Tag: PowerCli

PowerCli Script: Migrate host from missing dvSwitch to new dvSwitch with same Id’s

The purpose of this script is to migrate from one vCenter to another when using dvSwitches. The dvSwitch is bound to vCenter, so in order to migrate hosts from one vCenter to another you can map the networks using this script. All you need to do is disconnect the host from the original vCenter with the VMs still running, but not remove it. Then you connect it to the new vCenter.

Continue reading PowerCli Script: Migrate host from missing dvSwitch to new dvSwitch with same Id’s

Migrate Tags from one vCenter to another

When upgrading to vSphere 7 or any other version, you might choose to create a brand new vCenter instead of migrating the old one. But what about folder structure, tags, distributed switches and so on.

Here I will demonstrate how you can easily migrate your tags from one vCenter to another using VMware PowerCLI.

Continue reading Migrate Tags from one vCenter to another

PowerCLI: Get ESXi Hosts Version and Uptime

This is a quick and easy script to get all hosts from a vCenter sorted by Cluster and Host name. You will get the Cluster, Hostname, Version, Build and Uptime in days.

Connect-VIServer <vCenter FQDN>


$clusters = Get-Cluster | Sort-Object
$objects = @()

foreach ($cluster in $clusters) {
    Write-Host "Gathering from cluster: $($cluster.Name)"

    $vmhosts = $cluster | Get-VMHost | Sort-Object
    
    foreach ($vmhost in $vmhosts) {
        $object = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
        $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Cluster" -Value $cluster
        $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Host" -Value $vmhost
        $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Version" -Value $vmhost.Version
        $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Build" -Value $vmhost.Build
        $object | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Uptime (Days)" -Value (New-TimeSpan -Start $vmhost.ExtensionData.Summary.Runtime.BootTime -End (Get-Date) | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Days)
        $objects += $object
    }
}

$objects | ft -AutoSize

Powershell: Find largest VM disk

Sometimes you need to find the largest virtual disk. Lets say if you are sizing LUNs for datastores.

Here is a script that help you do that.

Requirement are powershell and the VMware.PowerCLI module.

Use it at your own risk.

Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI

Connect-VIServer <vCenter Name>


Function Get-LargestDisk {
  param(
    $Datastores=$null
  )
  $largest = 0

  if ($Datastores -eq $null) {
    Write-Host "Searching through all VMs."
    $vms = Get-VM
  } else {
    Write-Host "Searching through VMs on datastores: $Datastores"
    $vms = $Datastores | Get-VM
  }

  foreach ($vm in $vms) {
    $hdds = $vm | Get-HardDisk

    foreach ($hdd in $hdds) {
      $size = $hdd.CapacityGB

      if ($size -gt $largest) {
        Write-Host "Found a larger VM: $vm Size: $size GB"
        $largestVm = $vm
        $largest = [math]::Round($size)
      }
    }
  }
  Write-Host "Largest Disk: $largest GB Largest VM: $largestVm"
}

Get-LargestDisk -Datastore (Get-Datastore V7000*)

Powershell: Migrate Standard Portgroups

Hi, just wanted to share this piece of code with you. This short script creates a mirror of virtual portgroups from one vSphere ESXi host to another.

I only takes the name and vlan id into account, so all policies, nics and other settings are not migrated at this time, but it is easy to do. I however does not always want that.

You need VMware.PowerCLI module for it to work.

Use it at you own risk. 

Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI

connect-viserver <vCenter Name>

$srcHost = Get-VMHost <Source Host Name>
$dstHost = Get-VMHost <Destination Host Name>

# Change the source and destination switch names if you need to
$srcSwitch = $srcHost | Get-VirtualSwitch -Name vSwitch0
$dstSwitch = $dstHost | Get-VirtualSwitch -Name vSwitch0

$srcPGs = $srcSwitch | Get-VirtualPortGroup
$dstSwitch = $dstHost | Get-VirtualSwitch -Name vSwitch1 -ErrorAction:SilentlyContinue
if ($dstSwitch -eq $null) {
  $dstSwitch = $dstHost | New-VirtualSwitch -Name $srcSwitch.Name
}

foreach ($srcPg in $srcPGs) {
  $pgName = $srcPg.name
  $pgVlan = $srcPg.VLanId

  $pgExists = $false
  foreach ($dstPg in $dstPGs) {
    if ($dstPg.Name -eq $pgName) {
      $pgExists = $true
    }
  }
  if (-not $pgExists) {
    #Write-Host "Creating portgroup $pgName with vlan $pgVlan"
    $dstSwitch | New-VirtualPortGroup -Name $pgName -VLanId $pgVlan
  }
}

VMware PowerCLI on Powershell Core

I recently installed Powershell Core om Ubuntu 18.04, and after installing the PowerCLI module. I ran into an error.

The error is not an uncommon one, but on Windows the error message makes a lot more sense, so I just wanted to let you know what this error actually means.

The error you might get when you try to connect to your vCenter server using the connect-viserver is the following:

Connect-VIServer : 9/27/18 10:41:37 AM	Connect-VIServer		The SSL connection could not be established, see inner exception.	
At line:1 char:1
+ Connect-VIServer <servername>
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Connect-VIServer], ViError
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Client20_ConnectivityServiceImpl_Reconnect_SoapException,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.ConnectVIServer

The only hint here is “The SSL connection could not be established…”

This actually means that you do not have a valid certificate. And if you want to connect to vCenter without a valid certificate, you have to allow this.

You can either change you vCenter certificate to a trusted one, which is the correct solutions or you can ignore invalid certificates, which circumvents all security, but makes it work right now.

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction:ignore

Please comment if this was helpful.

 

VMware Auto Deploy stopped working with Parse Error

I ran into a problem with VMware vSphere 6.5 Auto Deploy suddenly stopped working.

When trying to change rules with New-DeployRule or Repair-DeployImageCache I got the following error:

Repair-DeployImageCache
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Parse Error, no assembly associated with Xml key ImagefactoryPkgImageProfile
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessGetType(String value, String xmlKey, String& assemblyString)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessType(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessAttributes(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.StartChildren()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
at VMware.DeployAutomation.Types.PxeProfile.get_ImageProfile()
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Parse Error, no assembly associated with Xml key ImagefactoryPkgImageProfile
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessGetType(String value, String xmlKey, String& assemblyString)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessType(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessAttributes(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.StartChildren()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
at VMware.DeployAutomation.Types.PxeProfile.get_ImageProfile()
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Parse Error, no assembly associated with Xml key ImagefactoryPkgImageProfile
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessGetType(String value, String xmlKey, String& assemblyString)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessType(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessAttributes(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.StartChildren()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
at VMware.DeployAutomation.Types.PxeProfile.get_ImageProfile()
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Parse Error, no assembly associated with Xml key ImagefactoryPkgImageProfile
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessGetType(String value, String xmlKey, String& assemblyString)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessType(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessAttributes(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.StartChildren()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
at VMware.DeployAutomation.Types.PxeProfile.get_ImageProfile()

Continue reading VMware Auto Deploy stopped working with Parse Error

Cross SSO and vCenter VMotion using PowerCLI

http://cloudmaniac.net/using-powercli-to-vmotion-vm-between-different-sso-domains-vcenters/

Roman Decker wrote an article about how to move virtual machine between vCenters that are not part of the same SSO domain, using PowerCLI.

I felt like it needed some adjustments to be more dynamic and interactive, so many of the hard coded bits I decided to make the script ask for at runtime.

Continue reading Cross SSO and vCenter VMotion using PowerCLI