Powershell Code:

#
# LUNAR DUST - home grown server/service monitor - sends out email when services defined in related .CSV config file are down 
# Author: Neal Walters - Nov 2013 
# (Lunar Dust is a play on words of the monitor name "Solar Wind") 
#
[string[]] $users = "john@abc.com",'"fred@abc.com" # List of users to email your report to (separate by comma)  
$fromemail = "FromEmail@abc.com"
$SMTPserver = "YourEmailRelayServer.com" #enter your own SMTP server DNS name / IP address here
$YNTraceSuccess = "N"   #setting to "Y" will create more trace/debug to the ServiceTestTrace.txt file, setting to "N" only shows servers/services that were down
$TraceFilename = "D:\scripts\ServiceMonitorTrace.txt"
$LocalServerName = "MyServerName"    #used to determine if we should check remote server or not on GetService 
set-item trustedhosts $LocalServerName

#Get arguments flexibly, in either order.
#one parms is a "Y" or "N" to indicate to send an email, even when no servers are in error status 
#another optional parm is the filename of the CSV to read, if omitted, a default filename is used.
if ($args.Length -gt 0)
{
   if ($args[0] -eq "Y" -or $args[0] -eq "N")
       {
       $IsEmailOn = $args[1]
	   }
   if ($args[0].Length -gt 4)
       {
          $csvFilename = $args[0]
	   }
}

if ($args.Length -gt 1)
{
   if ($args[1] -eq "Y" -or $args[1] -eq "N")
       {
       $IsEmailOn = $args[1]
	   }
   if ($args[1].Length -gt 4)
       {
          $csvFilename = $args[0]
	   }
}

if ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($csvFilename))
{
   $csvFilename = "D:\Scripts\ServerMonitorConfig.csv" 
   Write-Host "Setting csfFileName=$csvFileName" 
}

Write-Host "csvFilename=$csvFilename"
$csv = Import-Csv $csvFilename -Header @("IsActive","Environment","Category","ServerName","ServiceName","Criticality")

$HTMLMessage="" 
$TextMessage="" 
$HTMLMessage="
Server/Service Status
"
$CriticalErrorCount = 0
$ErrorCount = 0 
$ServerCount = 0 


foreach ($line in $csv) {
  if ($line.IsActive -eq "Active")
  {
    $reportStatus = "" 
    $ServerCount = $ServerCount + 1  

	#$Service = (get-service -Name $line.ServiceName -ComputerName $line.ServerName)
	#this is slower than above, but it gives us the processId which we can use to find out what time the service/process started 
	write-host "Verifying: " $line.ServerName $line.ServiceName 
    $myDate = Get-Date
    if ($YNTraceSuccess = "Y")
    {
       Add-Content $TraceFilename "$myDate TRC01 $($line.ServerName) $($line.ServiceName)"
    }
    $error.clear()  #clear any prior errors, otherwise same error may repeat over-and-over in trace 
    if ($LocalServerName -eq $line.ServerName)
        {
           # see if not using -ComputerName on local computer avoids the "service not found" error 
           Add-Content $TraceFilename "$myDate TRCW1 using local computer " 
	       $Service = (get-wmiobject win32_service -filter "name = '$($line.ServiceName)'")
        }
    else 
        {
           Add-Content $TraceFilename "$myDate TRCW2 using remote computer $($line.ServerName) not eq $LocalServerName" 
	       $Service = (get-wmiobject win32_service -ComputerName $line.ServerName -filter "name = '$($line.ServiceName)'")
        }

    if ($error -ne $null) 
    {
        Write-Host "----> $($error[0].Exception) " 
        Add-Content $TraceFilename "$myDate TRCE1 $($error[0].Exception)" 
    }

	if ($Service -eq $null) 
	{
	    $reportStatus = "Service Not Found: name = '$($line.ServiceName)'"
		$trColor = "Yellow"
		$ErrorCount = $ErrorCount + 1  
		$CriticalErrorCount = $CriticalErrorCount + 1
		$CreationDate = "NA" 
        Write-Host "----> $reportStatus " 
        Add-Content $TraceFilename "$myDate TRC02 $reportStatus" 
	}
	else 
	{
        #Write-Host "Service Exists"
		#$status = $Service.Status 
		#if ($status -eq "Running")  #this was the check when using get-service instead of get-wmiobject win32_service)

