VMware PowerCLI User's

Guide
VMware PowerCLI™
VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at:

https://docs.vmware.com/

VMware, Inc.
3401 Hillview Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94304
www.vmware.com

©
Copyright 1998-2022 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information.

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 Contents

VMware PowerCLI User's Guide 9

Updated Information 10

1 Introduction to VMware PowerCLI 11

Microsoft PowerShell Basics 11
PowerShell Command-Line Syntax 12
PowerShell Pipelines 12
PowerShell Wildcards 12
PowerShell Common Parameters 12
PowerCLI Concepts 13
PowerCLI Modules 14
Interoperability Between the PowerCLI and VMware Cloud Director PowerCLI Modules 15
Selecting Objects in PowerCLI 17
Providing Login Credentials 17
Running PowerCLI Cmdlets Asynchronously 18
Managing Default Server Connections 18
Customization Specification Objects in PowerCLI 19
Using ESXCLI with PowerCLI 19
PowerCLI Inventory Provider 19
PowerCLI Datastore Provider 20
PowerCLI About Articles 20

2 Installing VMware PowerCLI 22

Supported Operating Systems 23
Supported VMware Products 23
Supported PowerShell Versions 23
Install PowerCLI 23
Install PowerCLI Offline 24
Allow Execution of Local Scripts 25
Update PowerCLI 25
Uninstall PowerCLI 26

3 Configuring VMware PowerCLI 27

Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates 27
Configure the PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates 27
PowerCLI Trusted Certificate Store 28
Scoped Settings of vSphere PowerCLI 29

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Configuring the Scope of the PowerCLI Settings 29

Priority of Settings Scopes in PowerCLI 29
PowerCLI Configuration Files 30

4 Configuring Customer Experience Improvement Program 32

Categories of Information That VMware Receives 32
Join the Customer Experience Improvement Program in PowerCLI 32

5 Managing vSphere with VMware PowerCLI 33

Connect to a vCenter Server System 38
Connect to an AD FS - Federated vCenter Server System 38
Manage Virtual Machines on vSphere 40
Add a Standalone Host to a vCenter Server System 41
Set the License Key for a Host on vCenter Server 41
Activate Maintenance Mode for a Host on vCenter Server 42
Create vSphere Inventory Objects 42
Create Virtual Machines on vCenter Server Using an XML Specification File 44
Manage Virtual Machine Templates on vCenter Server 44
Create and Use Snapshots on vCenter Server 45
Update the Resource Configuration Settings of a Virtual Machine on vCenter Server 46
Get a List of Hosts on a vCenter Server System and View Their Properties 46
Change the Host Advanced Configuration Settings on vCenter Server 47
Move a Virtual Machine to a Different Host Using VMware vSphere vMotion 48
Move a Virtual Machine to a Different Datastore Using VMware vSphere Storage vMotion 48
Move a Virtual Machine to a Different vCenter Server System 49
Create a Host Profile on a vCenter Server System 49
Apply a Host Profile to a Host on vCenter Server 50
Manage Statistics and Statistics Intervals on vCenter Server 51
Modify the Settings of the NIC Teaming Policy for a Virtual Switch 51
Create a vApp on vCenter Server 52
Modify the Properties of a vApp 52
Export or Import vApps 53
Create an iSCSI Host Storage 53
Add Passthrough Devices to a Host and Virtual Machine 54
Create a Custom Property Based on an Extension Data Property 54
Create a Script-Based Custom Property for a vSphere Object 55
Apply a Customization Object to a Cloned Virtual Machine 55
Modify the Default NIC Mapping Object of a Customization Specification 56
Modify Multiple NIC Mapping Objects of a Customization Specification 57
Create Multiple Virtual Machines that Use Static IP Addresses 57
Create Multiple Virtual Machines with Two Network Adapters 59

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Create a vSphere Role and Assign Permissions to a User 60

