Many of you have probably had a communities post answered by LucD… I know I have!

He it the most active PowerCLI member and one of the most respected vExperts and PowerShell/PowerCLI users in the community.  Luc has presented at many VMworld sessions and VMUGS alike, he has a great blog with some great posts here: Lucd.info

For those of you wanting to learn PowerCLI and not knowing where to start idera recently announced he will be performing a session on PowerCLI first steps.

This is highly recommended for both beginners and experts alike.

Details

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

12:00 – 01:00 PM Central Time

Register here: https://www.vconferenceonline.com/event/regeventweb.aspx?id=560

Alan Renouf – Sr. Technical Marketing Architect

With Partner Exchange (PEX) just around the corner from Feb 11th to Feb 16th I wanted to share the PowerCLI sessions with you, there are a couple of great sessions related to PowerCLI this year as you can see from the below information.

As well as these sessions I will also be walking the floors of the Solutions Exchange chatting to the cloud providers and anyone who has anything to do with Automation or just looking to make their lives easier.

I will also be keen to talk to anyone who is thinking of creating a cloud or has a cloud at the moment using vCD, I have some cool things to show you which will help you streamline your vCD environment – Reach out to me !

In a previous video we showed you how to get started with PowerCLI 5.0.1 and specifically the vCloud Director (vCD) cmdlets, we show you how to gain a list of cmdlets which were added to PowerCLI 5.0.1 for managing vCD and how to use some of these cmdlets to gather data from your vCD infrastructure.

I received some comments from people saying this was great information and they could use this to write some scripts which would allow them to pull data from the vCD infrastructure, but how could they interact with vCD ?  At the moment the web interface gives them access to not only view the cloud data but also interact with it, stop/start vApp’s and VM’s, create new Organization’s, ProvidervDC’s, OrgvDC’s and much much more.

You may not know but this functionality is actually available in the PowerCLI 5.0.1 cmdlets.  When listing the cmdlets you will see that most start with “Get-“ which means they are mainly designed to retrieve the data.  People who have looked a little further or perhaps have slightly more PowerCLI knowledge will have noticed the cmdlet Get-CIView.

The Get-CIView cmdlet allows us to reach into the full SDK for vCloud Director and pull back the full .Net object, this basically means that we get access to perform anything in vCloud Director that you would normally do via the web interface.

Another way to retrieve the .Net View representation  of a PowerCLI object is to refer to its .ExtensionData property.

The .ExtensionData property is an “on-demand” property which gives us the same results as calling the Get-CIView cmdlet.

To see a simple example of how we might use this .Extensiondata property to interact with vCD and Start/Stop a vApp take a look at the below video example:

From this simple example we can then create PowerShell advanced functions to make this easier for us in the future as can be seen below, this will give us 2 functions which will allow us to easily stop and start vApps in the cloud using PowerCLI.

function Stop-CIVApp {
    <#
        .SYNOPSIS
            Powers Off a vApp.

        .DESCRIPTION
            Powers Off a vApp and all VMs within it.

        .PARAMETER  CIVApp
            The Name or object or collection of objects of vApps which to shutdown.
           
        .PARAMETER    Force
            Attempt to power off the VMs. Failures in undeploying the VM or associated networks are ignored.
            All references to the vApp and its VMs are removed from the database

        .EXAMPLE
            PS C:\> Get-CIVApp | Stop-CIVApp

        .EXAMPLE
            PS C:\> Get-CIVApp “MyvApp” | Stop-CIVApp
           
        .EXAMPLE
            PS C:\> Stop-CIVApp -CIVApp “MyvApp”
           
        .EXAMPLE
            PS C:\> Stop-CIVApp -CIVApp “MyvAPP” -Force
    #>
    [CmdletBinding(
        SupportsShouldProcess=$true,
        ConfirmImpact=”High”
    )]
    param(
        [parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$true,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
        $CIVApp,
        [Switch]$Force
        )
    Process {
        if ($pscmdlet.ShouldProcess($CIVAPP)) {
            If ($Force){
                $CIVApp | Foreach {
                    $_.ExtensionData.Undeploy(“force”)
                }
            } Else {
                $CIVApp | Foreach {
                    $_.ExtensionData.Undeploy(“powerOff”)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

function Start-CIVApp {
    <#
        .SYNOPSIS
            Powers On a vApp.

