Connecting to a Windows VM via PowerShell

Images of all Windows versions and editions for Yandex Cloud deployments come with enabled PowerShell Remoting Protocol (PSRP) with HTTPS access. You will be able to connect to a VM with the RUNNING status via PSRP. It may take some time for all services to initialize after the VM starts. If you get a connection error, try again in a few minutes.

VM security groups must allow incoming TCP traffic on port 5986.

To connect via PSRP, specify the public IP address or fully qualified domain name (FQDN). You can use FQDN to access a VM from another Yandex Cloud VM if both are connected to the same network. To get the IP address and FQDN, use the management console: go to the Network section on the VM page.

To connect to a VM:

1. Start PowerShell.

2. Create an object named Credentials, replacing <password> with Administrator password you specified when creating the VM:

   $myUserName = "Administrator"
   $myPlainTextPassword = "<password>"
   $myPassword = $MyPlainTextPassword | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
   $credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($MyUserName, $myPassword)
   

3. Make sure the username and password entered in the object are correct:

   $networkCredential = $credential.GetNetworkCredential()
   $networkCredential | Select-Object UserName, Password
   

   Result:

   UserName      Password
   --------      --------
   Administrator <password>
   

4. Create a variable for the VM IP address:

   $ipAddress = "<IP_address>"
   

5. Create an object named SessionOption. In the object, specify the checks to skip:

   $sessionOption = New-PSSessionOption `
     -SkipCACheck `
     -SkipCNCheck `
     -SkipRevocationCheck
   

6. Connect to an interactive session:

   $psSession = @{
     ComputerName = $ipAddress
     UseSSL = $true
     Credential = $credential
     SessionOption = $sessionOption
   }
   Enter-PSSession @psSession
   

   Result:

   [<IP_address>]: PS C:\Users\$myUserName\Documents>
   

   Terminate the session:

   Exit-PSSession
   

7. Create a non-interactive session:

   $session = New-PSSession @psSession
   

   Get a list of active sessions:

   Get-PSSession
   

   Result:

   Id Name            ComputerName    ComputerType    State         ConfigurationName     Availability
   -- ----            ------------    ------------    -----         -----------------     ------------
    2 WinRM2          <IP_address>    RemoteMachine   Opened        Microsoft.PowerShell     Available
   

   Run this command on a remote VM:

   $scriptBlock = { Get-Process }
   $invokeCommand = @{
     ScriptBlock = $scriptBlock
     Session = $session
   }
   Invoke-Command @invokeCommand
   

   Result:

   Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K)     CPU(s)     Id  SI ProcessName                    PSComputerName
   -------  ------    -----      -----     ------     --  -- -----------                    --------------
       249      13     4248      16200       0.11   4176   2 conhost                        <IP_address>
       283      12     1888       4220       0.20    420   0 csrss                          <IP_address>
   ...
   

See alsoSee also

• PowerShell sessions (PSSessions)

What's nextWhat's next

• Using Yandex Cloud from within a VM