VMware PowerCLI - Reconfigure cluster options

The following script contains a simple example of how to modify the configuration of a cluster – in this case to add two advanced options to the HA settings. This uses the new ClusterConfigSpecEx object, which can be used with the more generic function to reconfigure a resource – ReconfigureComputeResource().

The options set in this example are the das.allowNetworkX options, configuring HA to set specific management networks/service consoles that are used for HA communication and heartbeats.

Consider the following scenario for a reason why you might want to use these options:

1. Software iSCSI with ESX 3.x – using the service console for authentication, meaning you need a service console on your iSCSI network (or routes between your corporate network and iSCSI). The standard result is that HA could be used across this interface.
2. You are progressing with an upgrade to ESXi 4.0, still using software iSCSI, which is improved to remove the need for a management interface on your iSCSI network
3. You put an ESX 3.5 and ESXi 4.0 host in the same cluster, HA no longer works because your iSCSI service console on ESX 3.5 can’t talk to your ESXi 4.0 host.
4. Adding the two options above (with names changed appropriately) would force HA to use the service console on ESX 3.5 and the equivalent management network on ESXi 4.0, ignoring the iSCSI service console on 3.5 - resolving HA issues.

# http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk400pubs/ReferenceGuide/vim.ComputeResource.html#reconfigureEx
# http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk400pubs/ReferenceGuide/vim.cluster.DasConfigInfo.html#field_detail

param (
    $vcServerName = ""
)

$viServer = Connect-VIServer -server $vcServerName

$optionValue = New-Object Vmware.Vim.OptionValue
$optionValue.Key = "das.allowNetwork0"
$optionValue.Value = "Service Console"

$optionValue2 = New-Object Vmware.Vim.OptionValue
$optionValue2.Key = "das.allowNetwork1"
$optionValue2.Value = "Management Network"

[Vmware.Vim.OptionValue[]]$optionValues = $optionvalue, $optionValue2  # Create the array of the two new option values

$cluster = get-cluster -Name 'Cluster01'     # Get the cluster
$clusterview = get-view $cluster.Id      # Get the SDK object from the PowerCli object MO

$spec = New-Object Vmware.Vim.ClusterConfigSpecEx
$spec.dasConfig = New-Object Vmware.Vim.ClusterDasConfigInfo   # New VMware HA config

$spec.dasConfig.option = $optionValues      # Add the array of optionValues
$clusterview.ReconfigureComputeResource($spec, $true)    # Modify the configuration. When configuring clusters, can be a ClusterConfigSpecEx object


# Check the settings were saved

$cluster = get-cluster -Name 'Cluster01'     # Get the cluster
$clusterview = get-view $cluster.Id      # Get the SDK object from the PowerCli object MO

$clusterview.Configuration.dasConfig.Option | format-list   # Retrieve the advanced options

Wayne's World of IT (WWoIT), Copyright 2009 Wayne Martin. 

VMware PowerCLI - Backup ESXi 4.0 firmware

The following script contains a simple function to use the VMware vSphere PowerCLI to connect to a vCenter and/or ESXi 4.0 host and backup the 'firmware' - the configuration of the ESX host. I don’t think this functionality is exposed directly through the PowerCLI, so a call to the very useful Get-View function is used to get the VI SDK object to call the appropriate method.

From what I can tell all this command does is generate a config dump on the server and return the HTTP URL to access the file download, which I’m then using the .Net web client object to download the file and store as the filename returned with a unique date suffix.

This certainly isn’t original, all I did was look at the vicfg-backup.pl perl RCLI script and (badly) translate to PowerCLI from there.

#
# Description:
#  Backup the firmware configuration on an ESXi 4.0 host
#
# Limitations:
#  -
#
# Assumptions, this script works on the assumption that:
#  The caller provides credentials with permissions to connect to the specified host
#
# Arguments:
#  esxServer, the ESX host to connect to, eg. esx01
#  vcServerName, The vCenter Server to connect to, eg vc01
#  outputDir, The directory to write the backup file to, defaults to %temp%
#  username, The username to use when connecting to the vCenter server (if specified), defaults to %username%
#  password, The password to use for the connection to vCenter, secure string prompt by default
#
# Usage:
#  PowerShell . .\BackupFirmware.ps1 -esxServer 'esx01'
#  PowerShell . .\BackupFirmware.ps1 -esxServer 'esx01' -vcServer vc01 -u domain\username
#
# References:
#  http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk400pubs/ReferenceGuide/vim.host.FirmwareSystem.html
#
# Changes:
#  04/07/2009, Wayne Martin, initial version

