Q&A Session for Managing VMware Infrastructure with VI Toolkit (for Windows)
Download the toolkit at http://vmware.com/go/powershell
Session number: 665025336
Date: August 7, 2008
Q: Will the VI toolkit work on all versions of ESX or are there limitations with previous ESX versions?
A: Compatibility is listed in our release notes. Long story short is that it will work with ESX 3.0+ and VC 2.0+.
Q: is it possible to do operations inside guest operating system using VI toolkit ?
A: Not exactly. You can use PowerShell remoting to run commands against Windows hosts but the toolkit doesn't really help with that yet.
Q: How does this relate to lab manager? I know it has it's own soap/api, but this looks easier.
A: The Lab Manager API is a set of about 20 APIs that are specifically geared toward Lab Manager use. This tool is much more generic and attempts to cover all of the important stuff you deal with when managing VI. I agree that it is a lot easier. You may want to consider this PowerGUI plugin. It's also fairly easy to call the Lab Manager APIs from PowerShell if you know how.
Q: you are showing this having to connect to a host using the root credentials. can you use the powershell tools to authenticate through VC? then do a command like you showed for the snapshots to take place on the entire infrastructure rather than one host?
A: You can connect to VirtualCenter or directly to ESX. When connected to VirtualCenter commands will run against all hosts managed by that VirtualCenter instance.
Q: Can you specify a list of target VMs with a .csv file?
A: Check out PowerShell's Import-CSV, which should let you do what you want to do.
Q: I can see the benefit of scheduling events. Is script scheduling a function of PowerShell?
A: PowerShell doesn't have scheduling built in, you'll have to use Window's scheduling mechanisms. Also note that if you use AD and VirtualCenter it is possible to have the toolkit run commands without requiring a password.
Q: is everything supported and available for ESXi?
A: Yes.
Q: Is PowerGUI free?
A: Yes, Download it at http://powergui.org
Q: Please let us know how to get the VI toolkit ?
A: Download it at http://vmware.com/go/powershell
Q: Does VMware own the script from the contest?
A: Check out the terms and conditions at http://vmware.com/go/powershellcontest
Q: the 3rd party tools are they free
A: PowerGUI is free, PowerGadgets is not a free tool (but is quite useful).
Q: How do I install and configure the VI toolkit?
A: First install PowerShell onto any system that supports it, then you can install the toolkit from http://vmware.com/go/powershell. No modifications are needed to VirtualCenter or to ESX.
Q: should the VI toolkit be installed on the VC server?
A: It can be, but it's not necessary.
Q: Can you use the VI toolkit to manage VMware Server as well?
A: The Toolkit can also manage VMware Server 2.0, but many operations won't work due to the differences in Server and ESX. Read more about it here:
Q: Do you have to install powershell on both VC server and VI Client?
A: No, it's purely client software.
Q: you increased the mem on vm's. one was powered on. did it complete?
A: You can increase the memory of a powered on VM, but it doesn't take effect until you reboot. Some day you will be able to hot add and remove memory, just not yet.
Q: Can you access all the performance counters avalable in ESXTOP via powershell, or are you limited to what's avalable in VI Client?
A: It's limited to what's in the web services API, in other words, the same data you see in VI Client.
Q: i saw an example of upgrading vmware tools automatically....how can you do that without having the servers reboot?
A: As far as I can tell, upgrading tools always requires a reboot.
Q: Two questions: Where I can download the toolkit, can you provide the url? Can the toolkit works with VCB?
A: Download the toolkit at http://vmware.com/go/powershell. For VCB, check out http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-6280
Q: When performing operations against VC, are we able to filter for VMs that are part of other parent objects, such as: virtualDC, clusters, hosts, resgroups, folders, etc?
A: Yes, you can select VMs very flexibly by using cmdlets like get-resourcepool, get-datacenter, and get-cluster. To shut down all the VMs in cluster X, you can say "get-cluster X | shutdown-vmguest".
Q: restore backed up vm's
A: You'll have to use VMware Converter to do that, or hack something together with scp and other tools.
Q: where is the download for the toolkit?
A: http://vmware.com/go/powershell
Q: How to find object extensions like "$hostview.ConfigManager.StorageSystem" and "VMware.Vim.HostMultipathInfoLogicalUnitPolicy". I mean if we are starting a new operation we should have some location to find out variables with these extensions
A: A couple of things to consider, first it might be worthwhile to browse through our API documentation. Second you might find this post interesting for learning about objects.
Q: are there now, or will there be any cmdlets released for VDI/VDM?
A: No specific plans for that, but in addition to the functionality we provide for dealing with VMs you should have a look at this sample (it requires registration to the PowerShell contest). In this example VDM is manipulated by directly modifying Active Directory. If you have specific requests, let us know in our forum.
Q: are operations like starting application scripts inside guest OS possible?
A: Not yet.
Q: PS C:\> connect-viserver -server mtb0120.mycom.com -user root get-vmhost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA what is wrong with this? it doesn't work - thanks
A: It looks like you've got it all on one line, just break it into two. In other words, run:
connect-viserver -server mtb0120.mycom.com -user root
get-vmhost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA
Q: Is there a VI Toolkit for Linux?
A: You should look at the RCLI and the VI Perl Toolkit.
Q: can toolkit be inside a VM ?
A: Any Windows system XP and higher will work.
Q: does there any performance issues to VM's when using the VI commands?
A: Running VI commands will put some load on the VirtualCenter or ESX hosts.