Basic Script 1

This script will connect to the vCenter Server and get all VMs in a folder followed by starting those VMs in a folder

$vms = get-vm -Location Test-Folder
# Start each vm in the folder
ForEach($vm in $vms)
{
start-vm -RunAsync -VM $vm -Confirm:$false
}

Basic Script 2

This script will go and find any VMs which have their CD Drive connected

Get-VM | Where-Object {$_ | Get-CDDrive |  Where-Object { $_.ConnectionState.Connected -eq “true”  } } |  Select-Object Name

Advanced Reporting Script

This script should only show RDMs but for both compatibility modes

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1063909

$RDMs = @()
foreach($vm in (Get-View -ViewType “VirtualMachine”)) {
    foreach($dev in ($vm.Config.Hardware.Device | where {($_.gettype()).Name -eq “VirtualDisk”})) {
        if(($dev.Backing.CompatibilityMode -eq “physicalMode”) -or ($dev.Backing.CompatibilityMode -eq “virtualMode”)) {
            $objRdm = “” | select VMName, VMDK, UUID, DiskLabel, SCSIBus, SCSIDevice, Mode
            $objRdm.VMName = $vm.Name
            $objRdm.VMDK = $dev.Backing.FileName
            $objRdm.UUID = $dev.Backing.LunUuid
            $objRdm.DiskLabel = $dev.DeviceInfo.Label
            $objRdm.SCSIBus = ( $vm.Config.Hardware.Device | ? { $_.Key -eq $dev.ControllerKey }).BusNumber
            $objRdm.SCSIDevice = $dev.UnitNumber
            $objRdm.Mode = $dev.Backing.CompatibilityMode
            $RDMs += $objRdm
        }
    }
}

$report = @()

foreach ($cluster in (Get-View -ViewType “ClusterComputeResource”)) {
    $vmhostsview = $cluster.host | % { Get-View $_ }
    $vmhostview = $vmhostsview | Select -first 1
    $ScsiLuns = $vmhostsview | % { $_.Config.StorageDevice.ScsiLun } | Select -unique *
    $UUIDs = $ScsiLuns | Select -unique UUID
    $Datastores = $vmhostsview | % { $_.Config.FileSystemVolume.MountInfo } | % { $_.Volume } | Select -Unique *
    $HostLUN = $vmhostsview | % { $_.Config.StorageDevice.ScsiTopology.Adapter } | % { $_.Target | % { $_.LUN } } | Select -unique *
    foreach ($UUID in $UUIDs) {
        $Lun = $ScsiLuns | ? { $_.UUID -eq $UUID.UUID } | Select -first 1
        $objVolume = “” | Select Cluster, VolumeName, CanonicalName, DisplayName, VolumeType, CapacityGB, BlockSizeMb, VMFSVersion, LunType, Vendor, Model, HostLUN, VM, VMDiskLabel, VMSCSIBus, VMSCSIDevice, Revision, ScsiLevel, UUID
        $objVolume.Cluster = $cluster.Name
        $objVolume.CanonicalName = $Lun.CanonicalName
        $objVolume.HostLUN = ($HostLUN | ? { $_.ScsiLun -eq $Lun.Key } | select -unique LUN).LUN
        $objVolume.UUID = $Lun.Uuid
        $objVolume.CapacityGB = $Lun.Capacity.Block * $Lun.Capacity.BlockSize / 1GB
        $objVolume.DisplayName = $Lun.DisplayName
        $objVolume.LunType = $Lun.LunType
        $objVolume.Vendor = $Lun.Vendor
        $objVolume.Model = $Lun.Model
        $objVolume.Revision = $Lun.Revision
        $objVolume.ScsiLevel = $Lun.ScsiLevel
        foreach ($vol in $Datastores) {
            if ($vol.extent | % { $_.diskname -eq $Lun.CanonicalName}) {
                $objVolume.VolumeName = $vol.Name
                $objVolume.BlockSizeMb = $vol.BlockSizeMb
                $objVolume.VMFSVersion = $vol.Version
                $objVolume.VolumeType = “vmfs”
            }
        }
        foreach ($rdm in $RDMs) {
            if ($Lun.Uuid -eq $rdm.UUID) {
                $objVolume.VolumeName = $rdm.VMDK
                $objVolume.VM = $rdm.VMName
                $objVolume.VMDiskLabel = $rdm.DiskLabel
                $objVolume.VMSCSIBus = $rdm.SCSIBus
                $objVolume.VMSCSIDevice = $rdm.SCSIDevice
                if ($rdm.Mode -eq “virtualMode” ) { $objVolume.VolumeType = “rdm” }
                if ($rdm.Mode -eq “physicalMode”) { $objVolume.VolumeType = “rdmp” }
            }
        }
        $report += $objVolume
    }
}
$report | Export-Csv “C:\report.csv” -NoTypeInformation -UseCulture