View Actions and Triggers for an Alarm on vCenter Server 61
Create Alarm Definitions on vCenter Server 61
Modify Alarm Definitions on vCenter Server 62
Create Alarm Actions and Triggers on vCenter Server 62
Remove Alarm Definitions and Actions 63
Create and Modify Advanced Settings for a Cluster 64
Modify the vCenter Server Email Configuration 64
Modify the vCenter Server SNMP Configuration 65
Use Esxtop to Get Information on the Virtual CPUs of a Virtual Machine 65
Filter vSphere Objects with Get-View 66
Populate a View Object with Get-View 67
Update the State of a Server-Side Object 67
Reboot a Host with Get-View 68
Modify the CPU Levels of a Virtual Machine with Get–View and Get–VIObjectByVIView 68
Browse the Default Inventory Drive 69
Create a New Custom Inventory Drive 70
Manage Inventory Objects Through Inventory Drives 70
Browse the Default Datastore Drives 71
Create a New Custom Datastore Drive 71
Manage Datastores Through Datastore Drives 72
Modify the Timeout Setting for Web Tasks 73
Using Tags 74
Retrieve a Tag and Save It into a Variable 74
Retrieve a Tag Category and Save It into a Variable 74
Create a Tag Category and a Tag 75
Assign a Tag to Virtual Machines 75
Retrieve Objects by Tag 75
Generate Tags Automatically by Using a Script 76
Add an Entity Type to a Tag Category 77
Retrieve Tag Assignments 77
Network Management with vSphere Distributed Switches 77
Create a Distributed Switch and Configure Networking 77
Configure a Distributed Switch 78
Migrate Virtual Machine Networking Configuration from a vSphere Standard Switch to a
vSphere Distributed Switch 79
Migrate Physical and Virtual NICs to a vSphere Standard Switch 80
Migrate Physical and Virtual NICs to a vSphere Distributed Switch 80
Configure the Traffic Shaping Policy 81
Configure the Security Policy 81
Create a Local Content Library 82
Create a Subscribed Content Library 82

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Create a Content Library Item 83

Create a Virtual Machine from a Content Library Item 83
Create a vApp from a Content Library Item 84
Export Content Library Item's Files to a Local Machine 84
Create a New VM-VM DRS Rule 84
Create a New VM-VMHost DRS Rule 85
Managing Certificates 86
Add a Root Certificate to vCenter Server and ESXi 86
Change the Machine SSL Certificate of vCenter Server 87
Change the Machine SSL Certificate of an ESXi Host 87

6 Managing vSphere Policy-Based Storage with VMware PowerCLI 91

Create a Tag-Based Storage Policy 91
Create a Capability-Based Storage Policy 92
Associate a Storage Policy with a Virtual Machine and Its Hard Disk 93
Disassociate a Storage Policy Associated with a Virtual Machine and Its Hard Disk 94
Remove a Storage Policy 94
Edit a Storage Policy 95
Export and Import a Storage Policy 95
Create a Virtual Machine in a Datastore Compatible with Storage Policy 96
Create a vSAN Datastore 97
Modify a vSAN Datastore 99
Create a vSAN Stretched Cluster 99
Enable a vSAN File Service 100
Create a vSAN File Service Domain 101
Create a vSAN File Share 102
Create an NFS 4.1 Datastore 102
Add a VASA Provider and Create a Policy 103
Invoke a Planned Failover on a Replication Group and Reverse the Replication 104
Attach a Flat VDisk to a Virtual Machine 106

7 Managing VMware Site Recovery Manager with VMware PowerCLI 108

Connect to an SRM Server 108
Protect a Virtual Machine 109
Create a Report of the Protected Virtual Machines 110
Create a Report of the Virtual Machines Associated with All Protection Groups 111

8 Managing the vSphere Automation API with VMware PowerCLI 112

Managing the vSphere Automation API with VMware PowerCLI 112
Connecting to a vSphere Automation API Server 113
Connect Through Connect-VIServer 113

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Connect Through a Configuration Object 114

Create a Local User Account in vCenter Server 115
Update the Local Accounts Global Password Policy in vCenter Server 116
Create a Virtual Machine 117
Create Tag Category, Tag, and Tag Association 117
Create Content Library and Content Library Item 118

9 Managing VMware Cloud Director with VMware PowerCLI 119

Connect to a VMware Cloud Director Server 120
Create and Manage Organizations 121
Create and Manage Organization Virtual Data Centers 121
Filter and Retrieve Organization Virtual Data Center Networks 122
Import a vApp Template from the Local Storage 123
Create a vApp Template from a vApp 123
Import a vApp from vSphere 124
Create and Modify a vApp 125
Manage Virtual Machines with vApps 125
Manage Virtual Machines and Their Guest Operating Systems 126
Retrieve a List of the Internal and External IP Addresses of Virtual Machines in vApps 127
Create and Manage Access Control Rules 128
Filter and Retrieve vApp Networks 128
Create vApp Networks for a Selected vApp 129
Create an Isolated vApp Network 129
Create an NAT Routed vApp Network 130
Create a Direct vApp Network 130
Modify or Remove vApp Networks 131

