach ($_) {remove-item $_.fullname})
        }

$remoteComputers contains a list of computer names

The command works but there is no diagnostic information about which files were deleted, what went well, and what didn't.

(I'm adding this question as it seems quite useful and I had to write a script for it).

Answer 1

The following will execute the script on remote computers and also return results (it's been tested):

$results = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $remoteComputers -ScriptBlock {
    $files = Get-ChildItem "C:\tmp" | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "*MYSTRING*" }

    $deletionResults = foreach ($file in $files) {
        try {
            Remove-Item -Path $file.FullName -ErrorAction Stop
            [PSCustomObject]@{
                FileName = $file.Name
                FilePath = $file.FullName
                Status = "Deleted"
            }
        } catch {
            [PSCustomObject]@{
                FileName = $file.Name
                FilePath = $file.FullName
                Status = "Failed to Delete"
                ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message
            }
        }
    }
    return $deletionResults
}

And then run:

$results | Format-Table -AutoSize

Screenshot: