We needed a way to identify all machines that had snapshots.  Get-snapshot was far too slow, so I wrote this script to quickly generate a report of all VMs with snapshots more than 2 weeks old.  This script completes in 2.3 seconds when run against 400 VMs.  You will need to insert your own datacenter name.

$datacenter = "**datacenter name**"
$outputFile="snapreport.html"
$SnapReport = @()
Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Property Name,Snapshot -SearchRoot(Get-Datacenter $datacenter | get-view).MoRef `

-Filter @{"Snapshot"="VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineSnapshotInfo"} | foreach-object {
    $vmname = $_.Name
    (Get-View -Id $_.MoRef -Property Snapshot).Snapshot.RootSnapshotList | foreach-object {
        If ($_.CreateTime -lt (get-date).adddays(-14)){
            $row = "" | Select-Object VirtualMachine, SnapshotName, SnapshotCreated
            $row.VirtualMachine = $vmname
            $row.SnapshotName = $_.Name
            $row.SnapshotCreated = $_.CreateTime
            $SnapReport += $row
        }
    }
}
$style = "<style>"
$style = $style + "BODY{background-color:white;}"
$style = $style + "TABLE{border-width: 2px;border-style: solid;border-color: black;border-collapse: collapse;}"
$style = $style + "TH{border-width: 2px;padding: 5px;border-style: solid;border-color: white;background-color:black;color: white}"
$style = $style + "TD{border-width: 2px;padding: 5px;border-style: solid;border-color: black;background-color:LightCyan;color: black}"
$style = $style + "</style>"
$body = "<H2>Snapshot Report</H2>"
$body = $body + "<H4>Snapshots older than 2 weeks</H4>"

$SnapReport | ConvertTo-HTML -head $style -body $body | out-file $outputFile

The following script was written  to  solve a problem in our environment where we had a vCenter server that  had  it’s Statistics Level set much too high.  While the high  granularity is  helpful  for a short period of time when troubleshooting  an issue it can really grow your  vCenter Server database pretty  quickly if left at a high level for very long. We needed to know what  the settings were in our environment with multiple vCenter Servers.

Luc Dekens ( @LucD22) provides some excellent  resources on vCenter Statistics so if  you’re unfamiliar then I suggest checking them out.  I will skip right to the  work I needed.

  Goals

1. Allow user to enter preferred  Statistics Level values

2. Email a daily report and write to  date-based file

3. Check level based on preferred  values and report only discrepancies

You will notice in the script that I do not use  Get-StatInterval.  When issuing that cmdlet it does not give you  Statistics Level.

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Clik here to view.

From Luc’s article:

“You define the statistical level for each “historical” interval in the vSphere Client under <Administration><vCenter Server Settings><Statistics>.”

For further breakdown visit my blogpost article at http://www.vtesseract.com/post/8439832274/powercli-vcenter-statistics-level-audit-script

Hi all,

I've been trying forever to use the "$fileMgr.DeleteDatastoreFile_Task" command in PowerCLI.

I create clones for backup, and after cloning I remove them from the inventory.

So now I want to create a script to delete the folders of these clones all together.

For what I've found the syntax should be:

$fileMgr.DeleteDatastoreFile_Task('[<datastore name>] <folder name>', '<datacenter name>')

In my situation:

Folder          : XP_Workstation-backup

Datastore     : NAS01a

Datacenter   : DC_NNSPT

So I figured it should look like this:

$fileMgr.DeleteDatastoreFile_Task('[NAS01a] XP_Workstation-backup', 'DC_NNSPT')

This doesn't work, I get the following response:

You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At line:1 char:34
+ $fileMgr.DeleteDatastoreFile_Task <<<< ('[NAS01a] XP_Workstation-backup', 'DC_NNSPT')
+ CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (DeleteDatastoreFile_Task:String) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

What am I missing here?

Thanks!

I am new to using PowerCLI and hoping that this will save me time from going to 26 ESX host servers and doing it manually. I am looking for a command to run an audit.sh script that is copied out to the ESX servers in the /tmp directory already. The audit.sh script runs and creates an output.txt. I would like to copy that back -localhost C:\Audit\Results after the audit.sh is complete.

The steps I take now manually:

Log into each host

su to root
change directory to \tmp

run sh ./audit.sh

Copy file back using winscp

(with 26 servers this is very time consuming)

Help needed:

A command to run the audit.sh script located in \tmp

Then copy the latest *.txt in \tmp to the local host C:\Audit\Results

Is this even possible, any advice would help. Thank you.

Hello Friend,

Find the attached script to Get DataStore Usage Report on email.

