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Execute PowerShell Script from C# MVC Web Application

I need to execute a powershell script from my asp.net MVC Web application. My requirement is to create site collections dynamically. I have the script for it and it works perfectly.There are no arguments which are to be passed to the script. The code which I have been using has been displayed below:
RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfiguration = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();
Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfiguration);
runspace.Open();
RunspaceInvoke scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(runspace);
Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
//Here's how you add a new script with arguments
Command myCommand = new Command(scriptfiellocation);
pipeline.Commands.Add(myCommand);
pipeline.Commands.Add("Out-String");
// Execute PowerShell script
var result = pipeline.Invoke();
On executing the code, when I check the count of variable result it gives the count as 1. However on checking my site, there is no site collection that has been created. I am not able to identify where I am going wrong as there is no run time error and the Invoke command also seems to be running properly.
Could anyone tell me where I might be going haywire ? Considering that the PowerShell script works perfectly when running through Management shell.

I had to forego the pipeline approach as I was not able to figure out what the issue was. Also another problem with that approach is that it threw the error: "Get-SPWbTemplate is not recognized as an cmdlet". The following code worked perfectly fine for me and created the required site collections:
PowerShell powershell = PowerShell.Create();
//RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfiguration = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();
//Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfiguration)
using (Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace())
{
runspace.Open();
//RunspaceInvoke scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(runspace);
//scriptInvoker.Invoke("Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted");
powershell.Runspace = runspace;
//powershell.Commands.AddScript("Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell");
System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(scriptfilepath);
powershell.AddScript(sr.ReadToEnd());
//powershell.AddCommand("Out-String");
var results = powershell.Invoke();
if (powershell.Streams.Error.Count > 0)
{
// error records were written to the error stream.
// do something with the items found.
}
}
Also there was no requirement to set the execution policy.

well don't know if its help but i never use pipeline to run Command shell not sure how that work.
But here a quick example
Runspace RS = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(myConnection);
PowerShell PS = PowerShell.Create();
PSCommand PScmd = new PSCommand();
string cmdStr = "Enable-Mailbox -Identity " + username + " -Database DB01 -Alias " + aliasexample;
PScmd.AddScript(cmdStr);
try
{
RS.Open();
PS.Runspace = RS;
PS.Commands = PScmd;
PS.Invoke();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ex.ToString();
}
finally
{
RS.Dispose();
RS = null;
PS.Dispose();
PS = null;
}
with the try catch you can catch the error with debugging if something goes wrong.
If i remember correctly i had to put ACL.exe for permission to file system so i can execute the commandshell you can do a quick search on google for it.
Hope this help.

How to send a string parameter from c# to powershell?

I'm writing 2 apps one with c# and the other with powershell 1.0, in some point of my code I want to pass a string that indicating the server name from my c# app to a powershell script file that I wrote, how do I send it? and how do i accept it?
my code :
RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfiguration = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();
Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfiguration);
runspace.Open();
RunspaceInvoke scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(runspace);
Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
String scriptfile = #"c:\test.ps1";
Command myCommand = new Command(scriptfile, false);
CommandParameter testParam = new CommandParameter("username", "serverName");
myCommand.Parameters.Add(testParam);
pipeline.Commands.Add(myCommand);
Collection<PSObject> psObjects;
psObjects = pipeline.Invoke();
runspace.Close();
and my powershell script
param([string]$Username)
write-host $username
What am I missing? I'm kinda new with powershell.

I have machines with PowerShell 2.0 and 3.0 but not 1.0, so my results may differ. When I run your code on my PowerShell 3.0 box, I get:
A command that prompts the user failed because the host program or the
command type does not support user interaction. Try a host program
that supports user interaction, such as the Windows PowerShell Console
or Windows PowerShell ISE, and remove prompt-related commands from
command types that do not support user interaction, such as Windows
PowerShell workflows.
It didn't like the Write-Host, so I changed your script to
param([string]$Username)
Get-Date
Get-ChildItem -Path $userName
Get-Date so that I could see some output without depending on the parameter and GCI to use the parameter. I modified your code to look like this:
RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfiguration = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();
using (var runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfiguration))
{
runspace.Open();
String scriptfile = #"..\..\..\test.ps1";
String path = #"C:\Users\Public\";
var pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
pipeline.Commands.Add(new Command("Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process", true));
pipeline.Invoke();
pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
var myCommand = new Command(scriptfile, false);
var testParam = new CommandParameter("username", path);
myCommand.Parameters.Add(testParam);
pipeline.Commands.Add(myCommand);
var psObjects = pipeline.Invoke();
foreach (var obj in psObjects)
{
Console.WriteLine(obj.ToString());
}
runspace.Close();
}
Console.WriteLine("Press a key to continue...");
Console.ReadKey(true);
and it ran without error and displayed the folder contents, on both PoSh 2 and 3.
For info, if you're only setting the execution policy for the current process, you don't need to run elevated, hence I was able to do it in-code.

