Powershell log monitor - if log is under C:\Program Files

Greetings All.

I have a requirement to create a log monitor for an application (Tomcat - web service) on a Windows host.

The log lives on the host under C:\Program Files\Tomcat\logs...

Looking at the documentation for the Powershell Log Parser, it says...

LogFilePath,RegularExpression, where LogFilePath is the path of the target log file on the target server. The path cannot contain any spaces.

Ok, but the log file needed lives under C:\Program Files, which has a space in it. I'm trying various parsing options, so far without success.

I welcome any thoughts from the community on how to access a log file under C:\Program Files.

Thanks!

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PowerShell

Accepted answers

SteveK

Depending on what you are trying to do, you could just do a standard powershell monitor.

This is just kind of off the top of my head. Depending on how often the file is overwritten, something like this could work. By using the arguments, you could do the filepath as the first part of the script argument, then a comma, and then the string you are searching for.

#Set Arguments to variables
$FilePath = $Args[0]
$SearchString = $Args[1]

#Retrieve Content
Try {
$LogInfo = Get-Content -LiteralPath $FilePath -ErrorAction Stop
} Catch {
Exit 1
}

#Search for matches
Try {
$LogMatch = Select-String -InputObject $LogInfo -Pattern $SearchString -AllMatches -ErrorAction Stop
} Catch {
Exit 1
}

#Exit result
Write-Host "Statistic:  $($LogMatch.Matches.Count)"
Exit 0

In theory, this should return back a count of the string you are searching for, and then you could alert off of the statistic.

All comments

SteveK

Depending on what you are trying to do, you could just do a standard powershell monitor.

#Set Arguments to variables
$FilePath = $Args[0]
$SearchString = $Args[1]

#Retrieve Content
Try {
$LogInfo = Get-Content -LiteralPath $FilePath -ErrorAction Stop
} Catch {
Exit 1
}

#Search for matches
Try {
$LogMatch = Select-String -InputObject $LogInfo -Pattern $SearchString -AllMatches -ErrorAction Stop
} Catch {
Exit 1
}

#Exit result
Write-Host "Statistic:  $($LogMatch.Matches.Count)"
Exit 0

In theory, this should return back a count of the string you are searching for, and then you could alert off of the statistic.

robert777

Thank you! Much appreciated.

I've been playing with the out-of-box Powershell log monitor. So far I've got two configurations that successfully find my log file under \logs:

1. use the 'C:\PROGRA~1' short form notation. I haven't used short notation in so long I'd forgotten about it, but it does work - C:\PROGRA~1\apache-tomcat-10\logs, etc.

2. edit the built-in PowerShell monitor to hard-code the path. So, $logfile_path = 'C:\Program Files\apache-tomcat-10\logs, etc' rather than $logfile_path = $args.get(0); Clunky and inelegant, but it does work.

However, I think the code segment offered also looks like a good solution. SteveK - marking your solution as answer.

Cheers.

mapujece

To handle the issue with spaces in the file path, you can wrap the entire path in double quotes, like "C:\Program Files\Tomcat\logs\logfile.log". Alternatively, use the short 8.3 path format, which avoids spaces, such as C:\PROGRA~1\Tomcat\logs\logfile.log. You can find the short path using the Get-Item command in PowerShell. If neither works, creating a symlink without spaces to the logs directory could resolve the issue.