WebAdministration Not Loaded Correctly on Remote

When making remote calls that use the WebAdministration module you can sometimes get this error, inconsistently:

ERROR: Get-WebSite : Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.IIS.PowerShell.Framework' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

It’s a really tricky error because its inconsistent. But, there is a workaround that will prevent the error from giving you too much trouble. From the community that has done troubleshooting on this, the problem seems to occur on the first call that uses the WebAdministration module. If you can wrap that call in a try/catch, then subsequent calls will work correctly.

$scriptBlock = {
    Import-Module WebAdministration

    try {
        $sites = Get-WebSite
    } catch {
        # http://help.octopusdeploy.com/discussions/problems/5172-error-using-get-website-in-predeploy-because-of-filenotfoundexception
        $sites = Get-WebSite
    }
}

Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock $scriptBlock -ComputerName Remote01

PowerShell AppPool Assignment Problems

The WebAdministration module has a Function called IIS:. It essentially acts like a drive letter or an uri protocol. Its really convenient and makes accessing appPool, site information, and ssl bindings easy.

I recently noticed two problems with assigning values through the IIS: protocol or the objects which is works with:

StartMode Can’t Be Set Directly

For some reason, using Set-ItemProperty to set the startMode value directly throws an error. But, if you retrieve the appPool into a variable and set the value using an = operator, everything works fine.

# https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedbackdetail/view/1023778/webadministration-apppool-startmode-cant-be-set-directly
ipmo webadministration

New-WebAppPool "delete.me"

Set-ItemProperty IIS:\AppPools\delete.me startMode "AlwaysRunning" # throws an error

$a = Get-Item IIS:\AppPools\delete.me
$a.startMode = "AlwaysRunning"
Set-Item IIS:\AppPools\delete.me $a # works

Here is the error that gets thrown:

Set-ItemProperty : AlwaysRunning is not a valid value for Int32.
At C:\Issue-PowershellThrowsErrorOnAppPoolStartMode.ps1:6 char:1
+ Set-ItemProperty IIS:\AppPools\delete.me startMode "AlwaysRunning" # throws an e ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-ItemProperty], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Exception,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetItemPropertyCommand

 

CPU’s resetLimit Can’t Directly Use New-TimeSpan’s Result

I think the example can show the problem better than I can describe it:

# https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedbackdetail/view/1023785/webadministration-apppools-cpu-limit-interval-resetlimit-cant-be-set-directly
ipmo webadministration

New-WebAppPool "delete.me"

$a = Get-ItemProperty IIS:\AppPools\delete.me cpu
$a.resetInterval = New-TimeSpan -Minutes 4 # this will throw an error
Set-ItemProperty IIS:\AppPools\delete.me cpu $a

$a = Get-ItemProperty IIS:\AppPools\delete.me cpu
$k = New-TimeSpan -Minutes 4 # this will work
$a.resetInterval = $k
Set-ItemProperty IIS:\AppPools\delete.me cpu $a

Here is the error that gets thrown:

Set-ItemProperty : Specified cast is not valid.
At C:\Issue-PowershellThrowsErrorOnCpuLimitReset.ps1:8 char:1
+ Set-ItemProperty IIS:\AppPools\delete.me cpu $a
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-ItemProperty], InvalidCastException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.InvalidCastException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetItemPropertyCommand

The links on each section correspond with bug reports for the issues, so hopefully they will get looked into.