Batch Script to Backup Windows Server Event Log

Being a System administrator, it is your responsibility to backup even logs of your system regularly. Event logs help us for troubleshooting systems. In this tutorial, you will get a simple batch script to take windows event log backups on your Windows system.

Step 1 – Create Backup Directory

Create a backup directory named c:\backup for containing backups and c:\backup\logs for containing log files. You can use your own directory structure for backup.

Open a command prompt and run below commands to create the directory structure.

mkdir c:\backup
mkdir c:\backup\logs

Step 2 – Create Backup Script

Now, create a batch script c:\backup\evt-backup.bat and copy the below script in this batch script. Change the BACKUP_PATH if you are using a different location for backup directory.

rem Script starts here
rem Timestamp Generator

set BACKUP_PATH=c:\backup\logs

rem Parse the date (e.g., Thu 02/28/2013)
set cur_yyyy=%date:~10,4%
set cur_mm=%date:~4,2%
set cur_dd=%date:~7,2%

rem Parse the time (e.g., 11:20:56.39)
set cur_hh=%time:~0,2%
if %cur_hh% lss 10 (set cur_hh=0%time:~1,1%)
set cur_nn=%time:~3,2%
set cur_ss=%time:~6,2%
set cur_ms=%time:~9,2%

rem Set the timestamp format
set timestamp=%cur_yyyy%%cur_mm%%cur_dd%-%cur_hh%%cur_nn%%cur_ss%%cur_ms%

wevtutil epl System %BACKUP_PATH%\system_%timestamp%.evtx
wevtutil epl Application %BACKUP_PATH%\application_%timestamp%.evtx
wevtutil epl Security %BACKUP_PATH%\security_%timestamp%.evtx

rem End of Script

Step 3 – Execute Script Manullly

Let’s execute this script manually to test. Open Windows command prompt as Administrator. Navigate to c:\backup directory and execute the script like below:

c:\backpup> evt-backup.bat

Then check, if event log backup files created successfully.

Step 4 – Configure Script in Scheduler

Finally, configure this script in windows task schedulers to run it automatically on a regular interval. A daily backup is much sufficient for normal uses systems.

Thanks for reading this article, I hope this script will help you to take automatic backup of windows logs.