VCAP6: 5.1 - Execute VMware Cmdlets and Customize Scripts Using PowerCLI

Objective 5.1 Topics:

Install and Configure vSphere PowerCLI
Use Basic and Advanced PowerCLI Cmdlets to Manage a vSphere Deployment
Analyze a Sample Script, then Modify the script to Perform a Give Action
Use PowerCLI to Configure and Administer Auto Deploy (including Image Builder)
Create a Report from a PowerCLI Script

Install and Configure vSphere PowerCLI

This is pretty straight forward. We will need to set the Execution Policy prior to sending any commands across.

Run PowerShell or PowerCLI under ‘Administrator’ (Right click ‘run as Administrator).

Set the Execution Policy by: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Use Basic and Advanced PowerCLI Cmdlets to Manage a vSphere Deployment

Join/Leave the Customer Experience Improvement Program

Sorry VMware. 😉

Connecting to a vCenter Server System

Running vSphere PowerCLI Cmdlets Asynchronously

By default, PowerCLI only returns an output after the task has been completed. If we want to change to return to the command line immediately, we can run the Runasync parameter.

Remove-VM $vmList -RunAsync

Get-Command (Your Friend)

We can run the Get-Command for arguments and find all available commands.

Get-VMHost – list all host information

Get-VirtualSwitch – list vDS switch information

Get-VirtualSwitch -Standard – list standard switch information

Get-VM – list information on all VMs

Get-Datastore – list information on all Datastores

Get-NetworkAdapter – list of all network adapters from all VMs

We can add the values we want to see so we can get a little bit more information.

Invoke-VMScript – pass a command from the PowerCLI shell to the Guest OS.

Analyze a Sample Script, Then Modify The Script to Perform a Given Action

You can use a specification provided in an XML file to automate the creation of virtual machines on vCenter Server.
Prerequisites
Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.
The myVM.xml file must be present with the following content:
<CreateVM>
<VM>
<Name>MyVM1</Name>
<HDDCapacity>100</HDDCapacity>
</VM>
<VM>
<Name>MyVM2</Name>
<HDDCapacity>100</HDDCapacity>
</VM>
</CreateVM>
Procedure
Read the content of the myVM.xml file.
[xml]$s = Get-Content myVM.xml
Create the virtual machines.
$s.CreateVM.VM | foreach {New-VM -VMHost $vmHost1 -Name $_.Name -DiskGB $_.HDDCapacity}

Use PowerCLI to Configure and Administer Auto Deploy (Including Image Builder)

Step 1: Connect to vCenter Server

Step 2: Add the ESXi Image Software Depot

ESXi image depots can be downloaded from the VMware Website as part of the vSphere downloads if you don’t have them already.

Step 3: View/Verify the Image Profiles

Step 4: Clone the Image Profile

Step 5: Verify the New Image Profile

Step 6: Add the HA Agent Depot

Since we are building this image for Auto Deploy we want to be able to put it in our cluster so we’ll need an agent for that to be installed before it joins the cluster. We can obtain this directly from vCenter server over http.

The URL is case sensitive.

Step 7: Add the HA Agent Package to the Image Profile

Step 8: Add a Deploy Rules

The Deploy Rule controls what image profile, host profile, and/or vCenter Server location each host is provisioned
with. Now we need to create a rule that specifies the hosts on which the Host Profile will be applied.

Step 9: Create a Deploy Rule

Run this command first or we’ll fail signature checks.

$DeployNoSignatureCheck=$true

New Deploy Rule Creation