Print Queue Status Monitor with Email

Question

I have a brand new Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter virtual server that is setup as a print server.  I saw the custom filters in the Print Management console but found out that notifications only work with that console open.  Since I'm not logged
into that machine all the time, I need a powershell script that can do what the custom filters do in the Print Management console.  Here's what I'm looking for:
1. When the print server starts the script starts.  This script should always stay active.
2. The script polls the print queues for a change in status to anything other than Ready every 5 minutes or so.
3. If the printer name contains "CC2", then email certain people the status of that particular printer.  Only email them once so as to not spam them with constant emails (maybe 1 email per day per status change).
So basically I'm looking to email my customer service department if one of their printers goes to a status of anything other than Ready.  Is something like this possible with Powershell?

Answer 1

My scripts compares the customer service printers (printer names starting with CC2) status every 5 minutes.  If the status has changed and there are Offline printers then customer service gets an email.  I'm using Task Scheduler to start the script
at 6:00am every day and the script will quit around 11:00pm.  It's not very elegant but it will get the job done.  Thanks for all your help!
# Time limit when the script expires
$Limit = (Get-Date).AddDays(1)
$SleepSeconds = 300
$PreviousStatus = @()
while ((Get-Date) -lt $Limit)
$CurrentStatus = Get-Printer -computername SERVER | Where {($_.PrinterStatus -ne "Normal") -and ($_.Name -Match "CC2")} | Select Name,PrinterStatus
if ($CurrentStatus)
if (Compare-Object $CurrentStatus $PreviousStatus -property Name,PrinterStatus)
# Establish Connection to SMTP server
$a = "<style>"
$a = $a + "TABLE{border-width: 1px;border-style: solid;border-color: black;border-collapse: collapse;}"
$a = $a + "TH{border-width: 1px;padding: 0px;border-style: solid;border-color: black;}"
$a = $a + "TD{border-width: 1px;padding: 0px;border-style: solid;border-color: black;}"
$a = $a + "</style>"
$filedate = get-date
$smtpserver = “smtp.gmail.com”
$msg = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage
$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer )
$smtp.EnableSsl = $True
$smtp.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential(“[email protected]”, “password”); # Put username without the @GMAIL.com or – @gmail.com
$msg.IsBodyHtml = $True
$msg.From = “[email protected]”
$msg.To.Add(”[email protected]”)
$msg.To.Add(”[email protected]”)
$msg.To.Add(”[email protected]”)
$msg.To.Add(”[email protected]”)
$msg.To.Add("[email protected]")
$msg.Subject = "Printer Status Errors $($filedate)"
$msg.Body = Write-Output -InputObject (Get-Printer -computername SERVER | Where {($_.PrinterStatus -ne "Normal") -and ($_.Name -Match "CC2")} | Select Name,PrinterStatus,Comment,Location,Portname) | ConvertTo-Html -Head $a
$smtp.Send($msg)
$PreviousStatus = $CurrentStatus
Start-Sleep -Seconds $SleepSeconds
if ((get-date).Hour -eq 23) {Exit}