Logfile script

Question

Hello Guys,

I am a newbie in PowerShell and I need your help on how to create a PowerShell script to perform logging for troubleshooting purposes. The ideal outcome would be the script does all the current functions, but then looks for a folder at C:\ps_script_logs and if it does not exist, then create it. Then, create a log file of the script's execution and save it in this folder. The log file name should match the script name.

Answer 1

I would use a transcript, like this.

$Folder = "C:\ps_script_logs"
$ScriptName = "MyScript" 
try {
    if (Test-Path $Folder) {
        $msg = "Unable to write to folder $folder"     # use this msg if we crash 
        New-Item -Path $Folder\test.xyz -ItemType File -ErrorAction Stop
        Remove-Item -Path $Folder\test.xyz  -ErrorAction Stop
        $msg = "$Folder exists and is writable."       # we didn't crash 
    } else {
        $msg = "Unable to create the folder $folder"     # use this msg if we crash 
        New-Item -Path $Folder -ItemType Directory -ErrorAction Stop
        $msg = "$Folder was created."                    # we didn't crash 
    }
} catch {
    "We crashed which means that we don't have a way to generate a log file."
    "Do something here to get someone's attention."
    $msg
    return
}

# if we get here, our folder exists, and we have verified that we can write to it. 

$logfile = "{0}\{1}-{2}.log" -f $Folder, $ScriptName, (get-date).tostring("yyyyMMdd-hhmmss")
Start-Transcript  $logfile
$msg 
# This script is intended to create a custom local administrator for offline use on Entra ID joined computers.

# Define the username and password
$Username = "Admin"
$Password = "Mster@dmin"

# Check if the user already exists
$ExistingUser = Get-LocalUser -Name $Username -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

if ($ExistingUser) {
    "The user exists." 
    # If the user exists, update the password and set it to never expire
    Set-LocalUser -Name $Username -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText $Password -Force) -PasswordNeverExpires $true
} else {
    "Adding the user." 
    # If the user doesn't exist, create the local user and set the password to never expire
    New-LocalUser -Name $Username -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText $Password -Force) -PasswordNeverExpires
    # Then add the new user to the local administrators group
    $AdminGroup = Get-LocalGroup -Name "Administrators"
    $AdminUser = Get-LocalUser -Name $Username
    Add-LocalGroupMember -Group $AdminGroup -Member $AdminUser
}
Stop-Transcript