Get Restart log using PowerShell

I'm often curious about a restart on a Windows server system.

An easy way to get a list of the restart and what initiated it is to use the following powershell script.

$eventIDs = @(1074, 6008, 6009)

Get-EventLog -LogName System | Where-Object { $eventIDs -contains $_.EventID } | Sort-Object -Property TimeGenerated | Select-Object EventID, TimeGenerated, Message | Format-Table -AutoSize -Wrap

It will produce output similar to this: 

Reading Windows Event Log for Oracle Databases

Mythological creatures take many forms. Some have horns and hooves. Some have bodies combined from the union of different species. Some have scales and wings and breath fire.

I'm that rarest of all mythological creatures: The sort who runs production Oracle databases on Windows :-D

Using PowerShell as a port scanner

I've been having a lot of servers lately that have been stood up for me by the hero's in our IT department (that is not sarcasm - these guys are awesome) without having the right holes poked in the firewall.

For instance, SQL Server listens, by default on port 1433. (NOTE: Best practice for server hardening is to change the default instance name and port)

To test this, I'd been using a clunky old port scanner that I wasn't happy with.

I therefore googled and found this excellent blog post by jblanchard.

The portion that I actually use is this:

PowerShell port scanner:

1..1024 | % {echo ((new-object Net.Sockets.TcpClient).Connect("10.0.0.100",$_)) "Port $_ is open!"} 2>$null

I usually change the first bit to 1433 (or whatever specific port I want to check )

1433 | % {echo ((new-object Net.Sockets.TcpClient).Connect("Myserver.MyDomain.com",$_)) "Port $_ is open!"} 2>$null