10 Managing vSphere Update Manager with VMware PowerCLI 133

Connect to a vCenter Server System 133
Create Patch Baselines 134
Attach and Detach Baselines 135
Scan a Virtual Machine 135
Check Virtual Machine Baseline Status 136
Stage Patches 136
Remediate a Virtual Machine 137
Upgrade Virtual Machine Hardware 137
Remediate a Cluster 138
Remediate a Host 138
Download Patches and Scan Objects 139

11 Managing vRealize Operations Manager with VMware PowerCLI 140

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Connect to a vRealize Operations Manager Server 140

Check Memory Waste Levels 141
Get Remediation Recommendations 142
Change Alert Ownership 142
Create a Report for Problematic Hosts 143

12 Managing VMware Cloud on AWS with VMware PowerCLI 144

Connecting to VMware Cloud on AWS 144
Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS by Using an API Token 145
Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS by Using an OAuth Security Context 145
Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US) 145
View the Available Software-Defined Data Centers 146
Connect to a vCenter Server on VMware Cloud on AWS 146
Connect to a vCenter Server on VMware Cloud on AWS by Using an OAuth 2.0 Authentication
147
Create a Software-Defined Data Center 147
Create a Cluster in a Software-Defined Data Center 148
Set the Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler (EDRS) Policy of a Cluster 148
Remove a Cluster from a Software-Defined Data Center 149
Add Hosts to a Software-Defined Data Center 149
Remove Hosts from a Software-Defined Data Center 150

13 Help and Support for VMware PowerCLI 151

Generate a PowerCLI Support Bundle 152

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

The VMware PowerCLI User's Guide provides information about installing and using the VMware
PowerCLI cmdlets (pronounced “commandlets”) for managing, monitoring, automating, and
®
handling operations for VMware vSphere, VMware Site Recovery Manager, vSphere Automation
API, vSAN, VMware Cloud Director, vSphere Update Manager, vRealize Operations Manager,
VMware Horizon, VMware NSX, VMware HCX, and VMware Cloud on AWS components.

To help you start with PowerCLI, this documentation includes descriptions of specific PowerCLI
concepts and features. In addition, this documentation provides a set of use case examples and
sample scripts.

Intended Audience
This guide is intended for anyone who wants to install and use PowerCLI. This documentation is
written for administrators and developers who are familiar with virtual machine technology and
PowerShell.

n Basic administrators can use cmdlets included in PowerCLI to manage their vSphere, VMware
Site Recovery Manager, vSphere Automation API, vSAN, VMware Cloud Director, vSphere
Update Manager, vRealize Operations Manager, VMware Horizon, VMware NSX, VMware
HCX, and VMware Cloud on AWS infrastructure from the command line.

n Advanced administrators can develop PowerShell scripts that other administrators can reuse
or integrate into other applications.

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Updated Information

This section is updated with each release of the product or when necessary.

This table tracks record of the updated information in the VMware PowerCLI User's Guide starting
from the 12.4.0 release.

PowerCLI Version /
Publish Date Description

12.7.0 / 08 AUG n Added information on how to connect to a vCenter Server that is federated to Active Directory
2022 Federation Services (AD FS). See Connect to an AD FS - Federated vCenter Server System.

12.6.0 / 07 APR n Removed non-inclusive language terms from the PowerCLI User's Guide and replaced them
2022 with appropriate alternatives.
n Added a new module, VMware.Sdk.Nsx.Policy, to PowerCLI Modules.

12.5.0 / 13 JAN 2022 n Added information on how to manage the certificates of your vSphere environment with
VMware PowerCLI. See the new chapter Managing Certificates.

12.4.0 / 28 SEP 2021 n Added an Updated Information topic.

n Updated the procedure for uninstalling PowerCLI from your system. See Uninstall PowerCLI.

