PowerShell Logging will be the best thing you learn. The biggest topic I get asked for help outside the specific activities I am assigned to is PowerShell. I will be the first to understand everyone has their own style. I never judge the style or syntax format. Besides that, PowerShell logging ALWAYS needs to occur. If you are not logging, your running blind. PowerShell logging is the one the most powerful features you can learn and implement.
PowerShell does have some native abilities, “Start-Transcript“, and if that is all you want to understand, that is fine. But, this post will take you through some basic understandings on capturing your outputs in a format that is readable and standard. With some tricks in creating some great logic around managing your log.
PowerShell Logging – The Setup
The first step into your new logging endeavors is to understand the ability to call a function to simplify your process.
For this function to become usable we first must set the variable “$logpath” so the function can understand where it is writing to. My standard is to log to “%SystemDrive%\Windows\Temp”
# Set log path
$logpath = "$env:SystemDrive\Windows\Temp\mynewlog.log"
# Function to write to log file
function Write-Log
{
param($msg)
"$(Get-Date -Format G) : $msg" | Out-File -FilePath $logpath -Append -Force
}
Calling the Function
During your process of creating your script you will want to call the PowerShell logging function to say your going to run a process, log the process file call, its arguments, other module calls, and most important capturing any error output.
Write-Log "Running:" Write-Log "setup.exe -S -v/l "$env:SystemDrive\Windows\Temp\Setup.log"