Script List

This page will give you a direct link to all scripts and useful one-liners I have written.


Getting Started

 

Name

Brief Description

Link

Icomasoft PowerCLI Reference Card

 PowerCLI reference card Click Here
VI Toolkit Quick Reference Guide Quick reference guide of the VI Toolkit cmdlets Click Here
PowerShell Get-Member fun An example of using Get-Member Click Here
Getting Started with the VI Toolkit A guide on how to get started Click Here


Virtual Machines

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
More HAL Information List VM/Num vCPU/HAL/OS Version/Service Pack Click Here

last 10 VMs created and removed

 List all VMs created or deleted over a period of time or last x number Click Here
Local stored VMs List all VM’s located on local storage Click Here
More one-Liner power Set the CPU and Memory limits on multiple VMs
Find a VM with a specific Mac Address		 Click Here
Stats One-Liner List each VM and the average CPU/Memory over x amount of days Click Here
More One Liners List number of VM’s per resource pool and
list Host, Cluster, Number of VMs and number of templates		 Click Here
Folder Name Mismatch Lists all VM’s which are stored in a folder not the same as their name Click Here
How many VMs ? Lists how many VM’s were on each host Click Here
Storage VMotion – The PowerCLI way Shows how to VMotion and SVMotion VMs using PowerCLI Click Here
PowerCLI on steroids – Custom attributes Exporting and importing Custom attributes Click Here
One-Liner: VM Guest Disk Sizes List all VM’s and their disk sizes Click Here
One-Liner: Correct HAL ? List the number of vCPU’s assigned to a VM and the type of HAL installed in the O/S Click Here
Setting MMU for your VMs Set MMU for multiple VMs Click Here
Reservations / Limits and Shares Export your Reservations limits and Shares Click Here
List VM’s with RDM List all VMs which have an RDM Click Here
Who deleted my VM ? A script to find the culprit ! Reading the VC database Click Here
Checking CPU Affinity A Script that lists each VM and the CPU they are tied to. Click Here


ESX Hosts

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
Checking Host Network Information List all ESX Host Service console and VMotion network information Click Here

Number of vCPUs in a cluster

 detail the number of vCPU’s on a host and in a cluster Click Here
Reading host log files How to read a hosts log files and use these in your scripts Click Here
Processor Types List each of your hosts and a detailed CPU type Click Here
Do you have the time ? List each hosts NTP settings and if the service is running Click Here
Host Hardware one-liner Details the hosts hardware details Click Here
vProfiles A Script to automatically configure your hosts from an existing host Click Here
More One Liners List number of VM’s per resource pool and
list Host, Cluster, Number of VMs and number of templates		 Click Here
Provision ESX Hosts through PowerShell A Link to a script by SCampbell Click Here
Getting VMware Host Physical Nic Speeds A script to list all Nics and their speeds Click Here
Rescan all hosts for new storage Rescan all hosts for new Storage Click Here


Licensing

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
License Server Scripts How to list the licensed features on each host and also monitor the license service Click Here


Datastores

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
How Many VMs on your Datastores ? Lists the number of VMs on each Datastore Click Here

Mass provision datastore’s

 add multiple datastore’s from a csv file Click Here
Local stored VMs List all VM’s located on local storage Click Here


Networking

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
One-Liners Checking Host Network Information List Host PG/IP/Subnet/Console/DNS/Device information Click Here
More one-Liner power Find a VM with a specific Mac Address Click Here
vProfiles A GUI Script to automatically configure your hosts vSwitches and Port Groups from an existing host Click Here
Easy vSwitch & PortGroup Setup Copy existing vSwitches and PortGroups from an existing Host Click Here
Lesson 3 – Networking Creation of vSwitches Click Here
Lesson 4 – PortGroups Creation of PortGroups Click Here
More Network Info Various network information Click Here
Detailed VMware Host Network Information Network information including CDP info Click Here
Getting VMware Host Physical Nic Speeds A script to list all Nics and their speeds Click Here
Mass VM PortGroup Change Change the portgroup for multiple VMs Click Here
Host Network Config Lists all the needed information to perform this best practice analysis Click Here


Reporting

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
vCheck 3.1 Fixes for vCheck 3 to fix slight issues Click Here
vCheck (Daily Report V3) Version 3 of the Daily Report, or now known as vCheck Click Here
Daily Report V2 Enhanced Error and issues report, listing vital information for a daily check of your entire VI Click Here
Daily Report V1 Error and issues report, listing vital information for a daily check of your entire VI Click Here
vDiagram – Draw your VI with one script Draw your Virtual Infrastructure in Visio Click Here
Mapping your VI using Netmap Draw your Infrastructure in a netmap style Click Here
Checking Logs Checking the vmkernel log for issues Click Here
Quick Stats from VMware for reports Shows how to create quick charts on your VI Click Here
Exporting VI Info into MS Word A script which creates a word document with various VMware information Click Here


Lessons

 

