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PowerShell basics: Query Windows Server Event Logs

OrinThomas's avatar
OrinThomas
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Jun 09, 2021

One of the most standard server administration tasks is trawling through event logs looking for information about an issue you want to troubleshoot. If you’re interacting with Windows Server through PowerShell, you can interact with those event logs using the Get-EventLog, Clear-EventLog, Limit-EventLog, New-EventLog, Remove-EventLog, Show-EventLog and Write-EvengLog cmdlets.

 

You’re most likely to use Get-Eventlog most often. To view which event logs are available, run the command

 

 

Get-EventLog -List

 

 

 

Get-EventLog -LogName Security -Newest 10

 

 

 

To pull up event log entries that have a specific type, use the InstanceID parameter. For example, to see the last 10 successful log on events in the Security event log (ID 4624) run the command:

 

 

Get-EventLog -LogName Security -InstanceID 4624 -Newest 10

 

 

 

To search an event log for specific words in the event log message, use the Message parameter. For example, to search the Security event log for the word Logoff, use the following command:

 

 

Get-EventLog -LogName Security -Message *Logoff*

 

 

 

 

Get-EventLog is a very useful cmdlet and you'll definitely use it when working with Server Core machines, or if you just want to check if specific events have occurred on computers you manage. 

 

Learn more

 

Updated Jun 09, 2021
Version 3.0
  • MrJohnDoe's avatar
    MrJohnDoe
    Iron Contributor

    Get-EventLog uses a Win32 API that is deprecated. The results may not be accurate. Use the Get-WinEvent cmdlet instead.

     

    See this note in Microsoft's documentation.