        .DESCRIPTION
            Powers On a vApp and all VMs within it.

        .PARAMETER  CIVApp
            The Name or object or collection of objects of vApps which to start.

        .EXAMPLE
            PS C:\> Get-CIVApp | Start-CIVApp

        .EXAMPLE
            PS C:\> Get-CIVApp “MyvApp” | Start-CIVApp
           
        .EXAMPLE
            PS C:\> Start-CIVApp -CIVApp
    #>
    [cmdletbinding()]
    param(
        [parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true)]
        $CIVApp
        )
    Process {
        $CIVApp | Foreach {
            $_.ExtensionData.PowerOn()
        }
    }
}

In the recent release of PowerCLI 5.0.1 we introduced a new PowerShell snapin which allows you to work with VMware vCloud Director, to help you get started with these cmdlets and show some basic examples we have recorded the below video.

In this video we will show you how to connect to your vCloud Director instance and how to do basic information gathering tasks using the “Get-“ cmdlets, in future videos and blog posts we will show you how to take this further and introduce more cmdlets and ways to work with vCloud Director.

Today PowerCLI 5.0.1 has been released. Normally with a .0.1 release you will see small bug fixes and performance increases. This is the case with this release, there are indeed bug fixes and performance increases but there is also something very exciting… PowerShell Cmdlets for managing VMware’s cloud solution – VMware vCloud Director.

The latest bug fixes and other enhancements can be found in the change log here, this post will mainly cover what's new from the vCD PowerCLI snapin or VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud snapin.

vCloud Director Cmdlets

With the addition of vCloud Director Cmdlets to the PowerCLI snapin administrators are now able to automate their cloud deployments and report on key metrics. Using PowerShell's ability to easily integrate with other applications and export to multiple media types, vCloud Director can now be expanded with simple easy to understand code designed towards the system administrator.

Included in PowerCLI 5.0.1 you will now see a new snapin called VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud, this will contain the cmdlets used for working with your vCloud Director deployment. This initial release of the cmdlets will mainly focus on the reporting aspect of vCD or the “Get Cmdlets”. History has shown us that this is a place where most administrators start with a new PowerShell cmdlets as it is easy and safe – you are not going to accidently cause any issues just by reading data!

As well as the “Get Cmdlets” you will also be able to use cmdlets designed for importing virtual machines from the underlying vSphere environments and searching cmdlets which will allow you to search for specific objects within your cloud.

Advanced users of PowerCLI will be familiar with the Get-View Cmdlet currently available for vSphere. For vCloud Director, Get-CIView will offer a similar type of interaction, opening up the entire vCloud API to enable tasks which are part of the vCloud API that do not yet have a specific cmdlet.

vCloud Director Cmdlet Overview

The following cmdlets are part of this release and can be retrieved with:

Get-PSSnapin –Module VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud

As always you can find out more information on these cmdlets using the Get-Help cmdlet within PowerCLI.

Download

PowerCLI 5.01 can be downloaded from the PowerCLI download page here.

Stay tuned for more blogs explaining how to use these new cmdlets.

As Christmas is approaching at the moment it reminds me of good will and helping others, something the PowerCLI community knows all about.  I constantly see people helping each other, writing scripts, sharing tips or just meeting up to talk about PowerShell and PowerCLI.  Sometimes scripts are even written by multiple people with the same end goal in mind “Helping the community”

The first of these scripts is such a script – multiple authors but first started by Josh Atwell, a great script for ensuring your VMs are ready for vMotion….

vTesseract.com – Y U No vMotion ?

A great script which helps you diagnose vMotion issues, ensure your vMotions will take place by allowing PowerCLI to test each machine before it is moved.

JonathanMedd.Net – Configuring HP EVA Recommended Settings for ESXi via PowerCLI

Do you have a HP EVA Array ?  Make sure you check out this script which will automatically setup your hosts with the HP recommended settings.

