Splitting output of a string into separate strings - string

Question

I've been working on a powershell script and it's been really boggling my mind. There are 2 parts to the script.
First part is a function that gets all servers in a domain. We have 4 different domains, so I check each one individually and output the result.
Second part is a function that outputs the software on a specific remote machine. In my case, the output from the function above will be seeded into this function to see if a server has a particular piece of software installed.
The function that searches the software works properly. The function that I am getting an output of all the servers is what I am having trouble with.
The issue is, that when I output the list of servers (the output is correct), it outputs everything into a single large multiline string...
For example lets say I have 5 servers: (ServerA, ServerB, ServerC, ServerD, ServerE).
When I run the code I will get an output of all the servers for each domain like so:
TestA.com
ServerA
ServerB
ServerC
ServerD
ServerE
TestB.com
ServerA
ServerB
ServerC
ServerD
ServerE
TestC.com
ServerA
ServerB
ServerC
ServerD
ServerE
TestD.com
ServerA
ServerB
ServerC
ServerD
ServerE
However each domain output is all 1 string, so I can't seed it into the function to check software because it's trying to find it in "ServerA,ServerB,ServerC,ServerD,ServerE", instead of each server individually.
I hope this makes sense. Here is my code to get the list of servers.
#Clear Screen
CLS
function Get-Servers
{
#Variables
[array]$MyDomains="TestA.com","TestB.com","TestC.com","TestD.com"
[array]$MySearchBase="dc=TestA,dc=com","dc=TestB,dc=com","dc=TestC,dc=com","dc=TestD,dc=com"
for($i=0; $i -lt $MyDomains.Count; $i++)
{
Write-Output $($MyDomains[$i])
$MyServers = Get-ADComputer -Filter 'OperatingSystem -like "Windows*Server*"' -Properties Name -SearchBase $($MySearchBase[$i]) -Server $($MyDomains[$i]) | Format-Table Name -HideTableHeaders | out-string
foreach ($MyServer in $MyServers)
{
$MyServer
pause
}
}
}
#Get list of servers
Get-Servers
How can I get the output for each server individually to be stored in the "$MyServer" variable?
EDIT:
Here is my function to find remote software
function Get-RemoteRegistryProgram
{
<#
.Synopsis
Uses remote registry to read installed programs
.DESCRIPTION
Use dot net and the registry key class to query installed programs from a
remote machine
.EXAMPLE
Get-RemoteRegistryProgram -ComputerName Server1
#>
[CmdletBinding()]
Param
(
[Parameter(
ValueFromPipeline=$true,
ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true,
Position=0)]
[string[]]
$ComputerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME
)
begin
{
$hives = #(
[Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine,
[Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::CurrentUser
)
$nodes = #(
"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall",
"Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall"
)
}
process
{
$ComputerName
forEach ($computer in $ComputerName)
{
forEach($hive in $hives)
{
try
{
$registry = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey($hive,$computer)
}
catch
{
throw $PsItem
}
forEach($node in $nodes)
{
try
{
$keys = $registry.OpenSubKey($node).GetSubKeyNames()
forEach($key in $keys)
{
$displayname = $registry.OpenSubKey($node).OpenSubKey($key).GetValue('DisplayName')
if($displayname)
{
$installedProgram = #{
# ComputerName = $computer
DisplayName = $displayname
# Version = $registry.OpenSubKey($node).OpenSubKey($key).GetValue('DisplayVersion')
}
New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $installedProgram
}
}
}
catch
{
$orginalError = $PsItem
Switch($orginalError.FullyQualifiedErrorId)
{
'InvokeMethodOnNull'
{
#key maynot exists
}
default
{
throw $orginalError
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
end
{
}
}
EDIT 2:
If I modify my server function like so:
for($i=0; $i -lt $MyDomains.Count; $i++)
{
Write-Output $($MyDomains[$i])
$MyServers = Get-ADComputer -Filter 'OperatingSystem -like "Windows*Server*"' -Properties Name -SearchBase $($MySearchBase[$i]) -Server $($MyDomains[$i]) | Format-Table Name -HideTableHeaders
foreach ($MyServer in $MyServers)
{
Get-RemoteRegistryProgram -ComputerName $MyServer
}
}
I get the following error:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatStartData
Exception calling "OpenRemoteBaseKey" with "2" argument(s): "The network path was not found.
"
At line:47 char:21
+ $registry = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : IOException
Thank you in advance for any help!

