On the PowerCLI community someone raised a question how he could get a list of guests that were created longer than 30 days ago. The obvious source to get this kind of information are the events that VI/vSphere keeps. Note that in vSphere you will have to take into account how long events are kept! The current PowerCLI build provides the Get-ViEvent cmdlet that allows you to get at the information. Continue reading Events: a great source of information – Part 1
The Onyx alternative ?
On Carter’s vSPhere PowerCLI Blog site we learned, just before VMworld, about Project Onyx. The program that will come out of this project will allow users to generate PowerShell code from actions done in the vSphere Client. But while we wait till the program comes in GA, is there an alternative for finding out what API call(s) an action in the vSphere Client generates ? In fact there is. And it’s free ! Continue reading The Onyx alternative ?
Automating Converter Enterprise jobs with PS
With VMware vCenter you get a feature-rich free product called VMware vCenter Converter. One of the things you can do with the Convertor product is to read disk images created by VMware Consolidated Backup and import them in a vCenter. In the current release the Convertor doesn’t come with any support for the PowerCLI automation tools but that doesn’t mean we can’t use the Convertor from our PowerShell scripts. Continue reading Automating Converter Enterprise jobs with PS
The vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide – A little gem from VMworld
When you attend a conference like VMworld you get lots of goodies pushed your way. With some of these you only realise when you are back home what you were given. The vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide is a good example of such a little gem that came my way during the last VMworld. Continue reading The vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide – A little gem from VMworld
My PS library
As a follow-up to my My PS toolbelt entry this article gives an overview of my current PowerShell/PowerCLI library. The library is a collection of actual books and Internet links that I reference quite regularly. The order in which books and links are listed does not indicate any preference from my side.
Update August 6th 2011: updated the list of books
TA2650 scripts – Part 5 – Proxy cmdlets – customise the PowerCLI cmdlets
Carter Shanklin and his development team are doing a wonderful job with PowerCLI. The number of available cmdlets keeps growing with each new build they publish.
But sometimes one of the PowerCLI cmdlets is missing a parameter you would like to use or has a parameter you don’t want to use in your environment. With the advent of PowerShell v2 you can now customise the PowerCLI cmdlets to your liking with the help of proxy cmdlets.
Continue reading TA2650 scripts – Part 5 – Proxy cmdlets – customise the PowerCLI cmdlets
My PS toolbelt
A question I get quite regularly is what tools and utilities do I use for developing PowerShell and PowerCLI scripts. The following list should shed a bit of light. A warning, this is my personal selection of tools and utilities and it is not my intention to convince anyone to switch to any of the tools mentioned. Continue reading My PS toolbelt
TA2650 scripts – Part 4 – NIC Teaming – “hidden” failure criteria
When you are using NIC Teaming you have a number of possible options to define the failover criteria. The failover criteria define when a NIC Team will switch from an active to a standby NIC. When you examine the HostNicFailureCriteria object in the API Reference Guide, you will notice that there are more criteria available than those that are accessible through the vSphere Client. Continue reading TA2650 scripts – Part 4 – NIC Teaming – “hidden” failure criteria
TA2650 scripts – Part 3 – Checking cluster node configurations
With the cluster profile XML file created in TA2650 scripts – Part 1 – Profiling your vSphere environment you can verify the configuration of the nodes against a reference node.
Continue reading TA2650 scripts – Part 3 – Checking cluster node configurations
TA2650 scripts – Part 2 – Using the profile XML file for SDK programming
The XML file that can be created with the script from TA2650 scripts – Part 1 – Profiling your vSphere environment can also be used to assist you when you need to use the SDK. Continue reading TA2650 scripts – Part 2 – Using the profile XML file for SDK programming