Last TechEd in Madrid I got an interesting question about Exchange 2013 supportability in the PowerShell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment). This gentleman was using the Remote PowerShell functionality in ISE and was wondering if this was a supported solution.

It took some time to get a confirmation, but these are the supported scenarios:

• Exchange Management Shell (which is running Remote PowerShell) – supported
• Regular PowerShell connecting to Exchange via Remote PowerShell – supported
• Powershell ISE connecting to Exchange via Remote PowerShell – supported

Regular PowerShell or PowerShell ISE simply loading Exchange snapins is not supported unless Technet specifically calls out that you must run local PowerShell for a specific cmdlet.

Remote PowerShell can be activated like this:

$Session = New-PSSession –ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange –ConnectionUri http://ams-exch01.contoso.com/PowerShell -Authentication Kerberos
Import-PSSession $Session

This can be done in a normal PowerShell window or in the ISE:

A Microsoft knowledgebase article was released recently regarding an issue with Remote Powershell, ISE and Exchange Server 2010 SP3:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2859999 – Some cmdlets fail in PowerShell ISE after an upgrade to Exchange Server 2010 SP3