about_Remote_Jobs
Short description
Describes how to run jobs on remote computers.
Detailed Description
PowerShell concurrently runs commands and scripts through jobs. There are three jobs types provided by PowerShell to support concurrency.
RemoteJob
- Commands and scripts run in a remote session.BackgroundJob
- Commands and scripts run in a separate process on the local machine. For more information, see about_Jobs.PSTaskJob
orThreadJob
- Commands and scripts run in a separate thread within the same process on the local machine. For more information, see about_Thread_Jobs.
Running scripts remotely, on a separate machine or in a separate process, provide great isolation. Any errors that occur in the remote job do not affect other running jobs or the parent session that started the job. However, the remoting layer adds overhead, including object serialization. All objects are serialized and deserialized as they are passed between the parent session and the remote (job) session. Serialization of large complex data objects can consume large amounts of compute and memory resources and transfer large amounts of data across the network.
Important
The parent session that created the job also monitors the job status and collects pipeline data. The job child process is terminated by the parent process once the job reaches a finished state. If the parent session is terminated, all running child jobs are terminated along with their child processes.
There are two ways work around this situation:
- Use
Invoke-Command
to create jobs that run in disconnected sessions. See the detached processes section of this article. - Use
Start-Process
to create a new process rather than a job. For more information, see Start-Process.
Remote Jobs
You can run jobs on remote computers by using three different methods.
Start an interactive session on a remote computer. Then start a job in the interactive session. The procedures are the same as running a local job, although all actions are performed on the remote computer.
Run a job on a remote computer that returns its results to the local computer. Use this method when you want to collect the results of jobs and maintain them in a central location on the local computer.
Run a job on a remote computer that maintains its results on the remote computer. Use this method when the job data is more securely maintained on the originating computer.
Start a job in an interactive session
You can start an interactive session with a remote computer and then start a
job during the interactive session. For more information about interactive
sessions, see about_Remote, and see Enter-PSSession
.
The procedure for starting a job in an interactive session is almost identical to the procedure for starting a background job on the local computer. However, all of the operations occur on the remote computer, not the local computer.
Use the
Enter-PSSession
cmdlet to start an interactive session with a remote computer. You can use the ComputerName parameter ofEnter-PSSession
to establish a temporary connection for the interactive session. Or, you can use the Session parameter to run the interactive session in a PowerShell session (PSSession).The following command starts an interactive session on the Server01 computer.
C:\PS> Enter-PSSession -computername Server01
The command prompt changes to show that you are now connected to the Server01 computer.
Server01\C:>
To start a remote job in the session, use the
Start-Job
cmdlet. The following command runs a remote job that gets the events in the Windows PowerShell event log on the Server01 computer. TheStart-Job
cmdlet returns an object that represents the job.This command saves the job object in the
$job
variable.Server01\C:> $job = Start-Job -scriptblock { Get-Eventlog "Windows PowerShell" }
While the job runs, you can use the interactive session to run other commands, including other jobs. However, you must keep the interactive session open until the job is completed. If you end the session, the job is interrupted, and the results are lost.
To find out if the job is complete, display the value of the
$job
variable, or use theGet-Job
cmdlet to get the job. The following command uses theGet-Job
cmdlet to display the job.Server01\C:> Get-Job $job SessionId Name State HasMoreData Location Command --------- ---- ----- ----------- -------- ------- 1 Job1 Complete True localhost Get-Eventlog "Windows...
