In this article by Sherif Talaat, the author of the book PowerShell 5.0 Advanced Administration Handbook, we will see the PowerShell v2 introduced a powerful new technology, PowerShell remoting, which was refined andexpanded upon for later versions of PowerShell. PowerShell remoting is based primarily upon standardized protocols andtechniques; it is possibly one of the most important aspects of Windows PowerShell. Today, a lot of Microsoft products rely upon it almost entirely for administrative communications across the network.
The most important and exciting characteristic of PowerShell is itsremote management capability. PowerShell Remoting can control the target remote computer via the network. It uses Windows Remote Management (WinRM) which is based on Microsoft’s WS-Management protocol. Using PowerShell remoting, the administrator can execute various management operations on dozens of target computers across the network.
In this article, we will cover the following topics:
- PowerShell remoting system requirements
- Enabling/Disabling remoting
- Executing remote commands
- Interactive remoting Sessions
- Saving remote sessions to disk
- Understanding session configuration
(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)
Windows PowerShellremoting
It’s very simple: Windows PowerShell remoting is developed to help you ease your administration tasks. The idea is about using the PowerShell console on your local machine to manage and control remote computers in different locations, whether these locations are on a local network, a branch, or even in the cloud. Windows PowerShell remoting relies on Windows Remote Management (WinRM) to connect those computers together even if they’re not physically connected. Sounds cool and exciting, huh?!
Windows Remote Management (WinRM) is a Microsoft implementation for the WS-Management protocol. WSMan is a standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) that allows hardware and operating systems, from different vendors, to interoperate and communicate together in order to access and exchange management information across the entire infrastructure.
In order to be able to execute a PowerShell script on remote computers using PowerShell remoting, the user performing this remote execution must meet one of the following conditions:
- Be a member of the administrators’ group on the remote machine whether as a domain administrator or a local administrator
- Provide admin privileged credentials at the time of execution, either while establishing the remote session or using a –ComputerName parameter
- Has access to the PowerShell session configuration on the remote computer
Now we understand what PowerShell remoting is, let’s jump to the interesting stuff and start playing with it.
Enable/Disable PowerShell Remoting
Before using Windows PowerShell remoting, we need to first ensure that it’s already on the computers we want to connect to and manage. You can validate whether PowerShell remoting is enabled on a computer using the Test-WSMan cmdlet.
#Verify WinRM service status
Test-WSMan –ComputerName Server02 If PowerShell remoting is enabled on the remote computer, (which means that the WinRM service is running), you will get an acknowledgement message similar to the message shown in the following screenshot:
However, if the WinRM is not responding, either because it’s not enabled or because the computer is unreachable, you will get an error message similar to the message shown in the following screenshot:
Okay, at this stage, we know which computers have remoting enabled and which need to be configured.
In order to enable PowerShell remoting on a computer, we use the Enable-PSRemoting cmdlet. The Enable-PSRemoting cmdlet will prompt you with a message to inform you about the changes to be applied on the target computer and ask for your confirmation as shown in the following screenshot:
You can skip this prompt message by using the –Forceparameter:
#Enable PowerShell Remoting
Enable-PSRemoting –Force In client OS versions of Windows, such as Windows 7, 8/8.1, and 10, the network connection type must be set either to domain or private. If it’s set to public, you will get a message as shown in the following:
This is the Enable-PSRemoting cmdlet’s default behavior to stop you from enabling PowerShell remoting on a public network which might put your computer in risk. You can skip the network profile check using the –SkipNetworkProfileCheck parameter, or simply change the network profile as shown later in this article:
#Enable PowerShell Remoting on Public Network
Enable-PSRemoting –Force –SkipNetworkProfileCheckIf, for any reason, you want to temporarily disable a session configuration in order to prevent users from connecting to a local computer using that session configuration, you can use theDisable-PSSessionConfiguration cmdlet along with the -Name parameter to specify which session configuration you want to disable.
If we don’t specify a configuration name for the –Name parameter, the default session configurationMicrosoft.PowerShell will be disabled.
Later on, if you want to re-enable the session configuration, you can use the Enable-PSSessionConfiguration cmdlet with the -Name parameter to specify which session configuration you need to enable, similarly to the Disable-PSSessionConfiguration cmdlet.
Delete a session configuration
When you disable a session configuration, PowerShell just denies access to this session configuration by assigning deny all to the defined security descriptors. It doesn’t remove it, which is why you can re-enable it.
If you want to permanently remove a session configuration, use theUnregister-PSSessionConfiguration cmdlet.
