Powercli

1. Italy VMUG UserCon – 14 November 2017

3. PowerCLI, che figata!
Short Practical Guide to make you a PowerCLI User
And no, I’m afraid this session will not be in Italian

4. Luc Dekens
• Systems Engineer
• Eurocontrol
• vExpert
• MVP
• Co-author PowerCLI Reference Ed 1 & 2
• Twitter @LucD22
• VMTN LucD
• Blog http://lucd.info

5. Agenda
• PowerCLI is cool!
• Quick tips on Getting Started
• Pitfalls and Common Errors
• How to advance
• Advanced functionality
• And since we all like a good story...

6. Chapter 1 – Meet the Junior Wizard
• Once upon a time, in a kingdom datacenter far way…
• A young girl, fresh from Wizard School, was employed as the Junior
Virtualisation Admin.
• The head Virtualisation Wizard had a first task for her:
• Give me an overview of our clusters and ESXi nodes
• Luckily she learned at Wizard School about Google, the crystal ball.
• After the incantation “vSphere cluster esxi report”, she saw images
appearing in the crystal ball...

7. Community
• The PowerCLI Community is a very active community
• There are tons of snippets available
• VMTN PowerCLI Community
• PowerCLI Community Repository on Github
• VMware{code} – VMware Sample Exchange
• Blogs
• Slack PowerCLI Channels
• Vmware{code}
• vExpert
• PowerShell

8. What is there?
• One-liners
• Snippets
• Functions
• Modules
Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Select-Object -Property Name,NumCpu,MemoryTotalGB
Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Select Name,NumCpu,MemoryTotalGB
gci . | epcsv report.csv -not -u



9. Zoom in
• PowerShell works with objects
• The pipeline concept
Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Select-Object -Property Name,NumCpu,MemoryTotalGB
Get-Cluster Get-VMHost
Cluster
$cluster = Get-Cluster
$esx = Get-VMHost -Location $cluster
foreach($vmhost in $esx){
Select-Object -InputObject $vmhost -Property Name,NumCpu,MemoryTotalGB
}


10. Zoom in further I
• Objects have
• Properties
• Methods
• Get-Member
• Format-Custom

11. Zoom in further II
• Format-Custom
• See the “Values”
• Nested properties
• ‘more’ DOS cmd

12. Code Snippet
• Search turns up a PowerCLI snippet
• What do you need?
• Windows machine with PowerShell installed
• PowerShell v5.1
• .Net
• Connectivity to the vCenter/ESXi node(s)/Appliance
• Mind the Firewall

13. What is PowerCLI?
• PowerCLI is a collection of modules
• Run on/in PowerShell (v5.1)
• Go for PS v5.1
• PowerCLI Core is a Fling (Mac/Linux)
• PowerShell Core v6.0
• .Net Core
• Access to several VMware products
• Installation
• From the PowerShell Gallery
• Install-Module
• Computer
• User
• $PSModulePath
• Auto-load
• PowerCLI Cmdlet Reference

14. PowerCLI has a past I
• 10th Anniversary
• From PSSnapin  Modules
• Currently 600+ cmdlets
• Covering more than vSphere
• Code you find, might be “old-ish”
• PSSnapin
• Less cmdlets

15. VMware PowerCLI
Nov
2006
PowerShell
v1 Beta
1.0 1.5
VMware Infrastructure Toolkit VMware vSphere PowerCLI
Nov
2007
Jul
2008
Jan
2009
May
2009
4.0
Jul
2010
4.1
Aug
2011
5.0
Sep
2012
5.1R1
Sep
2013
5.5R1
Sep
2014
5.8R1
Mar
2015
6.0R1
Mar
2016
6.5R16.3R1
Nov
2016
1.0U1 4.0U1 5.0.1 5.1R2 5.5R24.1U1 6.0R2
6.0R3
Apr
2017
6.5.1
6.5.2
Core Core
DeployAutomation DeployAutomation
ImageBuilder ImageBuilder
License License
Cloud Cloud
Vds Vds
Storage Storage
Cis.Core
HA
PCloud
SDK
vROps
VUM
Common
HorizonView
PowerCLI
StorageUtility
SRM
8 102 120 157 165 237 293 361 400 426 498 528 587 623
VMware PowerCLI
6.5.3
626
PowerCLI has a past II

