PowerShell - Remote Sessions, Try{}Catch{}, ErrorActionPreference

Question

Hello everyone,
I am encountering issues with Remote Exchange sessions and was wondering what I am overlooking/over-complicating.
I am running Windows 8.1/PowerShell 4.0. Reason I mention this is because of this blog post:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2013/10/25/windows-management-framework-4-0-is-now-available.aspx
The IMPORTANT section noted that Exchange 2007, 2010, 2013 are not compatible with WMF 4.0 and didn't know if that is good/bad since the OS is using PowerShell 4.0.
1 - I am connecting to Office 365 utilizing the following:
http://help.outlook.com/en-us/140/cc952755.aspx
2 - I have the following function:
function Get-SomeMailboxStatistics {
[CmdletBinding()]
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,
ValueFromPipeline=$True,
HelpMessage="Identities or aliases to gather Exchange Statistics from.")]
[Alias('Username')]
[string[]]$Identity,
[string]$ErrorLog = 'C:\MbxStatsErrorLog.txt',
[switch]$LogErrors
BEGIN{}
PROCESS{
Write-Verbose "Beginning..."
foreach ($alias in $Identity)
Write-Verbose "Gathering info for $alias."
#trap [ManagementObjectNotFoundException] {$everythingOK = $false}
Try{
# $ErrorActionPreference = "Stop" # Testing purposes.
$everythingOK = $true
$gms = Get-MailboxStatistics -Identity $alias -ErrorAction Stop # http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh847884.aspx
# Trap {
# throw $_
Catch{
$everythingOK = $false
Write-Warning "Lookup on $alias failed."
if ($LogErrors -eq $true){
$alias | Out-File $ErrorLog -Append
Write-Warning "Logged $alias to $ErrorLog."
if ($everythingOK){
$props = @{};
$props = @{'Alias' = $alias;
'DisplayName' = $gms.DisplayName;
'TotalItemSizeInBytes' = ($gms.TotalItemSize.Value.ToString() -replace "(.*\()|,| [a-z]*\)", "");
'TotalDeletedItemSizeInBytes' = ($gms.TotalDeletedItemSize.Value.ToString() -replace "(.*\()|,| [a-z]*\)", "");
'MailboxType' = $gms.MailboxType; };
$obj = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $props
Write-Output $obj
END{}
Example: Get-SomeMailboxStatistics -Identity GoodAlias1,GoodAlias2,FailAlias,GoodAlias3 -LogErrors -ErrorLog 'C:\Logs\MbxStatsErrors.txt' -Verbose
The pipeline terminates on FailAlias, and then throws an error when it tries to pass the FailAlias to the $props.
$gms | Get-Member on a good alias is:
TypeName: Deserialized.Microsoft.Exchange.Management.MapiTasks.Presentation.MailboxStatistics
I have tried setting $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop' in various sections and think I am scope-creeping/not catching the Error where I should be or PowerShell is flat-out ignoring something.
I have tried additional nested if{}else{} in the Try{}Catch{} and cannot get it to behave as expected.
I have also tried to Trap{[ManagementObjectNotFoundException]} and Throw exception in various portions without success.
However, setting $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop' in the session window (from default of 'Continue') the script behaves as I expected it to, when encountering a non-existant mailbox, it logs the error. It doesn't seem to have issues executing on Windows 8.0/PowerShell
3.0.
I have encountered numerous blog/forum posts with no definitive answer/resolution.
Based some of my tests around some suggestions from this thread:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1142211/try-catch-does-not-seem-to-have-an-effect
Extras:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2010/03/09/hey-scripting-guy-march-9-2010.aspxhttp://stackoverflow.com/questions/19553278/powershell-catch-non-terminating-errors-with-silentlycontinue
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15545429/erroractionpreference-and-erroraction-silentlycontinue-for-get-pssessionconfigur
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/scriptcenter/en-US/228a3329-f564-4daa-ad70-6d869b912246/non-terminating-error-turned-into-a-terminating-error?forum=winserverpowershell

Answer 1

This is not the only problem with WMF 4.0
When you use -ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue', $Error object is not set.
[PS]
$Error.Clear()
[PS]
$objContact =
Get-Contact -Identity
'CN=unknown contact,OU=Users,DC=mydomain,DC=mytopdomain'
-ErrorAction 'Stop'
The operation couldn't be performed because object 'mytopdomain.mydomain/Users/unknown contact' couldn't be found on 'mydc.mydomain.mytopdomain'.
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-Contact], ManagementObjectNotFoundException   
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : 482E7079,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.RecipientTasks.GetContact
    + PSComputerName        : myexchange.mydomain.mytopdomain
[PS]
$Error.Count
1
[PS]
$Error.Clear()
[PS]
$objContact =
Get-Contact -Identity
'CN=unknown contact,OU=Users,DC=mydomain,DC=mytopdomain'
-ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue'
[PS]
$Error.Count
0
That's why since Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 5 (i suppose when reading Exchange Supportability Matrix), The Exchange Management Shell link has been updated to use Powershell 2.0
Before 2010 SP3 Rollup 5
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noexit -command ". 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\bin\RemoteExchange.ps1'; Connect-ExchangeServer -auto"
After 2010 SP3 Rollup 5
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -version 2.0 -noexit -command ". 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\bin\RemoteExchange.ps1'; Connect-ExchangeServer -auto"