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Invoke-CimMethod

  • Reference
Module:
CimCmdlets

Invokes a method of a CIM class.

Syntax

Invoke-CimMethod
      [-ClassName] <String>
      [-ComputerName <String[]>]
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-Namespace <String>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      [-ClassName] <String>
      -CimSession <CimSession[]>
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-Namespace <String>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      -ResourceUri <Uri>
      -CimSession <CimSession[]>
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-Namespace <String>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      -ResourceUri <Uri>
      [-ComputerName <String[]>]
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-Namespace <String>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      [-ResourceUri <Uri>]
      [-InputObject] <CimInstance>
      [-ComputerName <String[]>]
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      [-ResourceUri <Uri>]
      [-InputObject] <CimInstance>
      -CimSession <CimSession[]>
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      [-CimClass] <CimClass>
      -CimSession <CimSession[]>
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      [-CimClass] <CimClass>
      [-ComputerName <String[]>]
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      -Query <String>
      [-QueryDialect <String>]
      -CimSession <CimSession[]>
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-Namespace <String>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-CimMethod
      -Query <String>
      [-QueryDialect <String>]
      [-ComputerName <String[]>]
      [[-Arguments] <IDictionary>]
      [-MethodName] <String>
      [-Namespace <String>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSec <UInt32>]
      [-WhatIf]
      [-Confirm]
      [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Invoke-CimMethod cmdlet invokes a method of a CIM class or CIM instance using the name-value pairs specified by the Arguments parameter.

If the InputObject parameter is not specified, the cmdlet works in one of the following ways:

  • If neither the ComputerName parameter nor the CimSession parameter is specified, then this cmdlet works on local Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) using a Component Object Model (COM) session.
  • If either the ComputerName parameter or the CimSession parameter is specified, then this cmdlet works against the CIM server specified by either the ComputerName parameter or the CimSession parameter.

If the InputObject parameter is specified, the cmdlet works in one of the following ways:

  • If neither the ComputerName parameter nor the CimSession parameter is specified, then this cmdlet uses the CIM session or computer name from the input object.
  • If the either the ComputerName parameter or the CimSession parameter is specified, then this cmdlet uses the either the CimSession parameter value or ComputerName parameter value. Note: This is not very common.

Examples

Example 1: Invoke a method

Invoke-CimMethod -Query 'select * from Win32_Process where name like "notepad%"' -MethodName "Terminate"

This command invokes the method named Terminate on the CIM class named Win32_Process. The CIM class is retrieved by the query "Select * from Win32_Process where name like 'notepad%'".

Example 2: Invoke a method using CIM instance object

$x = Get-CimInstance -Query 'Select * from Win32_Process where name like "notepad%"'
Invoke-CimMethod -InputObject $x -MethodName GetOwner

This set of commands retrieves the CIM instance object and stores it in a variable named $x using the Get-CimInstance cmdlet. The contents of the variable are then used as the InputObject for the Invoke-CimMethod cmdlet, and the GetOwner method is invoked for the CimInstance.

Example 3: Invoke a static method

Invoke-CimMethod -ClassName Win32_Process -MethodName "Create" -Arguments @{ Path = "notepad.exe" }

This command invokes the static method Create on the class named Win32_Process, with the arguments specified by the Arguments parameter.

Example 4: Invoke a method using arguments

Invoke-CimMethod -ClassName Win32_Process -MethodName "Create" -Arguments @{ CommandLine = 'notepad.exe'; CurrentDirectory = "C:\windows\system32" }

This command invokes the method named Create by using the Arguments parameter.

Example 5: Client-side validation

$c = Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_Process
Invoke-CimMethod -CimClass $c -MethodName "xyz" -Arguments @{ CommandLine = 'notepad.exe' }

This set of commands performs client-side validation for the method named xyz by passing a CimClass object to the Invoke-CimMethod cmdlet.

Parameters

-Arguments

Specifies the parameters to pass to the called method. Specify the values for this parameter as name-value pairs, stored in a hash table. The order of the values entered is not important.

Type:IDictionary
Position:1
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-CimClass

Specifies a CIM class object that represents a CIM class definition on the server. Use this parameter when invoking a static method of a class.

