One common issue I have ran into with writing workflows for Service Manager is the powershell sessions seem to be shared. When I call a set of cmdlets, such as the Active Directory cmdlets, they do not always load/unload properly, causing issues with subsequent scripts.
Solution:
We can isolate the powershell sessions inside the Service Manager Workflows. While powershell experts may know this, most of us don't, so here is my non-expert explanation.
- When you run Service Manager Workflows, they run in the same process.
- If these workflows are running powershell, the powershell sessions are sometimes (or always) shared.
- By "running powershell inside a powershell" we can isolate our scripts, preventing issues between shared sessions.
- Once the script is complete, it cleans itself up, and completely closes the sessions.
The only issue I see with this method is that it might take the workflow a second or two longer to run because of having to open the new session - plan accordingly.
How we do it:
Take your completed script, and simply wrap the script in powershell.
For example, if my script is:
Import-Module Activedirectory
Get-User
I simply wrap it like this:
Powershell {
Import-Module Activedirectory
Get-User
}Another Example with Parameters:
Powershell {
param($Name, $pcc);
get-process $Name -ComputerName $pcc;} -args "explorer", "localhost"
Thanks goes out to Thomas Bianco for coming up with this simple workaround as a way to isolate Powershell Sessions.
Additional information was retrieved from http://systemcenterblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/orchestrator-vs-powershell-i-win.html
