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Solve : ping an address, log errors to text file with timestamp?

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Hi,
I am aware that this requirement has been answered in a number of different ways, but none of them seemed that elegant to me (by elegant read short & simple).
I would like to leave a ping running (ping -t) and have any response that is a not a reply be written to a text file along with the time and date.

It's the time and date thing that's got me stumped.

First bit working fine for me:

ping -t 195.40.1.36 | find /v "Reply from 195.40.1.36" >> pinglog.txt

Could anyone please let me know how to add the time and date to what gets written out.
Many thanks.Not too sure where you're going with that one. Doesn't seem to work for me.
I get the FAILED pings written out to a log file but they aren't timestamped.

I could use the following batch file. Works fine, but it doesn't record the reason for failure, just that it did fail and the time it happened (and there's probably a cleverer way to pause for 1 second.....)

The reason for failure would be really handy.

echo off
:loop
ping -n 1 %1 >nul || echo %date% %time% no reply from %1 >> pinglog.txt
choice /N /T 1 /D Y >nul
goto loop


Quote from: Salmon Trout on June 11, 2011, 02:16:04 AM

I don't want him to bounce me into posting an untested and incompletely considered reply. Please bear with us a little longer!

No worries and much appreciated.The script below addresses the simplest case I can think of, namely a host which exists and which either is or is not servicing ping requests. If the ping command is "successful" then it looks like this...

Code: [Select]C:\>ping -n 1 192.168.56.129

Pinging 192.168.56.129 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.56.129: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.56.129:
    Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip TIMES in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
If not, it looks like this

Code: [Select]C:\>ping -n 1 192.168.56.129

Pinging 192.168.56.129 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.56.129:
    Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 0, Lost = 1 (100% loss),

I only send 1 request for the sake of avoiding network congestion

The IP I am using is a local XP machine whose firewall I turn on and off

As you will see the meat is in the 2nd non-blank line, and we can examine this and decide whether to write it to a log file, preceded by the date and time. To make a delay I use the free sleep utility which is part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools which you can download here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?familyid=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd

There are plenty of others around but not all have the -m (milliseconds) feature.

Code: [Select]echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set hostIP=192.168.56.129
:loop
set pingline=1
for /f "delims=" %%A in ('ping -n 1 -w 250 -l 255 %hostIP%') do (
if !pingline! equ 2 (
set logline=!date! !time! "%%A"
echo !logline! | find "TTL=">nul || echo !logline! >> pinglog.txt
)
set /a pingline+=1
)
sleep -m 5000
goto loop


The IP you used as an example resolves to lr-rns.timik.uk.easynet.net on my machine; I wonder if you are wanting to log times and/or periods of bad Internet connection or whether it was just an example?
Thank you so much. Works perfectly.
I'll need to substitute my delay
choice /N /T 1 /D Y >nul
for your rather neater sleep utility as I don't have the option of installing anything.

Are you doing a FIND on "TTL" because it is only a healthy reply that would ever have those characters in it?

The IP I used in the example is just an ISP's nameserver that hasn't CHANGED in 15 years and for some reason I've always defaulted to it.

I'll be using the script to troubleshoot an intermittent network dropout on some servers at work. I plan on pinging a known good IP (our main data centre router) from multiple servers. By correlating the logs I should be able to determine if the dropouts are due to OS, hypervisor, switch or data centre (at least that's my theory!).

Thanks again. Love your nic by the way, started reading 'The Salmon of Doubt' by Douglas Adams just yesterday. Quote from: boff on June 11, 2011, 06:36:01 AM
Are you doing a FIND on "TTL" because it is only a healthy reply that would ever have those characters in it?

Yup. Note the || operator (execute 2nd command if 1st command returns nonzero errorlevel - the opposite of &&)

Also note that the message "Request timed out" is quoted because I am echoing %%A, the 2nd nonblank line of the ping output, via a pipe to find, and a healthy response on my system SHOWS the response time field as "time<1mS" and the < symbol in an unquoted literal string or expanded variable breaks script processing because it has a special meaning (redirection).
If you don't want the quotes to appear in the log see below

Code: [Select]echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set hostIP=192.168.56.129
:loop
set pingline=1
for /f "delims=" %%A in ('ping -n 1 -w 250 -l 255 %hostIP%') do (
if !pingline! equ 2 (
set logline=!date! !time! "%%A"
echo !logline! | find "TTL=">nul || (
set logline=!logline:"=!
echo !logline! >> pinglog.txt
)
)
set /a pingline+=1
)
sleep -m 5000
goto loop   

Before...

Code: [Select]11/06/2011 14:44:42.28 "Request timed out." 
11/06/2011 14:44:47.78 "Request timed out." 
11/06/2011 14:44:53.28 "Request timed out." 
11/06/2011 14:44:58.78 "Request timed out." 
11/06/2011 14:45:04.28 "Request timed out." 
11/06/2011 14:45:09.78 "Request timed out." 
11/06/2011 14:45:15.28 "Request timed out." 
11/06/2011 14:45:20.78 "Request timed out." 