You can use the Get-CimClass cmdlet to retrieve a class definition from the server.

Using this parameter results in better client side schema validations.

Type:CimClass
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-CimSession

Runs the command using the specified CIM session. Enter a variable that contains the CIM session, or a command that creates or gets the CIM session, such as the New-CimSession or Get-CimSession cmdlets. For more information, see about_CimSessions.

Type:CimSession[]
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-ClassName

Specifies the name of the CIM class for which to perform the operation. This parameter is only used for static methods. NOTE: You can use tab completion to browse the list of classes, because Windows PowerShell gets a list of classes from the local WMI server to provide a list of class names.

Type:String
Aliases:Class
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-ComputerName

Specifies the name of the computer on which you want to run the CIM operation. You can specify a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), a NetBIOS name, or an IP address.

If you specify this parameter, the cmdlet creates a temporary session to the specified computer using the WsMan protocol.

If you do not specify this parameter, the cmdlet performs the operation on the local computer using Component Object Model (COM).

If multiple operations are being performed on the same computer, connecting using a CIM session gives better performance.

Type:String[]
Aliases:CN, ServerName
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Confirm

Prompts you for confirmation before running the cmdlet.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:cf
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-InputObject

Specifies a CIM instance object to use as input to invoke a method.

This parameter can only be used to invoke instance methods. To invoke class static methods, use the Class parameter or the CimClass parameter.

Type:CimInstance
Aliases:CimInstance
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-MethodName

Specifies the name of the CIM method to invoke. This parameter is mandatory and cannot be null or empty.

To invoke static method of a CIM class use the ClassName or the CimClass parameter.

Type:String
Aliases:Name
Position:2
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Namespace

Specifies the namespace for the CIM operation.

The default namespace is root/cimv2. You can use tab completion to browse the list of namespaces, because PowerShell gets a list of namespaces from the local WMI server to provide the list of namespaces.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-OperationTimeoutSec

Specifies the amount of time that the cmdlet waits for a response from the computer.

By default, the value is 0, which means that the cmdlet uses the default timeout value for the server..

If the OperationTimeoutSec parameter is set to a value less than the robust connection retry timeout of 3 minutes, network failures that last more than the value of the OperationTimeoutSec parameter are not recoverable, because the operation on the server times out before the client can reconnect.

Type:UInt32
Aliases:OT
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Query

Specifies a query to run on the CIM server. A method is invoked on the instances received as a result of the query.

You can specify the query dialect using the QueryDialect parameter.

If the value specified contains double quotes ("), single quotes ('), or a backslash (\), you must escape those characters by prefixing them with the backslash (\) character. If the value specified uses the WQL LIKE operator, then you must escape the following characters by enclosing them in square brackets ([]): percent (%), underscore (_), or opening square bracket ([).

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-QueryDialect

Specifies the query language used for the Query parameter. The acceptable values for this parameter are: WQL or CQL.

The default value is WQL.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-ResourceUri

Specifies the resource uniform resource identifier (URI) of the resource class or instance. The URI is used to identify a specific type of resource, such as disks or processes, on a computer.

A URI consists of a prefix and a path to a resource. For example:

https://schemas.microsoft.com/wbem/wsman/1/wmi/root/cimv2/Win32_LogicalDisk

http://intel.com/wbem/wscim/1/amt-schema/1/AMT_GeneralSettings

By default, if you do not specify this parameter, the DMTF standard resource URI http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/ is used and the class name is appended to it.

ResourceURI can only be used with CIM sessions created using the WSMan protocol, or when specifying the ComputerName parameter, which creates a CIM session using WSMan. If you specify this parameter without specifying the ComputerName parameter, or if you specify a CIM session created using DCOM protocol, you will get an error, because the DCOM protocol does not support the ResourceURI parameter.

If both the ResourceUri parameter and the Filter parameter are specified, the Filter parameter is ignored.

Type:Uri
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-WhatIf

Shows what would happen if the cmdlet runs. The cmdlet is not run.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:wi
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

CIM class

This cmdlet accepts a CIM class as an input object.

CIM instance

This cmdlet accepts a CIM instance as an input object.

Outputs

PSCustomObject

This cmdlet returns an object.