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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)

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