Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation Windows Server 2016

[JCayetano]

Hello folks , I am stuck 

I am running a simple command 

Import-Module "VMware.VimAutomation.Core"

Connect-VIServer something.something.vcenter1

$vms = Import-CSV D:\Scripts\~\adhoc.csv

foreach ($vm in $vms){

$vmn = $vm.vmname

Invoke-VMScript -vm $vmn -ScriptText "ping something.something" -GuestUser $GuestCred -GuestPassword $GuestPass -ScriptType Bat

}

I am getting the follow error:

Invoke-VMScript : 3/5/2019 7:45:31 PM    Invoke-VMScript        Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.   

At D:\Scripts\~\dr_adhoc.ps1:90 char:9

+ Invoke-VMScript -vm $vmn -ScriptText "ping something.something" -GuestU ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Invoke-VMScript], VimException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Core_BaseCmdlet_UnknownError,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.InvokeVmScript

If I run the same command on a non windows 2016 it works without any problem I am curios if it is something else

[LucD]

Did you already check the vmware.log of that VM for additional information?

Anything in the event logs on box?

Does the same happen when you change the ScriptType to PowerShell?

[JCayetano · Accepted solution]

I wish I could get the  vmware logs but I couldn't . While working remote the proxy is blocking the downloads

I got it resolved  by:

$password = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText $GuestPass -Force

$credential = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $GuestCred,$password

Then inside the for each cycle loop I added : 

$text = Invoke-command -ComputerName $vmn -ScriptBlock { ping A.B.C.D } -Credential $credential

echo $text

I hope in the future someone have a workaround to use the Invoke-VMScript 

[LucD]

The only problem with Invoke-Command is that you rely on the fact that network connectivity to the guest OS is open.

[sjesse]

I don't remember the exact error but I remember an issue where if you didn't have a valid certificate on the vm you couldn't use the Invoke-VMScript

[JCayetano]

Sounds interesting  about the valid cert. I will try to dive into that .

I got all of this "Exception" resolved in another post where I had the same problem and I really needed the Invoke-VMScript to work ..

Unable to use some Cmdlets - ERROR  Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation inVMware PowerCLI