Virtu-Al
Virtually everything is poshable
PowerCLI 4.1 Poster and Quick Reference Guide
Aug 25th
Recently released on the PowerCLI site there has been an updated version of the PowerCLI Poster, this time the PowerCLI Documentation and Engineering teams have done a great job of updating it into a readable poster and have even added my quick reference guide to it to make it an awesome document.
Included in this poster you will not only find every cmdlet collated into some nice readable sections but also code examples and further PowerCLI and PowerShell resources, download the pdf from below:
Simple PowerShell selection box
Aug 23rd
A few times in PowerGUI or generally I have needed the user to select a single entity so that I can use this entity further in the code to narrow down the output, with this in mind i created a quick PrimalForms form which can be used as a function and a single object selected, the below code can be used within GUI apps like PowerGUI or vEcoShell or just from the powershell prompt.
For example if you wanted to select just the VMs from one host you could present the user a nice GUI with all the hosts added to the dropdown box with the following simple code:
# Send the Hosts to the GUI function Select-GUIObject "Host" (Get-VMHost) # Get the VMs for the selected host $SelObj | Get-VM | Out-GridView
So the GUI box presented from the Select-GUIObject would look like so:
Once the host was selected and the OK button was pressed the VMs would be returned in $selObj and a list of VMs can be gained as in the next line of code and the following output from Out-Gridview:
Other examples of this function can be used with Get-VM or Get-Datastore or whatever you like, this is one of the areas I have spoken to the people at Quest and I believe they may be making some improvements to PowerGUI & vEcoShell to make input easier.
The code: More >
PowerCLI Book Update
Jul 24th
As we announced in our post “We’re writing a book!”, Luc and myself started writing a PowerCLI book.
At about the same time I got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join EMC as a vSpecialist, how could I turn that down !
Now you don’t become a vSpecialist for free, I have been spending a fair amount of time in training, coming up to speed with VCE (VMware/Cisco/EMC) and travelling all over the globe. The little time I did have spare was spent at home with my family.
As a consequence, our chapter-writing schedule failed miserably, something which I am ashamed of as Luc is doing a fantastic job.
And now, for the proverbial “silver lining”, have a look who agreed to help us out:
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 |
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| Glenn Sizemore
Winner of the Scripting Games 2010 and vExpert |
Jonathan Medd
Microsoft Valuable Professional (MVP) |
Arnim van Lieshout
vExpert |
In other words, the book will be now be written by “4 vExperts and a MVP” !
Can’t wait to read it 
Why EMC for VMware
Jul 22nd
Recently at the London VMware User Group I gave an additional presentation on top of the normal PowerCLI session I normally provide (which was interactive this time and I think worked very well).
The subject of this session was “Why EMC for VMware”, I have had a number of questions from people who know that I have joined EMC and I wanted to address these and show exactly what EMC is doing when it comes to VMware, one thing I didn’t know about EMC before joining them was how tight they actually integrate both their software and hardware product ranges into VMware and vCenter, making both the life of the virtual admin and the storage admin (I know most of us are now both) 100 times better.
During the presentation Simon Seagrave (fellow vSpecialist and blogger) and I gave an overview of some of the EMC products and how they can make your life easier, just one good example of this is using the EMC Plugins for vCenter – strangely out of 2/3 of the room who said they were EMC customers only a few had tried these.
Using these plugins can make both the VMware admin and Storage admin start communicating together and understanding each others language – think of the universal communicator they use in StarTrek, now when the storage admin is talking to the VMware admin about LUNs and RAID levels, what used to be a glazed look will instantly be translated into datastores and performance !
Check out the below slides or Chad’s great post explaining the plugins in detail which can be found here.
London VMUG – Thu 15 July – Lets get interactive !
Jul 12th
I have been given my normal resident slot at the London VMUG this Thursday, 15th July.
At the last VMUG I showed how vEcoShell could be used to add the graphical interface back onto our PowerCLI scripts and also gave an overview of the “VMware Community PowerPack”, when performing the demo I showed how easy it was to drill down into an object using the debugger in the script editor.
Someone asked me if next time I would give more tips and tricks like this, the kind of tips you pick up without realising it and are really helpful to people starting to learn PowerCLI.
So this time there will be a change in the way my session is presented…. We are going to get interactive !
If you are attending my PowerCLI session at the VMUG this Thursday 11-12, please bring along the following equipment:
- Laptop, Windows is preferable but if you have to use one of them Mac things please make sure you have a Windows VM.
- Pre-install Windows PowerShell V2
- Pre-Install PowerCLI 4.0 U1
- Pre-Install vEcoShell and vEcoShell Script editor.
I will bring these on a USB stick also but it will help if you are already setup and raring to go !