#$ErrorActionPreference = "Continue"


param (
    $esxServer = "",
    $vcServerName = "",

    $outputDir = $env:Temp,

    $username = $env:username,
    $password = ""
)

if ($password -eq "" -and !($pass)) {
    write-output "No password specified from the command-line"
    $pass = Read-Host "Password?" -assecurestring
    $credential = new-object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($username,$pass)    
}

if ($esxServer -eq "" -OR ($vcServerName -eq "" -and $esxServer -eq "")) {
    Write-Output "Please specify either a standalone host, or a host and a cluster"
    Exit 2
}

$viServer = $null


function BackupConfiguration([string] $vcServerName, [string] $esxServer, [string] $outputDir){
    $hostSystem = get-view -ViewType HostSystem -Filter @{"Name" = $esxServer}    # Find the .Net view of the specified host

    $hostConfigManager = $hostSystem.get_ConfigManager()      # Get the config manager
    $hostfirmwareSystem = $hostConfigManager.get_firmwareSystem()     # Find the MOR of the host firmware system

    $hostfirmware = Get-View $hostfirmwareSystem        # Get the VMware.Vim.HostFirmwareSystem object from the MOR

    $backupDownload = $hostfirmware.BackupFirmwareConfiguration()     # Call the backup method to generate the config bundle

    $backupDownload = $backupDownload.Replace("*", $esxServer)      # Replace '*' with the server name

    Write-Output "Backup saved to $backupDownload on the ESX host"
    $fileName = $backupDownload.SubString($backupDownload.LastIndexOf("/")+1)    # Extract the filename to reuse
    $fileType = $fileName.SubString($fileName.LastIndexOf("."))      # Find the extension (.tgz in this case)

    $Now = [DateTime]::Now.ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmmss")          # Unique identifier for the filename
    $file = $fileName.SubString(0, $fileName.Length - $fileType.Length)     # File name without extension
    $outputFile = $outputDir + "\" + $file + "_" + $Now + $fileType     # Construct the full filename path\bundle_date.tgz

    $wc = new-object system.net.WebClient        # use the .Net web client
    $wc.DownloadFile($backupDownload, $outputFile)       # Download the file from the URL returned

    if (test-path -path $outputFile) {         # Does the output file exist?
        Write-Output "$outputFile downloaded"
    } else {
        Write-Output "Error: $outputFile was not downloaded from $backupDownload"
    }

}

if ($vcServerName -ne "") {
    $viServer = Connect-VIServer -server $vcServerName -Credential $credential
} elseif ($esxServer -ne "") {
    $esxServer = Connect-VIServer -server $esxServer       # connect to VC
}


$results = ""
$results = BackupConfiguration $vcServerName $esxServer $outputDir

$results

if ($vcServerName -ne "") {
    Disconnect-VIServer -confirm:$false
}

Wayne's World of IT (WWoIT), Copyright 2009 Wayne Martin. 

VMware vSphere PowerCLI commands

The commands below are PowerCLI commands used to automate VMware ESX and VirtualCenter at the command prompt. Most of these commands were built on 3.5 with vSphere PowerCLI, and the majority have been tested against ESXi 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 infrastructure.

Each command-line can be copied and pasted at a PowerCLI command prompt, and most commands assume you already have a connection to the target, be it vCenter or ESX.

Note that most of these commands use OBN - Object By Name - instead of using the get* command to get the object. This is supported with all but a few of the commands I've come across.

List the vSphere PowerCLI commands
Get-VICommand

Connect to a ESX or VirtualCenter instance
connect-viserver -server %server%

List the currently available datastores
Get-Datastore | sort

List the currently available datastores filtered and sorted
Get-Datastore | where {$_.Name -like '*pr*'} | sort

Find the VMs attached to one or more datastores
foreach ($prodDatastore in $prodDatastores) { write-output $prodDatastore.Name; get-vm -datastore $proddatastore; write-output ''}

Get a Virtual Machine
$vm = get-vm -name '%vm%'

Get the virtual harddisk for the specified VMs
Get-HardDisk -vm $vm

Move a virtual machine to another container
Move-VM -Destination $prodApps -VM $vm

Update the VM description for a list of CSV entries
foreach ($virtualServer in $virtualservers) {$arr = $virtualServer.split(","); $desc = $arr[1]; $vmName = $arr[0]; write-output $vmName; $desc; $vm = get-vm -name $vmName; Set-VM -VM $vm -description $desc}

