# Schedule downtime using PowerShell returns a 500 Internal Server Error **URL:** \ **Category:** Icinga 2\ **Created:** [June 11, 2019, 10:40am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438 "2019-06-11T10:40:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 10:40am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/1 "2019-06-11T10:40:30Z")
I’ve made a PowerShell (5.1) script that is to be used as a PreUpdateScript with Cluster Aware Updating (CAU). The purpose is to schedule downtime for the Hyper-V cluster node where the script runs. When I run the script I get the following error: > Invoke-WebRequest : The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error. > At line:31 char:1 > > - Invoke-WebRequest -Headers $headers -Uri “$Uri” -Method Post -Body $b … > - > > ```auto > + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-WebRequest], WebException > + FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand > > ``` The only log file on the icinga2 server that shows anything related to connecting to it is /var/log/icinga2/icinga2.log. It shows there is a new client connection and that a Request of POST is made. That is it. > [2019-06-11 11:37:57 +0200] information/ApiListener: New client connection from [ip-address]:51552 (no client certificate) > [2019-06-11 11:37:57 +0200] information/HttpServerConnection: Request: POST /v1/actions/schedule-downtime?host=hostname&type=Host (from [ip-address]:51552), user: username) The script is below, and I really hope someone can shed a light on what is going wrong. We even enabled debug mode to get more logging, but… nothing. I don’t know why it’s giving a 500 or where it’s logged (no, it’s not in /var/log/httpd/\*) ``` $hostname = "" # ${env:COMPUTERNAME}.ToLower() # Start and End time in epoch $start_time = Get-Date -UFormat %s $end_time = Get-Date (Get-Date).AddDays(1) -UFormat %s # Authentication $user = "" $pass = "" $pair = "${user}:${pass}" $bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($pair) $base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes) $basicAuthValue = "Basic $base64" # Icinga stuff $Uri = "https://:5665/v1/actions/schedule-downtime?host=$hostname&type=Host" $headers = @{ "Authorization" = "$basicAuthValue"; "Accept" = "application/json" } $body = @{ author = '' comment = 'Cluster Aware Updating' child_options = 2 start_time = $start_time endtime = $end_time } $body = $body | ConvertTo-Json # Ignore self signed certificates [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = { $true } # Schedule the downtime Invoke-WebRequest -Headers $headers -Uri "$Uri" -Method Post -Body $body # Don't ignore self signed certificates anymore [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = $null ``` ---
**Author:** ![dflach](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/dflach/32/120_2.png) [@dflach](https://community.icinga.com/u/dflach)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/2 "2019-06-11T12:24:40Z")
Add `&verbose=1` to your params, icinga also returns a more informative error message in the json payload. ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/3 "2019-06-11T13:14:51Z")
With &verbose=1 added I still only see the same entries in /var/log/icinga2/icinga2.log. I’ve checked other logs, but maybe I am looking in the wrong ones. Can you tell me which log the information should appear? And just in case I did the wrong, I added &verbose=1 at the end of the $Uri line. ---
**Author:** ![dflach](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/dflach/32/120_2.png) [@dflach](https://community.icinga.com/u/dflach)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/4 "2019-06-11T13:20:57Z")
What I’m interested in is the response you are getting from the server. You should get valid json with a more informative error message. ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/5 "2019-06-11T13:22:52Z")
Ah, no. No json at all. Just the same Invoke-WebRequest error with the 500 error. ---
**Author:** ![dflach](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/dflach/32/120_2.png) [@dflach](https://community.icinga.com/u/dflach)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/6 "2019-06-11T13:42:03Z")
Hum, I don’t know too much about the powershell curl client. Can you use curl or a different tool to validate you are requesting the correct url with the right headers and credentials? ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/7 "2019-06-11T14:19:07Z")
Something is going wrong with the payload. Not sure why it talks about the Accept header not being set either. ``` C:\temp\curl\curl.exe : % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current At line:32 char:1 + C:\temp\curl\curl.exe -k -u '$user:$pass' -H $headers -X POST $Uri - ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: ( % Total % ... Time Current:String) [], RemoteException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 100 148 0 67 100 81 435 525 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 961 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:02 --:--:-- 0 curl: (6) Could not resolve host: Aware curl: (3) unmatched close brace/bracket in URL position 72: Updating, author: tweustink, start_time: 1560268626,86894 } ^

Accept header is missing or not set to 'application/json'.

``` I then typed out the $headers line and removes the double quotes and added single quotes around the whole like this: > &C:\temp\curl\curl.exe -k -u ‘$user:$pass’ -H ‘Authorization = $basicAuthValue; Accept = application/json’ -X POST $Uri -d $body It still b0rks about the json part. curl.exe : % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current At line:32 char:1 + &C:\temp\curl\curl.exe -k -u ‘$user:$pass’ -H 'Authorization = $basi … + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: ( % Total % … Time Current:String) , RemoteException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError ``` Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 100 148 0 67 100 81 1135 1372 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2508 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0 curl: (6) Could not resolve host: Aware curl: (3) unmatched close brace/bracket in URL position 72: Updating, author: tweustink, start_time: 1560268982,84317 } ^

Accept header is missing or not set to 'application/json'.

