Get-WmiObject : The RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)

Question

When I run

Get-WmiObject win32_SystemEnclosure -Computer hostname | select serialnumber

it works for both local and remote hosts.

W

Answer 1

Your code probably isn't using a correct machine name, you should double check that.

Your error is:

Get-WmiObject : The RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)

This is the result you get when a machine is not reachable. So the firewall suggestions are reasonable, but in this case probably not correct because you say this works:

Get-WmiObject win32_SystemEnclosure -Computer hostname

So in your case it seems when this line is executed:

Get-WmiObject win32_SystemEnclosure -Computer $_

$_ doesn't contain a proper computer name. You could check type and contents of $_. Probably there is a problem with the file contents. If the file looks right, then maybe the lines are not properly terminated. Maybe take a closer look using Write-Host:

ForEach ($_ in gc u:\pub\list.txt) {
    Write-Host "Get-WmiObject win32_SystemEnclosure -Computer '$_'"
    Get-WmiObject win32_SystemEnclosure -Computer $_ | select serialnumber | format-table -auto @{Label="Hostname"; Expression={$_}}, @{Label="Service Tag"; Expression={$_.serialnumber}}
}