Different Interpretation of ShellCommands local / WinRM

Question

Hi,
SCOM is driving me crazy lately. Sometimes even simple shellcommands that work fine locally on the server won't work while executed via SCOM.
Working locally:
ps -ef | grep /opt/autara_ra/agent/webservice/bin/ucxjcitx.jar |grep -v grep
4107 3056 3046 0 Apr23 ? 00:13:52 /usr/java/latest/bin/java -jar /opt/autara_ra/agent/webservice/bin/ucxjcitx.jar -i/opt/autara_ra/agent/webservice/bin/ucxjcitx_V10.ini
Not working testing with WinRM:
<p:ExecuteShellCommand_INPUT xmlns:p="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/SCX_OperatingSystem">
<p:command>ps -ef | grep /opt/autara_ra/agent/webservice/bin/ucxjcitx.jar |grep -v grep</p:command>
<p:timeout>120</p:timeout>
</p:ExecuteShellCommand_INPUT>
winrm i ExecuteShellCommand "http://schemas.microsoft.com/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/SCX_OperatingSystem?__cimnamespace=root/scx" -username:monuser -password:xyz -r:https://servername:1270/wsman -auth:basic -skipcacheck -skipcncheck -encoding:utf-8 -FILE:c:\temp\shellcommand.xml
ExecuteShellCommand_OUTPUT
ReturnCode = 1
StdOut
StdErr
ReturnValue = false
Trying different commands with just a "wc -l" at the end or grepping for other strings like "ucxjcitx" also doesn't work.
Is it possible that there are some problems with long command lines? or with special characters?
Not working: ps -ef | grep /opt/autara_ra/agent/webservice/bin/ucxjcitx.jar
Not working: ps -ef | grep ucxjcitx
Working: ps -ef | grep -c ucxjcitx
Working: pgrep -lf java | grep /opt/autara_ra/agent/webservice/bin/ucxjcitx.jar | grep -v bash
So it is pretty strange which combinations do work and which don't. I don't get it. Am I missing something?
Regards,
Holger

Answer 1

Hi Holger,
I'm having problems replicating exactly what you specified, see following:
C:\Users\jeffcof>winrm invoke ExecuteShellCommand http://schemas.microsoft.com/w
bem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/SCX_OperatingSystem?__cimnamespace=root/scx -auth:basic
-remote:https://jeffcof64-rhel6-01:1270 -username:scxuser -password:scxuser -sk
ipCAcheck -skipCNcheck -encoding:utf-8 @{command="ps -ef | grep omi";timeout="30
SCX_OperatingSystem_OUTPUT
ReturnValue = TRUE
ReturnCode = 0
StdOut = jeffcof 11382 63865 0 10:23 ? 00:00:00 /opt/microsoft/omi/
bin/omiagent 10 12 --destdir / --providerdir /opt/microsoft/omi/lib --idletimeou
t 90 --loglevel WARNING
scxuser 11541 63865 0 10:49 ? 00:00:00 /opt/microsoft/omi/bin/omiagent
10 13 --destdir / --providerdir /opt/microsoft/omi/lib --idletimeout 90 --loglev
el WARNING
scxuser 11549 11541 0 10:49 ? 00:00:00 /bin/bash -c ps -ef | grep omi
scxuser 11552 11549 0 10:49 ? 00:00:00 grep omi
root 63865 1 0 Apr28 ? 00:00:00 /opt/microsoft/omi/bin/omiserver
-d
StdErr
C:\Users\jeffcof>winrm invoke ExecuteShellCommand http://schemas.microsoft.com/w
bem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/SCX_OperatingSystem?__cimnamespace=root/scx -auth:basic
-remote:https://jeffcof64-rhel6-01:1270 -username:scxuser -password:scxuser -sk
ipCAcheck -skipCNcheck -encoding:utf-8 @{command="ps -ef | grep omi | grep -v gr
ep";timeout="30"}
SCX_OperatingSystem_OUTPUT
ReturnValue = TRUE
ReturnCode = 0
StdOut = jeffcof 11382 63865 0 10:23 ? 00:00:00 /opt/microsoft/omi/
bin/omiagent 10 12 --destdir / --providerdir /opt/microsoft/omi/lib --idletimeou
t 90 --loglevel WARNING
scxuser 11541 63865 0 10:49 ? 00:00:00 /opt/microsoft/omi/bin/omiagent
10 13 --destdir / --providerdir /opt/microsoft/omi/lib --idletimeout 90 --loglev
el WARNING
root 63865 1 0 Apr28 ? 00:00:00 /opt/microsoft/omi/bin/omiserver
-d
StdErr
I also noted that I got longer command lines, although this can by stty specific, and thus susceptible to login scripts.
To deal with the length issue, there are several ways to handle that:
1. Pick different ps output to print fewer columns, this giving you more space on the line for command line stuff. For example, a command like: "ps -eo pid,tid,comm | grep
omiserver" might help with this,
2. Set the appropriate column width that you want using stty first, or just using the '--cols x' qualifier to ps to specify this.
3. For ps, just use the -w qualifier twice for unlimited line lengt, like this: "ps -ef -w -w"
I did want to point out that these issues are really Linux *SHELL* issues, and have nothing at all to do with ExecuteShellCommand. I can replicate these issues myself from the command line on Linux on a SuSE or Redhat system.
It's not ExecuteShellCommand's fault if the shell doesn't output everything you want/need. Make the command work on UNIX/Linux first, then make the command work with ExecuteShellCommand! :-)
Hope this was helpful. If you have further questions, feel free to follow up, and I'll do everything I can to help out.
/Jeff