writing event log to file, powershell

Question

So say you want to look at the last 3 thing in the eventlog for type application, from all the desktops on the lan. my problem is, the $a below makes an array (i think), and i want to write that to a file. right now it "works" but just spits out a few blank lines per machine. if $msg = is commented out, i get this "Exception calling "Join" with "2" argument(s): "Value cannot be null."

$servers = "machine1, "machine2"
$date = ( get-date ).ToString('yyyyMMdd')
$file = New-Item -type file "c:\temp\$date-test1.txt" -Force
$msg = ""
foreach($server in $servers){
    Write-Host "Connect to $server..."
    add-content $file "$server $date"
    $a = Get-EventLog -Logname application -ComputerName $server -EntryType warning -newest 3 | 
    Format-Table -Wrap -Property Source,Message -Autosize  
    foreach($element in $a)
    {[string]::join($element, $msg)}
    Write-Host $msg
    #add-content $file $msg
}

Jeffery Hicks · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-05 15:05:28Z

4

You are thinking about text, not objects in the pipeline. Don't try to parse, join or mess around with strings.

$servers = "machine1, "machine2"
$date = ( get-date ).ToString('yyyyMMdd')
$file = New-Item -type file "c:\temp\$date-test1.txt" -Force
Get-EventLog -log Application -Computer $servers -entry Warning -newest 3 | Select MachineName,Source,Message | out-file $file

answered Mar 5, 2012 at 15:05

Jeffery Hicks

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2 Comments

user1249998 Over a year ago

first off thanks for the reply that answer is 99% perfect. adding in this "-Property Source,Message -Autosize" allows the full event message, above only gives you about 2/3 of the first sentence. i added/changed to this:Get-EventLog -log Application -Computer $servers -entry Warning -newest 3 | Select MachineName,Source,Message | Format-Table -Wrap -Property MachineName,Source,Message -Autosize | out-file $file

Jeffery Hicks Over a year ago

You got the idea now. That said, the one drawback to my simpler approach is that it presumes a short list of computers and that they are all online. A more robust approach would need error handling, perhaps try/Catch or even Write-Progess. In these situations a ForEach construct might make more sense but I'd still forego messing around with strings and simply pipe output to Out-File.

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