Bizarre behavior of e-mailed reports (text files) via Task Scheduler

Question

I’m still pretty new to powershell and practical implementations of it… but I created a script to monitor disk health and have some very bizarre results on 2012 R2. Wondering if anyone has seen the likes of this and/or has a solution… Or is it a bug?

The script in question is:

$OutputFile=$env:temp + "\~VMRepl-Status.txt"
get-vmreplication | Out-File -FilePath $OutputFile
measure-vmreplication | Out-File -FilePath $OutputFile -Append
Get-PhysicalDisk | Sort Size | FT FriendlyName, Size, MediaType, Manufacturer, Model, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus -AutoSize | Out-File -FilePath $OutputFile -Append
Get-PhysicalDisk | Get-StorageReliabilityCounter | ft deviceid, temperature, wear -AutoSize | Out-File -FilePath $OutputFile -Append
$body=(Get-Content $OutputFile | out-string)
Send-MailMessage -To [removed] -From [removed] -body $body -SmtpServer 10.24.42.45 -subject "Hyper-V Replica and Disk Disk Status"

I execute the above powershell script using a two line batch file:

@echo off
Powershell.exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File c:\Windows\scripts\DailyReplicaStatusUpdate.ps1

If I execute the powershell script from a command line or by right clicking and running as administrator, I get:

FriendlyName            Size MediaType   Manufacturer Model               HealthStatus OperationalStatus
------------            ---- ---------   ------------ -----               ------------ -----------------
PhysicalDisk15  119185342464 SSD         INTEL SS     DSC2BW120A4         Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk3   119185342464 SSD                      INTEL SSDSC2BW120A4 Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk0  1000203804160 UnSpecified              SAMSUNG HD103SI     Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk9  1499480457216 UnSpecified ST315003     41AS                Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk14 1499480457216 UnSpecified ST315003     41AS                Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk2  1999575711744 HDD                      TOSHIBA DT01ACA200  Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk1  1999575711744 HDD                      ST2000DL003-9VT166  Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk6  1999575711744 HDD         WDC WD20     EARS-00MVWB0        Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk4  1999575711744 HDD         ST2000DL     003-9VT166          Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk11 1999575711744 UnSpecified ST320005     42AS                Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk21 2000398934016 UnSpecified Seagate      Desktop             Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk10 2999766220800 UnSpecified WDC WD30     EZRX-00DC0B0        Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk5  2999766220800 UnSpecified TOSHIBA      DT01ACA300          Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk7  2999766220800 UnSpecified TOSHIBA      DT01ACA300          Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk12 2999766220800 HDD         ST3000DM     001-1CH166          Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk13 2999766220800 HDD         ST3000DM     001-1CH166          Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk8  2999766220800 HDD         ST3000DM     001-9YN166          Healthy      OK               
PhysicalDisk22 3000592977920 UnSpecified Seagate      Expansion Desk      Healthy      OK

But if I initiate it from a scheduled task, I get:

FriendlyName            Size MediaType   Manufacturer Model               Healt
                                                                          hStat
                                                                          us   
------------            ---- ---------   ------------ -----               -----
PhysicalDisk15  119185342464 SSD         INTEL SS     DSC2BW120A4         He...
PhysicalDisk3   119185342464 SSD                      INTEL SSDSC2BW120A4 He...
PhysicalDisk0  1000203804160 UnSpecified              SAMSUNG HD103SI     He...
PhysicalDisk9  1499480457216 UnSpecified ST315003     41AS                He...
PhysicalDisk14 1499480457216 UnSpecified ST315003     41AS                He...
PhysicalDisk2  1999575711744 HDD                      TOSHIBA DT01ACA200  He...
PhysicalDisk1  1999575711744 HDD                      ST2000DL003-9VT166  He...
PhysicalDisk6  1999575711744 HDD         WDC WD20     EARS-00MVWB0        He...
PhysicalDisk4  1999575711744 HDD         ST2000DL     003-9VT166          He...
PhysicalDisk11 1999575711744 UnSpecified ST320005     42AS                He...
PhysicalDisk21 2000398934016 UnSpecified Seagate      Desktop             He...
PhysicalDisk10 2999766220800 UnSpecified WDC WD30     EZRX-00DC0B0        He...
PhysicalDisk5  2999766220800 UnSpecified TOSHIBA      DT01ACA300          He...
PhysicalDisk7  2999766220800 UnSpecified TOSHIBA      DT01ACA300          He...
PhysicalDisk12 2999766220800 HDD         ST3000DM     001-1CH166          He...
PhysicalDisk13 2999766220800 HDD         ST3000DM     001-1CH166          He...
PhysicalDisk8  2999766220800 HDD         ST3000DM     001-9YN166          He...
PhysicalDisk22 3000592977920 UnSpecified Seagate      Expansion Desk      He...

I'd love to know how to get it to stop truncating the lines and allow me to get the actual health status - full text - without losing any other information along the way (I COULD drop the size or something else and shorten each line's length).

At the end of the day, the goal is to get the output like I get from running it on a command line rather than the output I'm getting when it runs via the Task Scheduler.

Well, that kinda works. Basically, I get the key information I'm looking for but only by truncating OTHER fields now. Really, my screen can display more than 80 characters so I'd like to get NOTHING truncated. — Multiverse IT, Dec 30 '14 at 20:26
As long as your mail client supports HTML, you could also: $body = get-wmi | converto-html; send-mailmessage -body $body -bodyashtml — Clayton, Jan 07 '15 at 22:05

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 30 '14 at 20:33

Alright, your problem is the use of the Out-String cmdlet. It has a default value of 80, though you can change that by defining a different width, with the -Width switch. Looks like you're 25 characters over, so you should be able to fix it by changing line 6 to:

$body=(Get-Content $OutputFile | out-string -Width 105)

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 31 '14 at 02:41

The console window has a different width when run from the scheduled task (if you could see the window it would look more like a standard black command prompt than the blue Powershell window you're used to seeing).

This matters because you're using ft (Format-Table), which is typically used for output to a screen only.

You can resize the console window using $host.Console.RawUI and its properties but I do recommend not using a Format- command even though it may be easier in this instance. Also this will not work in ISE.

Instead, format the strings yourself for the email message.

Bizarre behavior of e-mailed reports (text files) via Task Scheduler

2 Answers2