But wouldn’t it be great if we could have our own little Duncan or Frank to carry around in our pocket and check our clusters out for HA and DRS issues and best practices – Well now you can – no I haven’t created bobble headed characters, instead I have created…..

The HA and DRS Audit Script

This is a script which was created from the best practices and information in the HA and DRS book, run it against your vCenter and it will check your clusters for information in the book, each part will be shown in a nice HTML report and will give you page numbers and information from the book.

This is not to be used as a replacement for the HA and DRS book, quite the opposite, it is used to compliment the book and tells you which pages to look at for information within the book.

So far I have only read the first 50 pages so all the information in V1.0 of the script is related to the first 50 pages but as I read more I will add more checks and update the script.

Download

The Script can be downloaded from here:

HA and DRS Audit 1.1
Downloaded 2243 times

Instructions

The script couldn’t be easier to run, all you need to do is make sure you have PowerCLI up and running and then follow the below video:

Side note:

Some of you may recognise the format from my vCheck script, stay tuned for a new version of vCheck coming soon with some great enhancements

HA and DRS Audit is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

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:

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

PowerCLI Book Update is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

We don’t have many more details at the moment but wanted to let you know, as we are both very excited (and nervous by the amount of work) about this project.

As you know we both live and breathe PowerCLI. And we want to share our knowledge to help others achieve the level of PowerCLI automation we both know is possible.

One thing you can expect from this book is a practical approach with examples galore, we aim to cover most of the common configuration/troubleshooting and reporting areas with easy to understand examples and explanations.

To answer some of your questions:

Q: What’s the title ?
A: Well, in the end we went for “VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration”

Q: Why ?
A: We’re both crazy enough to think we can do this.

Q: When ?
A: Our publisher, Sybex, targets 2011 Q1

Q: What ?
A: Expect a practical, down-to-earth approach. We’re going to show you how you can manage all aspects of your vSphere environment with PowerCLI.

Q: Who are these guys ?
A: Alan, who recently joined EMC’s vSpecialist army, is well-known from his Virtu-Al blog, his UK VMUG appearances, as a co-host of the Get-Scripting podcasts and as the winner of the recent Script-O-Mania contest.
Luc, aka LucD, is known from the PowerCLI Community, his LucD notes blog, his Dutch VMUG and VMworld appearances and as the winner of the first PowerCLI Scripting contest.

Q: Where do these guys live ?
A: Alan, contrary to some rumours, is an English guy and lives in Wiltshire, UK.
Luc lives in Belgium and works in the Netherlands. The best of both worlds

We’re writing a book is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Trainsignal have let it slip that coming soon to a website near you will be….

Managing VMware vSphere with PowerCLI – Hal Rottenberg

• Video 1 Introduction to Power CLI
• Video 2 PowerShell Basics
• Video 3-1 PowerCLI Concepts – Part 1
• Video 3-2 PowerCLI Concepts – Part 2
• Video 4 Power CLI in the Real World
• Video 5 PowerCLI Cmdlet Deep Dives

So you not only get to learn PowerCLI but you also get to see the man behind the book, the man behind the podcast and the man behind the MVP – Hal himself.

If you haven’t purchased a Trainsignal set yet then I strongly suggest you do, their vSphere training kit is packed with great video’s, mp3s and other training material which makes it well worth the money.

Not to mention that you can run it any time you like, its like having the instructor at home with you !

As well as the PowerCLI videos Trainsignal will also be releasing some new videos on VMware View, ThinApp and the Cisco Nexus 1000V, read more about these here or the trainsignal details can be found here.

Learn PowerCLI by video is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

I was responsible for adding all the PowerCLI throughout the book, basically if something is explained and there is an easy way to do it in PowerCLI, we have added a code reference, this enables you to see how much is covered by PowerCLI and also how easy it actually is.

In writing the PowerCLI areas I didn’t actually realise how many we had put in until the book was completed and I extracted them all into a nice zip file which can be downloaded and used from here: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/wp-content/uploads/quickstartguide.zip

All in all there are 67 scripts, now obviously if you want to know more information about these scripts and exactly where they fit in you will need to buy the book.

Which brings me on to my next topic, the book is now available from many sources, Europe, America and also now a PDF version, all at great prices, just follow the below links to pick up your copy right now !

US $15.99
Europe: £12.53
PDF: £6.26

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed the book so far, im pleased so many people are enjoying it.

vSphere Quick Start Guide – PowerCLI and PDF is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex