Hi, I just came across this issue this morning, was hoping someone here could explain to me why it’s happening:
PS C:> Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock {Limit-EventLog -LogName Security -MaximumSize 4GB -OverflowAction OverwriteAsNeeded}
The value supplied for MaximumSize parameter has to be in the range of 64 KB to 4GB with an increment of 64 KB. Please enter a proper value and then retry.
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: ( [Limit-EventLog], Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ValueOutofRange,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.LimitEventLogCommand
+ PSComputerName : Server01
The value supplied for MaximumSize parameter has to be in the range of 64 KB to 4GB with an increment of 64 KB. Please enter a proper value and then retry.
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: ( [Limit-EventLog], Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ValueOutofRange,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.LimitEventLogCommand
+ PSComputerName : Server02
The value supplied for MaximumSize parameter has to be in the range of 64 KB to 4GB with an increment of 64 KB. Please enter a proper value and then retry.
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: ( [Limit-EventLog], Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ValueOutofRange,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.LimitEventLogCommand
+ PSComputerName : Server03
If you notice, you’ll see that in the first line I’m attempting to limit the Security log to 4GB, which should be a supported value, but it does not accept it. Going down to 3GB, however, works fine. Any ideas?
Sorry, I should’ve included the server information… Server01 and 02 are DCs running Server 2012 R2, Server03 is a DC running Server 2012. All three are VMs running on Hyper-V 2012 R2.
PowerShell interprets 4GB as a base-2 number, and the event log wants a base-10 number. 4GB in base-2 is larger than 4GB in base-10. Try specifying the actual number of bytes, rather than using the GB unit. E.g., 4000000000 (4 billion).
Technically, “4GB” in PowerShell is actually 4GiB, not exactly 4 billion.
That doesn’t seem to be the case, based on some quick tests. It really does want increments of 64KiB, and will accept a size of “64KB” in PowerShell. It doesn’t like 4GB for some reason, but will accept (4GB - 64KB) (4294901760).
Edit: Confirmed with dotPeek, 4294901760 is the highest value you can assign. This limitation is coded down in the underlying .NET Framework classes, not the Limit-EventLog cmdlet itself, which might account for the confusing documentation (which seems to indicate that 4GB should be a valid value.)
So you’re saying it’ll accept 4294901760 as an argument? That’s not working for me.
My point was, I can use 4000000000, but not 4294901760. I don’t think it cares as much about the increment (when I set the value through WMI, which is a bit lower-level, if you provide an invalid increment, it rounds up to the next increment), but that it seems to have an upper limit of 4GB not 4GiB.
That’s odd. I get exactly the opposite results; 4000000000 throws an error, and 4294901760 works fine. I’m on a PowerShell 4.0 machine at the moment; what version did you test on?
@Don, thank you for the quick reply. It makes sense.
However, given that the error message displays “64 KB to 4GB” shouldn’t a value of 4GB work? Seems to me that this is something the PowerShell team may want to rectify, either in the error message or in the handling of the integer (and hopefully in the latter).
Hi. Actually I was following this post to solve the issue and finally checking get-help Limit-EventLog -examples I was able to troubleshoot it. Problem is that the maxfilesize must be entered without any quotes. Like for example limit-eventLog -logname “MLM Logs” -MaximumSize 16mb
If you enter limit-eventLog -logname "MLM Logs -MaximumSize “16mb” as I was entering, is when you get the error “The value supplied for MaximumSize parameter has to be in the range of 64 KB to 4GB with an increment of 64 KB”
[Limit-EventLog], Exception