Back in October I shared with you a way to retrieve environment variables with a script titled Using Environment variables inside a VBScript script. The script worked like a champ and got me through several tight binds in gathering information, hopefully it has for you as well. However, it has one flaw… it doesn’t work on a remote system! In fact, it only works on the system that the script is running on.
So, I had to recently go back to the drawing board and create a script and series of functions that would work remotely so that I could wrap it in a function to gather information from a bunch of servers. I also Learned a thing or two in the process!
First, The script uses the Win32_environment classes in WMI and this class returns ALL envirnment variables for ALL users. That threw me for a loop when I saw multiple PATH environment variables– some that were different. Second, The search is case sensitive without using the SQL % wildcards (I didn’t need them, so implementing that is left up to you the reader.)
I have the three functions I wrote, that are really variations of one another below. Just add them to your script and call them with the appropriate values and you should be in business!
Function RemoteAllEnvironmentVariables(ServerName)
‘Lists all environment variables on the remote system
Dim objWMIService, colItems, objItem
RemoteAllEnvironmentVariables = “”
Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:\\” & ServerName & “\root\cimv2″)
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery(“Select * from Win32_Environment”)
For Each objItem in colItems
RemoteAllEnvironmentVariables = RemoteAllEnvironmentVariables & objitem.name & “: ” & objItem.VariableValue & VbCrLf
Next
End Function
Function RemoteAllEnvironmentVariablesVariations(ServerName, VariableName)
‘Lists all environment variables on the remote system, along with every case variation
Dim objWMIService, colItems, objItem
RemoteAllEnvironmentVariablesVariations = “”
Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:\\” & ServerName & “\root\cimv2″)
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery(“Select * from Win32_Environment”)
For Each objItem in colItems
If UCase(objItem.name) = UCase(VariableName) Then
RemoteAllEnvironmentVariablesVariations = RemoteAllEnvironmentVariablesVariations & objitem.name & “: ” & objItem.VariableValue & VbCrLf
End If
Next
End Function
Function RemoteEnvironmentVariable(ServerName, VariableName)
’Lists all environment variables on the remote system, exactly as you typed it in the function call.
Dim objWMIService, colItems, objItem
RemoteEnvironmentVariable = “”
Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:\\” & ServerName & “\root\cimv2″)
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery(“Select * from Win32_Environment Where Name = ‘” & VariableName & “‘”)
For Each objItem in colItems
RemoteEnvironmentVariable = objItem.VariableValue
Next
End Function
