Community PowerPack

The VMware Community PowerPack is a community driven project which enables us as VMware admins to share our day to day problems and fixes through the format of scripts with a nice GUI front end making it even easier for us all to help each other out as at the end of the day we are all managing the same systems and probably hitting some of the same issues or requests for information.

The PowerPack contains a variety of scripts from Virtu-al.net and now other blogs such as ict-freak.nl, van-lieshout.com and ntpro.nl transformed and enhanced into a useful PowerPack for PowerGUI.

image

What Do I need ?

In order to use this PowerPack you will need the following:

 

  • PowerShell V2
  • PowerCLI 4.0 U1 or later version
  • PowerGUI with the VMware PowerPack
  • Download the VMware Community PowerPack from below

Download

Installing

Here is a short video I shot a while back of me installing the Virtu-Al PowerPack, the process is pretty similar if you use PowerGUI or vEcoShell but you will not need to download the VMware PowerPack if you use vEcoShell as it is built in….

Automatically update

To see how to import a PowerPack and how to make sure you always have the latest version check this post here: http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/10/29/vesi-powergui-powerpack-management/

How can I contribute ?

At the moment I am trying to come up with a better method but please do send any updates or additions you make over to me in an email, I will make sure these are added to the PowerPack.

If you have a good idea but do not know anything about PowerCLI then please add your idea as a comment to the bottom of this page where one of the frequent updaters will no doubt run with it !

Can I be notified of PowerPack updates ?

If you are a twitter user then follow VMWCPP here: http://twitter.com/VMWCPP

 

 

FAQ

Why does the community PowerPack not have a connection method ?

You will need to connect using the connection through the original VMware PowerPack, this is a conscious decision as the intent is not to replicate the great work done as part of that PowerPack but purely to add functionality for every day VMware Information needed by consultants and VMware Admins.

When I click a node it says I am unconnected even though I made a connection ?

Please make sure you are using the latest version of PowerCLI, this is a known issue with pervious version of PowerCLI.

Screenshots

50 thoughts on “Community PowerPack

  1. Pingback: VMware – Powershell – ITuDA

  2. Chris

    Hi Alan,

    Can I get a copy of these great scripts sent my email. The download link doesn’t work.

  3. Alan Post author

    PowerGUI which is now owned by Dell is not being maintained so there is no update to this power pack any more

  4. David

    This powerpack has been blinked out of existence. I can find it nowhere. Dells site is a dead end. Can someone post a link where it can be found??

  5. vgpu

    Yes, I am curious if this powerpack and associated scripts are still relevant or compatible with vSphere 6.0. This project seems to be abandoned from what I can tell. Does anyone have any info if this works with vSphere 6.0? Thanks!

  6. AMP

    Actually powergui.org is linking to software.dell.com. Did they buy out the domain for this or is their a different location to pick it up.

  7. AMP

    has the location to download the vmware community powerpak changed. It seems to link to dell software and not a download?

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  11. Aswini

    Could you able to add all the stale power on VM’s which hasn’t been used from x days. different parameters to be used would be no lastlogin user through VM console, no heartbeat of the OS to the HA cluster,no nic utilization beyond 5kbps with last bootstrap time or no usage through of the VM through all the windows/linux protocols, it will greatly help on finding the power on which hasn’t used from x days.

  12. Arturo

    Thanks for the amazing work. I’d like to get a little help with this error:

    Cannot validate argument on parameter ‘VIObject’. The argument is null or empty. Supply an argument that is not null or empty and then try the command again. (Get-View) At line: 65 char: 22

    This happens while trying to get the “General/vCheck” under the powerpack…

  13. Arun Raju

    When I try to execute ESX Network Info script with my vCenter server, I don’t get any output whereas for all others I am able to retrieve info. Is there a reason why this might be failing?

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  15. Gianluca

    I wonder How can I make a connection with a server EsXi passing directly user and password with vCheck? Thank’s a lot.

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  18. Ali Master

    Great Utility !

    Can I suggest adding column for who created snapshots and VMs please.

    Thanks.

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  20. Christian

    Hello Virtu-Al,
    nice PowerPack, but there is a part i really miss.
    Is it possible that you expand this pack that is also could show me the Availability of the ESX-Host. Great will be if i could see Uptime/Planed Downtime(Maintenance)/Downtime

    Im searching for weeks for something like that but i could not find anything about.
    And the /var/log/vmksummary.html in my Host is broken (VMWare going to Fix it, but they think it will need Months before it is repaired IF the repair it in my Version of ESX)

    greetz
    chris

  21. Eric

    Is this going to get any VMware Update Manager Scripts added to it? I think that would be nice as some need to pull patch compliant reports for Hosts and VMs.

    @chhavi you can send the scripts in email to virtu-al from the “How can I contribute ?” section of this article

  22. Chhavi

    Love the integration of scripts as PowerPack. Have been taking ideas from your scripts and made a lot for our virtual environment 🙂

    Is there a place where I can post some scripts that can be added to a PowerPack, like I wanted to add a script for unused VMs, we require this infor on a very regular bases. Also VMDk alignment can be added, it helps for the users with NetAPP storage.

  23. Virtu-Al

    The PowerPack is eessentially an XML document, just save it as a .powerpack file and import it as shown in the video and you should be ok.

  24. DowntownScience

    Would love to try the powerpack but I can’t seem to download it. I just get an .xml script when I copy/past with quotes. If I go to Downloads I can see the folder, but when I click it it takes me to the same script. Please help!

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  26. Virtu-Al

    I have just had an email back from Quest, they say:

    “We’re having technical difficulties with some of the items in the PowerGUI.org library, where they can be downloaded after we reboot the server but then at some point they cannot be downloaded anymore and we haven’t found the root cause yet. Your PowerPack happens to be one that seems to be part of those that cannot be accessed from time to time. We’re still looking at this, but at the moment I don’t have an ETA for a fix. Sorry for the trouble.”

    In the meantime please download the powerpack from this location:

    http://virtu-al.net/Downloads/Virtu-Al.net Scripts.powerpack

    (copy and paste the entire link as there is a space in the name)

    Alan

  27. William

    Al, has the Powerpack been abandoned? Download links are no longer working, love this powerpack.

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  29. Burak

    Guys,

    You are amazing. I am loving the powerpack. Thank you very much for your contributions. I was working on creating a series of scripts to manage my infrastructure. PowerGUI and PowerPack is the answer. Saved me a lot of time and effort.

    Thanks again

    Burak

  30. Scott

    Is there a way of pulling the performance data with the powerpack. there seems to be some but something that you could give to your CIO/director/manager would be great. html with graphs. cio love graphs!

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  34. Kevin Hamilton

    Mate as mentioned at the VUM this is just the ticket. Did you mention to Al about the possible session before the next VUM. Looking forward to the book.

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