# Chef Workstation 0.18.3 PowerShell Issues (Windows Server 2019)

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [June 2, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194 "2020-06-02T13:09:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71e660/32.png) [@hunt](https://discourse.chef.io/u/hunt)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/1 "2020-06-02T13:09:28Z")

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Experiencing issues with powershell and bootstrapping. The shell just hangs at....

`Connecting to [IP]`

I need to know where chef workstation logs to? How can I tell whats happening so that I can troubleshoot why the shell is hanging at the very beginning of the process?

Thank you,

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**Author:** ![hunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71e660/32.png) [@hunt](https://discourse.chef.io/u/hunt)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/2 "2020-06-02T13:16:42Z")

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Ok according to this website ([https://www.chef.sh/docs/chef-workstation/troubleshooting/](https://www.chef.sh/docs/chef-workstation/troubleshooting/)) the logs are located here: Chef Workstation logs are stored in ~/.chef-workstation/logs.

Unfortunite for me when I goto that location and open the log file it is empty. Can someone please help point me in the right direction for the next steps?

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**Author:** ![Roland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Roland](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Roland)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/3 "2020-06-02T13:31:47Z")

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Have you validated that you can reach the remote host via WinRM outside of the knife bootstrap command?

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**Author:** ![hunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71e660/32.png) [@hunt](https://discourse.chef.io/u/hunt)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:42pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/4 "2020-06-02T13:42:00Z")

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Thank you, I have to check the firewall

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**Author:** ![Roland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Roland](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Roland)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/5 "2020-06-02T13:46:47Z")

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Anytime.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71e660/32.png) [@hunt](https://discourse.chef.io/u/hunt)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/6 "2020-06-02T13:53:26Z")

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that got me further, but now I have another issue. I get this error so the bootstrap never completes.

```auto
[IP] C:\Users\benelocaladmin\Documents>chef-client -c C:\chef/client.rb -j C:\chef/first-boot.json
 
[IP] [2020-06-02T13:44:18+00:00] FATAL: Errno::EINVAL: Invalid argument @ dir_s_mkdir - C:ef

ERROR: The following error occurred on [IP]:

ERROR:

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Roland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Roland](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Roland)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/7 "2020-06-02T13:57:03Z")

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We ran into similar issues ourselves about a week ago with the 18.x version of the Chef-Workstation. (specifically referring to the missing slashes “`dir_s_mkdir - C:ef`”).

We rolled back to 17.5, and everything seems to work fine. That being said, this issue may have been resolved in the current release which is 18.3.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71e660/32.png) [@hunt](https://discourse.chef.io/u/hunt)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/8 "2020-06-02T14:10:08Z")

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that is the version I have 0.18.3. So this is not fixed. I will see what happens if we install 17.5 instead. Thank you

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71e660/32.png) [@hunt](https://discourse.chef.io/u/hunt)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-workstation-0-18-3-powershell-issues-windows-server-2019/17194/9 "2020-06-02T15:44:55Z")

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17.5 worked like a charm! Thank you!