Add Powershell commands to the pipeline

I'm trying to get the lower store from a 2010 Exchange server, and the function will run in a WCF container.
The problem I'm facing is that I'm unable to run multiple PowerShell commands in the pipeline.
I've tried the following (based on this, how to invoke the powershell command with "format-list" and "out-file" pipeline from c#?):
string strCommand = #"Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | select ServerName,Name,DatabaseSize | Sort-Object DatabaseSize";
string CommandLine = string.Format("&{{{0}}}", strCommand);
pipeLine.Commands.AddScript(CommandLine);
But I get:
Unhandled Exception: System.Management.Automation.RemoteException: Script block literals are not allowed in restricted language mode or a Data section.
Also I tried,
Command getMailbox = new Command("Get-MailboxDatabase");
getMailbox.Parameters.Add("Status", null);
Command sort = new Command("Sort-Object");
pipeLine.Commands.Add(getMailbox);
pipeLine.Commands.Add(sort);
Collection<PSObject> commandResults = pipeLine.Invoke();
But not luck:
Unhandled Exception: System.Management.Automation.RemoteException: The term 'Sort-Object' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet
I wonder if I should use multiple pipelines (one pipeline per cmdlet), but I am not sure.

It sounds like the problem is the runspace. If that's an Exchange server, and you're running that in the remote management session provided by Exchange, the only thing you can do in that session is run the Exchange cmdlets. The Select-Object and Sort-Object cmdlets and other PowerShell language elements just aren't there to use.

Considering that Sort-Object is a command which is not recognized by the schema named 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/powershell/Microsoft.Exchange" then I proceed to develop a function using Snap-Ins and it's working fine.
Notice I'm taking the first database because the default sort mode is ascending. Also I'd like to comment that if you compile on Framework 4.0 you're going to get a "Value cannot be null error message" so you have to change to 3.5.
Keep in mind that it is being used by a WCF Service so no problem with Snap-Ins. If you like to use it on any other application, like a console-based application then you should install EMS 2010 on that computer.
This function basically execute the following PowerShell command, Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | Sort-Object DatabaseSize
private static string getLowServerStoreDN_SnapIn(string ExchangeSite)
{
string strResult = string.Empty;
RunspaceConfiguration rsConfig = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();
PSSnapInException snapInException = null;
PSSnapInInfo info = rsConfig.AddPSSnapIn("Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010", out snapInException);
Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(rsConfig);
try
{
runspace.Open();
Command getMailbox = new Command("Get-MailboxDatabase");
getMailbox.Parameters.Add(new CommandParameter("Status", null));
Command sort = new Command("Sort-Object");
sort.Parameters.Add("Property", "DatabaseSize");
Pipeline commandPipeLine = runspace.CreatePipeline();
commandPipeLine.Commands.Add(getMailbox);
commandPipeLine.Commands.Add(sort);
Collection<PSObject> getmailboxResults = commandPipeLine.Invoke();
if (getmailboxResults.Count > 0)
{
PSObject getMailboxResult = getmailboxResults[0];
strResult = getMailboxResult.Properties["Name"].Value.ToString();
//foreach (PSObject getMailboxResult in getmailboxResults)
//{
// strResult = getMailboxResult.Properties["Name"].Value.ToString();
//}
}
}
catch (ApplicationException e)
{
//Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
throw new FaultException("function getLowServerStoreDN_SnapIn(" + ExchangeSite + "): " + e.Message,
FaultCode.CreateReceiverFaultCode("BadExchangeServer", "http://example.com"));
}
return strResult;
}

Running powershell in C#, not having much luck!

