reboot a system in powershell

Posted on by michael

For a script I have that maintains our systems and installs new versions of our web code, I have the occassional need to also reboot a server during after that install. Like most things programming, there are several ways to script a reboot.

This first example (my preferred method) reboots a remote system.

$objServerOS = gwmi win32_operatingsystem -computer servername
$objServerOS.reboot()

Leave off the “-computer servername” to reboot the local system.

This second method is similar. The following lines will reboot the local system, force the reboot of the local system, or reboot a remote system.

(gwmi win32_operatingsystem).Win32Shutdown(2)

(gwmi win32_operatingsystem).Win32Shutdown(6)

(gwmi win32_operatingsystem -ComputerName Server).Win32Shutdown(6)

Here is a list of the codes that can be used.

0 -Log Off
4 -Forced Log Off
1 -Shutdown
5 -Forced Shutdown
2 -Reboot
6 -Forced Reboot
8 -Power Off
12 -Forced Power Off

Pipe $objServerOS or (gwmi win32_operatingsystem) to Get-Member to see more goodies.

There is a good chance the above commands will error when trying to do a reboot, complaining about privileges not held, even if you’re running as admin. Add a privs enable line in between the above two, and it will process just fine.

$objServer = gwmi win32_operatingsystem
$objServer.psbase.Scope.Options.EnablePrivileges = $true
$objServer.reboot()

4 thoughts on “reboot a system in powershell”

  1. i would really like to be able to reboot machines remotely from a text file. CAn you help. This is what I have and this is the error I get.
    $a = Get-Content “C:\serverlist.txt”
    foreach ($i in $a)
    {
    (gwmi win32_operatingsystem -Credential $cred -ComputerName $a).Win32Shutdown(6)
    }
    ERROR:
    Method invocation failed because [System.Object[]] doesn’t contain a method named ‘Win32Shutdown’.
    At :line:24 char:77
    + (gwmi win32_operatingsystem -Credential $cred -ComputerName $a).Win32Shutdown

  2. Change -computername $a to $i
    Final Product:
    $a = Get-Content “C:\serverlist.txt”
    foreach ($i in $a)
    {
    (gwmi win32_operatingsystem -Credential $cred -ComputerName $i).Win32Shutdown(6)
    }
    This worked for me!

  3. Is there any way to add reboot comments before the reboot ? which can be later seen in the event viewer..

  4. Are the numbers after the shutdown command indicating what to write to the event log? I need to specify a reason fore reboot.

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