Monitor File or Directory Changes with PowerShell and Email Changes

I had a need to monitor a file/directory for changes, or more specifically entries into an error log by an application. I wanted a trigger on file change using a PowerShell or some other script, since the application didn’t have alerting capabilities built in. I wanted a script to check read the log file and send an email when the file changes containing what was changed, or in this case what the error was. You can tweak the script to monitor a directory or specific file, and customize the email with the file name or more. Either way this is the basic script. Schedule a task in Task Scheduler (Windows 7) or Scheduled Tasks (Windows XP) to run at login for that specific user, and make sure it never terminates or times out. Set your application to run:

powershell.exe -noexit -nologo -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -command "& 'C:\powershellscript.ps1'"

1	powershell.exe -noexit -nologo -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -command "& 'C:\powershellscript.ps1'"

<##################################################################
## Check Trasnsport Servers NDR emails in queues and report to ##
## administrators via eamil ##
## ##
## Modify values under VARS section for email settings ##
## ##
###################################################################>
#Add Exchange Tools
 Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue;

## START VARS
 $emails = @(
 "email1@domain.com"
 ,"email2@domain.com"
 )
 $mailSubject = "Daily NDR Report for DOMAIN"
 $mailServer = "mail.domain.com"
 $fromAddress = "alerts@domain.com"

## FUNCTIONS

function msg_get_queue() {
 $mQ = @()
 $mQ = Get-ExchangeServer | ? {$_.isHubTransportServer -eq $true} | get-queue | ? {$_.MessageCount -gt 0}
 return $mQ
 }

function msg_get_msgFromQ($i) {
 $mFQ = @()
 foreach ($x in $i) {
 $mFQ += ($x | Get-Message)
 }
 return $mFQ
 }

function msg_get_details($i) {
 $mQD = @()
 foreach ($svr in (Get-ExchangeServer | ? {$_.isHubTransportServer -eq $true})) {
 $mQD += Get-MessageTrackingLog -MessageId $i -Server $svr.Name | ? {$_.EventID -eq "RECEIVE"}
 }
 return $mQD
 }

## FUNCTION TO GET Q AND BUILD EMAIL
function msg_get_NDR_details() {
 $html = "
<meta http-equiv="" content="" charset="us-asciiamp;"amp;"" />
<meta name="Generator" content="" /></pre>
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */@font-face {font-family: ""Tahoma"";panose-1: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}/* Style Definitions */p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin-top: 0in;margin-right: 0in;margin-bottom: 10.0pt;margin-left: 0in;line-height: 115%;font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: ""Tahoma"";}a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority: 99;color: #001C54;text-decoration: underline;}a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-priority: 99;color: #DDEBED;text-decoration: underline;}span.EmailStyle17 {mso-style-type: personal-compose;font-family: ""Tahoma"";color: windowtext;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type: export-only;font-family: ""Tahoma"";}@page WordSection1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in;margin: 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}div.WordSection1 {page: WordSection1;}
--></style>
<pre>
 <!--[if gte mso 9]>
 <xml>
 <o:shapedefaults v:ext=""edit"" spidmax=""1026"" />
 </xml>
 <![endif]-->
 <!--[if gte mso 9]>
 <xml>
 <o:shapelayout v:ext=""edit"">
 <o:idmap v:ext=""edit"" data=""1"" />
 </o:shapelayout>
 </xml>
 <![endif]-->

</pre>
<div class="WordSection1">"
 foreach ($subQ in (msg_get_queue)) {
 foreach ($subMsg in $subQ) {
 $html += "

<table style="width: 98.0%; border-collapse: collapse; border: none;" width="" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: solid white 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid white 3.0pt; background: #ECECE5; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">
 $($subMsg.NextHopDomain)<br/ >
 </span>
 </b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">
 $($subMsg.Status) due to $($subMsg.DeliveryType), will try again on $($subMsg.NextRetryTime)
Last Error: $($subMsg.LastError)
 </span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>" foreach ( $subDetails in (msg_get_msgFromQ($subMsg)) ) { $rows = msg_get_details($subDetails.InternetMessageId) foreach ($row in $rows) { $html += " " } } $html += "
<table style="width: 99.0%; border-collapse: collapse; border: none;" width="" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">EventID</span>
 </b></td>
<td valign="">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">Source</span>
 </b></td>
<td valign="">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">Sender</span>
 </b></td>
<td valign="">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">Recipients</span>
 </b></td>
<td valign="">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">MessageSubject</span>
 </b></td>
<td valign="">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">TotalBytes</span>
 </b></td>
<td valign="">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">ServerHostname</span>
 </b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid white 1.0pt; border-right: solid white 1.0pt; background: #FAFAF8; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" align="" valign="">
$($row.EventID)</td>
<td style="border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid white 1.0pt; border-right: solid white 1.0pt; background: #FAFAF8; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" align="" valign="">
$($row.Source)</td>
<td style="border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid white 1.0pt; border-right: solid white 1.0pt; background: #FAFAF8; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" align="" valign="">
$($row.Sender)</td>
<td style="border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid white 1.0pt; border-right: solid white 1.0pt; background: #FAFAF8; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" align="" valign="">
$($row.Recipients)</td>
<td style="border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid white 1.0pt; border-right: solid white 1.0pt; background: #FAFAF8; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" align="" valign="">
$($row.MessageSubject)</td>
<td style="border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid white 1.0pt; border-right: solid white 1.0pt; background: #FAFAF8; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" align="" valign="">
$($row.TotalBytes)</td>
<td style="border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid white 1.0pt; border-right: solid white 1.0pt; background: #FAFAF8; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" align="" valign="">
$($row.ServerHostname)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: solid white 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid white 3.0pt; background: #ECECE5; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top">
 <b>
 <span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">
 Total Messages in this Queue: $($subMsg.MessageCount)
 </span>
 </b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
 "
 }
 }
 $html += "