Lucd.Info – vSphere 5 Top 10 – VMFS5

A set of nice scripts which will automate lots of great VMFS 5 items, if you just want to view the version of the datastore or maybe mass upgrade all datastores to VMFS5 then make sure you check out this great post.

blogs.vmware.com – vCO PowerShell Plug-in

Not a script but a plug-in, this post shows how vCenter Orchestrator can be used to run PowerShell scripts from workflows, maybe you want to convert some of your scripts into workflows, maybe you want to use other PowerShell features and snapins inside your workflows – get it all here, well worth a read !

vniklas.djungeln.se – Check number of running VMs on a datastore

Not a script but a one-liner, with this single one line of code you will be able to instantly see how many powered on VMs are on your datastores.

Week on week I see some great scripts coming from the PowerCLI community, I thought it would be a great idea to share the top 5 scripts (in my opinion) and ensure PowerCLI users are aware of these great scripts.

Lucd.Info – vSphere 5 Top 10 – HA

A collection of great scripts which show how to detail information on vSphere 5 HA roles and configuration including heartbeat datastore information.

Blogs.technet.com – Use PowerShell to Simplify Access to Data Through PowerCLI

A guest script on the Microsoft Scripting Guys blog which shows some of the great features of PowerCLI and specifically more information on Get-View, ExtensionData and the New-VIProperty Cmdlet.

Lucd.Info – vSphere 5 Top 10 – Storage DRS

Another great script showing how to use PowerShell advanced functions to extend the PowerCLI cmdlets and add support for datastore clusters, some great functions here to Get, Set, create and remove datastore clusters.

blog.shonkyholdings.com – Using export-clixml to recreate vSphere (PoSH) objects

A nice script showing how to export objects as XML data and what benefits this will give you.

Virtu-Al.net – VM Start-up script

This script shows how to find certain VMs on your hosts and start them, this is a great script to use when you have lost your virtual vCenter and need to start it up quickly.

If you have a commute to work or just want to keep up to date with what’s going on in the world of PowerShell there is no better way than to listen to PowerShell based podcasts, there are two great podcasts available at this point in time which focus on PowerShell and often include great PowerCLI tips and interviews.

See the bottom of this post for a link to the downloads.

Recently on the PowerScripting podcast episode 166, Alan Renouf from VMware Technical Marketing gave an interview on what's cool in the PowerCLI world, he explained how he got started in PowerCLI and also some of the new features in PowerCLI 5.0.

I recommend downloading and listening to the PowerShell podcasts, they are a great source of information and sure to make the  time go quicker when you are stuck in endless traffic !

Download / Subscribe

And of course if you have iTunes installed then you could always add the podcasts with PowerShell…

#PowerScripting

$iTunes = New-Object -ComObject iTunes.Application
$itunes.subscribetopodcast(http://feeds.feedburner.com/PowerScripting)

#Get-Scripting

$iTunes = New-Object -ComObject iTunes.Application
$itunes.subscribetopodcast(http://feeds.feedburner.com/Get-scripting)

Alan Renouf – Technical Marketing

It just occurred to me that a very useful feature of PowerCLI never got the introduction it deserves. The feature is the Credential Store and as the name suggests its job is to store credentials. As a result:

1. Credentials are kept securely (no need to hard code passwords along with scripts)
2. You type less (no need to specify user and password to Connect-VIServer)

So, how does it work in practice?

Say I connect to my VC like this:

Connect-VIServer 192.168.10.10 –User Andrey –Password “my favorite password”

To use the credential store, I do the following:

New-VICredentialStoreItem -Host 192.168.10.10 -User "Andrey" -Password "my favorite password"

Now I can type just:

Connect-VIServer 192.168.10.10

When I don’t specify user and/or password, Connect-VIServer checks the credential store, finds my newly stored credential and uses it.

By default the credential store file is stored under the user profile directory. It is encrypted. If I got you interested, check “help *VICredentialStoreItem” for details.

Andrey Anastasov,

PowerCLI Architect