PS script help
Dave Lum
I am looking to use PowerShell to change IIS pool identities. I have 20 app pools and I’d like the $appPoolName part be able to cycle thorough values in a TXT file
so the credentials get applied to whatever app pool names I have in the TXT file. The Application Pool names aren’t consistent enough for me to just use a filter on the name so a TXT file is the more reliable route here.
$appPoolName
=
"AppPool_1"
$username = "DOMAIN\ACCOUNT$"
# Apply the custom identity credentials
Set-ItemProperty "IIS:\AppPools\$appPoolName" -Name processModel -Value @{
identityType = 3;
userName = $username;
}
TIA,
Dave Lum (he/him)
Systems Administrator
Work hours: Tues – Fri 5:30a – 4:30p Pacific
P: 503.546.2163
E:
lu...@ochin.org
www.ochin.org
Solodow, Damien
Are you planning on using the same username for all of the app pools you want to change?
|
Damien Solodow |
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Michael B. Smith
You know that “Get-ChildItem IIS:\AppPools” returns all appPools (including their name)?
(I understand that you might still just want to update certain appPools – just askin’)
From: 'Dave Lum' via ntsysadmin <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2026 11:26 AM
To: 'ntsys...@googlegroups.com' <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [ntsysadmin] PS script help
I am looking to use PowerShell to change IIS pool identities. I have 20 app pools and I’d like the $appPoolName part be able to cycle thorough values in a TXT file
so the credentials get applied to whatever app pool names I have in the TXT file. The Application Pool names aren’t consistent enough for me to just use a filter on the name so a TXT file is the more reliable route here.
$appPoolName
=
"AppPool_1"
--
Dave Lum
Yes
From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
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Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2026 8:32 AM
To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ntsysadmin] RE: PS script help
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Dave Lum
Yep. I do that, drop to a file and them remove the pools I don’t want to change.
From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2026 8:36 AM
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Subject: [ntsysadmin] RE: PS script help
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You know that “Get-ChildItem IIS:\AppPools” returns all appPools (including their name)?
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ntsysadmin/9309c861d3fd4d92914f21bf9d88ca55%40smithcons.com.
Dave Lum
This is what I have so far, but I get Cannot find path 'IIS:\AppPools\MyAppPool1 because it does not exist. If I remove the foreach parts and run the script replacing the $inputs line with $appPoolName = "MyAppPool1", it works.
$inputs
=
Get-Content
-Path
"C:\Automate\Reports\IISAppPools.txt"
$username = "DOMAIN\ACCOUNT"
foreach ($appPoolName in $inputs) {
# Process each line here
Write-Output "Processing: $appPoolName"
Stop-WebAppPool -Name $appPoolName
Start-Sleep -Seconds 10
# Apply the custom identity credentials
Set-ItemProperty "IIS:\AppPools\$appPoolName" -Name processModel -Value @{
identityType = 3;
userName = $username;
}
Start-WebAppPool -Name $appPoolName
}
Dave
From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2026 8:36 AM
To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ntsysadmin] RE: PS script help
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You know that “Get-ChildItem IIS:\AppPools” returns all appPools (including their name)?
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ntsysadmin/9309c861d3fd4d92914f21bf9d88ca55%40smithcons.com.
Solodow, Damien
Does the write-output have the right app pool name, and does it successfully stop the app pool?
What I’d try is this change to the set-itemproperty line:
Set-ItemProperty "IIS:\AppPools\$($appPoolName)" -Name processModel -Value @{
|
Damien Solodow |
||||||||||
Dave Lum
In the script without foreach the correct app name is displayed and the app pool does stop.
Wrapping foreach in there I get “object not found”.
My export command is
Get-ChildItem
-Path
IIS:\AppPools\
|
Select-Object
name
|
Format-Table
-AutoSize
and it lists the app pools, and the TXT file has just the name property for each pool in it.
Dave
Wright, John M
From what you’re saying, I would think there was something wrong with the string—except that it seems to be failing for you at Set-ItemProperty while succeeding at Stop-WebAppPool. And if it works when you hard-code the variable, it can’t be what prepends it on the path for Set-ItemProperty.
So a wild guess. What do you get from the following?