My plan is to host a ESX host and a vCenter VM and a few other VMs which we can all hook into and mess with, we can all do the same things and learn at the same time, I will have some mini instructions to follow which will help you along the path – think of this as a free PowerCLI course !
We will start off slow and then I will ask you to do a few things on your own, just to keep you awake.
Hopefully it will go down without a hitch, if you are unable to bring your laptop don’t worry I will try and put you in a group with other people so we can all observe and work together.
See you on Thursday and please remember your laptop !
Speed up PowerCLI
Jul 5th
Whilst at the last UK VMware User Group I was talking to someone who advised his PowerCLI prompt took a long time to initialise, he had the latest version (4.0 U1) and the latest version of PowerShell (V2), this is a problem I had seen before and especially when your computer is not attached to the internet and you start PowerCLI.
Symptom: The PowerShell prompt starts straight away but PowerCLI does not, if you start PowerShell normally and then add the PowerCLI snap-in it takes a good minute or so before returning back to the prompt and being ready for action.
Fix: I had come across this before on the PowerCLI forum where someone had this exact issue and had advised us how to fix it, I thought I would blog it here, especially for him but also for the other people reading this blog and suffering with the slow start-up of PowerCLI.
Goodbye Virtu-Al – Hello Community
Jun 4th
This may not be news to some of you as I have mentioned it at both the Dutch VMUG and the London VMUG but anyway, if you were not lucky enough to make it to these because you live in a far away place then please read on…
The Virtu-Al PowerPack is no more – gone, dead and buried – RIP
However, the “VMware Community PowerPack” has arrived ! Yes it is a rename but also there is new content and a whole lot more to come, to give this the justice it needs I have created a landing page for the PowerPack at the top of my site under featured scripts or click here.
On the landing page you can see how to download it, a video showing how to install it and also how you can get involved in making it even more useful – Come on people we are all managing the same VMware software here !
Don’t worry if you don’t have scripting skills, you can still get involved !
And with great people like the below already adding content it is destine for great things !
Head over to the landing page http://www.virtu-al.net/featured-scripts/vmware-powerpack/ and check out the “VMware Community PowerPack” now !
VMWorld: PowerCLI is for administrators !
May 25th
The voting is nearly over for this years VMworld Sessions but I thought I would let you know that Luc Dekens (Lucd.info) and I have a session which you can help become a reality just by spending a few moments clicking on a button, if you have ever used a script by Luc and I and wondered how you could pay us back for the time we have spent (Cheques/cash/beer tokens are very welcome) then please hit the button now and come say Hi if you are at VMworld too !
A brief summary of the session
In larger organisations administrating a vSphere environment can cause headaches.
Some of the burning questions you surely recognize
- Who gave that VM 4 CPU’s ?
- Who connected the NIC to the DMZ PortGroup and when ?
In this session, Luc Dekens and Alan Renouf will show you how to automate the answers to these questions with the help of PowerCLI. The solutions presented will show you how the combined strengths of the rich PowerShell command set and the PowerCLI snapin provide you with powerful tools to make this all happen.
Alan and Luc will show you how to take PowerCLI beyond the listing and reporting stage. They will show you how to write and use scripts that will inform you when problems actually.
This session will show several aspects of working with PowerCLI. The classic PowerCLI approach but also the use of the SDK methods when execution speed is required and the use of third party products like PowerGUI, PowerWF or Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) to integrate the solutions even better into the corporate environment.
Luc and Alan will show several practical demos to highlight this integration. One of the demos will show for example how easy it is to use Active Directory to find a users email address and send him a message to tell him that his guest is using too many snapshots. If the mail stays unread, the script can try to reach the user via a Tweet.
Why vEcoShell or PowerGUI makes sense
May 7th
A little while back I started a PowerPack which could be used in either PowerGUI or vEcoShell – the application formerly known as “The Virtualisation EcoShell or VESI, my PowerPack was a collection of the most used scripts from my site all laid out in a nice GUI format.
Now why would you put a GUI back on top of the scripting, lets think about this…
You can be at EMC World
May 7th
Yes I am lucky enough to be attending EMC World for the first time from this Monday until Thursday but what about those people who are not able to afford the trip, well don’t worry, you can still enjoy the buzz and excitement of EMC World. How ?
Live broadcasting will be in place so everyone will be able to share the announcements and the fun no matter what the location !
The current schedule of events shows key speakers such as Chad Sakac, Steve Herrord, Chris Carrier and more !
The broadcast will be LIVE from 2:30pm-5:30pm Eastern Time (GMT – 4.00) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and can be seen on http://siliconANGLE.com/emcworld2010.
Make sure you check out the site above and join in the fun and also check the following blog for more information and updates: http://blogstu.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/emc-world-live/
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