Category Archives: EMC

Using the EMC Cmdlets with PowerCLI

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As you know from my previous post “EMC PowerShell Cmdlets – Where to start” I have started looking at the EMC PowerShell cmdlets, one thing I was keen to use them for was to find information on my VMware Datastores.

This information is already available if you have the EMC VSI Plugin installed as GUI based information but I wanted to be able to script against this info, pull various bits of information that I needed and output it into a Spread sheet.

Unfortunately the cmdlets as they stand do not allow you to take a VMware datastore and get the underlying LUN information straight out but what they do allow, with a bit of messing around, is the ability to link the information and pull back what we need, with a little work during my lunch break I managed to create a function to allow us to match the datastore objects with the EMC Lun information.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a single cmdlet or function we could pipe Get-Datastore or Get-SCSILun information straight into to retrieve the EMC Lun information  – well now we can !

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EMC PowerShell Cmdlets – Where to start

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I managed to finally find time recently to install the EMC PowerShell Cmdlets and have a play, this was mainly evenings and lunchtimes but when else do we get spare time in our working days !

I thought it would be useful to share my experience and show what EMC are doing in the world of PowerShell.

Why you need PowerShell for Storage

As I have mentioned before I use PowerShell as kind of a glue to grab pieces of information from various sources and tie them in together until I have the results I need and then output them into a nice report, so wouldn’t it be great if we could use these Cmdlets to integrate our EMC storage and VMware vCenter environment (Much like the VSI for vCenter) to grab the information from both sources and give us a nice output with information from both sources expanding the datastore to give us LUN information so we know how it looks underneath (further post coming with the script).

Another way to use PowerShell may be to create multiple LUNs, what if I want to add 50 LUNs to my EMC Storage and then assign them to the hosts within my vCenter, then going back to vCenter and telling it about the LUNs and formatting these ready for use, well you get the point.

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Why EMC for VMware

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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.

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You can be at EMC World

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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/

Virtu-Al + EMC = Automated vBlocks ?!

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EMC Well im not sure about the PowerCLI automated vBlocks as yet but I did want to let my readers know that I (like many others) have now joined EMC working as a vSpecialist in EMEA.

I know this blog is mainly about PowerCLI and I have had a fir few questions about if I will still be blogging and if I will still be using PowerCLI, I wanted to answer these questions… YES !

EMC are a very forward thinking company, you should know that by now, look at there continued delivery of leading products and software, with this being the case they actively encourage blogging and therefore my blog will definitely still be here for a long time yet.

PowerCLI has been my bread and butter for a long time now, its what most people know me for, apart from not being French.  This blog will still include many PowerCLI examples, experiences and updates to my current projects.  Believe me, I have a long list of scripts to write which I have thought of over a log period of time.

I am super excited to be a part of what EMC is doing with the vSpecialist team and hope to update you on more PowerCLI / VMware and EMC articles soon.  I want to make it clear though, any opinions or expressions on my site will by mine alone and not that of EMC, hence the new disclaimer on the right hand side of the site !

Lastly, sorry for the self-publicised article…. normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.