Upgrading PowerShell and .NET Framework

Run this script from PowerShell:

$url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jborean93/ansible-windows/master/scripts/Upgrade-PowerShell.ps1"
$file = "$env:temp\Upgrade-PowerShell.ps1"
$username = "Administrator"
$password = "Password"

(New-Object -TypeName System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($url, $file)
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force

# version can be 3.0, 4.0 or 5.1
&$file -Version 5.1 -Username $username -Password $password -Verbose

Once completed, you will need to remove auto logon and set the execution policy back to the default of Restricted. You can do this with the following PowerShell commands:

# this isn't needed but is a good security practice to complete
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Restricted -Force

$reg_winlogon_path = "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon"
Set-ItemProperty -Path $reg_winlogon_path -Name AutoAdminLogon -Value 0
Remove-ItemProperty -Path $reg_winlogon_path -Name DefaultUserName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Remove-ItemProperty -Path $reg_winlogon_path -Name DefaultPassword -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

WinRM Memory Hotfix

When running on PowerShell v3.0, there is a bug with the WinRM service that limits the amount of memory available to WinRM. Without this hotfix installed, Ansible will fail to execute certain commands on the Windows host.

$url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jborean93/ansible-windows/master/scripts/Install-WMF3Hotfix.ps1"
$file = "$env:temp\Install-WMF3Hotfix.ps1"

(New-Object -TypeName System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($url, $file)
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File $file -Verbose

WinRM Setup

Once Powershell has been upgraded to at least version 3.0, the final step is for the WinRM service to be configured so that Ansible can connect to it. There are two main components of the WinRM service that governs how Ansible can interface with the Windows host: the listener and the service configuration settings. This script sets up both HTTP and HTTPS listeners with a self-signed certificate and enables the Basic authentication option on the service.

To use this script, run the following in PowerShell:

$url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/ansible/devel/examples/scripts/ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1"
$file = "$env:temp\ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1"

(New-Object -TypeName System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($url, $file)

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File $file

WinRM Listener

The WinRM services listens for requests on one or more ports. Each of these ports must have a listener created and configured.

To view the current listeners that are running on the WinRM service, run the following command:

winrm enumerate winrm/config/Listener

This will output something like the following:

Listener
    Address = *
    Transport = HTTP
    Port = 5985
    Hostname
    Enabled = true
    URLPrefix = wsman
    CertificateThumbprint
    ListeningOn = 10.0.2.15, 127.0.0.1, 192.168.56.155, ::1, fe80::5efe:10.0.2.15%6, fe80::5efe:192.168.56.155%8, fe80::
ffff:ffff:fffe%2, fe80::203d:7d97:c2ed:ec78%3, fe80::e8ea:d765:2c69:7756%7

Listener
    Address = *
    Transport = HTTPS
    Port = 5986
    Hostname = SERVER2016
    Enabled = true
    URLPrefix = wsman
    CertificateThumbprint = E6CDAA82EEAF2ECE8546E05DB7F3E01AA47D76CE
    ListeningOn = 10.0.2.15, 127.0.0.1, 192.168.56.155, ::1, fe80::5efe:10.0.2.15%6, fe80::5efe:192.168.56.155%8, fe80::
ffff:ffff:fffe%2, fe80::203d:7d97:c2ed:ec78%3, fe80::e8ea:d765:2c69:7756%7

In the example above there are two listeners activated; one is listening on port 5985 over HTTP and the other is listening on port 5986 over HTTPS.