Powershell: How to output a table to a log file

Question

I am trying to create a script for my job and I need to read a xml file to check if there are any duplicated parameter. So far I can output the table but I haven't been able to export as any kind of file (log, csv, etc)

The idea is to run the script and get this information for many remote servers.

This is my current progress.

$SectionName = 'np'
$path = "S:\Docker\NP6\Volumes\smartupdate\config\SmartUpdateLocal.xml"
[xml] $xml = Get-Content $path
$param = $xml.SelectSingleNode("//Section[@name='$SectionName']")
$table = $param.Parameter
$table

And the table can be seen:

Result of the script

But since I will be running this script for thousand of servers I would like to export something like:

---------Server A------------       
Name                  Value
ena..                  true
base..                  0
sto..                  22592
ena..                   EAI
---------Server B------------       
Name                  Value
ena..                  true
base..                  0
sto..                  22592
ena..                   EAI

The XML format is

<SmartUpdate>
  <Settings>
    <Section name="np">
      <Parameter name="enableStatusFileCreation" value="true" />
      <Parameter name="baseStatusCode" value="0" />
      <Parameter name="storeId" value="43001" />
      <Parameter name="enableTransportMechanismAndPackage" value="true"/>
      <Parameter name="statusTransportMechanism" value="EAI" />
    </Section>
  </Settings>
</SmartUpdate>

Also I am looping the remote servers

$computerList = Get-Content $DeviceListFilePath
    foreach($computer in $computerList)
    {
        $SectionName = 'np'
        Write-Host "OPENING XML FILE" -ForegroundColor Yellow
        $path = "\\$server_ip\$FileName"
        [xml] $xml = Get-Content $path
        $param = $xml.SelectSingleNode("//Section[@name='$SectionName']")

Thank you for the help.

Answer 1

This is what I would recommend you to do to have an output you can export to CSV and have it very easy to sort and filter:

$SectionName = 'np'
$result = foreach($computer in Get-Content $DeviceListFilePath) {

    Write-Host "OPENING XML FILE" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    
    # Unclear where `$server_ip` and `$FileName` are coming from,
    # assuming they're valid values to construct the UNC Path
    # or that you meant: `\\$computer\$FileName`
    $path = "\\$server_ip\$FileName"
    $xml  = [xml]::new()
    $xml.Load($path)

    # This Dictionary is used to construct the output.
    $out = [ordered]@{
        Server = $computer
    }

    $xml.SelectSingleNode("//Section[@name='$SectionName']").Parameter |
        ForEach-Object { $out[$_.name] = $_.Value }

    [pscustomobject] $out
}

$result | Export-Csv path\to\export.csv -NoTypeInformation

Since I don't have access to your UNC Paths, I would show how the output would look like using the XML presented in question with 2 servers:

$SectionName = 'np'
$result = foreach($computer in 'server A', 'server B') {
    # the example XML is stored in my current directory
    $path = '.\file.xml'
    $xml  = [xml]::new()
    $xml.Load($path)
    
    $out = [ordered]@{
        Server = $computer
    }

    $xml.SelectSingleNode("//Section[@name='$SectionName']").Parameter |
        ForEach-Object { $out[$_.name] = $_.Value }

    [pscustomobject] $out
}

$result

The output from this example would look like this:

Server                             : server A
enableStatusFileCreation           : true
baseStatusCode                     : 0
storeId                            : 43001
enableTransportMechanismAndPackage : true
statusTransportMechanism           : EAI

Server                             : server B
enableStatusFileCreation           : true
baseStatusCode                     : 0
storeId                            : 43001
enableTransportMechanismAndPackage : true
statusTransportMechanism           : EAI

And as CSV:

PS \> $result | ConvertTo-Csv

"Server","enableStatusFileCreation","baseStatusCode","storeId","enableTransportMechanismAndPackage","statusTransportMechanism"
"server A","true","0","43001","true","EAI"
"server B","true","0","43001","true","EAI"