How can you continue executing a PowerShell script, only if it has been called 3 times in 1 minute?

Question

I have a script that is being called via a Windows Scheduled Task, and that task is triggered based on a certain Windows Application Event. It is only critical to execute the script, though, if the event occurs 3 or more times in 1 minute; if the event occurs once a minute, no action should be taken.

I know this can be handled in the script itself. Let's say there are at least 2 new variables I will need:

# time window, in seconds
$maxTime = 60

# max number of times this script needs to be called, within $maxTime window, 
# before executing the rest of the script
$maxCount = 3

I started outlining an algorithm using a temp file as tracking, but thought there might be a simpler solution that someone can show me. Thanks

Rynant · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-26 14:39:18Z

1

You could store your execution times in an environment variable.

Before this script will work, you must create the LastExecutionTimes environment variable.

$maxTime = 60
$maxCount = 3
$now = Get-Date

# Get execution times within the time limit.
$times = @($env:LastExecutionTimes -split ';'| 
            Where-Object {$_ -and $now.AddSeconds(-1 * $maxTime) -lt $_})

$times += '{0:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss}' -f $now
$env:LastExecutionTimes = $times -join ';'

if($times.Length -lt $maxCount) {return}

# Reset the execution times
$env:LastExecutionTimes =''

Write-Host 'Continue Script' -ForegroundColor Yellow

answered Apr 26, 2013 at 14:39

Rynant

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Jason Coon Over a year ago

FYI, I was having trouble getting the environment variable to save and carry over to the next time the script was called (new powershell instance). So I updated the script to use an alternative get/set method: $envTimes = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("LastExecutionTimes", "User") and [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("LastExecutionTimes", "$envTimes", "User") This worked, and also, did not require adding the variable beforehand.

Austin T French · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-26 15:56:24Z

0

I would write a text file and a secondary script or function to check it. Where essentially it will call it each time, and then writes the information writes to a text file at call time.

The something like this:

if(!((Get-Date).AddMinutes(-1) -lt $oldTime))
 {
    $CurDate = Get-Date
    "$CurDate, 1" | out-File "TheCheck.txt"
 }
 else 
 {
  $counter++
  if($counter -ge 3) {Call WorkerFunction}
   else{
    "$oldTime, $counter" | Out-File "TheCheck.txt"
 }

Its missing some variables, but overall should be functional as a supplemental script. Then what your scheduled task actually does is call this, if the time since the $oldTime is over 1 minute, then it over writes the file with the current time and 1 for a $counter variable. If its less than a minute since the first call it then checks the $counter and if it is 3 or higher (could also do -eq ) to 3 then it calls your main script.

edited Apr 26, 2013 at 15:56

answered Apr 26, 2013 at 1:40

Austin T French

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1 Comment

Rynant Over a year ago

The check for 3 or higher should be $counter -ge 3 and the $counter should be increased before the check since there is a new event that caused the script to run. Even then storing only one time won't work. If 3 events were each 40 seconds apart, the counter would be increased to 3, but the time from first event to third event would be 1 minute 20 seconds.

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