Run a Script on Remote Systems

A frequent network and system management task is that of executing scripts or other executable files on remote Windows computers from a central NOC console. For example, you may need to execute tasks across a network such as:

You can easily perform such tasks in the SilverBack managed services platform by using Remote Tasks.

Part of the SilverBack Remediation Pack, a separately purchasable option, Remote Tasks are execution instances of staged scripts, or other executable files, that you can run on remote Windows systems directly from the SilverBack user interface.

You can use any scripting language you wish for your Remote Tasks, as long the target devices have executables installed that can read and understand your scripts. For example, if you want to use a Perl script as a Remote Task, you must ensure that your targets have Perl interpreters installed. Visual Basic scripts require the targets to have cscript.exe installed in their system root directories.

Remote Tasks are intended for non-interactive use. You should not use Remote Tasks if your scripts use an interactive UI. For that reason, use the non-interactive cscript command rather than the interactive wscript. In addition, Remote Tasks do not support redirection of standard output or standard error in command lines. You can pipe them to other commands.

 

Adding a Remote Task

  1. From the Remediation category page click on the Add Remote Task link to display the Add Remote Task form.

You will use the Attributes, General and Schedule tabs in the Add Remote Task form.

By default the Remote Task will target all devices, so you do not need to specify devices using the Targets tab unless you want to. 

 

  1. Select your own Management Domain as the parent Management Domain from the drop-down, then enter a Name for your new Remote Task. The Description is optional.

    You can enter a description of the Remote Task , up to a maximum of 1024 characters. You can also enter HTML links here in the format "http://<target>”, “https://<target>" or "mailto:<email_address>". The quotation marks are mandatory for HTML links.

    Each object in the SilverBack managed services platform requires a unique name that is as descriptive as possible.

    The maximum length of this field is 64 characters.

    If you leave the Name field blank, you will be prompted to enter it before you can save.

  1. Click on the Visible to Subdomains checkbox to enable the Remote Task to run at remote customer sites.

    The default state is False (unchecked).

 

  1. Click on the General tab.

  2. Click on the Browse button to search for the executable file that you want to install.

  3. Enter the CLI command used to install the software into the Command Line field.

 

  1. In the Schedule tab, select the Schedule Once radio button, then use the drop-downs to configure the date and time that the installations should occur.

For one-time installations do not select the Schedule Recurrence radio button.

 

 

  1. Click on the Save button to upload the script to SilverBack and run it according to the schedule.

 

 

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