I have created a asp.net web application for internal use that allows certain users to start and stop Virtual machines that are linked to there QA testing environments, the code behind page runs a powershell script that starts the selected server once a button is pressed on an ASP.net page.
I have reserched and implimented alot of the code from this site but i am coming up against a few problems.
everytime i click the button on the main web page the error that is fed back from the powershell script says"You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression." the only problem is if i run it from a powershell prompt like this ". \script\test.ps1 'W7EA9'" it works fine.
This is the class that calls the powershell script.
public String Startserver(String Servername)
{
String scriptText =". \\scripts\\test.ps1 " + Servername + "";
// create Powershell runspace
Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace();
// open it
runspace.Open();
// create a pipeline and feed it the script text
Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
pipeline.Commands.AddScript(scriptText);
// execute the script
Collection<PSObject> results = new Collection<PSObject>();
try
{
results = pipeline.Invoke();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
results.Add(new PSObject((object)ex.Message));
}
// close the runspace
runspace.Close();
// convert the script result into a single string
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
foreach (PSObject obj in results)
{
stringBuilder.AppendLine(obj.ToString());
}
return stringBuilder.ToString();
//return scriptText;
}
and here is the powershell script it is trying to run
Param ($server = $arg[0])
$Core = get-wmiobject -namespace root\virtualization -class Msvm_Computersystem -filter "ElementName = '$server'"
$status = $Core.RequestStateChange(2) `
It may be somthing really obvious but im just not seeing it and any help would be great.
thanks
Chris

Here is a best step-by-step guide to running PowerShell from ASP.NET.
http://devinfra-us.blogspot.com/2011/02/using-powershell-20-from-aspnet-part-1.html
HTH

I don't see where you're providing a parameter to the script anywhere.

i am passing the paramater from a button press on an asp.net page the code behind looks like this
Hypervserver Start = new Hypervserver();
String result = Start.Startserver("W7EA9");
Label1.Visible = true;
Label1.Text = result;

Below is how I ended up doing this.
Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace();
runspace.Open();
Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
Command myCommand = new Command("C:\\Scripts\\Test.ps1");
//I used full path name here, not sure if you have to or not
CommandParameter myParam1 = new CommandParameter("-ServerName", "myServer");
myCommand.Parameters.Add(myParam1);
//You can add as many parameters as you need to here
pipeline.Commands.Add(myCommand);
Collection<PSObject> results = pipeline.Invoke();
runspace.Close();
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder()
foreach (PSObject obj in results) {
stringBuilder.AppendLine(obj.ToString());
}
string thestring = stringBuilder.ToString();
A few notes. The scripts first line that is not a comment or blank line should be the parameter list formatted like this:
param([string]$ServerName,[string]$User)
You have this, I just wanted to acknowledge the fact that I could not get this working when my script file was a function with parameters.
For certain commands you may need additional privileges, in my case all of my scripts worked this way except for creating a mailbox for which I had to add credentials onto the connection.
Greg

In powershell, the default arguments collection is called $args, with an 's'; I'm pretty sure that's why $server is null when you run it via code, and thus the Get-WmiObject call returns null, causing the error when you attempt to call the RequestStateChange method on it.
I'm guessing it works fine in your normal powershell window because you already have a $server variable in the session.

Powershell in C# Return Command Output

I'm new to bringing C# and Powershell together, but am hoping to create a web page that leverages Powershell in the back end. I realize that what I am doing can be done solely with C#, but would like to figure this out for other applications.
Essentially, I am taking the name of a new web application from a web form and getting the authenticated user's username for physical path mapping.
My Powershell code works correctly (even when copying it from Pipeline.Commands[0] directly), but it does not appear to do anything when I run it. I get parameter errors in the result variable if I force one (ex: make -physicalpath a non-existent path), but with all parameters correct, the variable result only contains one blank item.
I see many similar questions to this one, but do not see s definitive answer.
Does this sound like a C# or IIS Powershell module issue? Any ideas how I get more information returned from my command?
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
String username = getUser();
String physicalPath = "S:\\WebSites\\" + username + "\\public_html\\" + TextBox1.Text;
// Create Powershell Runspace
Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace();
runspace.Open();
// Create pipeline and add commands
Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
pipeline.Commands.AddScript(
"Import-Module WebAdministration; set-psdebug -trace 1; " +
"New-WebApplication -Site MySite" +
" -Name " + TextBox1.Text +
" -PhysicalPath " + physicalPath +
" -ApplicationPool WebSites -Verbose -force");
pipeline.Commands.Add("Out-String");
// Execute Script
Collection<PSObject> results = new Collection<PSObject>();
try
{
results = pipeline.Invoke();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
results.Add(new PSObject((object)ex.Message));
}
// Close runspace
runspace.Close();
//Script results to string
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
foreach (PSObject obj in results)
{
stringBuilder.AppendLine(obj.ToString());
}
}
Thanks!

That looks like it should work. You should check the error stream and see if there are messages there (ie: "Destination element already exists").
I'd also suggest you consider using the PowerShell 2 APIs as in this blog post:
http://huddledmasses.org/how-to-invoke-powershell-and-use-the-results-from-csharp/
If you're using that, you can check the ps.Streams.Error to make sure it's empty...