Simple way to backup event log on Windows Server - batch-file

Question

Is it possibile to create a simple way to backup the event log, with such as a batch file or a simple app ?
I need to make it working on a customer's site, where the reference is an non-expert user.
Thanks

Answer 1

If you're using Windows 2008, use the built-in wevtutil command. Example:
wevtutil epl Application c:\temp\foo.evtx
Otherwise, get dumpel.exe from the resource kit, or psloglist from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897544.aspx

Answer 2

With powershell and export-clixml its oneliner.
get-eventlog -list | %{ get-eventlog $_.Log | export-clixml -path ($_.Log + ".xml") }

Answer 3

The Microsoft Script Center has some sample code for Backing Up and Clearing Event Logs using VBScript and WMI.
Frank-Peter Schultze's Scripting Site has some code to clear an event log ( http://www.fpschultze.de/uploads/clrevt.vbs.txt) that you can modify to backup or backup then clear.
If you have access to the server you can backup from the Event Viewer by right-clicking on a log and using the "Save Log File As..." command. You can save to a binary, tab delimited or comma delimited file.

Answer 4

Finally I made a little winapp using this method found on the internet:
public void DoBackup(string sLogName)
{
string sBackup = sLogName; // could be for example "Application"
EventLog log = new EventLog();
log.Source = sBackup;
var query = from EventLogEntry entry in log.Entries
orderby entry.TimeGenerated descending
select entry;
string sBackupName = sBackup+"Log";
var xml = new XDocument(
new XElement(sBackupName,
from EventLogEntry entry in log.Entries
orderby entry.TimeGenerated descending
select new XElement("Log",
new XElement("Message", entry.Message),
new XElement("TimeGenerated", entry.TimeGenerated),
new XElement("Source", entry.Source),
new XElement("EntryType", entry.EntryType.ToString())
)
)
);
DateTime oggi = DateTime.Now;
string sToday = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd_hhmmss");
string path = String.Format("{0}_{1}.xml", sBackupName, sToday);
xml.Save(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, path));
}
this is the source link:
It simply works great!