12.4.0 / 16 SEP 2021 n Added information about the new VMware PowerCLI modules for the 12.4.0 release. See
PowerCLI Modules.
n Updated the chapter on managing VMware Cloud on AWS with PowerCLI and added many new
scripts. See Chapter 12 Managing VMware Cloud on AWS with VMware PowerCLI .
n Added information, procedures, and sample scripts for the vSphere Automation SDK for
PowerShell, which was introduced in VMware PowerCLI 12.4.0. See Chapter 8 Managing the
vSphere Automation API with VMware PowerCLI.

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Introduction to VMware PowerCLI
1
VMware PowerCLI contains modules of cmdlets based on Microsoft PowerShell for automating
vSphere, VMware Site Recovery Manager, vSphere Automation API, vSAN, VMware Cloud
Director, vSphere Update Manager, vRealize Operations Manager, VMware Horizon, VMware
NSX, VMware HCX, and VMware Cloud on AWS administration. VMware PowerCLI provides a
PowerShell interface to the VMware product APIs.

n Microsoft PowerShell Basics

PowerCLI is based on Microsoft PowerShell and uses the PowerShell basic syntax and
concepts.

n PowerCLI Concepts
PowerCLI cmdlets are created to automate VMware environments administration and to
introduce some specific features in addition to the PowerShell concepts.

Microsoft PowerShell Basics

PowerCLI is based on Microsoft PowerShell and uses the PowerShell basic syntax and concepts.

Microsoft PowerShell is both a command-line and scripting environment. It uses the .NET object
model and provides administrators with system administration and automation capabilities. To
work with PowerShell, you run commands, named cmdlets.

n PowerShell Command-Line Syntax

PowerShell cmdlets use a consistent verb-noun structure, where the verb represents the
action and the noun represents the object to operate on.

n PowerShell Pipelines
A pipeline is a series of commands separated by the pipe operator |.

n PowerShell Wildcards
PowerShell has a number of pattern-matching operators named wildcards that you can use to
substitute one or more characters in a string, or substitute the complete string.

n PowerShell Common Parameters

The PowerShell engine retains a set of parameter names, referred to as common parameters.
All PowerShell cmdlets, including the PowerCLI cmdlets, support them.

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PowerShell Command-Line Syntax

PowerShell cmdlets use a consistent verb-noun structure, where the verb represents the action
and the noun represents the object to operate on.

PowerShell cmdlets follow consistent naming patterns, ensuring that construction of a command is
easy if you know the object that you want to work with.

All command categories take parameters and arguments. A parameter starts with a hyphen and
is used to control the behavior of the command. An argument is a data value consumed by the
command.

A simple PowerShell command has the following syntax:

command -parameter1 -parameter2 argument1, argument2

PowerShell Pipelines
A pipeline is a series of commands separated by the pipe operator |.

Each command in the pipeline receives an object from the previous command, performs some
operation on it, and then passes it to the next command in the pipeline. Objects are output from
the pipeline as soon as they become available.

PowerShell Wildcards
PowerShell has a number of pattern-matching operators named wildcards that you can use to
substitute one or more characters in a string, or substitute the complete string.

All wildcard expressions can be used with the PowerCLI cmdlets. For example, you can view a
list of all files with a .txt extension by running dir *.txt. In this case, the asterisk * operator
matches any combination of characters.

With wildcard patterns you can indicate character ranges as well. For example, to view all files that
start with the letter S or T and have a .txt extension, you can run dir [st]*.txt.

You can use the question mark ? wildcard to match any single character within a sequence of
characters. For example, to view all .txt files with names that consist of string and one more
character at the end, run dir string?.txt.

PowerShell Common Parameters

The PowerShell engine retains a set of parameter names, referred to as common parameters. All
PowerShell cmdlets, including the PowerCLI cmdlets, support them.

Some of the PowerShell common parameters are Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction,

ErrorVariable, OutVariable, and OutBuffer. For a full list of the common parameters and
more details on their usage, run Get-Help about_CommonParameters.

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PowerShell offers two risk mitigation parameters: WhatIf and Confirm.

WhatIf Displays the effects of a command without running it.

Confirm Prompts for confirmation before running a command that stops a

program or service, or deletes data.

