How get task scheduler to detect failed error code from powershell script

Asked 21/12, 2018 at 16:16 Answered 23/10, 2022 at 19:5

windows powershell exit-code taskscheduler

I have a few powershell scripts that I'm trying to get to trigger as a failed state in the windows task scheduler when they have failures inside them. So I'm doing something like this inside the powershell script. I tried an exit code of 1 or 99, and it doesn't look like windows task scheduler is seeing that as a failure state. So my failure code email doesn't get sent out to notify me.

How do I get task scheduler to see that my powershell script had a failure? It always has event codes of 129 (created task process), 100 (task started), 200 (action started), 110 (task triggered), 201 (action completed), 102 (task completed).

$global:ErrorStrings = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.List[System.Object] #I add strings onto the list as I find errors

$errorCodeAsString = ""
foreach ($item in $global:ErrorStrings.Members){
   $errorCodeAsString += (" " + $item + "..")
}
if($errorCodeAsString -ne "")
{
   write-output  "Error: $errorCodeAsString"
   Exit 99 #Exit 1 didn't cause task scheduler to see error at exit either
}
Exit 0

I know my list is populated with errors because I created them to test it. I checked that the errorCode as string was a length and hit the exit 99 or 1. The task scheduler is still showing the normal event codes.

I have an email alert on failure scheduled and since the event codes aren't showing failures, it will never trigger to send my email. This is windows 10, in case it matters.

I've been looking at powershell errors sql, task scheduler success error, tips tricks scheduled tasks, powershell exit code, but it's not helping.

The powershell scripts are set up in task scheduler like this:

action: start a program

program/script: PowerShell

Add arguments: -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\Users\me\Documents\powershell\disasterBackup.ps1

Anabelanabella answered 21/12, 2018 at 16:16 Comment(0)

Part 1 is to have PowerShell return the correct Last Exit Code to Task Scheduler.

This is one of the peculiarities of Task Scheduler. It simply is reporting that, yes, PowerShell.exe ran successfully. The problem is that PowerShell.exe doesn't report back the exit code, because, yes, PowerShell.exe ran correctly, even if the script did not.

The way I have been able to get around this is to switch from running the script with the -File parameter, which doesn't return the exit value, to a -Command parameter. That way I can exit PowerShell.exe with the correct exit code by explicitly exiting with the$LASTEXITCODE value:

#Run Scheduled task with the following command

powershell.exe -Command ". C:\Scripts\RunScript.ps1; exit $LASTEXITCODE"

So in your case it would be:

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command ". C:\Users\me\Documents\powershell\disasterBackup.ps1; exit $LASTEXITCODE"

--- Edit----

Part 2 is to have a Scheduled Task Triggering on an Event when it fails to send an email or something.

The trouble with Task Scheduler is the same thing we had with PowerShell exiting. No matter what exit code is returned, the task always logs an Event ID 201 - Action Completed... which is correct... no matter what, the task completed even if the job that was run failed internally.

Looking further into the Details of the logged Event, we can see the ResultCode in the EventData does get set correctly. So it's a simple job to filter that through the GUI right?.... well no... There is no filter beyond EventID. Now we have to write a custom Event filter to trigger on based on the ResultCode. The XML XPath query that we need is this:

<QueryList>
  <Query Id="0" Path="Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational">
    <Select Path="Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational">
      *[System[(Level=4 or Level=0) and (EventID=201)]]
        and
      *[EventData[Data[@Name='ResultCode'] and (Data='2147942401')]]</Select>
  </Query>
</QueryList>

So to break it down, we want:

Event log: Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational
Event Level: 4 or 0 = Information
Event ID: 201
And
Event Data: ResultCode = 2147942401

If we set the bad exit code to 1, why is ResultCode = 2147942401? because it actually returns 0x1 which is hexadecimal 0x80070001 which equals decimal 2147942401. So you will have to look at the Details of the Event to find the "Correct" ResultCode.

Inflame answered 21/12, 2018 at 17:3 Comment(18)

If I use -Command do I have to still run with start program/script: Powershell? – Anabelanabella 21/12, 2018 at 17:31

I tried using start program/script of both Cmd and Powershell. When I use Cmd with what you're showing for my case/added arguments, and run it, the task is hanging and doesn't finish in a normal time so I had to terminate it. When I use PowerShell, like I had before, it finishes with normal events in taskScheduler in a normal time but there's no failure exit code. – Anabelanabella 21/12, 2018 at 17:50

Yes. Your Program/Script is still PowerShell.exe you simply are changing the Arguments to use -Command . – Inflame 21/12, 2018 at 17:50

Then that isn't catching the exit code and seeing it's not exiting normally. All looks good. – Anabelanabella 21/12, 2018 at 17:51

Any other ideas on how to get taskScheduler to register a different event? It's not registering a different event. – Anabelanabella 21/12, 2018 at 17:53

Does it have to be an Event? the event will always be Action Completed (201), even when it is bad. Using the above, you will have to use the non 0 return code and that the Last run result will not be "The operation completed successfully. (0x0)" in order to detect a failure. i.e. the Event will only be different if something like the server crashes. – Inflame 21/12, 2018 at 17:59