16. How to run PowerCLI code I
• PowerShell prompt
• Execution Policy (Set-ExecutionPolicy)
• Connect to vSphere Server (Connect-VIServer)
• PowerCLI Configuration
• Certificates
• Warnings
• Paste snippet
• Run .ps1 file
• Integrated Environment
• ISE
• Visual Studio Code

17. How to run PowerCLI code II
• The .ps1 file
• Run from the prompt
• Don’t forget to “connect”
• Shortcut
• Schedule it

18. Visual Studio Code

19. Chapter 2 – Learning new tricks
• That went well!
• Our Junior Wizard got access to the Advanced Spell Books
• But as it goes, the Head Wizard had some new tasks
• Time to start reading those new spell books
• ... and give Google, the crystal ball, an extra polish

20. Expanding the Select I
• Calculated property = Hash table
• Name
• Expression  scriptblock
• Using .Net function
• Accessing the vSphere object
• Pipeline variable

21. Expanding the Select II
Get-Cluster -PipelineVariable cluster |
Get-VMHost |
Select @{N='vCenter';E={([System.Uri]$_.Client.Config.ServiceUrl).Host}},
@{N='Cluster';E={$cluster.Name}},
Name,
@{N='Version';E={"$($_.Version).$($_.Build)"}},
NumCpu,
@{N='MemoryTotalGB';E={[math]::Round($_.MemoryTotalGB,1)}},
TimeZone,
@{N='Power Mgmt Policy';E={
$_.ExtensionData.Config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.ShortName
}}

22. .Net objects vs vSphere objects I
• PowerCLI cmdlets produce .Net objects
• vSphere internally uses vSphere objects
• They are linked
1. ExtensionData
2. Get-View
3. Get-VIObjectByVIView
• vSphere Web Services API Reference
• Fixes missing functionality in cmdlets

23. .Net objects vs vSphere objects II
ExtensionData
Name
MoRef
.Net object vSphere object
Get-VM Get-View –ViewType VirtualMachine
Get-VIObjectByVIView –MoRef $vm.MoRef
Name
Read-only

24. Don’t forget PowerShell I
• Many useful cmdlets
• Exploration
• Get-Help
• Get-Command
• Get-Member
• Reporting
• Sort-Object
• Group-Object
• Measure-Object

25. Don’t forget PowerShell II
$entities = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost
$stat = 'cpu.usage.average','mem.usage.average'
$start = (Get-Date).AddDays(-1)
Get-Stat -Entity $entities -Stat $stat -Start $start |
Group-Object -Property {$_.Entity.Name} | %{
New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property ([ordered]@{
VMHost = $_.Name
StartTime = $_.Group | Sort-Object -Property Timestamp -Descending |
select -First 1 -ExpandProperty Timestamp
CPU = $_.Group | where{$_.MetricId -eq 'cpu.usage.average'} |
Measure-Object -Property Value -Average |
select @{N='Average';E={[math]::Round($_.Average,1)}} |
Select -ExpandProperty Average
Mem = $_.Group | where{$_.MetricId -eq 'mem.usage.average'} |
Measure-Object -Property Value -Average |
select @{N='Average';E={[math]::Round($_.Average,1)}} |
select -ExpandProperty average
})
} | Sort-Object -Property VMHost
1 2
3
4

26. Chapter 3 – Getting creative
• Our Junior Wizard became a Principal Wizard
• But she still was missing something in her job!
• She wanted to become creative, and use those “create” spells
• The Head Wizard went of to a Wizard Conference in Las Vegas
• ... now she had her chance!
• But how was she going to minimise the risk?

