Deploying a site template and instantiate it in the same PowerShell script?

Question

I want to create a PowerShell script that :

1. add a farm solution that only contains a site template
2. deploy the solution globally
3. wait for the deploy job to finish
4. create a site collection based on the site template

The first three steps are working as expected. The 4th does not. I get the following error :

New-SPSite : File or arguments not valid for site template 'myTemplate#0'.
Parameter name: WebTemplate
At D:\SCRIPT\install.ps1:73 char:11
+ New-SPSite <<<<  $url -OwnerAlias "$user"  -Name "my site name" -Template mytemplate#0" -Language 1036
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share...SPCmdletNewSite:SPCmdletNewSite) [New-SPSite], ArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletNewSite

If I create the site collection from the central administration, it works perfectly.

I suspect there is a "cache" of available templates somewhere, but did not found neither the source, nor the solution.

Here is my full script :

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

Start-SPAssignment -Global

function WaitForJobToFinish([string]$SolutionFileName)
{ 
    $JobName = "*solution-deployment*$SolutionFileName*"
    $job = Get-SPTimerJob | ?{ $_.Name -like $JobName }
    if ($job -eq $null)     {        Write-Host 'Timer job not found'    }
    else    {
        $JobFullName = $job.Name
        Write-Host -NoNewLine "Waiting to finish job $JobFullName"

        while ((Get-SPTimerJob $JobFullName) -ne $null) {
            Write-Host -NoNewLine .
            Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
        }
        Write-Host  "Finished waiting for job.."
    }
}


$user = (get-item env:userdomain).Value +'\' + (get-item env:username).Value
$webapp = 'http://myvirtualhost'
$url = 'http://myvirtualhost/sites/mysite'
$solutionName = 'mytemplate.wsp'

Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath (get-item $solutionName).Fullname

Install-SPSolution -Identity $solutionName -GACDeployment

WaitForJobToFinish $solutionName

remove-spsite $url -Confirm:$false 
iisreset /noforce # trying to recycle the cache without success
New-SPSite $url -OwnerAlias "$user"  -Name "my site name" -Template "mytemplate#0" -Language 1036


Stop-SPAssignment -Global

Answer 1

You are right about that PowerShell caches alot.

You can get around this by spawning new processes that executes the code

For example

$shell = Start-Process Powershell .\test.ps1 -PassThru -Verb runas

will spawn a new process that is run as administrator (-Verb runas) and traces the process (-PassThru) giving you the possibility to track exit codes and if process has finished. Check out Start-Process syntax using

Get-Help Start-Process -full

Check out members of Process using

$shell | Get-Member

Answer 2

Please find the script that I used in the following post at the end of Section B:

$file = "D:\Rahul\RestoreWSPSiteTemplate.log"

start-transcript $file
trap { stop-transcript; break}
Remove-SPSite -Identity "http://DEST_SERVER_NAME:PORT_NO/sites/ExampleRestore"
New-SPSite "http:// DEST_SERVER_NAME:PORT_NO/sites/ExampleRestore" -OwnerAlias domain\rahul.vartak 

Add-SPUserSolution -LiteralPath "D:\Rahul\ExampleTemplate.wsp" -Site "http:// DEST_SERVER_NAME:PORT_NO/sites/ExampleRestore"

Install-SPUserSolution –Identity ExampleTemplate.wsp -Site "http:// DEST_SERVER_NAME:PORT_NO/sites/ExampleRestore"

$x = Get-SPSite "http:// DEST_SERVER_NAME:PORT_NO/sites/ExampleRestore"
$y = $x.GetWebTemplates(1033) | Where{ $_.Title -eq "ExampleTemplate" }

[system.reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.Sharepoint")
$site= new-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http:// DEST_SERVER_NAME:PORT_NO/sites/ExampleRestore")
$site.OpenWeb().ApplyWebTemplate($y)
$site.Dispose()
stop-transcript

Note: This assumes that you are on the destination server while running the script.

Answer 3

I ended up by using the legacy stsadm -o createsite. It is a lot simplier that having to create process or ps-session. It's actually a clean powershell solution, but it works