This will give you HTML format report on your email and with RED mark if any datastore is running with less then 20% of free space.

Attached file - Datastore_Report.zip

Contents of path

DataStoreUsageReport.ps1 - Main script file which need to execute from path.

email_id.txt – Creat .txt file at script location and add recipients email ID in this file.

vc_list.txt – Creat .txt file at script location and add correct VC name from which have to collect datastore details.

\Report - Where output will be save.

Script Description: This script will connect to multiple VCs > colleact Datastore Usage Report > Save OutPut as HTML format > Send email.

Output will show in RED if any datasotre's Free Space % is less then 20

Note - Change SMTP server as per your setup.

This script will connect to multiple VCs > List Datacenters > Will ask to enter DC name from which you wan to colleact datastore details.

Hello everyone,

I open this topic because i really need your help.

I've written a script that can automatically create 10 virtual machines on my ESX Server.

I run the script with PowerCLI.

I want now by the aid of script, give parameters ip on the 10 machines created.

I do not know how, can you enlighten me on the subject ?

Is there a script that can do this ?

Thank you very much.

Good Day,

     I am trying to create a script that will import a Customization Specification (Custom Spec) that was created in a different vCenter. As we know the Password for the local administrator gets encrypted by the vCenter where the Custom Spec was created so when you import this Custom Spec into a new vCenter it tells you that the public key in the specification does not match the vCenter public Key. The it tells you to click OK to reenter the password to continue the re-import. So with this in mind I am trying to accomplish this task using Powershell ISE script. I Add the PSSnapin for VMware so I can run the VMware cmdlets so that is not a problem.  Here is the Code I am using:

################################
#Imports Customization Profiles        #
################################

cd 'F:' (This is where the .XML file resides for the Custom Spec to import.)
$Path = "."
$view = Get-View CustomizationSpecManager
Write-host $View
ForEach ($xmlfile in (Get-ChildItem -Path $path | where {$_.extension -eq ".xml"})) {
    $xml = Get-Content ($xmlfile)

    #Imports all XML Files into the current vCenter
    $view.CreateCustomizationSpec($view.XmlToCustomizationSpecItem($xml))

     $adminPwd = read-host -prompt "Input new local admin pwd"
     $Myspec = Get-OSCustomizationSpec -Name "My Imported Custom Spec"
     Write-Host "AdminPW is" $adminPwd (This was added to test if the data entered was being passed correctly)
     Write-Host "Current Specification is" $Myspec (This was added to test if the data entered was being passed correctly)

     set-OScustomizationSpec -OSCustomizationSpec $MySpec -adminPassword $adminPwd

}

The Custom Spec is imported correctly but when I try and change the password I get the following error.

Set-OSCustomizationSpec : This cmdlet requires 32bit process. Please run PowerCLI in 32 bit mode.
At E:\scripts\Create_Folders-Import_Templates-Deploy_Templates.ps1:79 char:24
+ set-OScustomizationSpec <<<<  -OSCustomizationSpec $MySpec -adminPassword $adminPwd
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-OSCustomizationSpec], ViError
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.VimException.ViError,VMware.VimAutomatio
   n.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.SetCustomizationSpec

So viewing the help details of the Set-OSCustomizationSpec reveils that you indeed have to run this command from the 32bit PowerCLI window. Is there a way to run this cmdlet from the 64 bit Powershell ISE window or is there a better way to accomplish this task?

Thanks,

Mitch

Can I use PowerCLI U1 and VMware CLI 5.0U1 on hosts with U2??

I am having issues.

Hi All,

I am trying to run the PowerCLI in a remote powershell session. Connecting to vSphere works just fine however some of the cmdlets just hangs. I checked with Fiddler and it appears that the vSphere actually returns the data.

Does anybody an experiences with this?

I can reproduce it with

$script = {
    Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core
    Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
    . "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\Scripts\Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1"

    Connect-VIServer <vsphere>
    Get-Folder
}

# This works just fint
Invoke-Command $script

$session = New-PSSession localhost
# This just hangs.

Invoke-Command -Session $session $script

If I create an interactive session (using enter-pssession), I can actually get it to work just fine. However enter-pssession is not great for automation.

with regards,

Thomas

Hi - I need to create a very specific output for VM inventory purposes.

I have, by hook and by crook, coppled together a script that works well for my needs, except for one issue I cannot resolve.

My VMware estate is ESX 5.1 and multi regional with multi VC instances; and the aim is to schedule this script to output the same info from all VCs at regular intervals

My issue is with reporting on the VM guest disk info

The script runs okay and collects from the first cluster where the max number of disks per VM guest is 2.