		$reportStatus = $Service.State

		if ($Service.Started -eq "True") {
			#$reportStatus = "Up"
			$trColor = "White"
			# when service is running, then we can lookup the ProcessId to get the Userid and CreationDate (Time the service was started) 
			$ServicePID = $Service.ProcessID
			#Write-Host "Process id: $ServicePID" 
			$ProcessInfo = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Process -ComputerName $line.ServerName -Filter "ProcessID='$ServicePID'" -ea 0
			$CreationDate = $ProcessInfo | % { $_.ConvertToDateTime( $_.CreationDate )}
		} 
       else 
       {
		    Write-Host "Down Service.Started=$($Service.Started) " 
            Write-Host "Status=$($Service.Status)  State=$($Service.State)"
			#$reportStatus = $Service.State
			$trColor = "Orange"
		    $ErrorCount = $ErrorCount + 1  
			if ($line.Criticality -eq "Error") 
			{
                #switch from orange to yellow background 
			    $trColor = "Yellow"
				$CriticalErrorCount = $CriticalErrorCount + 1
			}
			
			#Write-Host "down status=$status"   #result was empty string or null 
			$CreationDate = "NA" 
		}
	}
    
	#Write-Host "test=$reportStatus"
	$TextMessage += "$($line.Environment) $($line.Category) $($line.ServerName) $($line.ServiceName) $reportStatus $CreationDate $($Service.StartName)`r`n" 

    #build the TR and TD Cells of the HTML Table 
	$HTMLMessage += ""
    $HTMLMessage += ""
    $HTMLMessage += ""
    $HTMLMessage += ""
    $HTMLMessage += ""
    $HTMLMessage += ""
    $HTMLMessage += ""
    $HTMLMessage += ""
    $HTMLMessage += "`r`n" 

  }	
  else 
  {
     Write-Host "Skipping InActive " $line.ServerName $line.ServiceName 
  }
}
Write-Host '------' 
#$HTMLMessage = "
Critical Server Count=$CriticalErrorCount  Total Error Count=$ErrorCount
" + $HTMLMessage + "
Environment
Category
ServerName
ServiceName
Status
Process Started Date/Time
UserName
$($line.Environment)
$($line.Category)
$($line.ServerName)
$($line.ServiceName)
$reportStatus
$CreationDate
$($Service.StartName)
" + "
Yellow is critical, Orange is not critical.
" 
$HTMLMessage = "
Server-Count=$ServerCount  Critical-Count=$CriticalErrorCount  Total-Error-Count=$ErrorCount
$HTMLMessage
Yellow is critical, Orange is not critical.
" 
$mydate = Get-Date 
Write-Host "Date=$myDate" 
$HTMLMessage = "
$mydate
$HTMLMessage"
Write-Host  $TextMessage 
Write-Host "`r`n Server-Count=$ServerCount   Critical-Count=$CriticalErrorCount  Total-Error-Count=$ErrorCount"
Write-Host "Date=$myDate" 


$emailSubject = "QT Service Email was Requested" 
if ($CriticalErrorCount -gt 0)
{
   $emailSubject = "Critical QT Server Down Alert: There are $CriticalErrorCount critical services down" 
}


#always send email when one 1 or more critical errors are found, or when the $IsEmailOn parm is set to "Always" which sends email regardless of error count 
if ($CriticalErrorCount -gt 0 -or $IsEmailOn -eq "Always")
{
   send-mailmessage -from $fromemail -to $users -subject $emailSubject -BodyAsHTML -body $HTMLMessage -priority High -smtpServer $SMTPserver
   Write-Host "Alert Email Sent with Subject=$emailSubject" 
   Add-Content $TraceFilename "$myDate TRC99 Alert Email Sent with Subject=$emailSubject" 

}

Create a CSV like this, with a list of the servers to monitor.
Column 1
Column 2 is an arbitrary environment name. Column 3 is a category of server functionality (could potentially be used to route email to the group in charge of those types of servers, e.g. IIS, BizTalk, SQL…)
Column 3 is Server/Machine Name.
Column 4 is the Windows Service name. Use “LanmanServer” just to know if the machine is up and running.
Column 5 indicates whether this should cause a critical error or just a warning (when the service is down).

"Active","PROD","SQL","SqlServer01","MSSQLSERVER","Error"
"Active","PROD","SQL","SqlServer01","SQLSERVERAGENT","Error"
"Active","PROD","SQL","SqlServer01","MSDTC","Error","Error"
"Active","PROD","BizTalk","BizTalkServer01","MSDTC","Error"
"Active","QA","BizTalk","BizTalkServer03","LanmanServer","Error"
"Active","QA","BizTalk","BizTalkServer03","MSDTC","Error"
"Active","QA","BizTalk","BizTalkServer03","BTSSvc$Application_Default","Error"

Schedule a .bat or .cmd file such as follows, pointing to the desired CSV as defined above.

powershell -command "& 'D:\Scripts\ServerMonitor.ps1'" d:\Scripts\ServerMonitorConfig.csv