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Code snippets : Windows : Importing Event Logs to Database

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Code snippet from old archives. It shows how to import Windows event log entries to database. Important is to setup database and table accordingly, so it contains apropriate columns.

Set objConn = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objRS = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
objConn.Open "DSN=EventLogs;"
objRS.CursorLocation = 3
objRS.Open "SELECT * FROM tblEventLog" , objConn, 3, 3
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colRetrievedEvents = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("Select Category, CategoryString, ComputerName, Data, EventCode, _
EventIdentifier, EventType, LogFile, Message, RecordNumber, SourceName, _
TimeGenerated, TimeWritten, Type, User from Win32_NTLogEvent")
For Each objEvent in colRetrievedEvents
objRS.AddNew
objRS("el_Category") = objEvent.Category
objRS("el_CategoryString") = objEvent.CategoryString
objRS("el_ComputerName") = objEvent.ComputerName
objRS("el_Data") = objEvent.Data
objRS("el_EventCode") = objEvent.EventCode
objRS("el_EventIdentifier") = objEvent.EventIdentifier
objRS("el_EventType") = objEvent.EventType
objRS("el_LogFile") = objEvent.LogFile
objRS("el_Message") = objEvent.Message
objRS("el_RecordNumber") = objEvent.RecordNumber
objRS("el_SourceName") = objEvent.SourceName
objRS("el_TimeGenerated") = objEvent.TimeGenerated
objRS("el_TimeWritten") = objEvent.TimeWritten
objRS("el_Type") = objEvent.Type
objRS("el_User") = objEvent.User
objRS.Update
Next
objRS.Close
objConn.Close
0

Tips & Tricks : Remove Event Log Source

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To remove Event Log Source use this:

Remove-EventLog -Source "Desktop Window Manager"
Replace Desktop Window Manager with Event Log Source you want to remove.
0

Tips & Tricks : List Event Logs and associated sources

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To list all Event Logs and sources associated with them use:

Get-EventLog -LogName * |ForEach-Object {$LogName = $_.Log;Get-EventLog -LogName $LogName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |Select-Object @{Name= "Log Name";Expression = {$LogName}}, Source -Unique}
4

How-to : Publish multiple URLs with single IP and HAProxy

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Many times there is a need to publish multiple websites from internal network, but there is only one public IP address available.

How this can be done easy way? HAProxy can help us with it.

In example configuration I have 2 URLs registered to same public IP address:

  • first.laboratory.net
  • second.laboratory.net
  • third.laboratory.net

Here is how HAProxy configuration for given example looks like…

(more…)

0

Code snippets : Restart IIS Application Pool in PowerShell

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If you need to watch IIS application pool and start it once goes down and want to use PowerShell for that here is simple script for that.

Script includes also logging all restarts in log file which is created in same folder as script.

# AppPool to monitor
$AppPoolName = "AppPoolName"

# Log Destination
$LogToScreen = 1
$LogToFile = 1

# Determine script location for PowerShell
$ScriptDir = Split-Path $script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path

# Output log
$OutputLogPath = $ScriptDir + "\AppPoolRestart.csv"

#Check if file exists and create if it doesn't
If(!(Test-Path -Path $OutputLogPath)){
#Create file and start logging
New-Item -Path $OutputLogPath -ItemType File
}

###
# Function: LogMessage
###
function LogMessage($Msg, $ToScreen, $ToFile)
{
if ($ToScreen -eq 1)
{
Write-Host $Message
}

If ($ToFile -eq 1)
{
Add-Content -Path $OutputLogPath -Value $Message
}
}
###
# End Function: LogMessage
###

While (1 -eq 1){

Clear-Host

$AppPoolStatus = Get-WebAppPoolState -Name $AppPoolName

$DateTime = Get-Date

If ($AppPoolStatus.Value -eq "Stopped"){
Write-Host "Not Working"
Start-WebAppPool -Name $AppPoolName
$Message = "App Pool $AppPoolName restarted at $DateTime"
LogMessage $Message $LogToScreen $LogToFile
}Else{
Write-Host "Working"
}

Sleep 5
}
5

How-to : Setup AlwaysOn Availability Group on SQL Server 2012

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SQL Server 2012 has very nice HADR technology built-in, AlwaysOn Availability Groups. It allows to have multiple replicas of selected databases across multiple servers, which can be even located across multiple sites. AlwaysOn itself provides mechanism to keep all replicas of database synchronized and up-to-date, as some of them might serve data for read-only purposes (for example reporting).

MSDN article: AlwaysOn Availability Groups (SQL Server) describes AlwaysOn technology in details. In this article I will focus on practical side of this HADR technology and how to get this up and running fast without any issues.

To test and demonstrate SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn capabilities I built simple Lab environment on VMware Workstation as shown below. Lab contains 2 servers with Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter and SQL Server 2012 Enterprise.

Lab environment also contains Active Directory domain and Domain Controller, which is not shown on the diagram.

In order to get SQL Server AlwaysOn up and running we will complete following activities:

  • Install Failover Clustering Role
  • Configure Windows Server Failover Clustering
  • SQL Server installation
  • Demo database preparation
  • Enable Availability Groups on SQL Server
  • Creating AlwaysOn Availability Group

So, let’s get started…

(more…)