Inactive printer-checking script

Hello!
I'm working at a company that have alot of printers (1200-1500).
However we are not sure wich ones that still are in function. So I
started develop a script to find out what printer(port)s that had been
used the latest 6 months.

My idea was to run this on every printerserver locally and to use the
eventviewer as a reference if the printer had been used or not. I have
a separate file with all portnames (one name on each line) that I want
to read and loop through.

Since this tend to be abit messy post I'm gonna try explain again:

Filtering evenlog on EventID 10 and no more then 6 months old.
Read line 1 in Printerports.txt
Check if the printerportname from line 1 in Printerportsname.txt is in
the message from the logs. (And hence has been active the last 6
months.)
If it has been, write to a file Printers_in_use.txt "$portname is in
use!"
And if not write to another file Printers_not_in_use.txt "$portname is
not in use!"
Loop through next line of the file.

Currently my script is looking like this:

#Sorting the logfile to filter on only EventID 10
$events = Get-EventLog System | where {$_.EventID -eq 10}

#Filtering all but the latest 6 months from prev selection
$events = Get-EventLog System | where {$_.timegenerated -gt $(Get-
Date).AddMonths(-6)}

#Making a variable for the printerports
$printerport = Get-Content Printerports.txt

My powershell skills however are poor, I've just started to learn it.
Since this is a kind of advanced script (atleast to me) I would be
very happy for some help/hints. As you can see I'm stuck at the
looping part. I have some ideas, but I doubt they will work. Googling
hasnt given me many tips either.
Thanks in advance!

After you have filtered the Event Logs, and concatenated all corresponding messages into one, let PowerShell's Switch loop through the contents of Printerports.txt and compare each port to the 'one' message and classify it accordingly.

$active = $inactive = @()
$sixMonths = (date).addMonths(-6)
Get-EventLog System | where {$_.EventID -eq 10 -and
$_.TimeGenerated -gt $sixMonths} | % {$messages = ''} {
$messages += $_.message}
Switch (gc Printerports.txt) {
{$messages -match [regex]::escape($_)} {$active += $_}
default {$inactive += $_}
}
set-content Active.txt $active
set-content Inactive.txt $inactive

--
Kiron

Thanks for the advices!
This is the script I intend to use, lets see if you can find any
weaknesses in it

#Sorting the logfile to filter on only EventID 10
$events = Get-EventLog System | where {$_.EventID -eq 10}

#Filtering all but the latest 6 months from prev selection
$events = $events | where {$_.timegenerated -gt $(Get-
Date).AddMonths(-6)}

#Making a variable for the printerports
$printerports = Get-Content Printerports.txt

#Saving hostname into a variable
$hostname = hostname

$counter = 0

New-item -type directory -path $hostname

while ($counter -ne ($printerports.count-1))
{
#Looping through the eventlog and matching against the portname
$foundprinted = 0

foreach($line in $events)
{
if ($line.message -match $printerports[$counter])
{
$foundprinted = 1
}
# if ($counter -eq ($printerports.count-1)) { return }
}

if ($foundprinted)
{
write-host -ForegroundColor Green $printerports[$counter]"is in
use!"
add-content -path $hostname\ValidPrinters_$hostname.txt -Value
$printerports[$counter]
}
else
{
write-host -ForegroundColor red $printerports[$counter]" is not in
use!"
add-content -path $hostname\InvalidPrinters_$hostname.txt -Value
$printerports[$counter]
}

$counter=$counter+1
}

I think it does the trick, so I'm now working on a remote version

Thanks for the advices!
This is the script I intend to use, lets see if you can find any
weaknesses in it

#Sorting the logfile to filter on only EventID 10
$events = Get-EventLog System | where {$_.EventID -eq 10}

#Filtering all but the latest 6 months from prev selection
$events = $events | where {$_.timegenerated -gt $(Get-
Date).AddMonths(-6)}

#Making a variable for the printerports
$printerports = Get-Content Printerports.txt

#Saving hostname into a variable
$hostname = hostname

$counter = 0

New-item -type directory -path $hostname

while ($counter -ne ($printerports.count-1))
{
#Looping through the eventlog and matching against the portname
$foundprinted = 0

foreach($line in $events)
{
if ($line.message -match $printerports[$counter])
{
$foundprinted = 1
}
# if ($counter -eq ($printerports.count-1)) { return }
}

if ($foundprinted)
{
write-host -ForegroundColor Green $printerports[$counter]"is in
use!"
add-content -path $hostname\ValidPrinters_$hostname.txt -Value
$printerports[$counter]
}
else
{
write-host -ForegroundColor red $printerports[$counter]" is not in
use!"
add-content -path $hostname\InvalidPrinters_$hostname.txt -Value
$printerports[$counter]
}

