Hack 8 Execute a Command on Each Computer in a Domain

This handy script lets you easily run any command on a specified subset of computers in your domain .

Running the same command on multiple computers in your domain can be tedious indeed, but such a scenario is common in an administrator's life. I've written this hack to make this chore easier. The script traverses member systems of a domain, executing a command against each system that has a name that matches a particular specification you specify in the command line. Note that regular expressions are legal in this script, which makes it a powerful and flexible addition to the administrator's toolkit.

The Code

To use this script, type it into a text editor such as Notepad (make sure Word Wrap is disabled) and save it with a .vbs extension as ExecuteAll.vbs . Alternatively, if you don't want to wear your fingers out, you can download the script from the O'Reilly web site.

 'Script Name: ExecuteAll.vbs Option Explicit Dim oDomain, oService, oItem, oShell Dim strDomain, strSpec, strCommand, intButton Dim oArgs, strFinalCommand, oRegEx, boolConfirm ' Prepare to execute commands & do popups Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") GetArguments ' Access the domain so we can traverse objects WScript.Echo "Accessing NT Domain " & strDomain Set oDomain = GetObject("WinNT://" & strDomain) ' Initiate our regular expression support Set oRegEx = New RegExp oRegEx.Pattern = strSpec oRegEx.IgnoreCase = True ' Traverse each computer (WinNT) object in the domain WScript.Echo "Searching for " & strSpec oDomain.Filter = Array("Computer") ' only look at computers For Each oItem In oDomain If oRegEx.Test(oItem.Name) Then WScript.Echo " Matched " & oItem.Name strFinalCommand = Replace(strCommand, "$n", oItem.Name) intButton = vbNo If boolConfirm Then intButton = oShell.Popup("Execute " & strFinalCommand & "?",,_ "System " & oItem.Name, vbYesno + vbQuestion) End If If (boolConfirm = False) Or (intButton = vbYes) Then WScript.Echo " Executing: " & strFinalCommand execute strFinalCommand End If End If Next ' All done; clean up Set oItem = Nothing Set oRegEx = Nothing Set oDomain = Nothing Set oShell = Nothing Set oArgs = Nothing ' ' Glean the arguments for our run from the command line, if provided. ' If any are missing, prompt for input. A blank input signals an abort. ' ' /Y is an optional last argument Sub GetArguments Dim i, strConfirm, intButton Set oArgs = WScript.Arguments boolConfirm = True ' assume always confirm strDomain = "" ' domain to be traversed strSpec = "" ' name specification to be matched strCommand = "" ' command to be executed on each match strConfirm = "" ' track prompting for confirmation setting ' Look for our optional 4th argument If oArgs.Length = 4 Then If UCase(oArgs.Item(3)) = "/Y" Then boolConfirm = False strConfirm = "/Y" ' don't prompt below End If End If ' Look for any specified arguments, in order If oArgs.Length >= 1 Then strDomain = oArgs(0) If oArgs.Length >= 2 Then strSpec = oArgs(1) If oArgs.Length >= 3 Then strCommand = oArgs(2) ' Prompt for any arguments not specified on the command line If strDomain = "" Then strDomain = InputBox _ ("Enter the name of the NT Domain to be traversed", _ "NT Domain") End If If strDomain = "" Then WScript.Quit strDomain = UCase(strDomain) If strSpec = "" Then strSpec = InputBox _ ("Enter your name specification for the computer(s) " & _ "that will be matched within the " & strDomain & " Domain." & _ vbCrlf & "Regular Expressions are acceptable.", _ "Name Specification") End If If strSpec = "" Then WScript.Quit If strCommand = "" Then strCommand = InputBox _ ("Enter the command to be executed on each computer matching " & _ strSpec & " within the " & strDomain & " Domain." & _ vbCrlf & "$n will be substituted for the computer name.", _ "Command to Execute") End If If strCommand = "" Then WScript.Quit If strConfirm = "" Then intButton = oShell.Popup("Confirm each command prior to execution?",,_ "Confirm?", vbYesNo + vbQuestion) If intButton = vbNo Then boolConfirm = False End If End If End Sub ' Execute a command. Each is always run under a new instance of the command ' processor. This allows the use of built-in commands and I/O redirection. ' ' We won't wait for command completion. Sub Execute(strCommand) Dim RetVal strCommand = "%COMSPEC% /c " & strCommand RetVal = oShell.Run(strCommand, 1, False) End Sub 

Running the Hack

Here is the syntax for running the script:

 ExexcuteAll.vbs <DomainToTraverse> <ComputerSpecification> <Command> [/Y] 

When the script runs, the matched system's name will be substituted for the occurrence of $n in the command to be performed. By default, each command instance is confirmed before it is executed, but you can specify /Y to always answer Yes instead.

Here's an example of how to run the script:

 ExexcuteAll.vbs MYDOMAIN WKSATL* "del \$n\admin$\activitylog.txt" 

This example traverses the MYDOMAIN domain, looking for computer names that start with WKSATL* (note the wildcard) and deletes the activitylog.txt file from the C:\Winnt folder.

Hans Schefske