Powershell remoting: inconsistent connectivity

Question

How is it that one Powershell command works on a remote machine but not the other from the same console?

1. PS C:> Get-Service -Name WinRM -ComputerName win8

   Status Name DisplayName
   ------ ---- -----------
   Running WinRM Windows Remote Management (WS-Manag...

2. PS C:> Get-Counter '\Paging File(*)\% Usage' -ComputerName win8 Get-Counter : Unable to connect to the specified computer or the computer is offline. At line:1 char:1

   • Get-Counter '\Paging File(*)\% Usage' -ComputerName win8
   • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   • CategoryInfo : InvalidResult: (:) [Get-Counter], Exception
   • FullyQualifiedErrorId : CounterApiError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCount erCommand

Answer 1

Get-Service and Get-Counter use a different remoting layer for -ComputerName. Invoke-Command -ComputerName uses the WinRM remoting layer, Get-Service (I believe) is a remote registry call. Get-Counter is a DCOM call, I believe over WMI.

It's a pretty good rule of thumb that if you don't know that a cmdlet with -ComputerName in it is using the PowerShell remoting layer, it's probably not. Many cmdlets had -ComputerName in V1 of PowerShell, and many other remoting layers are more efficient than WinRM, so many -ComputerName parameters use their own layer.