Query for a list of VMs and output in ANSI format
get-vm | sort-object | format-table -property Name | out-file -encoding ASCII -filepath c:\temp\vms_20090625.txt

Find VMware machine performance statistics
 get-stat -entity $vm -disk -start 01/01/2009 -finish ([DateTime]::Now.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"))

For a group of VMs, report performance statistics and save to file
foreach ($vm in $devVMs) {get-stat -entity $vm -disk -start 01/01/2009 -finish ([DateTime]::Now.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy")) | out-file -filepath ("c:\temp\" + $vm.Name + "DiskPerformance.txt")}

Find VM datastore disk usage
$devVMs = get-vm -name '*dv*'; foreach ($vm in $devvms) {$vm.harddisks}

Find VM datastore disk usage
$testVMs = Get-VM -Location (get-folder -name "Test") ;foreach ($vm in $testVMs) {$vm.harddisks | format-table -hideTableHeaders -wrap -autosize | findstr /i /c:per}

Find SCSI devices attached to an ESX server
get-scsilun -vmhost (Get-VMHost -Location "cluster")[0]

Rescan HBAs on an ESX server
get-VMHostStorage -VMHost (Get-VMHost -Location "cluster")[0] -RescanAllHba

Storage vMotion a virtual machine to a new datastore
Move-VM -vm "vmName" -datastore "NewDatastore"

Storage vMotion a group of machines from a CSV input file
$servers = get-content -path inputfile.txt; foreach ($server in $servers) {move-vm -vm $server.split(",")[0] -datastore $server.split(",")[1]}

Remove a snapshot and child snapshots, reporting how long the operation took
measure-command -expression {remove-snapshot -snapshot $snapshots[0] -removechildren}

Find datastore space, usage and number of VMs per datastore
$datastores = get-datastore | sort-object; write-output "Name,Size,Used,Free,% Used,#VMs"; foreach ($datastore in $datastores) { write-output ($datastore.Name + "," + [math]::round($datastore.CapacityMB/1024) + "," + [math]::round(($datastore.CapacityMB/1024)-($datastore.FreeSpaceMB/1024)) + "," + [math]::round($datastore.FreeSpaceMB/1024) + "," + [math]::round(((($datastore.CapacityMB/1024) - ($datastore.FreeSpaceMB/1024)) / ($datastore.CapacityMB/1024)) * 100) + "," + (get-vm -datastore $datastore).count)}

From a set of VMs, find which have snapshots
foreach ($testvm in $testvms) {if (get-snapshot -vm $testvm){write-output $testvm.Name}}

Find the size of the first hard disk in each VM
foreach ($vm in $vms) {$vm.harddisks[0] | format-table -hideTableHeaders -wrap -autosize | findstr /i /c:per }

Find disk information for VMs in the specified datastore
 $VMs = Get-VM ;foreach ($vm in $VMs) {$vm.harddisks | where {$_.FileName -like '*clusterpr*'} | format-table -hideTableHeaders -wrap -autosize | findstr /i /c:per}

Find VMs in the specified datastore
$VMs = Get-VM | where {$_.harddisks[0].FileName -like '*clusterpr*'}

Get VM guest information, including virtual OS
get-vm | get-vmguest | format-table -wrap -autosize

Find virtual machines and their description/notes
$vms = get-vm ; $vms | format-table -wrap -autosize -property Name,Description

Create an associative array containing VM names and descriptions
$vmdesc = @{}; foreach ($vm in $vms) {$vmdesc.add($vm.Name, $vm.Description)}

Migrate a virtual machine to another host in a VMware ESX cluster
move-vm -vm %vmName% -destination %hostname%

Find the host a VM is currently located on
get-vmhost -vm %vnName%

Add a new harddisk to a virtual machine
New-HardDisk -vm %vmName% -CapacityKB 20971520

Retrieve details on the resource pools from the currently connected datacenter
Get-ResourcePool | format-table -wrap -autosize -property Name,Id,CpuExpandableReservation,CpuLimitMHz,CpuReservationMHz,CpuSharesLevel,CustomFields,MemExpandableReservation,MemLimitMB,MemReservationMB,MemSharesLevel,Name,NumCpuShares,NumMemShares

Find virtual machines and if they have a CD-ROM
get-vm | format-table -wrap -autosize -property Name,CDDrives

