C# WMI reading remote event log

Question

Im trying to run a WMI query against another computer for errors within the last 5 hours or so. When running a WMI query, shouldnt you at least filter the initial query with a where clause?

Im basing my code off of samples generated from the WMI code creator on MSDN

Here is the select query im using

    private ManagementScope CreateNewManagementScope(string server)
    {
        string serverString = @"\\" + server + @"\root\cimv2";

        ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope(serverString);

        return scope;
    } 

            ManagementScope scope = CreateNewManagementScope(servername);
            scope.Connect();
            SelectQuery query = new SelectQuery("select * from Win32_NtLogEvent where TimeWritten > '" + DateTime.Now.AddHours(-5).ToString() + "'");
            ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query);
            ManagementObjectCollection logs = searcher.Get();

            int iErrCount = logs.Count;

I just want to get a count of the errors in the last 5 hours. Its throwing an error when getting the count. The error is rather vague "Generic Failure".

[update - using date like this now]

                DateTime d = DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(-12);
            string dateFilter = ManagementDateTimeConverter.ToDmtfDateTime(d);
            SelectQuery query = new SelectQuery("select * from Win32_NtLogEvent where Logfile='Application' AND Type='Error' AND TimeWritten > '" + dateFilter + "'");

With the above code I get no results, yet I can see 2 errors in the event log. Whats wrong with the date filter?

Im using this example http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.managementdatetimeconverter.todatetime.aspx

Answer 1

I did the following to get it to work. I hope this helps..

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var conOpt = new ConnectionOptions();
        conOpt.Impersonation = ImpersonationLevel.Impersonate;
        conOpt.EnablePrivileges = true;
        conOpt.Username = "username";
        conOpt.Password = "password";
        conOpt.Authority = string.Format("ntlmdomain:{0}", "yourdomain.com");

        var scope = new 
             ManagementScope(String.Format(@"\\{0}\ROOT\CIMV2", 
                                           "yourservername.yourdomain.com"),
                             conOpt);

        scope.Connect();
        bool isConnected = scope.IsConnected;
        if (isConnected)
        {

            /* entire day */ string dateTime = getDmtfFromDateTime(DateTime.Today.Subtract(new TimeSpan(1, 0, 0, 0)));
            string dateTime = getDmtfFromDateTime("09/06/2014 17:00:08"); // DateTime specific

            SelectQuery query = new SelectQuery("Select * from Win32_NTLogEvent Where Logfile = 'Application' and TimeGenerated >='" + dateTime + "'");
            ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query);
            ManagementObjectCollection logs = searcher.Get();
            foreach (var log in logs)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Message : {0}", log["Message"]);
                Console.WriteLine("ComputerName : {0}", log["ComputerName"]);
                Console.WriteLine("Type : {0}", log["Type"]);
                Console.WriteLine("User : {0}", log["User"]);
                Console.WriteLine("EventCode : {0}", log["EventCode"]);
                Console.WriteLine("Category : {0}", log["Category"]);
                Console.WriteLine("SourceName : {0}", log["SourceName"]);
                Console.WriteLine("RecordNumber : {0}", log["RecordNumber"]);
                Console.WriteLine("TimeWritten : {0}", getDateTimeFromDmtfDate(log["TimeWritten"].ToString()));
            }
        }

        //ReadLog();
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static string getDmtfFromDateTime(DateTime dateTime) 
    {
        return ManagementDateTimeConverter.ToDmtfDateTime(dateTime);
    }

    private static string getDmtfFromDateTime(string dateTime)
    {
        DateTime dateTimeValue = Convert.ToDateTime(dateTime);
        return getDmtfFromDateTime(dateTimeValue);
    }

    private static string getDateTimeFromDmtfDate(string dateTime)
    {
        return ManagementDateTimeConverter.ToDateTime(dateTime).ToString();
    }