The
Get-Job
output shows that job is running on the "localhost" computer because the job was started on and is running on the same computer (in this case, Server01).To get the results of the job, use the
Receive-Job
cmdlet. You can display the results in the interactive session or save them to a file on the remote computer. The following command gets the results of the job in the $job variable. The command uses the redirection operator (>
) to save the results of the job in the PsLog.txt file on the Server01 computer.Server01\C:> Receive-Job $job > c:\logs\PsLog.txt
To end the interactive session, use the
Exit-PSSession
cmdlet. The command prompt changes to show that you are back in the original session on the local computer.Server01\C:> Exit-PSSession C:\PS>
To view the contents of the
PsLog.txt
file on the Server01 computer at any time, start another interactive session, or run a remote command. This type of command is best run in a PSSession (a persistent connection) in case you want to use several commands to investigate and manage the data in thePsLog.txt
file. For more information about PSSessions, see about_PSSessions.The following commands use the
New-PSSession
cmdlet to create a PSSession that is connected to the Server01 computer, and they use theInvoke-Command
cmdlet to run aGet-Content
command in the PSSession to view the contents of the file.$s = New-PSSession -computername Server01 Invoke-Command -session $s -scriptblock { Get-Content c:\logs\pslog.txt}
Start a remote job that returns the results to the local computer (AsJob)
To start a job on a remote computer that returns the command results to the
local computer, use the AsJob parameter of a cmdlet such as the
Invoke-Command
cmdlet.
When you use the AsJob parameter, the job object is actually created on the local computer even though the job runs on the remote computer. When the job is completed, the results are returned to the local computer.
You can use the cmdlets that contain the Job noun (the Job cmdlets) to manage any job created by any cmdlet. Many of the cmdlets that have AsJob parameters do not use PowerShell remoting, so you can use them even on computers that are not configured for remoting and that do not meet the requirements for remoting.
The following command uses the AsJob parameter of
Invoke-Command
to start a job on the Server01 computer. The job runs aGet-Eventlog
command that gets the events in the System log. You can use the JobName parameter to assign a display name to the job.Invoke-Command -computername Server01 -scriptblock { Get-Eventlog system} -AsJob
The results of the command resemble the following sample output.
SessionId Name State HasMoreData Location Command --------- ---- ----- ----------- -------- ------- 1 Job1 Running True Server01 Get-Eventlog system
When the AsJob parameter is used,
Invoke-Command
returns the same type of job object thatStart-Job
returns. You can save the job object in a variable, or you can use aGet-Job
command to get the job.Note that the value of the Location property shows that the job ran on the Server01 computer.
To manage a job started by using the AsJob parameter of the
Invoke-Command
cmdlet, use the Job cmdlets. Because the job object that represents the remote job is on the local computer, you do not need to run remote commands to manage the job.To determine whether the job is complete, use a
Get-Job
command. The following command gets all of the jobs that were started in the current session.Get-Job
Because the remote job was started in the current session, a local
Get-Job
command gets the job. The State property of the job object shows that the command was completed successfully.SessionId Name State HasMoreData Location Command --------- ---- ----- ----------- -------- ------- 1 Job1 Completed True Server01 Get-Eventlog system
To get the results of the job, use the
Receive-Job
cmdlet. Because the job results are automatically returned to the computer where the job object resides, you can get the results with a localReceive-Job
command.The following command uses the
Receive-Job
cmdlet to get the results of the job. It uses the session ID to identify the job. This command saves the job results in the $results variable. You can also redirect the results to a file.$results = Receive-Job -id 1
Start a remote job that keeps the results on the remote computer
To start a job on a remote computer that keeps the command results on the
remote computer, use the Invoke-Command
cmdlet to run a Start-Job
command
on a remote computer. You can use this method to run jobs on multiple
computers.
When you run a Start-Job
command remotely, the job object is created on the
remote computer, and the job results are maintained on the remote computer.
From the perspective of the job, all operations are local. You are just running
commands remotely to manage a local job on the remote computer.
Use the
Invoke-Command
cmdlet to run aStart-Job
command on a remote computer.This command requires a PSSession (a persistent connection). If you use the ComputerName parameter of
Invoke-Command
to establish a temporary connection, theInvoke-Command
command is considered to be complete when the job object is returned. As a result, the temporary connection is closed, and the job is canceled.The following command uses the
New-PSSession
cmdlet to create a PSSession that is connected to the Server01 computer. The command saves the PSSession in the$s
variable.$s = New-PSSession -computername Server01
The next command uses the
Invoke-Command
cmdlet to run aStart-Job
command in the PSSession. TheStart-Job
command and theGet-Eventlog
command are enclosed in braces.Invoke-Command -session $s -scriptblock { Start-Job -scriptblock {Get-Eventlog system}}
The results resemble the following sample output.
