Connecting to a Windows VM via PowerShell

PowerShell Remoting Protocol (PSRP) with access via HTTPS is enabled for images of all versions and editions of the Windows operating system prepared for Yandex Cloud. You can connect to a virtual machine with the RUNNING status over PSRP. Some time may be required to initialize all the services after the VM starts. If there is a connection error, retry after a few minutes.

Virtual machine security groups must allow incoming TCP traffic to port 5986.

To do this, specify its public IP address or fully qualified domain name (Fully Qualified Domain Name, FQDN). Access using FQDN is possible from another Yandex Cloud VM if it is connected to the same network. You can find out the IP address and FQDN in the management console. Go to the Network section on the virtual machine's page.

To connect to the VM:

1. Open the PowerShell console.

2. Create an object named Credentials replacing the <password> with the one of the Administrator user 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 that 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's 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 session for non-interactive command execution:

   $session = New-PSSession @psSession
   

   Get a list of open sessions:

   Get-PSSession
   

   Result:

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

   Run the 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

• Learn how to work with Yandex Cloud from inside a VM