$content = Get-Content -Path "C:\Automate\Reports\IISAppPools.txt"
$content[0].gettype()
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John Wright
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To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com
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Wright, John M
I’m thinking it’s the data type:
(Get-ChildItem -Path IIS:\AppPools\ | Select-Object name | Format-Table -AutoSize)[0].gettype()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
False False FormatStartData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.StartData
Probably work if you export like: (Get-ChildItem -Path IIS:\AppPools\ | Select-Object name | Format-Table -AutoSize).name
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John Wright
IT Support Specialist
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Please submit IT requests to Hazelwoo...@bluegrass.org
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In the script without foreach the correct app name is displayed and the app pool does stop. Wrapping foreach in there I get “object not found”.
Dave Lum
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> $content = Get-Content -Path "C:\Automate\Reports\IISAppPools.txt"
$content[0].gettype()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True String System.Object
Mayo, Bill
I am working on moving some automation from a proprietary method that generated PowerShell scripts to doing the same commands via a PowerShell module. I have been doing stuff with PowerShell modules for quite a while and am pretty comfortable with it. The PowerShell module contains the functions and lives in a directory in the PSPath and auto-importing works as expected. One of the main things I am tackling here is commands that have to run against either on-prem Exchange or Exchange Online. We are in hybrid mode, FWIW. I have 2 problems and would appreciate any insight/information that anyone could provide.
The first problem is related to modularizing various functions. It is possible that a script would call multiple functions that rely on an Exchange connection, so what I did was create a function that attempts to determine if there is currently an Exchange session or not. If there is, it will do nothing. If there is not, it will create one. In this particular instance, we are talking about an Import-Session that connects to on-prem Exchange server. If I run this code block from a PowerShell session, all commands are imported and things work correctly. If I manually copy/paste this function into a PS window and then call it, it works correctly. If I just call the function in the window or in a script (pulled from the module), the commands are not imported. The output from the commands is exactly the same and I even updated the function to run a Get-Command from the import session, and it shows the commands listed. However, if I try to run the command, it says it is not recognized. The extremely odd thing about this is that it was originally working and just stopped. So I guess the core question is, “Should Import-Session called inside a function make commands persistently available in the calling PS session or not?” If not, is there anything I can do here to make it work? Otherwise, I have a mess to deal with. I already know if you keep re-importing the session, that doesn’t work. Here is the function in case that helps in any way (note that I originally didn’t have AllowClobber and just added that today during additional testing, to no avail):
Function Connect-XXXExchangeOnPrem
{
Write-Host "Checking Exchange Connection"
$ExchangeSessions = Get-PsSession | Where-Object ComputerName -eq 'myserver.contoso.com'
If ($Null -eq $ExchangeSessions) {
Write-Host "Importing Exchange Session"
$ExchangeSession = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri http://myserver.contoso.com/PowerShell/ -Authentication Kerberos
$ImportSession = Import-PSSession $ExchangeSession -Verbose -AllowClobber
Get-Command -Module $ImportSession
} Else {
Write-Host "Exchange Session Already Exists"
}
}
The second problem is not currently as big of a deal. The issue is that anytime that I have to intermingle connections to both on-prem (as above) and online (connect-exchangeonline), commands will not work. The problem with this one seems more obvious in that there is overlap of the commands and this maybe cannot be worked around. I recognize that an option may be to target commands to online always, although I am not completely sure (still new to M365) that will work for everything. But it does seem like importing both in a session winds up with neither working. The kind of thing where I wind up needing this is generally in scripts that try to manipulate things for which there is no “remote” version of the command, like Add-MailboxFolderPermission.
Bill Mayo
Michael B. Smith
Eh, the second problem is easier, but painful. You can fully qualify a cmdlet name. That is, specify it as modulename\cmdlet-name. Also, see -prefix for import-module.
The traditional way to do this is to re-implement the functions as proxy functions. That is, for Get-Mailbox, have a Get-Mailbox in your script that checks to see if you are connected to on-premises or Exchange Online and then call the appropriate fully qualified function.
The first one seems vaguely familiar, but I’m not 100% sure... Are you doing the import-session inside of a module function? Or is it part of the mainline script? I seem to remember that there are some issues with global scope conflicting with module variables.
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Mayo, Bill
Thanks for the info, that is something of which I was not particularly aware.
As for the question, yes, I am doing the import-session inside of a module function. That import-session function gets called by other functions in the same module.
From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2026 11:21 AM
To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ntsysadmin] RE: Import-Session behaving differently from module
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Michael B. Smith
On the first issue – there are known issues with polluting the global state from modules. And they’ve never been fixed because some people depend on the behavior.
I asked Grok and it gave details. If you don’t have Grok, you can try ChatGpt or Claude.
Wright, John M
For the second problem, I don’t know of any workaround. You can remove a module after it’s been imported, but that doesn’t unload the cmdlets. In fact, I don’t think you can do that without destroying the whole session and restarting.
