Generate a server uptime HTML report with PowerShell

• Author
• Recent Posts

Sitaram Pamarthi

Sitaram Pamarthi is working as a Windows Engineer and his special fields of interest are PowerShell, Active Directory, Exchange, and virtualization.

Latest posts by Sitaram Pamarthi (see all)

• Add a domain user or group to local administrators with PowerShell - Wed, Mar 19 2014
• Create a list of local administrators with PowerShell - Wed, Mar 5 2014
• Remotely query user profile information with PowerShell - Tue, Nov 26 2013

"Send me the server uptime report” is what we system administrators often hear from our bosses. Of all reporting formats, I feel the HTML report is the best way to report this status. Keeping this requirement in mind, I came up with a PowerShell script that takes a list of servers as input and generates an uptime report with a report summary in HTML format.

Server Uptime Report with PowerShell

Though the script looks quite long, it is a wrapper around the Win32_OperatingSystem WMI class. We are generating a list of server uptimes by querying the LastBootUpTime property of this WMI class. This property contains the uptime in WMI time format, which is not that easy to understand. So, I am using the ToDateTime method of the [System.Management.ManagementDateTimeconverter] class to convert the WMI time to the local system date time format. This is a code sample:

$Boottime = (Get-WmiObject win32_operatingSystem -computer $Computer -ErrorAction stop).lastbootuptime
$Boottime = [System.Management.ManagementDateTimeconverter]::ToDateTime($BootTIme)

The value returned after the time conversion is the timestamp when the server last rebooted. But this is not the uptime. To calculate the uptime, we simply need to subtract the last boot time from the current time (it makes sense, doesn't it?).

Though the date subtraction looks quite complex, it is not that tough in the PowerShell world. A cmdlet, New-TimeSpan, is available in PowerShell to calculate the time span between two dates. The output gives the difference between two timestamp values in terms of number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds. See the code below to understand how the time difference calculation works.

$Now = Get-Date
$span = New-TimeSpan $BootTime $Now
$Uptime = "{0} day(s), {1} hour(s), {2} min(s), {3} second(s)" -f $span.days, $span.hours, $span.minutes, $span.seconds

I used some HTML code in the begin{} and end{} blocks of the script to form the tables and summary report. Some HTML code in the process{} block will be generated based on the status of the servers it is processing.

This script has an -HTMLReport parameter that, when specified, causes the script to generate the output in HTML format and save it to c:\ with the file name UptimeReport.HTML. You can change the location of the output report by specifying the -HTMLFile parameter. When the -HTMLReport parameter is not specified, the script will output the details to the console in object format, which you can pass to other scripts if you want or format it the way you need.

Usage and help

You can get usage instructions and help about this script by using the following command:

PS C:\scripts> get-help .\Get-ServersUptime.ps1 -Detailed
NAME

C:\scripts\Get-ServersUptime.ps1
SYNOPSIS
Query uptime details of servers.
SYNTAX
C:\scripts\Get-ServersUptime.ps1 [[-ComputerName] <String[]>] [-HTMLReport] [[-HTMLFile] <String>] [<CommonParameters>]

This script helps you get the uptime details of the servers. It also generates an HTML report when the -HTMLReport switch is used. The report contains the uptime details and a summary of how many computers are reachable and how many are not.

Parameters

-ComputerName <String[]>

Computer name(s) for which you want to get the uptime details.

-HTMLReport [<SwitchParameter>]

Generates an HTML report in c:\ drive with name uptimereport.html by default. You can override this by specifying the HTML file parameter.

-HTMLFile <String>

Name of the file path where you want to store the report.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,

ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,

OutBuffer and OutVariable.

For more information, type:

"get-help about_commonparameters".

-------------------------- EXAMPLE 1 --------------------------

C:\PS>Get-UptimeOfServers.ps1 -ComputerName Comp1, Comp2
Gets the uptime of Comp1 and Comp2.

-------------------------- EXAMPLE 2 --------------------------

C:\PS>Get-UptimeOfServers.ps1 -ComputerName Comp1, Comp2 -HTMLReport

Gets the uptime of Comp1 and Comp2 and saves the report in HTML format.

-------------------------- EXAMPLE 3 --------------------------

C:\PS>Get-Content c:\servers.txt | Get-UptimeOfServers.ps1 -HTMLReport

Gets the uptime of computers listed in servers.txt and saves the report in HTML format.

Remarks

To see the examples, type: "get-help C:\scripts\Get-ServersUptime.ps1 -examples".

For more information, type: "get-help C:\scripts\Get-ServersUptime.ps1 -detailed".

For technical information, type: "get-help C:\scripts\Get-ServersUptime.ps1 -full".

Download the PowerShell script: Get-ServerUpTime.ps1