Id Name State HasMoreData Location Command -- ---- ----- ----------- -------- ------- 2 Job2 Running True Localhost Get-Eventlog system
When you run a
Start-Job
command remotely,Invoke-Command
returns the same type of job object thatStart-Job
returns. You can save the job object in a variable, or you can use aGet-Job
command to get the job.Note that the value of the Location property shows that the job ran on the local computer, known as "LocalHost", even though the job ran on the Server01 computer. Because the job object is created on the Server01 computer and the job runs on the same computer, it is considered to be a local background job.
To manage a remote job, use the Job cmdlets. Because the job object is on the remote computer, you need to run remote commands to get, stop, wait for, or retrieve the job results.
To see if the job is complete, use an
Invoke-Command
command to run aGet-Job
command in the PSSession that is connected to the Server01 computer.Invoke-Command -session $s -scriptblock {Get-Job}
The command returns a job object. The State property of the job object shows that the command was completed successfully.
SessionId Name State HasMoreData Location Command --------- ---- ----- ----------- -------- ------- 2 Job2 Completed True LocalHost Get-Eventlog system
To get the results of the job, use the
Invoke-Command
cmdlet to run aReceive-Job
command in the PSSession that is connected to the Server01 computer.The following command uses the
Receive-Job
cmdlet to get the results of the job. It uses the session ID to identify the job. This command saves the job results in the$results
variable. It uses the Keep parameter ofReceive-Job
to keep the result in the job cache on the remote computer.$results = Invoke-Command -session $s -scriptblock { Receive-Job -SessionId 2 -Keep }
You can also redirect the results to a file on the local or remote computer. The following command uses a redirection operator to save the results in a file on the Server01 computer.
Invoke-Command -session $s -command { Receive-Job -SessionId 2 > c:\logs\pslog.txt }
How to run as a detached process
As previously mentioned, when the parent session is terminated, all running child jobs are terminated along with their child processes. You can use remoting on the local machine to run jobs that are not attached to the current PowerShell session.
Create a new PowerShell session on the local machine. The use Invoke-Command
to start a job in this session. Invoke-Command
allows you to disconnect a
remote session and terminate the parent session. Later, you can start a new
PowerShell session and connect to the previously disconnected session to resume
monitoring the job. However, any data that was returned to the original
PowerShell session is lost when that session is terminated. Only new data
objects generated after the disconnect are returned when re-connected.
# Create remote session on local machine
PS> $session = New-PSSession -cn localhost
# Start remote job
PS> $job = Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock { 1..60 | % { sleep 1; "Output $_" } } -AsJob
PS> $job
Id Name PSJobTypeName State HasMoreData Location Command
-- ---- ------------- ----- ----------- -------- -------
1 Job1 RemoteJob Running True localhost 1..60 | % { sleep 1; ...
# Disconnect the job session
PS> Disconnect-PSSession $session
Id Name Transport ComputerName ComputerType State ConfigurationName Availability
-- ---- --------- ------------ ------------ ----- ----------------- ------------
1 Runspace1 WSMan localhost RemoteMachine Disconnected Microsoft.PowerShell None
PS> $job
Id Name PSJobTypeName State HasMoreData Location Command
-- ---- ------------- ----- ----------- -------- -------
1 Job1 RemoteJob Disconnected True localhost 1..60 | % { sleep 1;
# Reconnect the session to a new job object
PS> $jobNew = Receive-PSSession -Session $session -OutTarget Job
PS> $job | Wait-Job | Receive-Job
Output 9
Output 10
Output 11
...
For this example, the jobs are still attached to a parent PowerShell session.
However, the parent session is not the original PowerShell session where
Invoke-Command
was run.
See also
PowerShell