How to save realtime output to txt file in Powershell ? Monitoring Script

Question

I need help saving logs directly to a txt file. I made a simple monitoring script of our servers and computers. Basically I just need to know whether it is online or offline but i need the logs to be save directly whatever the output is.

While ($true) {
    $ServerName = Get-Content "E:\ServerList.txt"
    foreach ($Server in $ServerName) {
        if (test-Connection -ComputerName $Server -Count 3 -quiet ) {
            Write-Host "$Server is Online " -ForegroundColor Green ;(Get-Date).toString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss")
        } else {
            Write-Host "$Server - is Offline " -ForegroundColor Red ;(Get-Date).toString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss")
        }
    }

How can I improve it?

Yes i just want the output to save directly to txt file in realtime with date on it . basically whatever output displays saves into text file directly , like log file. could you pls help tnx — Allan Ray
– Allan Ray, Commented Feb 27, 2017 at 11:14

Kirill Pashkov · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-27 11:19:06Z

1

You can use Out-File cmdlet with -Append switch to save data in .txt file for logging.

In this example you will have both, info output to console and to file too:

$LogFile = 'C:\log.txt'
While ($true) {
    $ServerName = Get-Content "E:\ServerList.txt"
    foreach ($Server in $ServerName) {
        if (test-Connection -ComputerName $Server -Count 3 -quiet ) {
            Write-Host "$Server is Online " -ForegroundColor Green ;(Get-Date).toString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss")
            "{0}`t{1} is Online " -f (Get-Date).toString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss"),$Server | Out-File $LogFile -Append -Force
        } else {
            Write-Host "$Server - is Offline " -ForegroundColor Red ;(Get-Date).toString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss")
            "{0}`t{1} is Offline " -f (Get-Date).toString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss"),$Server | Out-File $LogFile -Append -Force
        }
    }
}

answered Feb 27, 2017 at 11:19

Kirill Pashkov

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3 Comments

Allan Ray Over a year ago

amazing , this is what im looking for. Could you please just explain me this line "{0}`t{1} ", im new to this powershell thingy and most i learn from here and from the help menu. xD

Kirill Pashkov Over a year ago

Place {0} {1} etc. into the string as placemarkers where you want the variables to appear, immediately follow the string with the -f operator and then lastly, a list of comma separated variables which will be used to populate the placemarkers. You can mark my answer as answer so it would help someone else with similar quiestion. :-)

Allan Ray Over a year ago

Thanks Mr. Kirill Pashkov . Appreciate the help! :-)

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