``` The $body looks like this: PS C:\WINDOWS\system32\> $body { “endtime”: “1560355382,84417”, “child\_options”: 2, “comment”: “Cluster Aware Updating”, “author”: “tweustink”, “start\_time”: “1560268982,84317” } ---
**Author:** ![dflach](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/dflach/32/120_2.png) [@dflach](https://community.icinga.com/u/dflach)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/8 "2019-06-11T14:33:16Z")
> [@weust](#): > > curl: (6) Could not resolve host: Aware > curl: (3) unmatched close brace/bracket in URL position 72: Looks like you have some mistake in your syntax ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/9 "2019-06-11T14:36:18Z")
The Accept header is missing is because curl.exe can’t handle multiple headers in one go. Need to use -H multiple times. Need to check if Invoke-WebRequest needs that too. The json body part still isn’t working alright (reading your post as I type this). It seems it can’t handle spaces. No clue why. The single quotes are needed, and the convert to json looks fine too. Will have to look into that later. Now I get a 401 Unauthorized, which is odd as that user is used a lot. But that should be easy to fix. ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/10 "2019-06-11T14:49:11Z")
Removing the Authorization header fixed the 401. Removing the -u option but leaving the header didn’t work. Now it complains about the json text. Specifically the endtime. Variable reads: > PS C:\WINDOWS\system32\> $end\_time > 1560357985,87855 The error: > {“error”:400.0,“status”:“Invalid request body: Error: lexical error: invalid char in json text.\n { endtime: 1560357985,87\n (right here) ------^\n\n”} Does it have an isue with more then two decimals? Edit: Removed the decimals by editing the time variable like this: > $start\_time = [int][double]::Parse((Get-Date -UFormat %s)) > $end\_time = [int][double]::Parse((Get-Date (Get-Date).AddDays(1) -UFormat %s)) ---
**Author:** ![dflach](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/dflach/32/120_2.png) [@dflach](https://community.icinga.com/u/dflach)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 7:37am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/11 "2019-06-12T07:37:15Z")
The issue with your decimals is it’s using a comma instead a dot. ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 8:00am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/12 "2019-06-12T08:00:37Z")
Ah, yes. That makes sense. As far as non-interchangeability makes sense. But when I was figuring it out I did notice Icinga, and other programs, don’t use anything behind the decimal/dot. So I guess this is more safe anyway. ---
**Author:** ![dnsmichi](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/dnsmichi/32/7721_2.png) [@dnsmichi](https://community.icinga.com/u/dnsmichi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 9:14am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/13 "2019-06-18T09:14:12Z")
Specifying a floating point number allows a more fine granular timestamp down below to micro seconds. Icinga stores that as double internally and you can later see that via API as well. Still, the dot vs comma problem is with using different locales, especially on German based systems. This [topic](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2379514/powershell-formatting-values-in-another-culture) holds some interesting details, especially with double quoted variables with using the invariant value, and not the culture being set for the Windows system. You might just specify the culture in that script, and always enforce the English locale for specific date/time operations then. Cheers, Michael ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 11:26am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/14 "2019-06-21T11:26:59Z")
Since I don’t need the floating point number, as I just want to simply set downtime, went with the two lines I posted earlier. This gives the following output: > PS C:\> $start\_time > 1561121994 > PS C:\> $end\_time > 1561208395 > PS C:\> The final issue is getting the jason payload to work. For some odd reason it (I assume icinga2 or curl.exe) doesn’t like spaces in the comment text. It tried to resolve Aware. So I removed the spaces for now. Now I get a 400.0 error complaining about an invalid char in the json text. I’ve tried several ways of building the variable, with and without convertto-json. No luck. > {“error”:400.0,“status”:“Invalid request body: Error: lexical error: invalid char in json text.\n { end\_time: 1561208211, \n (right here) ------^\n\n”}curl: (6) Could not resolve host: Aware > curl: (3) unmatched close brace/bracket in URL position 66: > Updating, > author: weust, > start\_time: 1561121811 > } The last json text is this: > PS C:\> $body > { > “end\_time”: 1561208395, > “child\_options”: 2, > “comment”: “ClusterAwareUpdating”, > “author”: “tweustink”, > “start\_time”: 1561121994 > } With this I’m really, really stuck. All the examples regarding json look like what I have in the $body variable. ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/15 "2019-06-21T14:48:55Z")
Together with a colleague we tackled part of the problem. It works with curl.exe using the following body variable makeup: > $body = @" > {"author":"tweustink", > "comment":"Cluster Aware Updating", > "child\_options":2, > "start\_time":$start\_time, > "end\_time":$end\_time, > "pretty":true > } > "@ But using the same body variable with either invoke-webrequest of invoke-restmethod is fails with a 400. And I need to fix the time/date to remove two hours as it’s adding +2 hours right now. Perhaps I do need to work with the link posted earlier. Update: I fixed the date/time by adding (Get-Date).ToUniversalTime() to the $start\_time variable. It’s may not be super nice, but it works. > $start\_time = [int][double]::Parse((Get-Date (Get-Date).ToUniversalTime() -UFormat %s)) ---
