Invoke-command doesn't stop stop for installers that do not have support for silently running

Question

$s= New-PSSession -VMName $my_vm -Credential $creds
try
{
Invoke-Command -Session $s-Block {
$psi = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$psi.FileName = $using:installer
$psi.Arguments = $using:args
$psi.UseShellExecute = $false
$psi.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$proc = [System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($psi)
$proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()
$proc.ExitCode
}
}
catch [Exception]
{
echo "Error while running the remote command", $.Exception.GetType().FullName, $.Exception.Message
Remove-PSSession $s
exit 1
}
Exit-PSSession

I have this code that works perfectly for the case when the installers have support for silent running, but when I try to run an installer that cannot be run silently, it cycles and does not stop. The processes on the remotely machine are open, and it's like waiting for some input, I don't know exactly what it has. Any hints ?

Answer 1

Exactly. If the executable is expecting interactive input and it's not getting any, it will simply run indefinitely and will not complete. (Because it got no input, you see.) If that executable provides no means to run it without prompting for input, then you cannot automate it, obviously, because there's nobody there to enter the input interactively.

Answer 2

If the executable is stopping for input, and there's nobody in that session to provide that input, then of course the executable will run indefinitely. (I'm not sure what exactly you would expect to happen?)