PowerCLI Concepts
PowerCLI cmdlets are created to automate VMware environments administration and to introduce
some specific features in addition to the PowerShell concepts.

n PowerCLI Modules
VMware PowerCLI consists of multiple modules that you can install and use according to your
needs and environments.

n Interoperability Between the PowerCLI and VMware Cloud Director PowerCLI Modules
With the RelatedObject parameter of PowerCLI cmdlets, you can retrieve vSphere
inventory objects from cloud resources. This interoperability between the PowerCLI and
VMware Cloud Director PowerCLI modules expands cloud administration, automation,
reporting, and troubleshooting options for provider administrators.

n Selecting Objects in PowerCLI

In PowerCLI, you can pass strings and wildcards to all parameters that take inventory objects,
datastores, OSCustomizationSpec objects, and VIServer objects as arguments. This PowerCLI
approach is named Object-by-Name (OBN) selection.

n Providing Login Credentials

When you provide login credentials in the command prompt or in a script file, a PowerShell
limitation might prevent PowerCLI from processing non-alphanumeric characters correctly.
To prevent login problems, escape the non-alphanumeric characters in your credentials.

n Running PowerCLI Cmdlets Asynchronously

By default, PowerCLI cmdlets return an output only after completion of the requested tasks. If
you want a cmdlet to return to the command line immediately, without waiting for the tasks to
complete, you can use the RunAsync parameter.

n Managing Default Server Connections

By default, PowerCLI and PowerCLI cmdlets run on the vCenter Server systems or VMware
Cloud Director servers you are connected to, if no target servers can be determined from the
provided parameters.

n Customization Specification Objects in PowerCLI

PowerCLI provides two types of objects for customization specification: persistent and
nonpersistent.

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n Using ESXCLI with PowerCLI

PowerCLI provides you the capability to use ESXCLI through its console.

n PowerCLI Inventory Provider

The Inventory Provider is designed to expose an unfiltered inventory view of the inventory
items from a server.

n PowerCLI Datastore Provider

The Datastore Provider is designed to provide access to the contents of one or more
datastores.

n PowerCLI About Articles

You can learn more about some PowerCLI concepts and features from the built-in help
articles named about articles. You can access them through a running PowerCLI process.

PowerCLI Modules
VMware PowerCLI consists of multiple modules that you can install and use according to your
needs and environments.

The following table lists all official VMware PowerCLI modules.

Module Description

VMware.PowerCLI Provides a root module which other modules are

dependent on. This module ensures the PowerCLI product
can be installed, upgraded, and removed as a complete
package if needed.

VMware.VimAutomation.Core Provides cmdlets for automated administration of the

vSphere environment.

VMware.VimAutomation.Common Provides help functionalities. This module has no cmdlets,

but is required for other modules to function correctly.

VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk Provides SDK functionality that is needed by all PowerCLI

modules. This module has no cmdlets, but is required for
other modules to function correctly.

VMware.VimAutomation.Vds Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere distributed

switches and distributed port groups.

VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere Automation API

servers.

VMware.VimAutomation.Storage Provides cmdlets for managing vSAN and vSphere policy-

based storage.

VMware.VimAutomation.StorageUtility Provides utility scripts for storage.

VMware.VimAutomation.License Provides the Get-LicenseDataManager cmdlet for

managing VMware License components.

VMware.ImageBuilder Provides cmdlets for managing depots, image profiles,

and VIBs.

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Module Description

VMware.DeployAutomation Provides cmdlets that provide an interface to VMware

Auto Deploy for provisioning physical hosts with ESXi
software.

VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud Provides cmdlets for automating VMware Cloud Director

features.

VMware.VumAutomation Provides cmdlets for automating vSphere Update Manager

features.

VMware.VimAutomation.vROps Provides cmdlets for automating vRealize Operations

Manager features.

VMware.VimAutomation.Srm Provides cmdlets for managing VMware Site Recovery

Manager features.

VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView Provides cmdlets for automating VMware Horizon

features.

VMware.VimAutomation.Nsxt Provides cmdlets for managing VMware NSX servers.

VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc Provides cmdlets for automating VMware Cloud on AWS

features.

VMware.Vim Provides a module that contains the vSphere low-level

binding libraries.

VMware.VimAutomation.Security Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere Security,

including virtual Trusted Platform Module.

VMware.VimAutomation.Hcx Provides cmdlets for managing VMware HCX features.

VMware.VimAutomation.WorkloadManagement Provides cmdlets for managing VMware vSphere with

VMware Tanzu features.

VMware.CloudServices Provides cmdlets for managing VMware Cloud Services.

