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Participate in armchair
system administration! Have your servers email you logs every morning,
or however often you like.
Recently, a few users
asked me questions that pertained to system administration on the server,
which prompted me to write an article on using scripts to perform common
tasks.
Checking daily logs
is one of many repetitive tasks that a sysadmin has to go through. It
is mundane enough that you wish you don't need to do it everyday, but
is crucial enough that you cannot skip. Having your servers email you
logs at a scheduled interval will help ease the need of you going to every
server and retrieving the logs yourself.
Although scripts
can be quite elaborate, performing many functions in a single run, we
will start with a simple script. This sample script instructs the server
to email you the log or any file. When combined with the at
command, you can receive updates of the file at any time of the day.
Getting
started
Make sure you have
the latest script host to take advantage all the functionality. To check
your version, type cscript
at the command prompt and hit ENTER, you should see something similar
to this:
Microsoft (R) Windows
Script Host Version 5.6
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.
Along with Usage
information. Windows Script Host (WSH) 5.6 is the current version at the
time of this article and is downloadable at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.
For more information
on WSH and other scripting languages, go to: Microsoft's Scripting Guide
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/scriptcenter/scrguide/sagsas_overview.asp
Writing
the script
To start writing
the script, all you need is a plain text editor (i.e. notepad). In fact,
a plain text editor is preferred so no formatting information is introduced
into the file.
Sample script if
SMTP is installed on the server:
' Script to send logs
Set objEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("C:\serverlog.log", 1)
strResponses = objFile.ReadAll
objEmail.From = "server@company.com"
objEmail.To = "sysadmin@company.com"
objEmail.Subject = "Server Log"
objEmail.Textbody = strResponses
objEmail.Send
objFile.Close
This script tells
the server to read the c:\serverlog.log file, put its content into the
text body of the email and send to you at "sysadmin@company.com"
with Subject "Server Log".
This script is certainly
not limited to being run on the mail server, it is in fact quite universal
and can be run on any server or workstation that has the proper script
engine.
Here is a sample
script if SMTP isn't installed on the server, be aware of any firewall
or email relay issues at your organization:
' Script to send logs
Set objEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("C:\serverlog.log", 1)
strResponses = objFile.ReadAll
objEmail.From = "server@company.com"
objEmail.To = "sysadmin@company.com"
objEmail.Subject = "Server Log"
objEmail.Textbody = strResponses
objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing")
= 2
objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver")
= _
"smtp.company.com"
objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport")
= 25
objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Update
objEmail.Send
objFile.Close
The extra lines specify
where to find the SMTP server, and in this sample script, it is set to
smtp.company.com, port
25.
You may save this
script with a .vbs extension (i.e. SendLog.vbs) or better yet, give it
a custom extension (i.e. SendLog.xyz or SendLog.txt). We'll explain why
later.
Running
the script
Running the script
is as simple as double-clicking on the .vbs file, or running it at the
command prompt:
If you named it with
.vbs:
C:\scripts>SendLog.vbs
or if you named it
with a custom extension:
C:\scripts>cscript //E:\vbscript
c:\scripts\SendLog.txt
The later method
is preferred even though it looks clunky to run.
By using a "safer" extension (i.e. .txt), you reduce the risk
of inadvertently double-clicking on the script file and execute it by
accident. Imagine what happens if the script performs a "grooming"
function? The //E:\vbscript
argument tells cscript what kind of script engine is required to run the
following script. This way, you're able to name your scripts with unconventional
extensions (i.e. SendLog.xyz) as well.
Tweaking
the script
You may tweak this
script to suit your needs. Some logs are cycled within the same file,
while some are cycled over a certain number of sets, still some are created
with dates in the filename. Check out Microsoft's Scripting Guide http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/scriptcenter/scrguide/sagsas_overview.asp
for more information.
Scheduling
the script
To schedule this
script to run, we'll use the AT
command, e.g. (all in one line):
C:\>at 7:00 /every:monday,tuesday,wednesday,thursday,friday,saturday,sunday
cscript //e:vbscript c:\scripts\sendlog.txt
The command above
instructs AT to run the C:\scripts\sendlog.txt script every day at 7am.
You may increase its frequency to your likings, for example, you can have
logs sent to you on the hour so if there is any suspicious event in the
log you will take notice sooner.
To check if the schedule
was committed -
By typing "at"
(without quotes) at the command line will show you all the scheduled jobs
under the current user (Administrator in this case)-
C:\>at
Status ID Day Time Command Line
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Each M T W Th F S Su 7:00 AM cscript //e:vbscript c:\scripts\sendlog.txt
If the command is
executed successfully, you should see the same line for ID 1. If the command
failed during its last run, you will see ERROR
listed at the Status column.
For more information on using the AT
command, you can type "at
/?" at the command prompt.
Scripts can be quite
powerful and can wreck havoc if not tested properly. So please try out
your scripts, including the sample scripts above, in a test environment
and verify their effects before running them in your production environment!
Did you find this
article useful? Do you want to see more of this kind or something else?
I would really appreciate your comments, feel free to email
me!
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