Find the last 100 events that aren't alarm related
$events = Get-VIEvent -MaxSamples 100 | where {$_.fullFormattedMessage -notmatch "Alarm*"}

Find all events for machine deployments from templates
$events = Get-VIEvent | where {$_.fullFormattedMessage -match "Deploying (.*) on host (.*) in (.*) from template (.*)"}

Create a resource pool with high CPU and memory shares
New-ResourcePool -location (get-cluster -name 'cluster') -Name ResPool1 -CpuSharesLevel [VMware.VimAutomation.Types.SharesLevel]::High -MemSharesLevel [VMware.VimAutomation.Types.SharesLevel]::High

Create a folder from the root of the tree
New-Folder -Name Workstations -location (get-folder -name 'vm')

Move one or more VMs to a resource pool (or other destination)
$vms = get-vm -name vmNames*; move-vm -vm $vms -destination (Get-ResourcePool -name 'ResPool1')

Get an OS customization specification, and list the properties in wide format
Get-OSCustomizationSpec -name "SpecName" | format-list

Take a snapshot of a virtual machine
New-Snapshot -Name "Snapshot 01" -description "Snapshot description" -vm vmName -Quiesce:$true

Convert a virtual machine to a template
$vmView = get-vm -name vm01 | Get-View; $vmView.MarkAsTemplate()

Find Datastore usage (custom written function)
get-datastoreusage

Get an ESX log bundle using PowerCLI
Get-Log -VMHost esxhostname -Bundle -DestinationPath c:\temp

Query for snapshots
Get-VM | Get-Snapshot | export-csv -path c:\temp\VMsnapshots.csv

Query for snapshot information
Get-VM | Get-Snapshot | foreach-object {$out=  $_.VM.Name + "," + $_.Name + "," + $_.Description + "," + $_.PowerState; $out}

Wayne's World of IT (WWoIT), Copyright 2009 Wayne Martin. 

Resetting Computer Account Passwords

I was trying to tell from a workstation point of view when the computer account password was last set. I'm sure this information is stored locally somewhere, but in the end it was easier to query the AD and find when the password for the computer account was last set.

This is used for Virtual Machine templates - we use nltest to reset the computer account password, such that we can maintain a single template image and turn it on periodically for updates without having to rejoin to the domain because of mismatched computer accounts.

Forcefully reset the computer account password:

nltest /SC_CHANGE_PWD:%domain%

Query the workstation in the domain and find when the password was last set - returns the number of 100 nanosecond intervals since 01/01/1601.

dsquery computer -name ws01
dsquery * "CN=ws01,OU=Computers,DC=domain,DC=com" -attr pwdlastset
pwdlastset
128934012123005000

Use PowerShell to convert the number to a human readable date format:

powershell [datetime]::FromFileTime(128934012123005000)

Thursday, 30 July 2009 2:20:12 PM

Use w32tm to convert the number to a human readable date format:

w32tm /ntte 128934012123005000

149229 04:20:12.3005000 - 30/07/2009 2:20:12 PM

Use VBScript to convert the number to a human readable date format:

cscript ConvertFileTime.vbs 128934012123005000

30/07/2009 2:20:12 PM


' ConvertFileTime.vbs
' VBScript doesn't support 64-bit integers, so it can't handle the number of 100 nanosecond intervals since 01/01/1601
' http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnclinic/html/scripting09102002.asp

' Either use ADSI provider and the IADs/IADsLargeInteger object
' LargeIntValue = objLargeInt.HighPart * 2^32 + objLargeInt.LowPart

' http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/adsi/adsi/iadslargeinteger.asp'
' Or WMI, which handles the conversion between 64-bit datetime structure / UTC / and VB var datetime

If Wscript.Arguments.UnNamed.Count > 0 Then 
        strDateTime = Wscript.Arguments.UnNamed(0)
        Set objDateTime = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemDateTime")
        If IsDate(strDateTime) Then
                Call objDateTime.SetVarDate(strDateTime, False)
                wscript.echo objDateTime.GetFileTime
        Else
                Call objDateTime.SetFileTime(strDateTime, False)
                wscript.echo objDateTime.GetVarDate
        End If
        intReturn = 0
Else
        WScript.Echo "Specify a filetime or a date to convert, eg 127076450620627215, or ""11/04/2006 11:17:10 AM"""
        intReturn = 2
End If
WScript.Quit(intReturn)

Wayne's World of IT (WWoIT), Copyright 2009 Wayne Martin.