about_Remote_Output

Article
02/01/2024

Short description

Describes how to interpret and format the output of remote commands.

Long description

The output of a command that was run on a remote computer might look like output of the same command run on a local computer, but there are some significant differences.

This topic explains how to interpret, format, and display the output of commands that are run on remote computers.

Displaying the computer name

When you use the Invoke-Command cmdlet to run a command on a remote computer, the command returns an object that includes the name of the computer that generated the data. The PSComputerName property contains the remote computer name.

For many commands, PSComputerName is displayed by default. For example, the following command runs a Get-Culture command on two remote computers, Server01 and Server02. The output, which appears below, includes the names of the remote computers on which the command ran.

Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock {Get-Culture} -ComputerName Server01, Server02

LCID  Name    DisplayName                PSComputerName
----  ----    -----------                --------------
1033  en-US   English (United States)    Server01
1033  es-AR   Spanish (Argentina)        Server02

You can use the HideComputerName parameter of Invoke-Command to hide the PSComputerName property. This parameter is designed for commands that collect data from only one remote computer.

The following command runs a Get-Culture command on the Server01 remote computer. It uses the HideComputerName parameter to hide the PSComputerName property and related properties.

$invokeCommandSplat = @{
    ScriptBlock = {Get-Culture}
    ComputerName = 'Server01'
    HideComputerName = $true
}
Invoke-Command @invokeCommandSplat

LCID             Name             DisplayName
----             ----             -----------
1033             en-US            English (United States)

You can also display the PSComputerName property if it's not displayed by default.

For example, the following commands use the Format-Table cmdlet to add the PSComputerName property to the output of a remote Get-Date command.

$invokeCommandSplat = @{
    ScriptBlock = {Get-Date}
    ComputerName = 'Server01', 'Server02'
}
Invoke-Command @invokeCommandSplat |
    Format-Table DateTime, PSComputerName -AutoSize

DateTime                            PSComputerName
--------                            --------------
Monday, July 21, 2008 7:16:58 PM    Server01
Monday, July 21, 2008 7:16:58 PM    Server02

Deserialized objects

When you run remote commands that generate output, the command output is transmitted across the network back to the local computer.

Since live .NET objects can't be transmitted over the network, the live objects are serialized or converted into XML representations of the object and its properties. PowerShell transmits the serialized object across the network.

On the local computer, PowerShell receives the serialized object and deserializes it by converting the serialized object into a standard .NET object.

However, the deserialized object isn't a live object. It's a snapshot of the object at the time of serialization. The deserialized object includes properties but no methods. You can use and manage these objects in PowerShell, including passing them in pipelines, displaying selected properties, and formatting them.

Most deserialized objects are automatically formatted for display by entries in the Types.ps1xml or Format.ps1xml files. However, the local computer might not have formatting files for all objects that were generated on a remote computer. When objects are not formatted, all of the properties of each object appear in the console in a streaming list.

When objects aren't formatted automatically, you can use the formatting cmdlets, such as Format-Table or Format-List, to format and display selected properties. Or, you can use the Out-GridView cmdlet to display the objects in a table.

When you run a command on a remote computer that uses cmdlets that you don't have on your local computer, the objects that the command returns may not be formatted as expected if you don't have the formatting files for those object types on your computer. You use the Get-FormatData and Export-FormatData cmdlets to get formatting data from another computer.

Some object types, such as DirectoryInfo objects and GUIDs, are converted back into live objects when they're received. These objects don't need any special handling or formatting.

Ordering the results

The order of the computer names in the ComputerName parameter of cmdlets determines the order in which PowerShell connects to the remote computers. However, the results appear in the order that the data is received from the remote computers.

You can use the Sort-Object cmdlet to sort the results on the PSComputerName. When you any other property of the object, the results from different computers are interspersed interleaved in the output

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