Name

Brief Description

Link

Lesson 1 – Time Source

 Setting up a host, adding a time source Click Here
Lesson 2 – Service and Firewall Configuration Service and firewall configuration Click Here
Lesson 3 – Networking Creation of vSwitches Click Here
Lesson 4 – PortGroups Creation of PortGroups Click Here
Using the VI APIs from Powershell Excellent guide by Luc on how to get started with the VI API’s Click Here
My First Powershell Export information into Excel Click Here


Cluster

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
HA Slot Size Information Detail the slot information for each Cluster Click Here

Number of vCPUs in a cluster

 detail the number of vCPU’s on a host and in a cluster Click Here
More One Liners List number of VM’s per resource pool and
list Host, Cluster, Number of VMs and number of templates		 Click Here
Check Cluster Configurations A great script by Hugo which compares the cluster configuration Click Here


Snapshots

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
SnapReminder Automatically emails the creator of a snapshot after x amount of days Click Here


Security

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
vSphere Permissions export and import – Part 1 Walkthrough of how to export and import permissions Click Here
vSphere Permissions export and import – Part 2 Walkthrough of how to export and import permissions Click Here
Lesson 2 – Service and Firewall Configuration Service and firewall configuration Click Here
Primal Forms Example (Virtual Center Log) A great script by FatBeard showulng how to use a GUI to read the VCenter Logs Click Here
Checking Logs Checking the vmkernel log for issues Click Here


Others

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
vTip – A VMware Expert updating your VI Message of the day updated by Jason Boche Click Here

Running a PowerCLI Scheduled Task

 Details how to run a PowerCLI script as a scheduled task Click Here
vProfiles A Script to automatically configure your hosts from an existing host Click Here
Extra fields in the VI Client Excellent script by Hugo which adds information back into the Virtual Infrastructure Click Here
Check Active Directory Latency Script Check Active Directory Latency Click Here
Change DNS and WINS on multiple servers Change DNS and WINS on multiple servers Click Here
Powershell Citrix License Alerts Reading the Citrix licenses from the Web interface and reporting Click Here
Server/Workstation Audit script Audit multiple servers or workstations and produce a nice html output using this script. Click Here


VESI

 

Name

Brief Description

Link
The VESI 1.2 – Get it Now List of the 2.1 Features Click Here
HA Slot Size Information Detail the slot information for each Cluster Click Here
  • #1 written by Michael
    about 1 year ago
    Quote

    Do you know of an equivalent in powercli to the esxcfg-firewall -o command? I am new to powercli and have not found a way to open a port. Thanks for your time.

  • #2 written by Virtu-Al
    about 1 year ago
    Quote

    Did you see this post I did earlier ? http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/04/14/customisation-lesson-2-–-service-and-firewall-configuration/ Hopefully it will cover what you want

  • #3 written by Michael
    about 1 year ago
    Quote

    Thanks for the fast response and helpful link. But, I am still looking to replace esxcfg-firewall -o 1311,tcp,in,OpenManageRequest command with a powercli cmdlet.

  • #4 written by Virtu-Al
    about 1 year ago
    Quote

    @Michael
    Sorry looks like I was wrong, check this link, there is a way to mass do this but not using the PowerCLI cmdlets independantly….
    http://communities.vmware.com/message/1085547#1085547

  • #5 written by bjorn bats
    about 1 year ago
    Quote

    where is the list then ?

  • #6 written by Virtu-Al
    about 1 year ago
    Quote

    @bjorn bats
    Ummmm, its coming, other stuff keeps getting in the way !

  • #7 written by gareth
    about 1 year ago
    Quote

    Hi there,

    I wonder if you could help. I am really new to powershell on VMware so feel free to be gentle. I am trying to work out the powershell command to show the last power on event for a host and also the memory size for the host as well.

    I have about 200 hosts I need to check this on so if I could use PS I would laughing!

    Thanks in advance

    Gareth

  • #8 written by Virtu-Al
    about 1 year ago
    Quote

    @gareth
    Added to the blog for reference:

    To csv file use this:

    get-cluster “My Cluster” | Get-VM | Get-View | Select Name, @{N=”BootTime”;E={$_.Summary.runtime.boottime}} | Export-Csv c:\temp\boot.csv

    To a text file use this:

    get-cluster “Production Cluster 3″ | Get-VM | Get-View | Select Name, @{N=”BootTime”;E={$_.Summary.runtime.boottime}} | out-file c:\temp\boot.txt

  • #9 written by Mike La Spina
    about 12 months ago
    Quote

    Awesome collection! Thanks for sharing your knowledge Alan.

    Regards,

    Mike

  • #10 written by q
    about 11 months ago
    Quote

    This is a great repository! Is there a script to get a list of which roles are applied to which groups on which folders? Thanks!

  • #11 written by Virtu-Al
    about 11 months ago
    Quote

    @q
    Have you tried this… http://communities.vmware.com/message/1105904#1105904 you can always use this function to do….

    Get-folder | Get-Permissions

  • #12 written by Virtu-Al
    about 11 months ago
    Quote

    @Mike La Spina
    Thanks Mike

  • #13 written by George
    about 11 months ago
    Quote

    Great Stuff!! I’ve used the report.ps1 script for a while now. Are there any plans to remove dependencies on the Office Web Components? MS has stated those are depricated.

