Log each Powershell process to text file through - powershell

Question

Firstly, I'm by no means a PS expert, total newbie - admission done. I have scoured the internet for what I need in order to get the script to do what I want, but I've reached a point where I'm struggling and in need of help.
Basically, I've created a script using ISE that grabs the users in an AD OU, processes them by disabling the accounts, renaming them, stripping out the groups and moving them to another folder. In order to automate the deactivation process for users. But I now need to create a log file every time this runs, to show a) if it found any Users in the original OU (ToBeProcessed) and b) what processes were run and if they were successful. Here is the code.
$OUToBeProcessed = "OU=ToBeProcessed,OU=Users,OU=World,DC=local"
$OURetired = "OU=RetiredUsers,OU=Users,OU=World,DC=local"
$Users = Get-ADUser -SearchBase $OUToBeProcessed -Filter 'name -Like "*"' -Properties MemberOf
ForEach($User in $Users){
$SAN = $User.SamAccountName
#Disable user account
Disable-ADAccount -Identity $SAN
#Remove membership from groups for user
$User.Memberof | Remove-ADGroupMember -Member $User -Confirm:$False
$NewDN = "zzz_" + $User.Name
#Change display name
set-aduser $User -Displayname $newDN -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
#Change distinguished name
Get-ADUser $SAN | Rename-ADObject -Newname $NewDN
Write-Host "$SAN may already exist."
#Move account to RetiredUsers
Get-Aduser $SAN | Move-ADObject -TargetPath $OURetired
}
I'm assuming I'll need to either use a Write-Output or Log-File cmdlet, though someone had also suggested Transcript, but I don't think that's what I need.
I've tried a number of ways to incorporate the Write-Output into the script, it runs without errors, but no text file is produced. But I'm placing it within the loop which may be the issue. I've placed it outside the loop but I think because it's not being passed anything it's creating the file with nothing in it. Would really appreciate some help as to where the Write-Output might need to go if that is the right cmdlet.

Answer 1

Personally I tend to add a Log function to my scripts. Something like this (where I output to the host and file):
Function Log {
Param (
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $String,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $LogFilePath,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$false)][ValidateSet("ERROR","WARN","INFO","DEBUG")] [string] $Level = "INFO"
)
$LogString = ((Get-Date -Format "s") +" $Level $env:USERNAME $String")
Write-Host $LogString
Out-File -Append -FilePath $LogFilePath -InputObject $LogString
}
Then you could do logging:
Log "Something wrong!" "c:\mylog.log" "WARN"
Log "Updated stuff" "c:\mylog.log"
Or search the http://www.powershellgallery.com/ for logging modules.
Example (haven't tried this one myself):
https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/PSLogging/2.5.2