Running PowerShell Scripts

• Launch PowerShell
• Make sure Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned is the policy
• Run the script by entering the full path to the script (c:\scripts\myscript.ps1), or if it’s in the current directory, prefix it with a period followed by a backslash (.\myscript.ps1).

PowerShell providers

A PowerShell provider, or PSProvider, is an adapter. It’s designed to take some kind of data storage and make it look like a disk drive. PowerShell Providers are .NET programs that allow us to work with data stores as if they were mounted drives. This simplifies accessing external data outside the PowerShell environment. For example, we can access the registry as if it were a file system. You can see a list of installed providers right within the shell:

• get-psprovider

Notice that each provider has different capabilities. This is important, because it
affects the ways in which you can use each provider. These are some of the common
capabilities you’ll see:

• ShouldProcess—Means the provider supports the use of the -WhatIf and -Confirm parameters, enabling you to “test” certain actions before committing to them.
• Filter—Means the provider supports the -Filter parameter on the cmdlets that manipulate providers’ content.
• Credentials—Means the provider permits you to specify alternate credentials when connecting to data stores. There’s a -credential parameter for this.
• Transactions—Means the provider supports the use of transactions, which allows you to use the provider to make several changes, and then either roll back or commit those changes as a single unit.

PowerShell Drives “PSDrive”

We connect to PowerShell Providers by mounting the Providers PowerShell Drive(PSDrive). Most Providers have only one PSDrive, the exceptions are the FileSystem Provider(depends on the number of drives on the system) and the Registry Provider(HKLM and HKCU).

You use a provider to create a PSDrive. A PSDrive uses a single provider to connect to some actual data storage. You’re essentially creating a drive mapping, much like you might have in Windows Explorer, but a PSDrive, thanks to the providers, is able to connect to much more than disks. Run the following command to see a list of currently connected drives:

• get-psdrive

You can change to these drives by typing the below. Windows environment variables are visible as a PS drive called Env:

• set-location -path env:
• Try typing dir
• You can also type it all in one as get-child-item env: or dir env:

The PowerShell Environment Provider

The Environment Providers are equivalent to running the “set” command in a windows CMD command shell. It provides a listing of all the environment variable defined on the system. Graphically, you can view the environment variables by going to System Properties > Advanced Tab > Click the “Environment Variables” button

What are the Web Service Access Cmdlets?

The vSphere PowerCLI 4.1 list of cmdlets includes two Web Service Access cmdlets:

They enable access to the programming model of the vSphere SDK for .NET from PowerShell and can be used to initiate vSphere .NET objects. Each object:

• Includes properties and methods that correspond to the properties and operations of the server-side managed object. For more informat ion about server-side object methods and properties, check the VMware vSphere API Reference Guide

Using the Web Service Access cmdlets for low-level VMware vSphere management requires some knowledge of both PowerShell scripting and the VMware vSphere API

The reason people seem to be using the Get-View cmdlet is the fact it is known to be faster than using other PowerCLI cmdlets for getting info (such as Get-VM, Get-VMHost, Get-Datastore, etc.) Some things can’t be done using powercli cmdlets, and they need to be executed using views and their methods. Views also  provide access to specific managers like license manager, alarm manager etc…

Example 1

These 2 commands do the same thing

• $vm = Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Filter @{“Name” = “hostname”}
• $vm = Get-VM hostname | Get-View

This procedure illustrates the use of the Get-View cmdlet in combination with a filter. The filter parameter is a HashTable containing one or more pairs of filter criteria. Each of the criteria consists of a property path and a value that represents a regular expression pattern used to match the property.

