Logging

PowerShell error handling is easy to ignore while a script is still small. A command fails, the red text appears, and you fix the problem while looking at the console. That stops working when the same script runs from Task Scheduler, a deployment tool, a remote session, or a service account. At that point, the script needs to explain what failed without you watching it live. For production scripts, I usually want two things at the same time: a clear message on the screen when I run the script manually, and a log file that remains after the console is closed. try, catch, and finally are the basic tools for that pattern. ...

Logging is one of those parts of a PowerShell script that feels optional until the first production failure happens at 2 AM. When a script is run manually, you can watch the console and fix problems as they appear. When the same script runs from Task Scheduler, a deployment tool, a service account, or a remote session, the console is gone. The log becomes the only witness. For small one-off scripts, Write-Host might be enough. For production scripts, I want a log that answers a few basic questions quickly: ...