Powershell Copy-Item in a loop as job

Question

Im trying to copy a file to a lot of computers using jobs with powershell:

$computers = Get-Content computers.txt
ForEach($computer in $computers)
{
    Start-Job -ScriptBlock{Copy-Item "\\\server1\ccmc\file.exe" -Destination "\\\\$computer\c$\windows\temp" -Force}   
}

but im having Problems with "-Destination" powershell gives me following error:

Der angegebene Pfadname ist ungültig. -> German for invalid pathname

+ CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Copy-Item], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.IO.IOException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.CopyItemCommand
+ PSComputerName        : localhost

when i manually put in the computername in "-destination" like "\\pc1\c$..." it works just fine

Also if i try it without "Start-Job -Scriptblock{}" it works too

ISE Powershell shows correct computername in $computer during runtime

Answer 1

Powershell jobs run as a separate instance of powershell, so they don't get your variables unless you use -InputObject or -ArgumentList. I like to use -Verbose or -WhatIf on commands to troubleshoot what actually ran:

$computername = 'Server01'
$job = start-job -InputObject $computername -ScriptBlock {
  Copy-Item -Path "\\server1\ccmc\file.exe" -Destination "\\$computer\c$\windows\temp" -Verbose
}
sleep 3

# return the output of a specific job
$job.ChildJobs[0]|Format-List Error,Verbose

Output example:

# Working normally:
Error   : {}
Verbose : {Performing the operation "Copy File" on target "Item: \\server1\ccmc\file.exe 
    Destination: \\Server01\c$\windows\temp\file.exe".}