TIL: Get-DbaErrorLog

Ed: SQLDork is a Junior DBA on the team here, learning the DBATools in addition to normal DBA stuff

Today’s dbatools command is Get-DbaErrorLog, which is very similar to a script we frequently run on client servers to check for errors that need fixing.

Get-DbaErrorLog `
    -SqlInstance PRECISION-M7520SQL2016 `
    | Select-Object `
        SqlInstance, Source, LogDate, Text `
    | Out-Gridview

Basic command usage, using Select-Object to filter out the columns i don’t really care about, then piping the results to Out-Gridview.

Get-DbaErrorLog `
    -SqlInstance PRECISION-M7520SQL2016 `
    -LogNumber 1, 0 `
    | Select-Object `
        SqlInstance, Source, LogDate, Text `
    | Out-Gridview

Adding the -LogNumber Parameter to check the archived errorlogs, defaults to current log only.

NOTE: If you want the results ordered by date, the values passed into -LogNumber must be in descending order.

Get-DbaErrorLog `
    -SqlInstance PRECISION-M7520SQL2016 `
    -Source spid5s `
    | Select-Object `
        SqlInstance, Source, LogDate, Text `
    | Out-Gridview

The -Source parameter lets us filter out some stuff. I can’t think of a better way to describe that. The documentation uses -Source Logon as an example, but my sample data didn’t have that so i used a spid.

(Ed: The Source can be a spid, “logon”, “Server”, or anything you see in the errorlog Source column in the SSMS Log Viewer)

Get-DbaErrorLog `
    -SqlInstance PRECISION-M7520SQL2016 `
    -LogNumber 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 `
    -Text "instance" `
    | Select-Object `
        SqlInstance, Source, LogDate, Text `
    | Out-Gridview

Using -Text as a rudimentary where clause, but this one only supports 1 string. We can do better.

Get-DbaErrorLog `
    -SqlInstance PRECISION-M7520SQL2016 `
    -LogNumber 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 `
    | Select-Object `
        SqlInstance, Source, LogDate, Text `
    | Where { `
                ( `
                $_.Text -Like "*CheckDB*" `
            -or $_.Text -Like "*Error*" `
            -or $_.Text -Like "*UTC*" `
                ) `
           -and ( `
                $_.Text -NotLike "*found 0 errors*" `
           -and $_.Text -NotLike "*finished without errors*" `
           -and $_.Text -NotLike "*informational message*" `
                ) `
            } `
| Out-GridView

This formatting feels very strange to me, but it does a very similar thing to that errorlog query we use that i mentioned earlier.

(Ed: The Where-Object or Where is PowerShell, not DBATools, click here)

Shoutout to Kevin (b|t) for helping me figure out the syntax on this, and also for pointing out that he changed the -SqlInstance parameter to his own machine name when he was testing this. Saved me a bunch of time troubleshooting connection errors.

Speaking of connection errors, follow me (b|t) on twitter, even though i don’t really tweet that much. Unless i retweet pictures of dogs, that’s always a possibility.

Pluralsight course for new SQL Server DBAs

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