The next cluster has VM guests with more than 2 disks, but the number of disks reported on will be 2 (this is becuase of cluster 1 having a max of 2 disks per VM).

The script works accurately if I run it against each cluster spearately eg the 3 disk cluster reports 3 disks if running the script against that cluster only - but I cannot get it to run accuratley when colecting from all the clusters

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Apologies for those script/programming experts as I am sure this is crude and clunky, but like I said it almost works for me.

Also ignore all the # out commands this, for me is always an evolving, dynamic script.

The section in question is

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

# Get Disk Usage Details

$DiskNum = 0 

  Foreach ($disk in $VM.Guest.Disk){

$Details | Add-Member -name "Disk$($DiskNum)path" -MemberType NoteProperty -value $Disk.DiskPath

$Details | Add-Member -Name "Disk$($DiskNum)Capacity(MB)" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ("{0:n0}" -f ([Math]::Round($disk.Capacity/ 1MB)))

$Details | Add-Member -Name "Disk$($DiskNum)FreeSpace(MB)" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ("{0:n0}" -f ([Math]::Round($disk.FreeSpace / 1MB)))

$DiskNum ++

  }

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

FULL SCRIPT:

Measure-Command {
$VMInventory = @()
$VCs =  "VC1", "VC2"

foreach ($VC in $VCs){

connect-viserver $VC -User "-adm-"  -Password ""

$Clusters = Get-Cluster
foreach ($Cluster in $Clusters) {
trap {
Out-File 'F:\PowerGUI\ScriptDumpFolder\VMInventory-ERRORLOG.txt';
  continue
}
$ESXhosts = $Cluster | get-vmhost
$firstESXhost = $ESXhosts[0]
$HardwareSpec = $firstESXhost | Get-View
$VMGet =  $cluster |Get-VM | Get-View

  foreach ($VM in $VMGet) {
 

# Array object content
   $Details = New-object PSObject
  $Details | Add-Member -Name Cluster -Value $Cluster.Name -Membertype NoteProperty
  #$Details | Add-Member -Name VMsPoweredOn -Value $CountVMsOn.Count -Membertype NoteProperty
  #$Details | Add-Member -Name VMsPoweredOff -Value $CountVMsOff.Count -Membertype NoteProperty
  # $Details | Add-Member -Name Name -Value $VM.Summary.Guest.HostName -Membertype NoteProperty
  $Details | Add-Member -Name Name -Value $VM.Config.Name -Membertype NoteProperty
  $Details | Add-Member -Name PowerState -Value $VM.Summary.Runtime.PowerState -Membertype NoteProperty
  $Details | Add-Member -Name GuestOS -Value $VM.Summary.Guest.GuestFullName -Membertype NoteProperty
  #$Details | Add-Member -Name ToolsActive -Value $VM.Guest.ToolsStatus -Membertype NoteProperty
  #$Details | Add-Member -Name ToolsStatus -Value $VM.Guest.ToolsVersionStatus -Membertype NoteProperty
  #$Details | Add-Member -Name ToolsVer -Value $VM.Guest.ToolsVersion -Membertype NoteProperty

 
  # Get VM RAM details >>> NOT Usage <<<
  #$vRAM = $VMGET | Get-Stat -Stat mem.usage.average -Start (Get-Date).AddHours(-24)-IntervalMins 5 -MaxSamples (12) |Measure-Object Value -Average
$Details | Add-Member -Name "Allocated_vRAM" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ([INT] $VM.Summary.Config.MemorySizeMB )
#$Details | Add-Member -Name "vRAM_AverageUsage%-24hours" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ([INT]$vRAM.Average)

# Get VM CPU Usage
# $vCPU = $VMGET | Get-Stat -Stat cpu.usagemhz.average -Start (Get-Date).AddHours(-24)-IntervalMins 5 -MaxSamples (12) |Measure-Object Value -Average
$VMNumSockets = $VM.Summary.Config.NumCpu
# $VMNumvCores = $VM.Config.ExtraConfig | where {$_.Key -eq "cpuid.coresPerSocket"}
     $VMNumvCores = $VM.Config.Hardware.NUMCoresPerSocket
$Details | Add-Member -Name "NumberOf_vSockets" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $VMNumSockets
$Details | Add-Member -Name "NumberOf_vCores" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $VMNumvCores
$Details | Add-Member -Name "NumberOf_vCPU" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ([Math]::Round($VMNumSockets * $VMNumvCores))
$Details | Add-Member -Name "AllocatedGHz-vCPU" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ("{0:n0}" -f (([Math]::Round($($VMNumSockets * $VMNumvCores) * $HardwareSpec.Hardware.CpuInfo.Hz)/ 1MB)))
# $Details | Add-Member -Name "vCPU_AverageUsageGHz-24hours" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ([INT] $vCPU.Average)

