How to monitor PowerShell jobs

A PowerShell script may continue after a non-terminating error. Report the native process exit code explicitly.

Report success and failure

Create a check and set PING_URL to its private URL. Replace the example command with your actual task. These examples preserve command failure and do not let a failed reporting request turn a successful job into a failure.

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
if (-not $env:PING_URL) { throw 'Set PING_URL' }
$rid = [guid]::NewGuid().ToString()
function Report($status) {
  & curl.exe -fsS -m 10 --retry 3 "$env:PING_URL/$status`?rid=$rid" | Out-Null
}
Report 'start'
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 1100
$code = 1
try {
  & 'C:\Jobs\backup.exe'
  $code = $LASTEXITCODE
} finally { Report "$code" }
exit $code

Connect it to PowerShell

Save as monitored.ps1, replacing the native command path.

pwsh -NoProfile -File ./monitored.ps1

These are integration fragments for an existing project, not a full application. Set the URL in the job’s environment, keep credentials private and ensure the runtime has the dependencies shown.

Things to watch

Set ErrorActionPreference to Stop for cmdlets; native tools use LASTEXITCODE. Store the URL in the task environment.

The shell examples wait one second between start and work to respect the per-check rate guard. For very short tasks, completion-only pings avoid that delay. A killed process may never send a failure ping; the completion deadline catches the missing run instead.

Test the setup

  1. Run a successful task and confirm the check turns up.
  2. Force a nonzero exit or exception and verify the check turns down.
  3. Stop the scheduler after one success and wait for the expected run plus grace.

Set the schedule to your task’s completion cadence, allowing for runtime and queue delay. Use the cron helper to review your calendar schedule.

Questions about PowerShell

Where should the heartbeat run?
Inside the completed task, after the important work. A PowerShell script may continue after a non-terminating error. Report the native process exit code explicitly.
Which grace period should I use?
Allow for job runtime and scheduler startup delay. CronPulse evaluates deadlines once a minute, so alerts generally follow within about 1–2 minutes after grace ends.
Does this test the result of my work?
No. A success ping proves your command reached the reporting step. Validate output and, for backups, test restoration. Missing completion pings catch stopped or killed jobs.

Platform reference: official PowerShell documentation. Adapt fragments to your installed version.

Give your next job a heartbeat.

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