Powershell script with foreach loop that exports to csv randomly hangs

Question

I have a PowerShell script that reads a list of computers, gets BIOS info via WMI and exports that info to a CSV. It will stop working after a random number of iterations, no errors, the script just hangs until I kill it. Am I running into some type of limitation exporting the data to a CSV? This seems like it should work.

Thanks

Function Write-Log {  
  
    [CmdletBinding()]  
    Param(  
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]  
    [ValidateSet("INFO","WARN","ERROR","FATAL","DEBUG")]  
    [String]  
    $Level = "INFO",  
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]  
    [string]  
    $Message,  
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]  
    [string]  
    $logfile = "C:\Temp\GetBiosinfo\BIOSLog.log"  
    )  
    $Stamp = (Get-Date).toString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss")  
    $Line = "$Stamp $Level $Message"  
    If($logfile) {  
        Add-Content $logfile -Value $Line  
    }  
    Else {  
        Write-Output $Line  
    }  
}  
  
$ComputerList = Get-Content -Path "C:\Temp\GetBiosInfo\computerlist.txt"  
foreach ($computerfromlist in $ComputerList)  
    {  
        $computerinfo = "" | Select "Hostname", "Manufacturer", "Model", "BIOSVersion"  
        $computername = $computerfromlist  
        If(Test-Connection $computername -Count 1 -Quiet)  
            {  
                Start-Sleep -Seconds 5  
                Write-Log -Message "$computername is online"  
                $Model = (Get-WMIObject  Win32_ComputerSystemProduct -ComputerName $computername).Name  
                $BIOSManuf = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_BIOS -ComputerName $computername).Manufacturer  
                $BIOSVersion = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_BIOS -ComputerName $computername).SMBIOSBIOSVersion  
                Start-Sleep -Seconds 5  
                Write-Log -Message "$computername WMI Info Gathered"  
  
                If(($BIOSManuf -ne $null) -or ($BIOSVersion -ne $null) -or ($Model -ne $null))  
                    {  
                        $computerinfo.Hostname = $computername  
                        $computerinfo.Manufacturer = $BIOSManuf  
                        $computerinfo.Model = $Model  
                        $computerinfo.BIOSVersion = $BIOSVersion  
                        $computerinfo | Export-csv -Path "C:\Temp\GetBIOSInfo\BIOSInfo.csv" -Append -NoTypeInformation  
                        Start-Sleep -Seconds 5  
                        Write-Log -Message "$computername online info updated in CSV"  
                    }  
                Else  
                    {  
                        $computerinfo.Hostname = $computername  
                        $computerinfo.Manufacturer = "Connected but no response"  
                        $computerinfo.Model = ""  
                        $computerinfo.BIOSVersion = ""  
                        $computerinfo | Export-csv -Path "C:\Temp\GetBIOSInfo\BIOSInfo.csv" -Append -NoTypeInformatio  
                        Start-Sleep -Seconds 5  
                        Write-Log -Level WARN -Message "$computername online but no response info updated in CSV"  
                    }  
            }  
  
         Else  
                {  
                    Start-Sleep -Seconds 5  
                    Write-Log -Level WARN -Message "$computername is NOT online"  
                    $computerinfo.Hostname = $computername  
                    $computerinfo.Manufacturer = "Can't Connect"  
                    $computerinfo.Model = ''  
                    $computerinfo.BIOSVersion = ''  
                    $computerinfo | Export-csv -Path "C:\Temp\GetBIOSInfo\BIOSInfo.csv" -Append -NoTypeInformation  
                    Start-Sleep -Seconds 5  
                    Write-Log -Message "$computername not online info updated in CSV"  
                }  
     }  

Answer 1

Hello Chopad,

You can set Verbose modes in Powershell to get more information about the processes and where it may fail during its run. This may help you to understand better the issue and troubleshoot it more efficiently.

Add the next at the beginning of your script:

Set-PSDebug -Trace 2
$VerbosePreference="Continue"

Reference and more advanced details are available in the next official article: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/use-powershell-to-write-verbose-output/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--

Answer 2

Give this a try. It reduces the size of the WMI data returned by the Get-WMIObject (and the time it takes for WMI to complete on the remote machine -- the difference can be substantial).

I removed the "Start-Sleep" stuff and added additional logging (at least for the Get-WMIObject parts):

Function Write-Log {  
          
    [CmdletBinding()]  
    Param(  
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $False)]  
        [ValidateSet("INFO", "WARN", "ERROR", "FATAL", "DEBUG")]  
        [String]  
        $Level = "INFO",  
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $True)]  
        [string]  
        $Message,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $False)]  
        [string]  
        $logfile = "C:\Temp\GetBiosinfo\BIOSLog.log"  
    )  
    $Stamp = (Get-Date).toString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss")  
    $Line = "$Stamp $Level $Message"  
    If ($logfile) {  
        Add-Content $logfile -Value $Line  
    }  
    Else {  
        Write-Output $Line  
    }  
}  
     
$computerinfo = [ordered]@{  
    Hostname     = ""  
    Model        = ""  
    Manufacturer = ""  
    BIOSVersion  = ""  
}  
     
Get-Content -Path "C:\Temp\GetBiosInfo\computerlist.txt" |  
    ForEach-Object {  
        $computerinfo.Hostname = $_  
        If (Test-Connection $_ -Count 1 -Quiet) {  
            Write-Log -Message "$_ is online"  
            Write-Log -Message "Getting Name"  
            $Model          = (Get-WmiObject  Win32_ComputerSystemProduct -ComputerName $_ -Property Name).Name  
            Write-Log -Message "Name finished"  
            Write-Log -Message "Getting Manufacturer and SMBIOSBIOSBVersion"  
            $BIOSStuff      = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_BIOS -ComputerName $_ -Property Manufacturer,SMBIOSBIOSVersion  
            Write-Log -Message "Manufacturer and SMBIOSBIOSBVersion finished"  
            $BIOSManuf      = $BIOSStuff.Manufacturer  
            $BIOSVersion    = $BIOSStuff.SMBIOSBIOSVersion  
            Write-Log -Message "$_ WMI Info Gathered"  
                     
            If ( $BIOSManuf -or $BIOSVersion -or $Model ) {  
                $computerinfo.Manufacturer = $BIOSManuf  
                $computerinfo.Model = $Model  
                $computerinfo.BIOSVersion = $BIOSVersion  
                Write-Log -Message "$_ online info updated in CSV"  
            }  
            Else {  
                $computerinfo.Manufacturer = "Connected but no response"  
                $computerinfo.Model = ""  
                $computerinfo.BIOSVersion = ""  
                Write-Log -Level WARN -Message "$_ online but no response info updated in CSV"  
            }  
        }  
        Else {  
            Write-Log -Level WARN -Message "$_ is NOT online"  
            $computerinfo.Manufacturer = "Can't Connect"  
            $computerinfo.Model = ''  
            $computerinfo.BIOSVersion = ''  
            Write-Log -Message "$_ not online info updated in CSV"  
        }  
        [PSCustomObject]$computerinfo  
    } | Export-Csv -Path "C:\Temp\GetBIOSInfo\BIOSInfo.csv" -NoTypeInformation  

Answer 3

Thanks, trying it right now.