PowerCLI Cookbook

Additional resources

Build your own vCloud Director implementation on your vSphere lab environment

Deploying the vCloud Director environment from AutoLab

The hosted vCloud environment

Appendix A. Setting up and Configuring vCloud Director

Starting and stopping vApps and individual VMs in a vCloud

Reassigning vApp VM network settings with PowerCLI

Configuring networking in a vCloud vApp

Importing a vApp template into vCloud

Creating an organization's virtual datacenter in vCloud Director

Creating a new user in an organization using Views

Creating and managing organizations in vCloud

Connecting to a vCloud environment

Introduction

Chapter 10. Working with vCloud Director from PowerCLI

Using Compare-Object to audit group memberships for differences

Creating rules to maintain memberships of DRS groups using a custom function

Creating a custom function to update members of a DRS group

Updating the members of a VM DRS group

Listing the members of a DRS group

Creating a DRS group for virtual machines

Learning the MoRef way of identifying objects

Using native DRS rule cmdlets to manage KeepTogether and Separate rules

Setting a cluster into maintenance mode with PowerCLI

Applying recommendations for partially automated DRS clusters

Introduction

Chapter 9. Managing DRS and Affinity Groups using PowerCLI

Executing native commands inside the guest operating system from PowerCLI

Configuring coredump settings for an ESXi host from PowerCLI

Configuring custom storage and path selection policies

Performing ESXi ping with an ESXCLI object

Using the ESXCLI vm namespace to kill a misbehaving VM

Retrieving the ESXCLI object in PowerCLI

Introduction

Chapter 8. Performing ESXCLI and in-guest Commands from PowerCLI

Using PowerShell native capabilities to schedule scripts

Setting custom properties to add useful context to your virtual machines

Reporting VM objects created during a predefined time period from VI Events object

Sending output to CSV and HTML

Basics of formatting output from PowerShell objects

Getting alerts from a vSphere environment

Introduction

Chapter 7. Creating Custom Reports and Notifications for vSphere

Reporting shares reservations and limits of resource pools and virtual machines

Automating share allocation balancing

Creating a custom attribute with a number of shares per VM on each resource pool

Balancing share allocations on resource pools

Setting reservations and limits for resource pools

Introduction

Chapter 6. Managing Resource Pools Reservations and Limits for Virtual Machines

Creating a snapshot management module

Scheduling automatic snapshot remediation

Creating a function to automatically remediate snapshots

Find lost or unknown snapshots

Removing targeted snapshots

Scoping and filtering a list of snapshots

See also

Manipulating the list of snapshots to get better information

Getting a list of snapshots in the environment

Creating a snapshot

Introduction

Chapter 5. Creating and Managing Snapshots

Setting Storage DRS automation levels for individual VMs using PowerCLI 6

Setting Storage DRS automation levels for individual virtual machines

Creating and managing datastore clusters

Converting thin to thick disks with Storage vMotion

Locating thin or thick provisioned disks

Finding Raw Disk Mappings in your environment

Performing Storage vMotion

Introduction

Chapter 4. Working with Datastores and Datastore Clusters

Creating basic reports of VM properties using VMware Tools and PowerCLI

Setting VMware Tool settings from PowerCLI

Locating and reloading inaccessible or invalid virtual machines

Upgrading the virtual hardware version of a virtual machine

Increasing the disk space in a virtual machine

Enabling and disabling Fault Tolerance on a virtual machine

Performing a hot add of virtual hardware to an existing virtual machine

Importing a virtual appliance from OVA

Deploying new virtual machines from a template

Cloning a virtual machine to a template

Deploying the first virtual machine

Introduction

Chapter 3. Managing Virtual Machines

Setting permissions on vCenter objects

Setting up folders to organize objects in vCenter

Setting up resource pools

Setting cluster advanced features including HA DRS and EVC

Creating a cluster and adding ESXi hosts

Creating a virtual datacenter in vCenter

Introduction

Chapter 2. Configuring vCenter and Computing Clusters

Creating a configuration script to set all properties uniformly

Joining an ESXi host to vCenter

Configuring syslog settings on an ESXi host

Creating datastores on an ESXi host

Setting network configuration

Enabling services and setting security profiles

Joining an ESXi host into Active Directory

Getting the VMware host object

Connecting to an ESXi host or a vCenter instance

Introduction

Chapter 1. Configuring the Basic Settings of an ESXi Host with PowerCLI

Customer support

Reader feedback

Conventions

Who this book is for

What you need for this book

What this book covers

Preface

Support files eBooks discount offers and more

www.PacktPub.com

About the Reviewers

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Credits

PowerCLI Cookbook

coverpage

coverpage

PowerCLI Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgments

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files eBooks discount offers and more