# Get Disk Usage Details
$DiskNum = 0 
  Foreach ($disk in $VM.Guest.Disk){
$Details | Add-Member -name "Disk$($DiskNum)path" -MemberType NoteProperty -value $Disk.DiskPath
$Details | Add-Member -Name "Disk$($DiskNum)Capacity(MB)" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ("{0:n0}" -f ([Math]::Round($disk.Capacity/ 1MB)))
$Details | Add-Member -Name "Disk$($DiskNum)FreeSpace(MB)" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value ("{0:n0}" -f ([Math]::Round($disk.FreeSpace / 1MB)))
$DiskNum ++
  }
  $VMInventory += $Details
    }
 
   }
  
  disconnect-viserver $vc -Confirm:$false

  }

}

$VMInventory  | Export-CSV 'F:\PowerGUI\ScriptDumpFolder\130617_SIv2_E1_VMReport.csv' -NoTypeInformation
    # $VMInventory  | Export-CSV 'F:\PowerGUI\ScriptDumpFolder\130614_SIv1_E1_VMReport.csv' -NoTypeInformation

Hi all,

I'm trying to write powercli scripts to mass change VM IP addresses and hostnames.  The hostnames I have no clue how to tackle, but I figured I could use Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface and Get-VMGuestNetworkinterface.  I get this to work fine on the Windows XP machines in my environment, but it will not work on my Windows 7-32bit machines, or in my Windows 8 32/64 machines.

I've googled and read the help documents, and it looks like the cmdlet does not support those operating systems.  I was wondering if anyone knows an alternative route or how I can make the cmdlet work.  I read where someone edited the cmdlet .bat file to make it work, but they never gave details or responded to PMs.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

I looked around for something to create and manage daily snapshots and didn't find anything, so I wrote this.  Thought I'd share in case others might use it.

cd 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\Scripts'
.\Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1

Connect-VIServer localhost | Out-Null
$date = Get-Date
$datef = Get-Date -format s

if ( $date.Day -eq 1 ) {
    $name = "Monthly $datef"
} elseif ( $date.DayOfWeek -eq "Sunday" ) {    $name = "Weekly $datef"
} else {    $name = "Daily $datef"
}

Get-Folder "Production Servers" | Get-VM | New-Snapshot -Name $name -Quiesce

Get-Folder "Production Servers" | Get-VM | Get-Snapshot | Where-Object { `
      ( $_.Name -like 'Daily*'   -and $_.Created -le $date.AddDays(-7)   ) `  -or ( $_.Name -like 'Weekly*'  -and $_.Created -le $date.AddMonths(-1) ) `  -or ( $_.Name -like 'Monthly*' -and $_.Created -le $date.AddYears(-1)  ) `
} | Remove-Snapshot

Hi there,

I am using PowerCLI PowerShell script to automate the import of OVFs.

My problem is that my OVF has DeploymentOption section with 2 configurations, where each configuration points to a different set of hardware specifications, including different disks.

It looks like Import-VApp imports only the default (first) configuration.

How do I get to import the second configuration from the OVF DeploymentOption section?

We can do this using the vSphere client GUI connected to a vCenter, but I need to automate this using PowerCLI.

Please, any help appreciated.

Kindest regards,

Steve

Hi

I was hoping someone could please point me in the direction of a PowerCLI Script that will override the ISCSI vSwitch configuration so that each VMkernel port maps to only one active adapter (and places the other adapter(s) into unused adapters?  (as per page 5 of this white paper  http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-multipathing-configuration-software-iSCSI-port-binding.pdf  )

Many thanks

Hi everyone,

I have some trouble to get a scriptout from an invoke-vmscript command.

first of all, i'm running powercli x32 5.1R2 on vshpere 5 (ESXi 5).

I'm running a script to display the license status of a windows 2008 R2 server as follow :

$script = "%SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\cscript.exe %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /dli"

$output = Invoke-VMScript -VM $vmname -ScriptText $script -GuestUser $GuestUser -GuestPassword $GuestPassword -ScriptType bat

write-host $output

[string]$licenseStatus = ($output | select-string -pattern "^License Status:")

write-host "licensestatus : $licenseStatus"

My problem is that my licenseStatus is null.

But my $output contains :

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Name: Windows Server(R), ServerStandard edition

Description: Windows Operating System - Windows Server(R), VOLUME_MAK_B channel

Partial Product Key: XXXXX

License Status: Licensed

Does anyone know how to get the output from a invoke-vmscript into a string ?

