Timestamp of finished Powershell task - powershell

Question

I have a basic script, which will shutdown Windows services and generate a report about their shutdown processes. I also want to include two more columns into my output variable ($table), which will be timestamp values i.e. when shutdown tasks were launched and when they finished. I have no idea how to implement this into my report.
$processlist = #('SQLTELEMETRY$TESTDB', 'MSSQL$TESTDB', 'SQLWRITER')
$get = ''
$table = #{ }
$failed = 0
foreach ($proc in $processlist) {
stop-service -name $proc -force
}
#start-sleep -s 120
foreach ($proc in $processlist) {
$get = get-service $proc -Erroraction ignore
if ($get.Status -eq 'Running') {
$table += #{$proc = 'Running' }
}
else {
$table += #{$proc = 'Stopped' }
}
}
foreach ($value in $table.GetEnumerator()) {
if ($value.Value -eq 'Running') {
$failed += 1
}
}
if ($failed -gt 0) {
$err = 'FAILED'
}
else {
$err = 'SUCCESS'
}
$table.GetEnumerator() | Select-Object -Property Name, Value | export-csv appreport.csv -delimiter ";" -force -notypeinformation
(HTML part here...)

Answer 1

Instead of adding stuff into a Hashtable, I think it would be a lot easier to build an array of objects and write that as CSV file.
Something like this:
$serviceList = 'SQLTELEMETRY$TESTDB', 'MSSQL$TESTDB', 'SQLWRITER'
$maxAttempts = 10
# $result will become an array of PsCustomObjects you can easily pipe to Export-Csv
$result = foreach ($service in $serviceList) {
$shutStart = Get-Date
$svc = Get-Service -Name $service -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($svc) {
for ($attempt = 0; $attempt -lt $maxAttempts; $attempt++) {
$shutResult = 'Failed'
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 100
$svc | Stop-Service -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
# test if the service has stopped. If so exit the loop
if (($svc | Get-Service).Status -eq 'Stopped') {
$shutResult = 'Success'
break
}
}
[PsCustomObject]#{
'ServiceName' = $svc.Name
'ServiceDisplayName' = $svc.DisplayName
'ShutDownStart' = $shutStart
'ShutDownEnd' = Get-Date
'Result' = $shutResult
}
}
else {
[PsCustomObject]#{
'ServiceName' = $service
'ServiceDisplayName' = ''
'ShutDownStart' = $shutStart
'ShutDownEnd' = Get-Date
'Result' = "Failed: Service '$service' could not be found."
}
}
}
# output on screen
$result
# output to CSV
$result | Export-Csv 'D:\appreport.csv' -Delimiter ";" -Force -NoTypeInformation
The output on screen will look like this:
ServiceName : SQLTELEMETRY$TESTDB
ServiceDisplayName :
ShutDownStart : 22-8-2019 16:47:40
ShutDownEnd : 22-8-2019 16:47:40
Result : Failed: Service 'SQLTELEMETRY$TESTDB' could not be found.
ServiceName : MSSQL$TESTDB
ServiceDisplayName :
ShutDownStart : 22-8-2019 16:47:40
ShutDownEnd : 22-8-2019 16:47:40
Result : Failed: Service 'MSSQL$TESTDB' could not be found.
ServiceName : SQLWRITER
ServiceDisplayName : SQL Server VSS Writer
ShutDownStart : 22-8-2019 16:47:38
ShutDownEnd : 22-8-2019 16:47:39
Result : Success
Hope that helps

Answer 2

I don't really know when you want to capture the time stamp for the services, but I suggest you take advantage of the below property and add it in the loop where you think its suitable.
(Get-Process -Name $proc).StartTime
Also you can use the below properties :
UserProcessorTime
TotalProcessTime
ExitTime
I hope this will help you to capture to time.