Using the Server Management Objects (SMO) library, you don’t even need to have the SQL Server 2008 PowerShell Provider to read the SQL Server Error Logs – in fact, you can use regular old everyday PowerShell. Keep in mind you will need the SMO libraries – which can be installed separately or by installing the Client Tools from the SQL Server install media. You could search for errors, store a result as a variable, or act on the returned values in some other way.

Replace the Machine Name with your server and Instance Name with your instance, but leave the quotes, to make this work on your system:

[reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo")
$machineName = "UNIVAC"
$instanceName = "Production"
$sqlServer = new-object ("Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server") "$machineName\$instanceName"
$sqlServer.ReadErrorLog()

Want to search for something specific, like the word “Error”? Replace the last line with this:

$sqlServer.ReadErrorLog() | where {$_.Text -like "Error*"}

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