Mass enabling windows features via PowerShell

Recently I needed to add the SNMP service to a few hundred systems. There are few more involved methods for this via unattended installs with SCCM or batch scripted GPO-linked entries but if you want a quick and easy way how, try the below.

Target OS: Server 2008, 2008R2, 2012 and 2012R2

Source system was a 2012R2 box with the AD and ServerManager PowerShell modules installed

Import-Module ActiveDirectory
$myservers = Get-ADComputer -SearchBase "OU=My Servers,DC=liquidobject,DC=com" -Filter "*"
foreach($i in $myservers)
{
 $mysession = New-PSSession -ComputerName $i.name
 Invoke-Command -Session $mysession {Import-Module Servermanager}
 Invoke-Command -Session $mysession {Add-WindowsFeature SNMP-Service}
}

Any server in the OU offline or running an unsupported os (ie Server 2003….we all have them) will throw an error. The above is pretty basic example on how you can install any Windows feature remotely. The remote PSSession and Invoke-Command methods allow you to perform any supported PowerShell command remotely.

In the event your running a legacy version of Windows, there are still options available. The limitation of the below is that it requires you to login to the given system and run the command with an administrative command prompt.

servermanagercmd.exe -install snmp-service
logout

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