I’d be interested to know whether there’s really any need to address the on-prem Exchange server. We also have a hybrid environment, and when I have to do mail-related things, I just target Exchange Online, and never the on-prem.
If you can tell me what you’d query the on-prem for, I might be able to tell you whether it could work for 365.
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Subject: [ntsysadmin] Import-Session behaving differently from module
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I am working on moving some automation from a proprietary method that generated PowerShell scripts to doing the same commands via a PowerShell module. I have been doing stuff with PowerShell modules for quite a while and am pretty comfortable with it. The PowerShell module contains the functions and lives in a directory in the PSPath and auto-importing works as expected. One of the main things I am tackling here is commands that have to run against either on-prem Exchange or Exchange Online. We are in hybrid mode, FWIW. I have 2 problems and would appreciate any insight/information that anyone could provide.
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Mayo, Bill
A key thing would be for a new user, which is Enable-RemoteMailbox. That is a primary reason why I find myself in mixed mode trying to do connect to both. I recognize I can use Set-Mailbox targeted to EOL as opposed to Set-RemoteMailbox, but I find myself using the latter to be consistent with what I am doing in the new user function.
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On Behalf Of Wright, John M
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2026 12:03 PM
To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com
Mayo, Bill
Fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t have any AI subscriptions. I will try to dig into it further, with the info you provided. As I mentioned in my original message, what is really throwing me is that this was working for weeks (first problem, not second) and has just stopped working. It started failing because my “is the remote session already connected” check started failing and it kept re-importing over and over. In the process of fixing that, I then started hitting this other problem.
From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2026 11:47 AM
To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ntsysadmin] RE: Import-Session behaving differently from module
On the first issue – there are known issues with polluting the global state from modules. And they’ve never been fixed because some people depend on the behavior.
I asked Grok and it gave details. If you don’t have Grok, you can try ChatGpt or Claude.
From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Mayo, Bill
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2026 11:40 AM
To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ntsysadmin] RE: Import-Session behaving differently from module
Thanks for the info, that is something of which I was not particularly aware.
As for the question, yes, I am doing the import-session inside of a module function. That import-session function gets called by other functions in the same module.
From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2026 11:21 AM
To: ntsys...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ntsysadmin] RE: Import-Session behaving differently from module
Eh, the second problem is easier, but painful. You can fully qualify a cmdlet name. That is, specify it as modulename\cmdlet-name. Also, see -prefix for import-module.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ntsysadmin/7453413d560f41baa20fed7afa82ce96%40smithcons.com.
Wright, John M
Hmm. We do connect to on-prem when we create accounts, and we target enable-remotemailbox against our Exchange server. But then we don’t use set-mailbox for anything.
Essentially, our user creation scripts (leaving out a lot of detail) do this:
- New-ADUser, running against on-prem DC. All the attributes are supplied here.
- Enable-RemoteMailbox against on-prem Exchange.
I’m sorry if I was misleading before. I was thinking about all the other mail-oriented scripts I use. But in new user creation, it’s all against on-prem servers, which then sync within about 40-45 to 365.
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John Wright
IT Support Specialist
1800 Old Bluegrass Avenue, Louisville, KY 40215
Please submit IT requests to Hazelwoo...@bluegrass.org
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Michael B. Smith
Probably – SWAG – because you just hit the global state issue. Do you use git for your scripts? If you can identify the change, you can probably figure out why it happened.
Mayo, Bill
What you are doing sounds logical, I think my issue is that the first script update I made was for new accounts and I was using that a reference and continued using the “x-RemoteMailbox” structure because I had already done that. I will need to go back through and make another pass on those to clean that up.
Mayo, Bill
I have my own home-grown method for keeping track of changes, so I know what this function was before. It had been working for some time, and then last week I had a script completely blow up because it kept creating new sessions to Exchange. It was clear that the code I had for detecting an existing session was not working; it was not clear why. Nonetheless, I did some research and updated that little code block to “Get-PsSession | Where-Object ComputerName -eq 'myserver.contoso.com'” instead, which I confirmed properly detected that a session was already open. It was just that I then started having this other problem. I don’t think reverting is going to help me, because this function is pretty basic and the only thing that changed was the existing session detection mechanism. If I revert it, I assume I just go back to my previous problem. Looking at the previous code, it was just checking for the $ExchangeSession variable and I am honestly not sure how that ever worked, given scoping in the module.
I do appreciate your help as always.
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