Rename PC to Serial/TAG

briansorrells · 2019-09-17T20:11:11.000Z

So we are a dell shop and my boss wants me to push out a procedure with our asset management system Kaseya to rename the new PCs to their serial number. Dell Serials are their service tags so this works out since they are only 6-7 characters long. I thought this would be cake but I’m having a brain thing. This is 101 stuff and I can’t seem to figure out the problem.

Here’s what I have so far;

$ServiceTAG = Get-WmiObject Win32_BIOS | Select serialnumber
$OLDNAME = Get-WmiObject win32_COMPUTERSYSTEM | Select Name
Rename-Computer -ComputerName $OLDNAME -NewName $ServiceTAG -force -Restart

The serialnumber and computer name ( DESKTOP-ACIB4OI) get loaded fine but it doesn’t like the “-NewName” result.

I get this error:

Rename-Computer : Computer name @{Name=DESKTOP-ACIB4OI} cannot be resolved with the
exception: One or more errors occurred…
At line:3 char:1

Rename-Computer -ComputerName $OLDNAME -NewName $ServiceTAG -force -R …
CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (@{Name=DESKTOP-ACIB4OI}:String) [Rename-Com
puter], InvalidOperationException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : AddressResolutionException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Rena
meComputerCommand

I’m sure it’s simple and right in front of me. Any help would be appreciated.

Neally · 2019-09-17T20:13:58.000Z

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Neally · 2019-09-17T20:14:53.000Z

briansorrells:

Rename-Computer : Computer name @{Name=DESKTOP-ACIB4OI} cannot be resolved with the
exception: One or more errors occurred…

you have to expand that.

$ServiceTAG = (Get-WmiObject Win32_BIOS).serialnumber
$OLDNAME    = (Get-WmiObject win32_COMPUTERSYSTEM).Name
Rename-Computer -ComputerName $OLDNAME -NewName $ServiceTAG -force -Restart

dzee · 2019-09-17T20:16:17.000Z

If you run that PS to get the service tag, you’ll find you get a header string “serialnumber”, a carriage return, a dotted line, another carriage return, and finally the actual service tag. I don’t think you want all that as the new machine name. You need to parse out just the service tag itself.

$ServiceTAG = Get-WmiObject Win32_BIOS | Select-Object -ExpandProperty serialnumber

Neally · 2019-09-17T20:17:51.000Z

DZee:

If you run that PS to get the service tag, you’ll find you get a header string “serialnumber”, a carriage return, a dotted line, another carriage return, and finally the actual service tag. I don’t think you want all that as the new machine name. You need to parse out just the service tag itself.

nah powershell uses objects, no need to parse it out.

dzee · 2019-09-17T20:25:30.000Z

At first that’s what I thought. But, if I Write-Output the $ServiceTAG var, I get the headers so I thought, the Write-Output was adding that since I was running it manually on the console, but if I use the Select-Object with the “-ExpandProperty”, I get only the service tag output by the same Write-Output $ServiceTAG. Doesn’t that demonstrate the header is part of the variable?

Neally · 2019-09-17T20:28:45.000Z

DZee:

If I Write-Output the $ServiceTAG var, I get the headers, but if I use the Select-Object with -ExpandProperty, I get only the service tag in the var. This proves the header is part of the variable and not added by the Write-Output.

ok? there are a few ways to expand in powershell, both should have the same outcome but one is a bit less typing.
‘parsing’ to me is text/string manipulation and there is no need for that :¬)

$ServiceTAG = Get-WmiObject Win32_BIOS | Select-Object -ExpandProperty serialnumber
$ServiceTAG = (Get-WmiObject Win32_BIOS).serialnumber

dzee · 2019-09-17T20:30:17.000Z

Thanks, Neally. I get it now. Sorry for taking us on an excursion.

matthart5 · 2019-09-17T22:01:03.000Z

Neally is spot on here, you don’t want it renamed to the object, you want it renamed to the value of one of the object’s property, so you’d add .serialnumber

Use write-host to do any debugging, probably would have saved a post here.

Write-host $Object and see just what it contains