Thanks by advance.

Hi,

I have created a script to retrieve  VM paramters "VM Name, DNS Name, Creation Date, Power State ,OS Full Name ,VM Hardware Version , Tools Version , VM Tools Status , CPU HOT Enabled, Memory Hot Enabled , Thin Provisioned, HardDiskName, CPU Reservation, CPU Limits, Memory Limits and Memory Reservation". The script is working on 1 vCenter but not on another vcenter.

If I run manually one by one parameter on the powercli command prompt, i'm getting values. But if i try to get all the parameter values in a script, getting empty CSV file

    $VMview =Get-VM VMNAME | Get-View

$VMMemReservationsGB = $VMView.Config.MemoryAllocation.Reservation/1024

What might be the reason..

I'm not getting any error message while executing the script. Could you please let us know what are pointer we have to check.

Thanks in Advance..

Hello All,

I am in the process of writing a short script that returns the a VM name, the creator's username, and the date/time that the VM was created. The script then outputs the results to a CSV.

The issue is that when the script runs and exports, the name of the VM appears on the wrong line and does not match with the rest of the exported data.

Any suggestions on what I can do to fix this?

Please see attached files.

Thank you for your help,

Gsingh

VMware Healtcheck script

Introduction:

Healthcheck is a Powershell script that reports information like snapshots, VMware tools version, datastore space, CDROM and/or floppy drives connected, VM details etc. to HTML and e-mail the output. This script can be scheduled so that for example you get every week a rapport in your mailbox with the status of the VMware environment.

Reason for creating this script:

As VMware Consultant I see a lot of common problems in VMware environments like:

• Snapshots are enabled and forgot the commit to the VM.

• Datastores are almost full (for example if snapshots are enabled)

• VMware tools versions are different

• CDROM and floppy drives are still mounted to the VM

• Virtual Machines have CPU and Memory limits or reservations (VMs are swapping)

• In the VM, the VMware Tools timesync option is not enabled

In the Virtual Infrastructure Client (VIC) it is difficult to see this sort of information. By creating a Powershell script, I can do a quick inventory. In a lot of VMware environments I created a scheduled tasks, so the script runs once a week and sent to HTML rapport to the administrator.

What does the script:

I wrote a Powershell script with HELP from the VMTN community that makes a HTML file and sent the output by e-mail to a person or distribution list. The Healthcheck script does the following checks:

• VMware ESX hardware

• VMware ESX versions

• VMware VirtualCenter versions

• Active snapshots

• CDROM and Floppy drive(s) mounted to the VM

• Datastore information like capacity, free space and the percentage free space

• VirtualMachine (VM) information like VMware tools version, CPU, Memory reservations and limits etc.

• On what VMs VMware Tools timesync is not enabled

Requirements:

The following software must be installed:

Microsoft Powershell 1.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/download.mspx)

VMware Infrastucture (VI) toolkit for Windows 1.0

http://www.vmware.com/download/sdk/

Set the ExecutionPolicy in Windows Powershell to RemoteSigned by using the following command:

set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Installation:

• Unzip the Healthcheck.zip script to a directory on the VC server for example.

• When the ZIP if unpacked there are two files:

• Healthcheck.ps1, this is the Powershell script

• Style.CSS, controls the HTML layout

Configuration:

• Edit the Powershell.ps1 file

edit the following variables:

$vcserver="localhost"

Enter the VC server, if you execute the script on the VC server you can use the localhost name

$filelocation="D:\temp\Healthcheck.htm"

Specify the location where to store the HTML output

$enablemail="yes"

Enable (yes) or disable (no) to sent the script by e-mail

$smtpServer = "mail.ivobeerens.nl"

Specify the SMTP server in your network

$mailfrom = "VMware Healtcheck &lt;mailto:powershell@ivobeerens.nl&gt;"

Specify the from field

$mailto = mailto:ivo@ivobeerens.nl

Specify the address where the e-mail to sent to

Usage:

Manually run the Healthcheck.ps1 script":

1. Open Powershell

2. Browse to the directory where the Healthcheck.ps1 script resides

3. enter the command:

./Healthcheck.ps1

To create a schedule task in for example Windows 2003 use the following syntax in the run property:

Powershell -command "& 'path\Healthcheck.ps1'

edit the path

Powershell -command "& 'path\Healthcheck.ps1'

edit the path .

Future:

• List Orphaned VMDK's

• Add performance information like VM usage

• Check timesync on the VMware hosts

Happy testing Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.