Remote PowerShell | Secure & Automate Device Management with NinjaOne

Remote PowerShell is a NinjaOne feature that allows you to run PowerShell cmdlets and scripts directly and interactively on a managed endpoint, as if you were sitting in front of the remote computer, without starting a remote desktop session or interrupting the end user.

Follow the steps below to start a remote PowerShell session in NinjaOne.

1. In the NinjaOne console, open the device dashboard.
2. Find the Windows endpoint where you want to initiate the remote Powershell session. You can use the filters to narrow down the device list.
3. Click on the device name. The screen changes to show the endpoint´s overview.
4. On the right of the device name, hover the mouse over the >_ symbol. then, hover over Powershell and then click on the your preferred option to run the Powershell console (System, 32 bits; System, 64 bits; logged-in user, 32 bits or logged-in user, 64 bits).
5. Authenticate via MFA.
6. The remote Windows Powershell console will appear.
7. At the console, you can start typing Powershell commands and they will run on the remote computer.
8. To close the session, just click the X on the upper right of the console window, and confirm.

Follow the steps below to run a Powershell script on the remote Windows computer.

Note: The script should exist in the automation library.

1. In the NinjaOne console, open the device dashboard.
2. Find the Windows endpoint where you want to initiate the remote Powershell session. You can use the filters to narrow down the device list.
3. Click on the device name. The screen changes to show the endpoint´s overview.
4. On the right of the device name, hover the mouse over the
   symbol. then, hover over Run Automation and then click on Script. The Automation library appears, showing the existing scripts in the library.
5. Find the Powershell script you want to run, you can use filters to narrow down the list if needed.
6. Click on the script, a dialog box will appear.
7. Under Run As, choose the user account that will be used to run the script (default is System).
8. Under Preset Parameter, select the options (if needed).
9. Click Run and confirm.
   The script will run on the remote computer.

In NinjaOne, PowerShell remoting does not need to be enabled manually—it’s a built-in feature that is always available for Windows endpoints, however, running scripts might be disabled on the target computer. To enable running scripts on a Windows computer, simply run this PowerShell command: Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass.

When you are at the PowerShell console and you want to run a PowerShell script, simply invoke the script by typing the path + name (the script must be in the computer you are remoting).

i.e. C:\Path\To\Your\Script\YourScript.ps1

Take into account that some features, like NinjaOne tags are only available when running from an automation script.

Fortunately, PowerShell is cross-platform, meaning it runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS. This has been true since the release of PowerShell Core (version 6.0), which was introduced in January 2018.

To launch the PowerShell console from Linux, simply type pwsh in the terminal. On some Linux distributions you may need to use powershell instead.

Keep in mind that the PowerShell package may need to be installed manually, since it is not a built-in feature in Linux.

Although NinjaOne cannot open a PowerShell remote session on a Linux machine, it does allow you to initiate a remote terminal session for Linux endpoints. Once there, you can launch PowerShell.

Follow the steps below to run an interactive PowerShell session from NinjaOne using the Linux terminal.

Note: the steps below assume that the PowerShell package is already installed on the remote computer.

1. In the NinjaOne console, open the device dashboard.
2. Find the Linux endpoint where you want to initiate the remote Powershell session. You can use the filters to narrow down the device list.
3. Click on the device name. The screen changes to show the endpoint´s overview.
4. On the right of the device name, hover the mouse over the terminal symbol ( >_ ). then, select Terminal or Terminal as root.
5. Authenticate via MFA.
6. The Linux terminal appears.
7. Run pwsh. The PowerShell prompt appears.
8. Start running cmdlets interactively.