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Chapter 1. Configuring the Basic Settings of an ESXi Host with PowerCLI

Introduction

Connecting to an ESXi host or a vCenter instance

Getting the VMware host object

Joining an ESXi host into Active Directory

Enabling services and setting security profiles

Setting network configuration

Creating datastores on an ESXi host

Configuring syslog settings on an ESXi host

Joining an ESXi host to vCenter

Creating a configuration script to set all properties uniformly

Chapter 2. Configuring vCenter and Computing Clusters

Introduction

Creating a virtual datacenter in vCenter

Creating a cluster and adding ESXi hosts

Setting cluster advanced features including HA DRS and EVC

Setting up resource pools

Setting up folders to organize objects in vCenter

Setting permissions on vCenter objects

Chapter 3. Managing Virtual Machines

Introduction

Deploying the first virtual machine

Cloning a virtual machine to a template

Deploying new virtual machines from a template

Importing a virtual appliance from OVA

Performing a hot add of virtual hardware to an existing virtual machine

Enabling and disabling Fault Tolerance on a virtual machine

Increasing the disk space in a virtual machine

Upgrading the virtual hardware version of a virtual machine

Locating and reloading inaccessible or invalid virtual machines

Setting VMware Tool settings from PowerCLI

Creating basic reports of VM properties using VMware Tools and PowerCLI

Chapter 4. Working with Datastores and Datastore Clusters

Introduction

Performing Storage vMotion

Finding Raw Disk Mappings in your environment

Locating thin or thick provisioned disks

Converting thin to thick disks with Storage vMotion

Creating and managing datastore clusters

Setting Storage DRS automation levels for individual virtual machines

Setting Storage DRS automation levels for individual VMs using PowerCLI 6

Chapter 5. Creating and Managing Snapshots

Introduction

Creating a snapshot

Getting a list of snapshots in the environment

Manipulating the list of snapshots to get better information

See also

Scoping and filtering a list of snapshots

Removing targeted snapshots

Find lost or unknown snapshots

Creating a function to automatically remediate snapshots

Scheduling automatic snapshot remediation

Creating a snapshot management module

Chapter 6. Managing Resource Pools Reservations and Limits for Virtual Machines

Introduction

Setting reservations and limits for resource pools

Balancing share allocations on resource pools

Creating a custom attribute with a number of shares per VM on each resource pool

Automating share allocation balancing

Reporting shares reservations and limits of resource pools and virtual machines

Chapter 7. Creating Custom Reports and Notifications for vSphere

Introduction

Getting alerts from a vSphere environment

Basics of formatting output from PowerShell objects

Sending output to CSV and HTML

Reporting VM objects created during a predefined time period from VI Events object

Setting custom properties to add useful context to your virtual machines

Using PowerShell native capabilities to schedule scripts

Chapter 8. Performing ESXCLI and in-guest Commands from PowerCLI

Introduction

Retrieving the ESXCLI object in PowerCLI

Using the ESXCLI vm namespace to kill a misbehaving VM

Performing ESXi ping with an ESXCLI object

Configuring custom storage and path selection policies

Configuring coredump settings for an ESXi host from PowerCLI

Executing native commands inside the guest operating system from PowerCLI

Chapter 9. Managing DRS and Affinity Groups using PowerCLI

Introduction

Applying recommendations for partially automated DRS clusters

Setting a cluster into maintenance mode with PowerCLI

Using native DRS rule cmdlets to manage KeepTogether and Separate rules

Learning the MoRef way of identifying objects

Creating a DRS group for virtual machines

Listing the members of a DRS group

Updating the members of a VM DRS group

Creating a custom function to update members of a DRS group

Creating rules to maintain memberships of DRS groups using a custom function

Using Compare-Object to audit group memberships for differences

Chapter 10. Working with vCloud Director from PowerCLI

Introduction

Connecting to a vCloud environment

Creating and managing organizations in vCloud

Creating a new user in an organization using Views

Creating an organization's virtual datacenter in vCloud Director

Importing a vApp template into vCloud

Configuring networking in a vCloud vApp

Reassigning vApp VM network settings with PowerCLI

Starting and stopping vApps and individual VMs in a vCloud

Appendix A. Setting up and Configuring vCloud Director

The hosted vCloud environment

Deploying the vCloud Director environment from AutoLab

Build your own vCloud Director implementation on your vSphere lab environment

Additional resources