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Anuj Dube
Anuj Dube

Posted on • Originally published at anujdube.com on

Copying Files From Local To Remote Using PowerShell

#powershell #automation #copy #robocopy

Let's say you want to copy files/folders from a local device to one or more remote Windows servers. We have lots of ways to do this but in this article, we will be looking into how to do that using PowerShell. In your local and remote at both places, you need to enable PowerShell remoting.

Step 1: Check and set the execution policy

Get-ExecutionPolicy
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if the exception policy is not RemoteSigned set it to RemoteSigned.

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
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Step 2: Enable PowerShell remoting

Please keep in mind, When the SkipNetworkProfileCheck parameter is specified, it bypasses the check for network profiles during the configuration process. This allows PowerShell remoting to be enabled even if the network profile is not classified as private or domain.

Enable-PSremoting -SkipNetworkProfileCheck
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Now to the main part

Method 1: Using Copy-Item with session

The most simple and best way. just use the ToSession parameter provided within copy-item.

$sourcePath = "C:\temp\files" $destinationPath = "C:\temp\files" $serverName = "<server name>" $username = "<username>" $credentail = Get-Credential -Message "Enter Credentials" -UserName $username $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $serverName -Credential $credentail Copy-Item -Path $sourcePath -Destination $destinationPath -Recurse -ToSession $session
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in the above script, we created a PowerShell session to that remote Windows server and then we are copying the whole folder from source to destination.

Method 2: Using Copy-Item with PS Drive

Here we are creating a ps-drive and then doing the copying part. this method helps to interact with the remote location in a way that resembles working with a local drive.

$sourcePath = "C:\temp\files" $destinationPath = "C:\temp\files" $serverName = "<server name>" $username = "<username>" $driveName = "R" $credentail = Get-Credential -Message "Enter Credentials" -UserName $username New-PSDrive -Name $driveName -PSProvider FileSystem -Root $destinationPath -Credential $credentail Copy-Item -Path $sourcePath -Destination $driveName:\ -Recurse Remove-PSDrive -Name $driveName
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Method 3: Using Robocopy

Robocopy (Robust File Copy) is a command-line utility built into Windows that provides advanced options for copying files and directories.

While using robocopy easier way is to create a local drive and then use that for copying files.

keep in mind drive name should be a single character like A, R, X etc. Not names like "newDrive", "test" etc.

$sourcePath = "C:\temp\files" $destinationPath = "C:\temp\files" $serverName = "<server name>" $username = "<username>" $driveName = "R" $credentail = Get-Credential -Message "Enter Credentials" -UserName $username robocopy $sourcePath $driveName:\ /E /Z /COPYALL /R:3 /W:1 Remove-PSDrive -Name $driveName
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Meaning of copy options we have passed

/E: copies subdirectories, including empty ones.

/Z: enables restartable mode.

/COPYALL: copies all file information.

/R:3: specifies 3 retries on failed copies.

/W:1: sets the wait time between retries to 1 second.

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