$counter=$counter+1
}

I think it does the trick, so I'm now working on a remote version

Thanks for the advices!
Heres the script I intend to use, lets hope you wont find any
weaknesses in it

#PrinterChecking Script By Henrik Pedersen Åmark and Daniel Lundgren

#This script is designed to check what printers that is still in use.
#It's assumed the printer is classed as inactive if it hasnt been used
in 6 months
#The script is reading the Systemlog on a printserver,
#sorting the log on eventID 10 (successful print) and searching for
entries the latest 6 months.
#When that is done, it reads a textfile and saves each line (portname)
into an array.
#
#You will need admin rights to use the script
#

#Sorting the logfile to filter on only EventID 10
#$events = Get-EventLog System | where {$_.EventID -eq 10}

#Filtering all but the latest 6 months from prev selection
#$events = $events | where {$_.timegenerated -gt $(Get-
Date).AddMonths(-6)}

$events=get-eventlog system|where {($_.eventid -eq 10) -and
($_.timewritten -gt (get-date).addmonths(-6))}

#Making a variable for the printerports
$printerports = Get-Content Printerports.txt

#Saving hostname into a variable
$hostname = hostname

$counter = 0

New-item -type directory -path $hostname

while ($counter -ne ($printerports.count-1))
{
#Looping through the eventlog and matching against the portname
$foundprinted = 0

foreach($line in $events)
{
if ($line.message -match $printerports[$counter])
{
$foundprinted = 1
}
# if ($counter -eq ($printerports.count-1)) { return }
}

if ($foundprinted)
{
write-host -ForegroundColor Green $printerports[$counter]"is in
use!"
add-content -path $hostname\ValidPrinters_$hostname.txt -Value
$printerports[$counter]
}
else
{
write-host -ForegroundColor red $printerports[$counter]" is not in
use!"
add-content -path $hostname\InvalidPrinters_$hostname.txt -Value
$printerports[$counter]
}

$counter=$counter+1
}


It does the trick however, perhaps not the most optimized way tho.
However I'm working on a remote version now

Hi Henrik,
I've added a few annotated suggestions to your --and Daniel's-- script. I would like to know if you tried using a Switch statement and how it peforms against yours and Daniel's. I forgot to mention that the Switch statement has a -File parameter, so the line:

Switch (gc Printerports.txt) {

...could be replaced by:
Switch -file .\Printerports.txt {

...anyway here is your script, watch out for word wrapping:
#PrinterChecking Script By Henrik Pedersen Åmark and Daniel Lundgren

#This script is designed to check what printers that is still in use.
#It's assumed the printer is classed as inactive if it hasnt been used in 6 months
#The script is reading the Systemlog on a printserver,
#sorting the log on eventID 10 (successful print) and searching for entries the latest 6 months.
#When that is done, it reads a textfile and saves each line (portname) into an array.
#
#You will need admin rights to use the script
#

#Sorting the logfile to filter on only EventID 10
#$events = Get-EventLog System | where {$_.EventID -eq 10}

#Filtering all but the latest 6 months from prev selection
#$events = $events | where {$_.timegenerated -gt $(Get-Date).AddMonths(-6)}

############################################
# assigning the date to compare against to a variable saves time during execution
$thisDate = (get-date).addmonths(-6)
$events=get-eventlog system|where {($_.eventid -eq 10) -and ($_.timewritten -gt $thisDate)}

#Making a variable for the printerports
$printerports = Get-Content Printerports.txt # --> file name/path should not be hardcoded, consider defining it as a parameter

#Saving hostname into a variable
$hostname = 'hostname' # --> should not be hardcoded, consider defining it as a parameter
$counter = 0

New-item -type directory -path $hostname

############################################
# while ($counter -ne ($printerports.count-1)) --> will exit before traversing entire $printerports array
while ($counter -ne $printerports.count)
{
#Looping through the eventlog and matching against the portname
# $foundprinted = 0 --> not necessary unless counting 'used' instances

foreach($line in $events)
{
if ($line.message -match $printerports[$counter]) # --> consider escaping the printerport name like [regex]::escape($printerports[$counter]), if the name contains a '[' --or any of these characters #.$^{()*+?\|-- PowerShell will raise an exception or output erroneous result
{
# $foundprinted = 1 --> not necessary unless counting 'used' instances
############################################
write-host -ForegroundColor Green $printerports[$counter]" is in use!"
add-content -path $hostname\ValidPrinters_$hostname.txt -Value $printerports[$counter]
# break out of the foreach loop
break
}
else
{
write-host -ForegroundColor red $printerports[$counter]" is not in use!"
add-content -path $hostname\InvalidPrinters_$hostname.txt -Value $printerports[$counter]
}
# if ($counter -eq ($printerports.count-1)) { return }
}
############################################
# use the increment operator
$counter++
}

--
Kiron