Virtually everything is poshable
PowerGUI
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 >
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 !
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 !
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…
We’re writing a book
May 4th
Some of you might be interested to know, Alan and Luc are writing a PowerCLI book.
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 
PowerShell / PowerCLI / VESI & the Dutch VMUG
Apr 13th
You may have noticed a distinct lack of posts from me recently, I have been on holiday, I had a great time staying in Belgium and The Netherlands, a fantastic country which I would recommend to anyone thinking about travelling in northern Europe, not just for the red lights or “space cakes” either !
Whilst preparing for my trip I heard that the famous “Dutch VMUG” was having a PowerCLI / VESI event, now I know I was on holiday but it would have been rude to pass within an hour of the area and not attend and I was glad I did.
Having presented at a few VMUGS now I was very impressed at how organised the Dutch VMUG members really are, the presentations were submitted before hand and everything was set for the date well in advance, there were some real superstars presenting too, Armin van Lieshout, Arne Fokkema and Viktor van den Berg.
PowerCLI: Configured Maximums – Storage
Feb 11th
With vSphere introduced some new maximum’s which we not only have to memorise for the exams but also have to keep in mind when designing and using your infrastructure.
In the back of your mind when adding a new host to a cluster you should always be thinking, how many hosts should be in this cluster ? or when adding another LUN to your clustered hosts, how many datastores should I have as a maximum before it starts impacting my performance and how many paths are supported ?
The answer to these questions (in my case anyway) is to use PowerCLI to check them 
I will of course add these to the next version of vCheck so they are automatically checked for but in the meantime here are some quick one-liners to check your infrastructure against the configured maximums for storage, I will add more as I write them:
PowerCLI: How many HBA’s ?
Feb 9th
I needed a quick one-liner today to help me find out how many HBA’s my hosts had, the following one-liner needs no more introduction:
Get-VMHost | Select Name, @{N="FibreHBAs";E={($_ | Get-VMHostHba | Where { $_.Type -eq "FibreChannel"} | Measure-Object).Count}} | Out-GridView
Output:
PowerCLI: Virtual Machine disk usage
Jan 27th
Recently I have had a few comments on an old post I wrote showing a one-liner to get the VM’s disk sizes for each VM, I was asked if there was a way to export this information into a CSV file.
The easy answer is yes but what you need to do is build up a container and then add each part of the information to the container, this is quite common practice in PowerShell, its a great technique where you can basically build and populate your own information and then just add to it, once you are completed you can then take your container and export it to whatever format you wish, for example:
The one-liner mentioned in my previous post simply outputted the data one VM at a time to the screen, whilst this was great for looking at the information, when we try and export it things start to go wrong !
The new script, below, may take up more lines but is far more efficient and adaptable.
PowerCLI: Scripting ESXi
Jan 15th
As the service console is moved further away from the hypervisor, people are finding it harder to configure ESX in the same way as has been done in previous versions.
Moving forward the only way to do this really is by accessing ESXi through the API using scripting toolkits such as PowerCLI or the Perl toolkit.
There are two basic versions of ESXi “free” and “licensed”, the scripting toolkits are limited to read-only access for the free version of VMware ESXi. When the host is upgraded to vSphere Essentials, vSphere Essential Plus, vSphere Standard, vSphere Advanced, vSphere Enterprise, or vSphere Enterprise Plus these toolkits have write-access enabled and provide a scriptable method for managing ESXi hosts. More >
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