The filter in this procedure gets a list of the powered on virtual machines whose guest OS names contain “Windows XP”. The Get-View cmdlet then initiates shutdown for each guest operating system in the list.

Example 3: To modify the CPU levels of a virtual machine

This example shows how to modify the CPU levels of a virtual machine using combination of the Get-View and Get-VIObjectByVIView cmdlets

Viewtype from get-view supports those views:

• ComputeResource
• ClusterComputeResource
• Datacenter, Datastore
• Network
• DistributedVirtualPortgroup
• DistributedVirtualSwitch
• Folder
• HostSystem
• ResourcePool
• VirtualApp
• VirtualMachine
• VmwareDistributedVirtualSwitch

Guide

vSphere PowerCLI Administration Guide

Useful Websites

http://franckrichard.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/optimize-your-vmware-powershell-part-1.html

http://vnugglets.com/2012/08/even-faster-powercli-code-with-get-view.html

Some useful commands for working with PowerCLI on VMware objects

The best thing to do is to get lots of practice in with these commands

The most useful PowerShell book

This book is great for beginners and a complete introduction to PowerShell. The concepts can then be applied to PowerCLI

Useful PowerShell GUIs

Note: These will be useful for practicing Powershell with the concepts you learn being able to be applied to PowerCLI

PowerGUI

• http://powergui.org

This is a free tool that is extremely useful to use PowerCLI productively and comes with a ton of pre-created scripts. That tool is PowerGUI and it includes the VMware Community PowerPack.

SAPIEN PrimalScript and PrimalForms

• http://primaltools.com

Two commercial tools

PowerSE and PowerWF

• http://powerwf.com

A free editor and a commercial workflow solution from

Idera PowerShell Plus

• http://idera.com

An editor and console environment

VMware Onyx

• http://labs.vmware.com/flings/onyx

This tool acts as a proxy server between your vSphere Client and vCenter server. The Onyx console shows you everything you do in the vSphere Client generated as a PowerCLI script (automatically) that you can use and modify however you like

Update Manager PowerShell Library

VMware Update Manager – PowerShell Library may be installed and used on any machine that has VMware Infrastructure Toolkit (for Windows) installed and access to a VirtualCenter server. It does not require to be installed on the same machine as the VMware Update Manager or the VirtualCenter Server.

You can install Update Manager – PowerShell Library the following ways

• A stand-alone Windows installer
• As a part of the installation process of the VMware Update Manager (Update Manager server or Update Manager plug-in)

Prerequisites

To install and use Update Manager – PowerShell Library 1.0 , you need to have installed the following:

• .NET 2.0 SP1
• Windows PowerShell 1.0
• VI Toolkit (for Windows) 1.5 Download Here
• Update Manager – PowerShell Library 1.0 works only with Update Manager 1.0 Update

Installing Update Manager – PowerShell Library Using the Stand-Alone
Installer

• Install the VI Toolkit for Windows 1.5
• Click on the exe. Click Next

• Accept License Agreement

• Select Destination folder and click Next

• Create Desktop Shortcut if required

• Click Install and say yes to the below message

• Click Finish and Launch VMware VI Toolkit

Installing Update Manager – PowerShell Library Using Update Manager Installer

The VMware Update Manager (Server or User Interface Plugin) installer provides an option to install Update Manager – PowerShell Library if you already have VI Toolkit (for Windows) installed on the target system.
To install the VMware Update Manager – PowerShell Library as part of the VMware Update Manager (Update Manager Server or Update Manager plugin) installation

• Launch the VMware Update Manager installer and follow the wizard instructions.
• In the VMware Update Manager Toolkit page, select the Install VMware Update Manager Toolkit check box.
• Proceed with the VMware Update Manager installation.

Getting Started with Update Manager – PowerShell Library

The VMware Update Manager – PowerShell Library provides a set of 13 cmdlets for downloading software updates, creating baselines, and for scanning and remediating virtual machines or hosts. These cmdlets are stored in the VMware.VUMAutomation plug-in, and are available through the VI Toolkit (for Windows) console.

• To get started with Update Manager – PowerShell Library, launch the VI Toolkit (for Windows) console from the Windows Start menu or by clicking the VI Toolkit shortcut icon.
• To get a list of all Update Manager – PowerShell Library cmdlets, run the Get-Command with the -PSSnapin parameter: