Powershell Transcription is a very simple to use, and handy feature for Exchange admins.
In essence it is the process of logging to a text file all the commands that you use and their output from a Powershell session.
This obviously has a number of positive applications – for example being able to trace back what you have written, what the error message or output was – or if you are working in more secure environments to maintain an audit log of what was done.
To enable Powershell Transcription – at the Powershell command prompt type in the following command:
[PS] C:\>Start-Transcript -path c:\mytranscript.txt
The path parameter can be any writable location on your server.
This will create a logging file in the location that you specified, that contains a log of each command and its associated output – see below
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Windows PowerShell Transcript Start
Start time: 20110517132350
Username : PREPAD\administrator
Machine : PROD-EX2010-01 (Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7600.0)
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Transcript started, output file is c:\mytranscript.txt
[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabase
Name Server Recovery ReplicationType
—- —— ——– —————
Mailbox Database 0020849825 PROD-EX2010-01 False Remote
prod-ex2010-01-General-1 PROD-EX2010-01 False Remote
prod-ex2010-01-General-2 PROD-EX2010-01 False Remote
prod-ex2010-Archive-01 PROD-EX2010-01 False Remote
Mailbox Database 0284281188 PROD-EX2010-01 False Remote
Mailbox Database 1331321147 PROD-EX2010-01 False Remote
[PS] C:\>Get-ClientAccessServer
Name
—-
PROD-EX2010-01
PROD-EX2010-02
[PS] C:\>Stop-Transcript
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Windows PowerShell Transcript End
End time: 20110517132419
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To stop Transcript logging – type in the following command at the Powershell prompt:
[PS] C:\>Stop-Transcript
Transcript stopped, output file is C:\mytranscript.txt