  • #14 written by Virtu-Al
    about 11 months ago
    Quote

    @George
    I would love to but cant find a nice ‘non dependant on 3rd party tool’ way of doing it.

  • #15 written by Jason Boche
    about 10 months ago
    Quote

    Script Request: Need a script to change the portgroup connection in each VM from X to Y. ie. I have 100 VMs that need to move to a new VLAN (portgroup). Editing the settings of each VM and updating the portgroup connection would be tedious.

  • #16 written by Virtu-Al
    about 10 months ago
    Quote

    @Jason Boche
    You ask and I supply ;) http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/10/19/powercli-mass-vm-portgroup-change/

  • #17 written by tony
    about 10 months ago
    Quote

    I am new to this powercli can you give me more info how to use it thanks

  • #18 written by Virtu-Al
    about 10 months ago
    Quote

    @tony
    Sure, have you checked out the getting started links on this site and also a great book is “Managing vmware virtual infrastructure with Powershell” by Hal Rottenburg, there is also the PowerCLI forum and FAQ here: http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere/automationtools/windows_toolkit;jsessionid=3F9B08F3F055E22FE877ED351B04CD7A?view=overview&numResults=15

  • #19 written by Jason Boche
    about 9 months ago
    Quote

    Script Request: Search a datastore for all templates and register them in vCenter. Since Templates ownership cannot be transferred to another host, rebuilding a host which owns templates requires us to manually re-register the templates. This is a pain. I have been harping on VMware to fix this and make Templates portable like VMs. Check your email – Happy Holidays.

  • #20 written by Ken
    about 8 months ago
    Quote

    Hey Alan,
    Do you have a script stashed anywhere that will sync ESX advanced settings across all hosts in a cluster? I’m looking around for one before I write it myself so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

  • #21 written by Virtu-Al
    about 8 months ago
    Quote

    @Jason Boche
    Im sure you have already seen it but for the purposes of others looking, Luc has a great script which does that.. http://lucd.info/?p=1103

  • #22 written by Virtu-Al
    about 8 months ago
    Quote

    @Ken
    I have now ;)

    http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/12/20/powercli-copying-advanced-host-configuration/

  • #23 written by Peter
    about 6 months ago
    Quote

    Hi…
    This is a great repository!

    I’m looking for script to show the build version of VMware tools into vm machine….

  • #24 written by Suresh Kumar
    about 5 months ago
    Quote

    Hi Alan,

    Thanks for this awesome repository of scripts.

    REQUEST: Please give us one script to collect patch information from the esx hosts in the VC and export it to csv or HTML.

  • #25 written by Brian
    about 5 months ago
    Quote

    Alan, do you know of a script that would show me a list of VMs on a datastore but specifically relating to thin provisioned VMs? I am trying to find a way that I can tell the amount of space used and over provisioned…. Does that make sense.

  • #26 written by Virtu-Al
    about 5 months ago
    Quote

    Brian,

    Have you seen Luc’s great post on this ?

    http://lucd.info/?p=1935

  • #27 written by Gus Chavira
    about 4 months ago
    Quote

    Looking for a script similar to others I have seen but that captures all VMs but what resource pool they are registered under. Creating a new vCenter install. Have powershell script to recreate my resource pool organization under clusters but want to place the VMS by name reference back under those cluster’s resource pool structures.

  • #28 written by Grog
    about 4 months ago
    Quote

    Alan,

    First let me say wonderful job on the vCheck 5 script. It is awesome!!!

    I wanted to see if you had worked on anything related to creating patch compliance reports for ESX hosts? It would be great to either create a standalone script or add it to vCheck as an option.

    Thanks,
    Marc

  • #29 written by cemal
    about 4 months ago
    Quote

    Hi Alan
    I need a script to change of solaris guest ‘s ip adrress . Can you help me ?

    Thanks in advance

  • #30 written by Srini
    about 4 months ago
    Quote

    Hi

    Iam look for a script which can pull cpu & memory stats for VM including max, min & AVG.

    Thanks
    Srini

  • #31 written by Srini
    about 4 months ago
    Quote

    Sorry in my previous message missed couple of things.

    Iam looking for script which can pull stats as mentioned earlier for every 30mins intervals.

  • #32 written by Bond West
    about 3 months ago
    Quote

    Script Request: Search a datastore for all templates and register them in vCenter. Since Templates ownership cannot be transferred to another host, rebuilding a host which owns templates requires us to manually re-register the templates. This is a pain. I have been harping on VMware to fix this and make Templates portable like VMs. Check your email – Happy Holidays.
    +1

  • #33 written by Andrew Richardson
    about 2 months ago
    Quote

    Hi Alan,

    Is it possible to script the iSCSI initiator nic binding? Usually you’d use the “esxcli swiscsi” command but I can’t find any version of this for PowerCLI.

    Thanks!

  • #34 written by Andrew McMorris
    about 1 month ago
    Quote

    Bit of an idea, trying to put together a script that will show VM’s by the folder structure in vCenter and let you choose what info to show, power state, memory, cpu etc..

    Any thoughts?