unable to append error messages to csv with powershell export-csv

Question

I have written the following sample script that lets me collect information for all servers in the environment. However, i do not have access to all servers and sometimes i get error that i want to catch and store in the result.csv file.

$Servers = Get-Content .\servers.txt
foreach ($Server in $Servers){

try {
    Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem -ComputerName $server -ErrorAction Stop | Select-Object CSName, Caption, Version, OSArchitecture, InstallDate, LastBootUpTime | Export-Csv -append .\result.csv

} catch {

   $Error[0].Exception | Export-csv -Append .\resulttest.csv

}
}

Normally the script works but when i try to save the errors i get the message:

Export-csv : Cannot append CSV content to the following file: .\resulttest.csv. The appended object does not have a property that corresponds to the following column: CSName. To proceed with mismatched properties, add the -Force switch and retry. At C:\temp\script\serverdata.ps1:10 char:26 + $Error[0].Exception | Export-csv -Append .\resulttest.csv + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (CSName:String) [Export-Csv], InvalidOperationException + FullyQual

Any ideas on how to go around this?

Answer 1

You might try this:

$Servers = Get-Content .\servers.txt

$Servers | ForEach-Object {
    $server = $_
    try {
        Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem -ComputerName $server -ErrorAction Stop | 
        Select-Object CSName, Caption, Version, OSArchitecture, InstallDate, LastBootUpTime, @{Name = 'Result'; Expression = {'OK'}}
    } 
    catch {
        # output an object with the same properties.
        "" | Select-Object @{Name = 'CSName'; Expression = {$server}}, 
                           Caption, Version, OSArchitecture, InstallDate, LastBootUpTime, 
                           @{Name = 'Result'; Expression = {'ERROR: {0}' -f $Error[0].Exception.Message}}
    }
} | Export-Csv .\result.csv -NoTypeInformation