VMware.Sdk.VSphere.* Provide functionality for the vSphere Automation SDK for

PowerShell.

VMware.Sdk.Nsx.Policy Provides auto-generated cmdlets for accessing the NSX

Policy API.

VMware.PowerCLI.VCenter.* Provide PowerShell-based cmdlets for automated

administration of the vSphere environment.

VMware.PowerCLI.Sdk.* Provide help functionalities for the PowerShell-based

cmdlets. These modules have no cmdlets but are required
for other modules to function correctly.

Interoperability Between the PowerCLI and VMware Cloud Director

PowerCLI Modules
With the RelatedObject parameter of PowerCLI cmdlets, you can retrieve vSphere inventory
objects from cloud resources. This interoperability between the PowerCLI and VMware

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Cloud Director PowerCLI modules expands cloud administration, automation, reporting, and
troubleshooting options for provider administrators.

Note To use the interoperability feature, you must install the PowerCLI and VMware Cloud
Director PowerCLI modules, and connect both to a VMware Cloud Director server and a vCenter
Server system.

n Retrieving vSphere Inventory Objects from Cloud Resources

Provider administrators can use the RelatedObject parameter of PowerCLI cmdlets
to retrieve vSphere inventory objects from VMware Cloud Director objects. Passing
the retrieved objects to the cmdlets of the VMware.VimAutomation.Core and
VMware.VimAutomation.VDS modules, extends administration options.

Retrieving vSphere Inventory Objects from Cloud Resources

Provider administrators can use the RelatedObject parameter of PowerCLI cmdlets to retrieve
vSphere inventory objects from VMware Cloud Director objects. Passing the retrieved objects
to the cmdlets of the VMware.VimAutomation.Core and VMware.VimAutomation.VDS modules,
extends administration options.

Important Use of the VMware.VimAutomation.Core and VMware.VimAutomation.VDS modules

to modify the configuration of objects that are managed by VMware Cloud Director might result in
unpredictable behavior of the cloud environment.

Table 1-1. List of Supported vSphere Inventory Objects You Can Retrieve from Cloud Objects
Sample Script for Retrieving the
Cloud Object Retrieved vSphere Inventory Object vSphere Inventory Object

ProviderVdc Datastore
Get-ProviderVdc -Name
'MyProviderVdc' | Get-
Datastore

CIVM VirtualMachine
Get-CIVM -Name 'MyCloudVM'
| Get-VM

NetworkPool VDSwitch
Get-NetworkPool -Name
'MyNetworkPool' | Get-
VDSwitch

NetworkPool VDPortgroup
Get-NetworkPool -Name
'MyNetworkPool' | Get-
VDPortGroup

ExternalNetwork VDPortgroup
Get-ExternalNetwork -Name
'MyExternalNetwork' | Get-
VDPortGroup

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Selecting Objects in PowerCLI

In PowerCLI, you can pass strings and wildcards to all parameters that take inventory objects,
datastores, OSCustomizationSpec objects, and VIServer objects as arguments. This PowerCLI
approach is named Object-by-Name (OBN) selection.

Instead of assigning an object name to a cmdlet parameter, users can pass the object through a
pipeline or a variable. For example, the following three commands are interchangeable:

n Remove-VM -VM "Win 7 SP1"

n Get-VM -Name "Win 7 SP1" | Remove-VM

n Remove-VM -VM (Get-VM -Name "Win 7 SP1")

Note In PowerCLI, passing strings as pipeline input is not supported.

If you provide a non-existing object name, an OBN failure occurs. In such cases, PowerCLI
generates a non-terminating error and runs the cmdlet ignoring the invalid name.

For more details about OBN, run help about_OBN.

Example: An OBN failure

This example illustrates the occurrence of an OBN failure.

Set-VM –VM “VM1”, “VM2”, “VM3” –Server $server1, $server2 –MemoryGB 4

If the VM2 virtual machine does not exist on either of the selected servers, PowerCLI generates a
non-terminating error and applies the command only on the VM1 and VM3 virtual machines.

Providing Login Credentials

When you provide login credentials in the command prompt or in a script file, a PowerShell
limitation might prevent PowerCLI from processing non-alphanumeric characters correctly. To
prevent login problems, escape the non-alphanumeric characters in your credentials.

To escape non-alphanumeric characters in PowerCLI, you need to place the expression that
contains them in single quotes (').