Windows PowerShell Web Access (PSWA)
Windows PowerShell Web Access (PSWA) was introduced for the first time as a new feature in Windows PowerShell 3.0.Yes, it is what you are guessing it is! PowerShell Web Access is a web-based version of the PowerShell console that allows you to run and execute PowerShell cmdlets and scripts from any web browser on any desktop, notebook, smartphone, or tablet that meet the following criteria:
- Allows cookies from the Windows PowerShell Web Access gateway website
- Capable of opening and reading HTTPS pages
- Opens and runs websites that use JavaScript
PowerShell Web Access allows you to complete your administration tasks smoothly anywhere anytime using any device running a web browser, regardless of whether it is Microsoft or non-Microsoft.
Installing and configuring Windows PowerShell Web Access
The following are the steps to install and configure Windows PowerShell Web Access:
Step 1: Installing the Windows PowerShell Web Access Windows feature
In this step we will install the Windows PowerShell Web Access Windows feature. For the purpose of this task, we will use the Install-WindowsFeature cmdlet:
#Installing PSWA feature
Install-WindowsFeature WindowsPowerShellWebAccess –IncludeAllSubFeature –IncludeManagementTools The following screenshot depicts the output of the cmdlet:
Now, we have the PowerShell Web Access feature installed. The next step is to configure it.
Step 2: Configuring Windows PowerShell Web Access gateway
To configure the PSWA gateway, we use the Install-PswaWebApplication cmdlet which will create an IIS Web Application that runs PowerShell Web Access and configures the SSL certificate. If you don’t have the SSL certificate, then you can use the –UseTestCertificate flag in order to generate and use a self-signed certificate:
#Configure PWSA Gateway
Install-PswaWebApplication –WebSiteName “Default Web Site“ –WebApplicationName “PSWA“ –UseTestCertificate 
Use the–UseTestCertificate for testing purposes in your private lab only. Never use it in a production environment. In your production environments use a certificate from a trusted certificate issued by either your corporate’s Certificate Authority (CA) or a trusted certificate publisher.
To verify successful installation and configuration of the gateway. Browse the PSWA URLhttps://<server_name>/PSWA as shown in the following screnshot:
The PSWA WebApplication files are located at %windir%WebPowerShellWebAccesswwwroot.
Step 3: Configuring PowerShell Web Access authorization rules
Now, we have PSWA up and running. However no one will be able to sign-in and use it yet until we create the appropriate authorization rule. Because PSWA could be accessed from anywhere any time –which increases the security risks – PowerShell restricts any access to your network until you create and assign the right access to the right person.
The authorization rule is the access control for your PSWA that adds an additional security layer to your PSWA. It is similar to the access list on the firewall and network devices. To create a new access authorization rule, we use the Add-PswaAuthorizationRule cmdlet along with the–UserName parameter to specify the name of the user who will get the access; the–-ComputerName parameter to specify which computer the user will has access to; and the–ConfigurationName parameter to specify the session configuration available to this user:
#Adding PSWA Access Authorization RUle
Add-PswaAuthorizationRule –UserName PSWAAdministrator –ComputerName PSWA –ConfigurationName Microsoft.PowerShell 
The PSWA Authorization Rules files are located at %windir%WebPowerShellWebAccessdataAuthorizationRules.xml
There are four different access authorization rules scenarios that we can enable on PowerShell Web Access. These scenarios are:
- Enable single user access to a single computer: For this scenario we use the –Username parameter to specify the single user, and the–ComputerName parameter to specify the single computer
- Enable single user access to a group of computers: For this scenario we use the –Username parameter to specify the single user, and the–ComputeGroupNameComputeGroupName parameter to specify the name of the active directory computer group
- Enable a group of users access to a single computer: For this scenario we use the –UserGroupName parameter to specify the name of active directory users’ group, and the–ComputerName parameter to specify the individual computer
- Enable groups of users access to a group of computers: For this scenario we use the –UserGroupName parameter to specify the name of active directory users group, and the –ComputeGroupNameComputeGroupName parameter to specify the name of the active directory computer group
You can use the Get-PswaAuthorizationRule cmdlet to list all the configured access authorization rules, and use the Remove-PswaAuthorizationRule cmdlet to remove them.
Sign-in to PowerShell Web Access
Now, let’s verify the installation and start using the PSWA by signing-in to it:
- Open the Internet browser; you can choose whichever browser you like bearing in mind the browser requirements mentioned earlier.
- Enter https://<server_name>/PSWA.
- Enter User Name, Password, Connection Type, and Computer Name.
Summary
In this article, we learned about one of the most powerful features of PowerShell which is PowerShell remoting, including how to enable, prepare, and configure your environment to use PowerShell remoting. Moreover, we demonstrated some examples of how to use different methods to utilize this remote capability. We learned how to run remote commands on remote computers by using a temporary or persistent connection. Finally, we closed the article with PowerShell Web Access, including how it works and how to configure it.
Resources for Article:
Further resources on this subject:
- Installing/upgrading PowerShell [article]
- DevOps Tools and Technologies [article]
- Bringing DevOps to Network Operations [article]
