Powershell script appears to execute command with wildcard

Question

I'm writing a PowerShell script that will execute a command on a remote server. I'm using a single variable in the script as a parameter to that command.

param(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$strUser
)

$strDomain = "company.com\\"
$strFQusername = $strDomain + $strUser

$strFQusername
$strFQusername
$strFQusername

Invoke-Command -computername VMwareView.company.com -scriptblock {. $env:userprofile\document\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 ; Get-RemoteSession -username $strFQusername } -credential company.com\administrator

$strFQusername
$strFQusername
$strFQusername

When I execute this script, the $strFQusername variable appears to be replaced by a wildcard. The Get-RemoteSession cmdlet is executed correctly, however it lists the sessions for all users, not just the user specified by the $strFQusername variable. This would be the equivalent of me entering Get-RemoteSession -username * .

If I hard code the username in the script, I get the expected output. That is, I see the session for only the username I hard coded into the script.

I've tried using single and double backslashes in the $strDomain variable, but got the same results. The 3 lines of $strFQusername you see before and after the Invoke-Command line are there for debugging. They print out exactly the string I would expect to see stored in $strFQusername .

What am I missing?

Answer 1

Use the modifier $using if you have ps3+ or the paramétrer -argumentlist if ps2

Ps3+ :

..Get-RemoteSession -username $using:strFQusername

Ps2

...{Param ($user)....Get-RemoteSession -username $user} -arg $strFQusername

Answer 2

The scriptblock doesn't know variables outside of it, so you need to pass them into the scriptblock via the -ArgumentList parameter:

Invoke-Command -computername VMwareView.company.com -scriptblock {
  . $env:userprofile\document\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1;
  Get-RemoteSession -username 
}  -credential company.com\administrator