</div>
<pre>
"

return $html
 }

#SEND EMAIL
 Send-MailMessage -SmtpServer $mailServer -To $emails -From $fromAddress -subject $mailSubject -bodyAsHtml (msg_get_NDR_details)

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<##################################################################

## Check Trasnsport Servers NDR emails in queues and report to ##

## administrators via eamil ##

## ##

## Modify values under VARS section for email settings ##

## ##

###################################################################>

#Add Exchange Tools

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue;

## START VARS

$emails = @(

"[email protected]"

,"[email protected]"

)

$mailSubject = "Daily NDR Report for DOMAIN"

$mailServer = "mail.domain.com"

$fromAddress = "[email protected]"

## FUNCTIONS

function msg_get_queue() {

$mQ = @()

$mQ = Get-ExchangeServer | ? {$_.isHubTransportServer -eq $true} | get-queue | ? {$_.MessageCount -gt 0}

return $mQ

}

function msg_get_msgFromQ($i) {

$mFQ = @()

foreach ($x in $i) {

$mFQ += ($x | Get-Message)

}

return $mFQ

}

function msg_get_details($i) {

$mQD = @()

foreach ($svr in (Get-ExchangeServer | ? {$_.isHubTransportServer -eq $true})) {

$mQD += Get-MessageTrackingLog -MessageId $i -Server $svr.Name | ? {$_.EventID -eq "RECEIVE"}

}

return $mQD

}

## FUNCTION TO GET Q AND BUILD EMAIL

function msg_get_NDR_details() {

$html = "

<style><!--

/* Font Definitions */@font-face {font-family: ""Tahoma"";panose-1: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}/* Style Definitions */p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin-top: 0in;margin-right: 0in;margin-bottom: 10.0pt;margin-left: 0in;line-height: 115%;font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: ""Tahoma"";}a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority: 99;color: #001C54;text-decoration: underline;}a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-priority: 99;color: #DDEBED;text-decoration: underline;}span.EmailStyle17 {mso-style-type: personal-compose;font-family: ""Tahoma"";color: windowtext;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type: export-only;font-family: ""Tahoma"";}@page WordSection1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in;margin: 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}div.WordSection1 {page: WordSection1;}

--></style>

<pre>

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

<xml>

<o:shapedefaults v:ext=""edit"" spidmax=""1026"" />

</xml>

<![endif]-->

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

<xml>

<o:shapelayout v:ext=""edit"">

<o:idmap v:ext=""edit"" data=""1"" />

</o:shapelayout>

</xml>

<![endif]-->

</pre>

<div class="WordSection1">"

foreach ($subQ in (msg_get_queue)) {

foreach ($subMsg in $subQ) {

$html += "

<tbody>

<tr>

<b>

$($subMsg.NextHopDomain)<br/ >

</span>

</b>

$($subMsg.Status) due to $($subMsg.DeliveryType), will try again on $($subMsg.NextRetryTime)

Last Error: $($subMsg.LastError)

</span></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>" foreach ( $subDetails in (msg_get_msgFromQ($subMsg)) ) { $rows = msg_get_details($subDetails.InternetMessageId) foreach ($row in $rows) { $html += " " } } $html += "

<tbody>

<tr>

<b>

<span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">EventID</span>

</b></td>

<b>

<span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">Source</span>

</b></td>

<b>

<span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">Sender</span>

</b></td>

<b>

<span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">Recipients</span>

</b></td>

<b>

<span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">MessageSubject</span>

</b></td>

<b>

<span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">TotalBytes</span>

</b></td>

<b>

<span style="color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #404040; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;">ServerHostname</span>

</b></td>

</tr>

<tr>

$($row.EventID)</td>

$($row.Source)</td>

$($row.Sender)</td>

$($row.Recipients)</td>

$($row.MessageSubject)</td>

$($row.TotalBytes)</td>

$($row.ServerHostname)</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<b>

Total Messages in this Queue: $($subMsg.MessageCount)

</span>

</b></td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

}

$html += "

</div>

<pre>

return $html

}

#SEND EMAIL

Send-MailMessage -SmtpServer $mailServer -To $emails -From $fromAddress -subject $mailSubject -bodyAsHtml (msg_get_NDR_details)

2 comments

Jerry LaMonte says:
October 17, 2013 at 9:06 PM
When I run the script I get this error
Unexpected token ‘function’ in expression or statement.
At C:\Data\Scripts\PowerShell\SendFileAlert\SendFileAlert.ps1:19 char:12
+ 10 function <<<< sendMail($s) {
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (function:String) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken
Can you help?
Thanks!
1. Christopher Law says:
  March 11, 2014 at 5:45 PM
  Sure, can you post or send me your PS1 file?

2 comments

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