I'm not sure how I would watch the last run result. Right now I scheduled an email alert script to send an email out and it's triggered "on an event", with a custom setting/filter looking for event codes. How would I get taskScheduler to run a script on a return code? – Anabelanabella 21/12, 2018 at 18:54

What you need is to trigger on an event, but, you need to create a custom event filter. See my edits above. – Inflame 21/12, 2018 at 23:54

Some great info here. Note that you can make -File report an exit code, but only if the script invoked explicitly uses exit <n> to exit the script. Also note that a script may fail due to PowerShell-native commands failing, which won't be reflected in $LASTEXITCODE. 0x1 which is hexadecimal 0x80070001 is a bit confusing: more accurately, the task-execution engine reports non-zero exit codes by bit-oring them with 0x80070000; to get the embedded exit code, use 2147942401 -band -bnot 0x80070000 or, conversely, 1 -bor 0x80070000L – Swinish 23/12, 2018 at 20:37

@Swinish - I exit my script with "Exit 99" and also tried "Exit 1", but don't see anything in the Event list. Is there something to add with the -File in task scheduler to take the exit code? Maybe I'm not understanding the -band -bnot discussion. – Anabelanabella 26/12, 2018 at 18:7

@Inflame - I'm not sure what to do with the xml you're showing in my powershell script or elsewhere. – Anabelanabella 26/12, 2018 at 18:39

@Michele: If you use exit 99, then you should find 2147942499 (99 -bor 0x80070000L ) in the ResultCode field of the 201 event entry's custom event data, as described in this answer. It'll also show in the entry's message (the one that starts with "Task Scheduler successfully completed task ... "). – Swinish 26/12, 2018 at 18:42

@Michele: I think the ideas is to create another scheduled task that is triggered by the original task logging action-completed events with a specific (unexpected) exit code. The XPath query can be used as the event filter that defines the trigger; that is, events getting logged that match the filter cause the new task to fire. – Swinish 26/12, 2018 at 18:47

@Swinish - Last Run Result column in task scheduler library is showing (0x1), not 2147942499. Operational Code column in History shows (1). I didn't see any columns to add in history that were called ResultCode. Maybe Windows 10 is different? – Anabelanabella 26/12, 2018 at 19:17

@Michele: It is the Task Scheduler UI that shows the true exit code, but the information is only indirectly reflected in the event log, as described. – Swinish 26/12, 2018 at 19:59

Oh well, task scheduler UI isn't showing the exit code, as I described. Right now I have my script directly calling the email script instead of having the task scheduler trigger it. Thanks anyway! – Anabelanabella 26/12, 2018 at 20:14

I'm glad you found a workaround, @Michele, but just to clarify: The Last Run Result column should show (0x63) if the exit code was 99. If it is showing (0x1), perhaps you ran your script with -Command instead of -File or your script currently uses exit 1. You can only select standard fields as display columns, and ResultCode is not a standard field; it is embedded in event-instance-specific custom event data associated with event 201. – Swinish 27/12, 2018 at 15:19

Both powershell -file script.ps1 and powershell -command .\script.ps1 work for me. – Interrelated 23/10, 2022 at 19:1

HAL9256's answer did not work for me when looking for all failed tasks

When I converted his XML to search for all non-zero return codes, it ended up matching all return codes. Both zero and non-zero alike

*[EventData[Data[@Name='ResultCode'] and (Data!='0')]]

Instead, I created a task with an "on an event" trigger and the following custom xml:

<QueryList>
  <Query Id="0" Path="Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational">
    <Select Path="Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational">
      *[System[(Level=4 or Level=0) and (EventID=201)]]
        and
      *[EventData[(Data[@Name="ResultCode"]!=0)]] </Select>
  </Query>
</QueryList>

and runs the following powershell script

Send-MailMessage -To -Subject "My subject" -Body "One of the tasks failed. Please log into the server and view the event log details to find out which task failed" -SmtpServer mail.company.com -From [email protected]

Irresolution answered 13/8, 2021 at 15:16 Comment(0)

I know this is way after the fact, but what I wound up doing for this is that I called an email script directly from my powershell script when it has a failure case.

Anabelanabella answered 21/12, 2021 at 15:30 Comment(0)

If you don't want to do the bit math ($tasknum -band -bnot 0x80070000), get-scheduledtaskinfo returns a lasttaskresult property.

Get-ScheduledTaskInfo script.ps1

LastRunTime        : 10/23/2022 10:51:51 AM
LastTaskResult     : 1
NextRunTime        :
NumberOfMissedRuns : 0
TaskName           : script.ps1
TaskPath           :
PSComputerName     :

Interrelated answered 23/10, 2022 at 19:5 Comment(0)

-2

What I'd do is to attach a scheduled task to the failed event so when this takes place raise the scheduled task.

Prevision answered 3/8, 2019 at 19:54 Comment(1)

This answer doesn't seem to have any relevance to the question... – Galyak 28/2, 2023 at 8:26

Hot tags

Godot Unity Godot Help Programming Godot 4.X GUI GDScript 3D 2D Physics CSharp Godot 3.X VR XR Projects C++

Recommended topics

Hot tags