27. Use the Safe Guards I
• After the Get-phase, time to tackle Set- and New- cmdlets
• PowerShell comes with a number of safe guards, use them!
• WhatIf
• Verbose
• Try-Catch
• Make sure to automate your back out as well
• Snapshot

28. Use the Safe Guards II

29. Digging deep aka The API
• PowerCLI cmdlets have a 80/20 behaviour
• 80% of the use cases covered by cmdlets
• 20% use the API
• Get comfortable with the vSphere API
• Read up
• Practice, practice, practice!
• REST is there/coming

30. A simple API sample I
• ESXi node – CPU Power Management
• No cmdlet  vSphere Web Services API Reference

31. A simple API sample II
# Options are: static,dynamic,low,custom
$desiredPowerPolicy = "static"
Get-VMHost | %{
$powSys = Get-View $_.ExtensionData.ConfigManager.PowerSystem
$key = ($powSys.Capability.AvailablePolicy |
where {$_.ShortName -eq $desiredPowerPolicy}).Key
$powSys.ConfigurePowerPolicy($key)
}

32. It’s not always the API
• There is also Get-EsxCli
• Example: getting LAG information from a VDS
$lagInfo = foreach($vds in Get-VDSwitch){
$vds | Get-VMHost | %{
$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $_
$vnic = $esxcli.network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.list() |
where{$_.Name -eq $vds.Name} | Select -ExpandProperty Uplinks
$esxcli.network.vswitch.dvs.vmware.lacp.config.get() |
where{$_.DVSName -eq $vds.Name} |
Select DVSName,LAGName,LAGID,
@{N='vmnic';E={($vnic | Sort-Object) -join '|'}}
}
}
$lagInfo | Sort-Object -Property LAGName -Unique

33. Chapter 4 - Mastery
• Our heroin is now ready to become a Master Wizard
• A wExpert, a much coveted title for wizards
• Since she learned so much from other wizards,
• … she now wants to share that knowledge.
• That would make her wizard career full circle!

34. From snippet to function I
$vmConfigSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$vmConfigSpec.changeTrackingEnabled = $true
Get-VM | %{
$vm.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM($vmConfigSpec)
}
• Snippet to enable CBT on all VMs

35. From snippet to function II
function Set-CBT
{
[cmdletbinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true,ConfirmImpact='High')]
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline)]
[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.VirtualMachine[]]$VM
)
Begin
{
$vmConfigSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$vmConfigSpec.changeTrackingEnabled = $true
}
Process
{
$VM | ForEach-Object {
if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess($_.Name))
{
$_.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM($vmConfigSpec)
}
}
}
}

36. From snippet to function III
Get-VMHost -PipelineVariable esx |
Get-ScsiLun -LunType disk |
Get-scsilunpath | Where {$_.state -eq “Dead”} |
Select @{N='VMHost';E={$esx.Name}},Name,ScsiCanonicalName,State
• Snippet to LUN path states

37. From snippet to function IV
function Get-ISeeDeadPaths{
[cmdletbinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true,ConfirmImpact='Low')]
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline)]
[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.VMHost[]]$VMHost
)
Process
{
foreach($esx in $VMHost){
Get-ScsiLun -LunType disk -VmHost $esx |
Get-scsilunpath | Where {$_.state -eq “Dead”} | %{
New-Object PSObject -Property @{
VMHost = $esx.Name
Name = $_.Name
ScsiCanonicalName = $_.ScsiCanonicalName
State = $_.State
}
}
}
}
}

38. From function to advanced function
function Set-CBT
{
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Enable Chaged Block Tracking for a VM
.DESCRIPTION
Enables Change Block Tracking for a VM.
See KB1020128
.PARAMETER VM
The VM object
.EXAMPLE
Set-CBT -VM (Get-VM -Name MyVM)
.EXAMPLE
Get-VM | Set-CBT
.INPUTS
[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.VirtualMachine[]]
.OUTPUTS
void
.NOTES
Author: me
History:
v1.1 19/08/2017 19:50 Added Help
v1.0 07/08/2017 13:10 Added pipeline support
v0.9 02/06/2017 15:30 Initial version
#>
[cmdletbinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true,ConfirmImpact='High')]
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline)]
[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.VirtualMachine[]]$VM
)

39. From function to module
• Create a module
• .psm1 – collect all your functions
• .psd1 – manifest  New-ModuleManifest
• Share the module
• Local – company share
• World - PowerCLI Community Repository

40. Epilog – A Wizard’s Life
• No need to be clueless!
• Start slow, Rome wasn’t build in one day!
• Set yourself practical goals
• Learn as you go along
• Use the Community
• Ask questions
• Don’t reinvent the wheel, just steal!
• Contribute to the Community!
• PowerCLI Community Repository
• Report “features” through an SR
• Suggest PowerCLI Ideas

41. Q&A