**Author:** ![mwisniewski9](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/mwisniewski9/32/692_2.png) [@mwisniewski9](https://community.icinga.com/u/mwisniewski9)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/16 "2019-06-23T23:41:55Z")
Hi @weust , Would you mind sharing your final script block to schedule downtime with Powershell you were able to get working ? I was trying to accomplish something very similar and I stumbled upon this thread. ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 7:37am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/17 "2019-06-24T07:37:20Z")
It’s not working 100% as I wanted too, because it’s using an external program (curl.exe) but it works. I prefer to run it using either Invoke-WebRequest or Invoke-RestMethod, but I need to fix the $body (json). I think the 's need to be something different. Also, when using curl.exe the [System.Net.ServicePointManager] lines are not needed. The -k option of curl.exe takes care of that. Another also, the Authentication block’s last three lines are mainly needed for the Invoke-WebRequest/RestMethod part. Other then that, it manages to schedule downtime for 26 hours. I didn’t bother modifying $end\_time as the node won’t be in maintenance that long anyway, and a PostUpdate script will take it out of downtime. This is a script I haven’t started working on. ``` $hostname = ${env:COMPUTERNAME}.ToLower() # Start and End time in epoch $start_time = [int][double]::Parse((Get-Date (Get-Date).ToUniversalTime() -UFormat %s)) $end_time = [int][double]::Parse((Get-Date (Get-Date).AddDays(1) -UFormat %s)) # Authentication $user = "" $pass = "" $pair = "${user}:${pass}" $bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($pair) $base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes) $basicAuthValue = "Basic $base64" # Icinga stuff $Uri = "https://icinga.example.net:5665/v1/actions/schedule-downtime?host=$hostname&type=Host" $headers = @{ "Authorization" = "$basicAuthValue"; "Accept" = "application/json" } $body = @" {\"author\":\"\", \"comment\":\"Cluster Aware Updating\", \"child_options\":2, \"start_time\":$start_time, \"end_time\":$end_time, \"pretty\":true } "@ # Ignore self signed certificates [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = { $true } # Schedule the downtime # Invoke-WebRequest -Headers $headers -ContentType 'application/json' -Uri $Uri -Method Post -Body $body &C:\temp\curl\curl.exe -k -u $pair -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" -X POST $Uri -d $body # Invoke-RestMethod -Headers $headers -Uri $Uri -Method Post -ContentType 'application/json' -Body $body # Don't ignore self signed certificates anymore [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = $null ``` ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 10:02am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/18 "2019-06-24T10:02:45Z")
Finally got it working without the external curl.exe! Not sure why, I think I tried this before, but I redid the body and used Invoke-RestMethod. This means the whole script is now pure PowerShell. ``` $hostname = ${env:COMPUTERNAME}.ToLower() # Start and End time in epoch $start_time = [int][double]::Parse((Get-Date (Get-Date).ToUniversalTime() -UFormat %s)) $end_time = [int][double]::Parse((Get-Date (Get-Date).AddDays(1) -UFormat %s)) # Authentication $user = "" $pass = "" $pair = "${user}:${pass}" $bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($pair) $base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes) $basicAuthValue = "Basic $base64" # Icinga stuff $Uri = "https://icinga.example.net:5665/v1/actions/schedule-downtime?host=$hostname&type=Host" $headers = @{ "Authorization" = "$basicAuthValue"; "Accept" = "application/json" } $body = @{ author = '' comment = 'Cluster Aware Updating' child_options = 2 start_time = $start_time end_time = $end_time } $body = $body | ConvertTo-Json # Ignore self signed certificates [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = { $true } # Schedule the downtime Invoke-RestMethod -Headers $headers -Uri $Uri -Method Post -ContentType 'application/json' -Body $body # Don't ignore self signed certificates anymore [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = $null ``` ---
**Author:** ![mwisniewski9](https://community.icinga.com/user_avatar/community.icinga.com/mwisniewski9/32/692_2.png) [@mwisniewski9](https://community.icinga.com/u/mwisniewski9)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 1:58am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/19 "2019-06-27T01:58:55Z")
Thanks for sharing! It working great in my environment - I just made a little modification to set the downtime for an hour. Glad you were able to get it working with just native PowerShell. ---
**Author:** ![weust](https://community.icinga.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@weust](https://community.icinga.com/u/weust)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 7:25am UTC](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438/20 "2019-06-27T07:25:43Z")
You’re welcome. I’m glad it’s working too. The one hour maybe too short in a new setup, and since there will be a remove-downtime post-update script someday (when I figure out the API for it, which sucks btw) I think it’s fine. It’s also in line with a python script used for our OpenStack environment. [Next page](https://community.icinga.com/t/schedule-downtime-using-powershell-returns-a-500-internal-server-error/1438.md?page=2)