Skip to main content

PowerShell: Parse the events of the last 24 hours and color code them.



The following script demonstrates how to read events for an event log that have occured over the past 24 hours and to color code them. Now, use your imagination. With a little enginuity, you could parse for events that you are interested in and have this script exercise some procedures as opposed to just displaying colored text on your monitor. PowerShell is desighed for you to be able to create the tools that you need.

# ==================================================================
# EventColors.PS1
# Author: Jason A. Yoder, MCT
# WWW.MCTExpert.com
#
# Demonstrates how to list events from an event log written
# in the last 24 hours and also adding color to denote the event
# type.
# ==================================================================

# Get the current date and subtract 1 day. This is used to determine if
# an event is less the 24 hours old.
$Date = (get-date).adddays(-1)

# Gather the details of all event from the "System" log that are
# less then 24 hours old.
$Events = Get-EventLog -LogName "System" | where {$_.TimeWritten -gt $Date}

# Sent a number to represent which record we are looking at.
# This will be used in the DO WHILE loop to determine when to
# terminate the loop.
$EventNumber = 1

Do{
# The Switch statement is similar to the "case" statements
# in other programing languages. In this switch
# statement, we are evaluating what type of
# event has been recorded so we can give the event
# the correct color. Event Types include: Critical,
# Error, Wrning, and Information. Verbose is also
# a valid event type, but not included in this script.
Switch ($Events[$EventNumber].EntryType)
{
"Critical"
# The parameters of -ForgroundColor and -BackgroundColor will help
# distinguish each event type. Only the first line will have color
# attributes set. The remaining line of data for each event will
# go back to the values set as default for that user.
{ Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor DarkRed "Critical Messages"
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].EventID
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].TimeGenerated
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].MachineName
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].Message }
"Error"
{ Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor DarkYellow "Error Messages"
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].EventID
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].TimeGenerated
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].MachineName
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].Message }
"Waring"
{ Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow -BackgroundColor DarkYellow "Warning Messages"
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].EventID
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].TimeGenerated
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].MachineName
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].Message }
"Information"
{ Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green -BackgroundColor DarkGreen "Informtion Messages"
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].EventID
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].TimeGenerated
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].MachineName
Write-Host $Events[$EventNumber].Message }
}
# Incriment the record number pointer.
$EventNumber ++
# Conintue looping until the Record pointer is equal
# to the number of events in the event log.
} While ($EventNumber -le $Events.Count)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Adding a Comment to a GPO with PowerShell

As I'm writing this article, I'm also writing a customization for a PowerShell course I'm teaching next week in Phoenix.  This customization deals with Group Policy and PowerShell.  For those of you who attend my classes may already know this, but I sit their and try to ask the questions to myself that others may ask as I present the material.  I finished up my customization a few hours ago and then I realized that I did not add in how to put a comment on a GPO.  This is a feature that many Group Policy Administrators may not be aware of. This past summer I attended a presentation at TechEd on Group Policy.  One organization in the crowd had over 5,000 Group Policies.  In an environment like that, the comment section can be priceless.  I always like to write in the comment section why I created the policy so I know its purpose next week after I've completed 50 other tasks and can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago. In the Group Policy module for PowerShell V3, th

Return duplicate values from a collection with PowerShell

If you have a collection of objects and you want to remove any duplicate items, it is fairly simple. # Create a collection with duplicate values $Set1 = 1 , 1 , 2 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 1 , 2   # Remove the duplicate values. $Set1 | Select-Object -Unique 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What if you want only the duplicate values and nothing else? # Create a collection with duplicate values $Set1 = 1 , 1 , 2 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 1 , 2   #Create a second collection with duplicate values removed. $Set2 = $Set1 | Select-Object -Unique   # Return only the duplicate values. ( Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Set2 -DifferenceObject $Set1 ) . InputObject | Select-Object – Unique 1 2 This works with objects as well as numbers.  The first command creates a collection with 2 duplicates of both 1 and 2.   The second command creates another collection with the duplicates filtered out.  The Compare-Object cmdlet will first find items that are diffe

How to list all the AD LDS instances on a server

AD LDS allows you to provide directory services to applications that are free of the confines of Active Directory.  To list all the AD LDS instances on a server, follow this procedure: Log into the server in question Open a command prompt. Type dsdbutil and press Enter Type List Instances and press Enter . You will receive a list of the instance name, both the LDAP and SSL port numbers, the location of the database, and its status.