Powercli

Powercli

Useful Commands

Create credential store

New-VICredentialStoreItem -Host <vcenter-hostname_or_vcenter-ip> -User "<username>" -Password "<password>"

Update vmTools with no reboot

Get-VM "<vm_name>" | Update-Tools -NoReboot

Create snapshot

new-snapshot -vm <vm_name> -name snapshot_test

Remove snapshot

get-snapshot -vm <vm_name> | remove-snapshot

vMotion

get-vm -Name <vm_name> | move-vm -Destination <hostname_or_host_ip>

Storage vMotion

Get-VM "<vm_name>" | Move-VM -Datastore <datastore_name>

List all virtual machines with snapshots

get-vm | get-snapshot | format-list vm,name

Example output:

VM   : webserver01
Name : pre Windows updates

VM   : ad01
Name : pre disk expansion

VM   : exchange01
Name : pre database move

List vmx file locations for vm's

Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine | % { $_.Config.Files.VmPathName }

Example output:

[iscsi-datastore-01] DATABASE/DATABASE.vmx
[iscsi-datastore-02] webserver/webserver.vmx
[fc-datastore-01] ad01/ad01.vmx
[fc-datastore-02] exchange01/exchange01.vmx

Get host boot up time/date

$esxis = Get-VMHost
Get-ViEvent -entity $esxis -Start (Get-Date "10:00 10/09/2016") -Finish (Get-Date "15:00 10/09/2016") -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) | Where {$_.FullFormattedMessage -eq "Host has booted."}

Example output:

EventTypeId          : esx.audit.host.boot
Severity             :
Message              :
Arguments            :
ObjectId             : host-155553
ObjectType           : HostSystem
ObjectName           : vsphere-host-01
Fault                :
Key                  : 117978286
ChainId              : 117978286
CreatedTime          : 10/09/2016 13:11:21
UserName             :
Datacenter           : VMware.Vim.DatacenterEventArgument
ComputeResource      : VMware.Vim.ComputeResourceEventArgument
Host                 : VMware.Vim.HostEventArgument
Vm                   :
Ds                   :
Net                  :
Dvs                  :
FullFormattedMessage : Host has booted.
ChangeTag            :
DynamicType          :
DynamicProperty      :

List virtual machines with RDM disks

Get-VM | Get-HardDisk -DiskType "RawPhysical","RawVirtual" | Select Parent,Name,DiskType,ScsiCanonicalName,DeviceName | fl

Example output:

Parent            : webserver01
Name              : Hard disk 3
DiskType          : RawPhysical
ScsiCanonicalName : naa.6019cb61f5397ffc45a0959620009933
DeviceName        : vml.02000000006019cb61f5397ffc45a0959620009933313030452d30

Parent            : exchange01
Name              : Hard disk 2
DiskType          : RawPhysical
ScsiCanonicalName : naa.68b7b2cc76b0e016966ec56d600540b1
DeviceName        : vml.020000000068b7b2cc76b0e016966ec56d600540b1313030452d30

Start virtual machine

start-vm <virtual machine name>

Shutdown virtual machine

shutdown-vmguest <virtual machine name> -confirm:$false

Restart virtual machine

restart-vm <virtual machine name>

Get VM and ESX Events Between Hours

Get just host entries:

$esxs = Get-VMHost                                                                                      
$start = Get-Date "12:00 28/09/2015"
$finish = Get-Date "18:00 29/09/2015"
$events = Get-ViEvent -entity $esxs -Start $start -Finish $finish -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue)         
$events | Select CreatedTime, UserName, ObjectName, EventTypeId, FullFormattedMessage | out-gridview

Get both host and vm entries:

$objs = Get-VMHost                                                                                      
$objs += Get-VM                                                                                         
$start = Get-Date "12:00"                                                                               
$finish = Get-Date "18:00"
$events = Get-ViEvent -entity $esxs -Start $start -Finish $finish -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue)         
$events | Select CreatedTime, ObjectName, EventTypeId, FullFormattedMessage | out-gridview

Rescan HBA/VMFS on all hosts in cluster

Get-Cluster -Name "CLUSTER01" | Get-VMHost | sort-object name | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHba -RescanVmfs | out-null