{"id":1714,"date":"2014-03-31T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2014\/03\/31\/introduction-to-powershell-endpoints\/"},"modified":"2014-03-31T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T00:01:00","slug":"introduction-to-powershell-endpoints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/introduction-to-powershell-endpoints\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to PowerShell Endpoints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/b>: Learn about Windows PowerShell endpoints and how they relate to remoting.<\/p>\n

\"Hey, Hey, Scripting Guy! I keep hearing about Windows PowerShell endpoints and constrained endpoints related to remote management. Can you tell me more about these?<\/p>\n

—KP<\/p>\n

\"Hey, Hello, KP. Honorary Scripting Guy, Boe Prox, here today filling in for my good friend, The Scripting Guy. Here's a bit about me:<\/p>\n

Boe Prox is a Microsoft MVP in Windows PowerShell and a senior Windows system administrator. He has worked in the IT field since 2003, and he supports a variety of different platforms. He is a contributing author in PowerShell Deep Dives<\/a> with chapters about WSUS and TCP communication. He is a moderator on the Hey, Scripting Guy! forum<\/a>, and he has been a judge for the Scripting Games since 2010. He recently presented talks on the topic of WSUS and PowerShell at the Mississippi PowerShell User Group<\/a>. He is an Honorary Scripting Guy, and he has submitted a number of posts as a guest blogger, which discuss a variety of topics. To read more, see these Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boe’s blog: Learn Powershell |Achieve More
<\/a>CodePlex projects: PoshWSUS<\/a>, PoshPAIG<\/a>, PoshChat<\/a>, and PoshEventUI<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the first part in a series of five posts about Remoting Endpoints. The series includes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/b>Introduction to PowerShell Endpoints<\/b><\/li>\n
  2. Build Constrained PowerShell Endpoint Using Startup Script<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Build Constrained PowerShell Endpoint Using Configuration File<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Use Delegated Administration and Proxy Functions<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Build a Tool that Uses Constrained PowerShell Endpoint<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When performing a variety of tasks, system administrators can leverage Windows PowerShell remoting to connect to remote systems and run commands as though they were logged directly into the server. Remoting has been available since Windows PowerShell 2.0, which means that it goes as far back as Windows Server 2003. Prior to Windows Server 2012, you had to manually enable PSRemoting to provide the necessary configuration to grant access to each server. In Windows Server 2012, Windows PowerShell remoting is already enabled and ready to go.<\/p>\n

    Administrators do nothing more than connect to a remote session or issue commands from a single workstation against multiple remote systems (known as “fan-out”), and they leverage Windows PowerShell Remoting to accomplish this.<\/p>\n

    When connecting to a Windows PowerShell endpoint or using Invoke-Command<\/b>, you are connecting to a remote session configuration (an endpoint) where, depending on the configuration of the endpoint, you have a certain level of access to that remote system. I am going to take you through what an endpoint is, show various properties, and provide examples of a couple different types of endpoints that show how they affect the session.<\/p>\n

    An endpoint is a set of configurations on a computer that help customize the environment when a user connects to the endpoint from a remote computer. Sessions that offer fewer cmdlets, functions, and other language features that you normally see when using Windows PowerShell are called constrained endpoints<\/b>. This means that the sessions are tightened up to prevent unauthorized use of commands that could potentially cause harm, or to prevent commands from being run accidently. These can be used to provide a means to run certain commands by a junior system administrator or a service desk.<\/p>\n

    Following is an example of connecting to a remote system and running a couple of commands:<\/p>\n

    PS C:\\> Enter-PSSession -ComputerName DC1<\/p>\n

    [DC1]: PS C:\\> $env:Computername<\/p>\n

    [DC1]: PS C:\\> Get-Process | Sort WS -Descending | Select -First 5<\/p>\n

    [DC1]: PS C:\\> Exit-PSSession<\/p>\n

    \"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

    Starting with Windows PowerShell 3.0, there are typically the following built-in endpoints:<\/p>\n