Answer 1

Your code is converting the server names to a string
$MyServers = Get-ADComputer -Filter 'OperatingSystem -like "Windows*Server*"' -Properties Name -SearchBase $($MySearchBase[$i]) -Server $($MyDomains[$i]) | Format-Table Name -HideTableHeaders | out-string
The last part of that is out-string. Instead of piping to a format table and pushing it out as a string, keep the objects and use the properties in each object to get the names of each server.

Answer 2

I ended up rewriting some things and fixing my issue. To avoid the string issue, I export the results to a text file and then using get-content I read line by line from the text file and seeded each server to let me know which servers have the software I need. Here is the end result.
#Clear Screen
CLS
function Get-RemoteRegistryProgram
{
<#
.Synopsis
Uses remote registry to read installed programs
.DESCRIPTION
Use dot net and the registry key class to query installed programs from a
remote machine
.EXAMPLE
Get-RemoteRegistryProgram -ComputerName Server1
#>
[CmdletBinding()]
Param
(
[Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true, Position=0)][string]$ComputerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME,
[Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true, Position=1)][string]$SoftwareName
)
begin
{
$hives = #(
[Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine,
[Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::CurrentUser
)
$nodes = #(
"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall",
"Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall"
)
}
process
{
$ComputerName
$skip = $false
forEach ($computer in $ComputerName)
{
forEach($hive in $hives)
{
try
{
$registry = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey($hive,$computer)
}
catch
{
$skip = $true
}
if($skip -eq $false)
{
forEach($node in $nodes)
{
try
{
$keys = $registry.OpenSubKey($node).GetSubKeyNames()
forEach($key in $keys)
{
$displayname = $registry.OpenSubKey($node).OpenSubKey($key).GetValue('DisplayName')
#Modified by James
if(($displayname) -like "*$SoftwareName*")
{
$displayname + "`t" + $computer >> c:\scripts\sysaidServers.txt
}
<# Modified by James
if($displayname)
{
$installedProgram = #{
# ComputerName = $computer
DisplayName = $displayname
# Version = $registry.OpenSubKey($node).OpenSubKey($key).GetValue('DisplayVersion')
}
New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $installedProgram
}
#>
}
}
catch
{
<#
$orginalError = $PsItem
Switch($orginalError.FullyQualifiedErrorId)
{
'InvokeMethodOnNull'
{
#key maynot exists
}
default
{
throw $orginalError
}
}
#>
}
}
}
}
}
}
end
{
}
}
#Output the servers to a txt file
function Get-Servers
{
param ([Parameter( Mandatory=$true)][string]$SaveFile)
#Variables
[array]$MyDomains="DomainA.com","DomainB.com","DomainC.com","DomainD.com"
[array]$MySearchBase="dc=DomainA,dc=com","dc=DomainB,dc=com","dc=DomainC,dc=com","dc=DomainD,dc=com"
for($i=0; $i -lt $MyDomains.Count; $i++)
{
#I only want servers running Windows Server OS
$MyServers = Get-ADComputer -Filter 'OperatingSystem -like "Windows*Server*"' -Properties Name -SearchBase $($MySearchBase[$i]) -Server $($MyDomains[$i]) | Format-Table Name -HideTableHeaders | out-string
#Remove all whitespace and export to txt file
$MyServers.Trim() -replace (' ', '') >> $SaveFile
}
}
function CheckServerSoftware
{
param ([Parameter( Mandatory=$true)][string]$SaveFile)
Get-Content $SaveFile | ForEach-Object {
if($_ -match $regex)
{
$computer = $_.ToString()
Get-RemoteRegistryProgram -ComputerName $computer.Trim() $SoftwareName
Write-Output ""
}
}
}
#Path to where our exported server list is
$SaveFile = "c:\scripts\servers.txt"
$SoftwareName = "SysAid"
#If the file already exists, remove it
Remove-Item $SaveFile
#Create the text file with servers
Get-Servers $SaveFile
#Import our server list and check software on each server
CheckServerSoftware $SaveFile