Skip to content

Viewing Script Execution History

PowerShell Orchestrator maintains a complete record of every script execution job — whether queued manually or created by a schedule. This article covers how to review job execution history, interpret results, and use the execution record for monitoring, troubleshooting, and audit purposes.

Accessing execution history:

Execution history is available in two places in the PowerShell Orchestrator Server web interface:

Jobs page — full execution history:

  1. Log in to the PowerShell Orchestrator Server web interface at https://<server-name>:52866
  2. Navigate to Jobs in the main navigation
  3. The Jobs page displays all jobs across all agents with their full execution details

Clients page — per-agent execution history:

  1. Navigate to Clients in the main navigation
  2. Click on a specific client name or Agent ID
  3. View the job execution history for that agent only

Use the Jobs page for a global view of all execution activity. Use the Clients page when investigating the history of a specific agent.

Jobs page overview:

The Jobs page displays the following information for each job:

Column Description
Job ID Unique identifier for the job
Script Name The PowerShell script that was executed
Client The agent that executed the job
Target The syslog destination where output was forwarded
Status Outcome of the execution — Pending, Running, Completed, or Failed
Created When the job was created or scheduled
Started When the agent began execution
Completed When execution finished
Duration Total script execution time

Job status indicators:

Status Color Description
Pending 🟡 Yellow Job queued and waiting for the agent to pick it up
Running 🔵 Blue Currently executing on the agent
Completed 🟢 Green Successfully finished
Failed 🔴 Red Execution error or timeout

Viewing full job details:

To view the complete output and details of any job:

  1. Click on the job in the Jobs list
  2. The job detail view displays:
Field Description
Standard Output The script’s standard output stream — primary result data
Error Output Any errors generated during execution
Exit Code The PowerShell exit code — 0 indicates success, non-zero indicates failure
Full Execution Log The complete log of the execution from the agent

Interpreting job results:

Completed jobs: A status of Completed indicates the script ran to completion without errors. Review the Standard Output to confirm the script produced the expected results. A Completed status does not guarantee the script logic succeeded — always review the output to confirm the expected data was returned.

Failed jobs: A status of Failed indicates the script encountered an error, timed out, or was terminated. Review the Error Output and Exit Code for details. Common causes include:

Cause Indicator
Script logic error Non-zero exit code with error output
Execution timeout Timeout message in the execution log
Missing PowerShell module Module not found error in error output
Insufficient permissions Access denied error in error output
Agent connectivity issue Job remains in Pending for extended period

Pending jobs not progressing: If a job remains in Pending status for longer than expected:

  • Confirm the assigned agent is Online in the Clients page
  • Check the agent poll interval — default is 20 seconds
  • Review agent logs for script download errors:

C:ProgramDataPSOrchestratorAgentlogs

  • Confirm the agent has permission to execute PowerShell scripts

Reviewing agent-specific execution history:

To investigate execution history for a specific machine:

  1. Navigate to Clients
  2. Click on the relevant client
  3. Review the job history list for that agent
  4. Identify any patterns — for example, a script that consistently fails on one agent but succeeds on others may indicate a machine-specific configuration issue

Monitoring scheduled job health:

Use the Jobs page to confirm that scheduled jobs are executing as expected:

  1. Navigate to Jobs
  2. Filter by the script name associated with the schedule
  3. Review the most recent job entries:
    • Confirm jobs are being created at the expected intervals based on the cron expression
    • Confirm recent jobs show a status of Completed
    • Confirm execution duration is consistent with previous runs
  4. If scheduled jobs are missing or failing review the schedule configuration and agent status

Viewing script output in LT Auditor MP:

Script execution output forwarded to LT Auditor MP via the configured syslog target is available in the LT Auditor MP Web UI:

  1. Log in to the LT Auditor MP Web UI
  2. Navigate to View
  3. Select the PowerShell Orchestrator environment and category
  4. Set the date range to cover the execution period
  5. Filter by source or script name to locate the relevant output
  6. Review the structured script output forwarded from the agent

Reviewing agent-side execution logs:

In addition to the job details available in the server web interface, detailed execution logs are retained locally on each agent machine:

C:ProgramDataPSOrchestratorAgentlogs

These logs contain:

  • Script download activity
  • Execution start and end timestamps
  • Full script output
  • Error details
  • Syslog forwarding status

The number of days these logs are retained is controlled by the MaxStoredDays setting in the agent appsettings.json.

Best practices:

  • Review the Jobs page regularly to confirm all scheduled scripts are executing as expected and completing successfully
  • Investigate Failed jobs promptly — a failing scheduled script means a gap in your automated assessment or monitoring coverage
  • Use the Clients page to identify agents with consistently high failure rates — this may indicate a machine-specific configuration issue that needs to be resolved
  • Always review Standard Output for Completed jobs in addition to checking the status — a Completed status confirms execution finished but does not guarantee the expected results were produced
  • Retain job execution records as an audit trail of all automated and manual script activity across your environment
  • Monitor the MaxStoredDays setting on agents to ensure execution logs are retained for an appropriate period for your compliance requirements

[Your administrator should establish a regular cadence for reviewing job execution history — at minimum weekly — to confirm all scheduled assessments are running correctly and producing the expected output.]