Powershell command to FTP a file from server to select PCs on a network

Question

TLDR: I need to move a large file from a server to the desktop of multiple SELECT machines connected to it.

Network topography:

• 1 Server
• 5 - 20 Connected PCs

This topography is pretty standard across all remote networks that I work on. On some occasions, I have to put files on each machine on a network; sometimes only on a few individual machines that site admins utilize.

I keep a 'master copy' of the file on the server at all times, and currently RDPing into each machine i need it on (once I resolve the IP to make sure they aren't printers/tablets/phones/etc...) and copy over the file where I need it from the server to the connected machine (the directory is standard). After researching, I think a PS script would probably work for what I need but I only know enough to be dangerous.

I use the following to resolve IPs to host names so I can determine which machines I need to put it on:

@echo off setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion set "xNext=" set "xComputer=" for /f %%A in ('net view /all') do ( set "xComputer=%%~A" if "!xComputer:~0,2!"=="\\" for /f "tokens=2,* delims=. " %%X in ('nslookup %%A') do ( if "!xNext!"=="1" ( echo.!xComputer! = %%X.%%Y set "xNext=0" ) if "!xComputer:~2!"=="%%~X" set "xNext=1" ) ) endlocal pause 

I want the ability to use the output of this code to build a list of IPs, then FTP the file to the IPs to a common directory C:/Folder . I could build a ComputerList.txt with the IPs and use it but I'm not quite sure how to integrate it.

Answer 1

If you're just needing to copy a file locally you don't need FTP, you can use a copy command (copy, xcopy, robocopy). Create a powershell array from your objects, then use the foreach cmdlet and use robocopy to copy the file to each of the workstations. Something line like:

Get-Content c:\machines_List.txt | Foreach-Object {robocopy c:\source \\$_\c$\folder filename.exe"} 

Answer 2

Thankfully you don't need to recreate the wheel here. Use WinSCP. Here's the link to the documentation:

WinSCP - Using from PowerShell

If you need assistance after looking at this documentation, let me know by leaving a comment.