After...

Code: [Select]11/06/2011 14:47:11.28 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:47:16.78 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:47:22.28 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:47:27.78 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:47:33.28 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:47:38.78 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:47:44.28 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:47:49.78 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:47:55.28 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:48:00.78 Request timed out. 
11/06/2011 14:48:06.28 Request timed out.  Alternative method using VBScript - save with .vbs extension and call with cscript.exe supplying IP and log file name. In some ways more "elegant", maybe?

e.g. cscript mypingscript.vbs 192.168.56.129 logfile.txt

Code: [Select]hostIp      = wscript.arguments(0)
logfilename = wscript.arguments(1)
Set fso     = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set Shell   = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Set logfile = fso.OpenTextFile(logfilename, 8, True)
shellstring = "%comspec% /c ping -t " & hostIP
Set oExec   = Shell.Exec(shellstring)
wscript.echo "Ping Error log With Timestamp - Ctrl + C to halt"
Do While oExec.StdOut.AtEndOfStream <> True
pingline = Date & " " & Time & " " & oExec.StdOut.ReadLine
If Not InStr(pingline, "TTL=") Then
logfile.WriteLine(pingline)
End If
Loop

Quote from: Salmon Trout on June 11, 2011, 03:08:10 PM
Alternative method using VBScript

The nice thing about that one is that when you exit the script the ping stats get written to the log file.  Unfortunately for me every line is being written to the log file (the "TTL=" isn't working). The original dos script you wrote is perfect though. Thanks again. Quote from: boff on June 11, 2011, 04:10:35 PM
Unfortunately for me every line is being written to the log file (the "TTL=" isn't working).

Sorry about that...

hostIp      = wscript.arguments(0)
logfilename = wscript.arguments(1)
Set fso     = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set Shell   = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
' OpenTextFile Method requires a Const value
' (Over)Write = 2  Append = 8   
Set logfile = fso.OpenTextFile(logfilename, 8, True)
shellstring = "%comspec% /c ping -t " & hostIP
Set oExec   = Shell.Exec(shellstring)
wscript.echo "Ping Error log With Timestamp - Ctrl + C to halt"
Do While oExec.StdOut.AtEndOfStream <> True
      pingline = Date & " " & Time & " " & oExec.StdOut.ReadLine
      If InStr(pingline, "TTL=") = 0 Then
         logfile.WriteLine(pingline)
      End If
Loop

Fantastic. Will implement tonight and let you know how it goes in a couple of days.
The fact that with the vbscript you get the ping stats for the whole session written to the tail of the log file is very cool.Wanted to take the time to register on this forum and congratulate Salmon Trout for providing a 1st class solution.  I have looked far and wide for something elegant, simple, robust that works and was only able to find it in Salmon's solution. 

I added TRACERT into the single logical operator line to get additional useful information for troubleshooting:

echo !logline! | find "TTL=">nul || echo !logline! >> NetworkPingErrors.txt && echo Running TraceRT, please wait.... && tracert %hostIP% >> NetworkPingErrors.txt && echo ----------- >> NetworkPingErrors.txt
 
Thank you very much sir!  Hats off to you. Nice to see after nearly a year that SOMEBODY found it useful.

mmedia man, you are using the double ampersand (&&) as a command separator, I hope you remember it is actually an AND operator - that is:

command1 && command2     command2 is only executed if command1 returns a zero errorlevel

The opposite is the double pipe OR operator.

command1 || command2     command2 is only executed if command1 returns a non-zero errorlevel

The ordinary command separator is a single ampersand

command1 & command2 command2 is always executed



example:

Code: [Select]C:\>dir /b notexist.fil && echo command2
File Not Found

C:\>dir /b notexist.fil & echo command2
File Not Found
command2
In most cases it may not matter which one you use, but there may come a situation where a string of commands on one line will halt part way through if you use && when you don't actually intend to test the preceding errorlevel.

Quote from: Salmon Trout on June 11, 2011, 06:03:28 PM
Sorry about that...

hostIp      = wscript.arguments(0)
logfilename = wscript.arguments(1)
Set fso     = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set Shell   = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
' OpenTextFile Method requires a Const value
' (Over)Write = 2  Append = 8   
Set logfile = fso.OpenTextFile(logfilename, 8, True)
shellstring = "%comspec% /c ping -t " & hostIP
Set oExec   = Shell.Exec(shellstring)
wscript.echo "Ping Error log With Timestamp - Ctrl + C to halt"
Do While oExec.StdOut.AtEndOfStream <> True
      pingline = Date & " " & Time & " " & oExec.StdOut.ReadLine
      If InStr(pingline, "TTL=") = 0 Then
         logfile.WriteLine(pingline)
      End If
Loop


just registered this forum to thank you for such an excellent script.
however, it still does not print
"request timed out"
in my case..
it simply writes
"ping request could not find host www.google.com. Please check the name and try again."

for my case i need to count how many RTO's occured to measure the bandwidth quality.
so is there anyway to make it print the rto's as well?
thanks


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