Note When you provide your login credentials in the Specify Credential dialog box, you do not
need to escape non-alphanumeric characters.

Example: Connecting to a vCenter Server System

This example illustrates how to escape non-alphanumeric characters when connecting to a
selected vCenter Server instance with the Adminis!ra!or user name and the pa$$word password.

Connect-VIServer -Server 10.23.112.235 -Protocol https -Username 'Adminis!ra!or' -Password

'pa$$word'

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Running PowerCLI Cmdlets Asynchronously

By default, PowerCLI cmdlets return an output only after completion of the requested tasks. If
you want a cmdlet to return to the command line immediately, without waiting for the tasks to
complete, you can use the RunAsync parameter.

When you use the RunAsync parameter, the cmdlet returns Task objects instead of its usual
output. The Status property of a returned Task object contains a snapshot of the initial state of
the task. This state is not updated automatically and has the values Error, Queued, Running, or
Success. You can refresh a task state by retrieving the task object with the Get-Task cmdlet. If
you want to observe the progress of a running task and wait for its completion before running
other commands, use the Wait-Task cmdlet.

Note In PowerCLI, the RunAsync parameter affects only the invocation of a cmdlet and does not
control whether the initiated tasks run consecutively or in parallel. For example, the Remove-VM
cmdlet might remove the selected virtual machines simultaneously or consecutively depending on
the internal design of PowerCLI. To make sure that tasks initiated by a cmdlet run consecutively,
run the cmdlet in a loop, each time applying it to a single object.

Example: Running Remove-VM with and without the RunAsync parameter

Remove-VM $vmList

The command returns no output when all virtual machines stored in the $vmList variable are
removed, irrespective of whether they are removed simultaneously.

Remove-VM $vmList -RunAsync

The command returns an output that consists of one or more Task objects immediately.

Managing Default Server Connections

By default, PowerCLI and PowerCLI cmdlets run on the vCenter Server systems or VMware Cloud
Director servers you are connected to, if no target servers can be determined from the provided
parameters.

When you connect to a vCenter Server system by using Connect-VIServer, the server
connection is stored in the $DefaultVIServers array variable. This variable contains all connected
servers for the current PowerCLI session. To remove a server from the $DefaultVIServers variable,
you can either use Disconnect-VIServer to close all active connections to this server, or modify
the value of $DefaultVIServers manually.

When you connect to a VMware Cloud Director system by using Connect-CIServer, the server
connection is stored in the $DefaultCIServers array variable. This variable contains all connected
servers for the current session. To remove a server from the $DefaultCIServers variable, you can
either use Disconnect-CIServer to close all active connections to this server, or modify the
value of $DefaultCIServers manually.

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Customization Specification Objects in PowerCLI

PowerCLI provides two types of objects for customization specification: persistent and
nonpersistent.

Persistent Customization
Persistent customization specification objects are stored on the vSphere server. All persistent
customization specifications created by using vSphere Client or VMware PowerCLI 4.1 or later
are encrypted. Encrypted customization specifications can be applied only by the server that has
encrypted them.

Nonpersistent Customization
Nonpersistent customization specification objects exist only inside the current PowerShell process.
Nonpersistent customization specification objects are not encrypted, but cloning them to a
vSphere server encrypts them.

Using ESXCLI with PowerCLI

PowerCLI provides you the capability to use ESXCLI through its console.

PowerCLI provides two approaches for working with ESXCLI:

n Through the Get-ESXCli cmdlet, which provides direct access to the ESXCLI namespaces,
applications, and commands.

n Through .NET methods, which you use to create managed objects that correspond to specific
ESXCLI applications. To access the ESXCLI, you can call methods on these managed objects.

Note To call a method of an ESXCLI object, you must provide values for all parameters. If you
want to omit a given parameter, pass $null as its argument.

PowerCLI Inventory Provider

The Inventory Provider is designed to expose an unfiltered inventory view of the inventory items
from a server.

It enables navigation and file-style management of the VMware vSphere inventory. By creating a
PowerShell drive based on a managed object (such as a data center), you can obtain a view of its
contents and the relationships between the items. In addition, you can move, rename, or delete
objects by running commands from the PowerShell console.

When you connect to a server with Connect-VIServer, the cmdlet builds two default inventory
drives: vi and vis. The vi inventory drive shows the inventory on the last connected server. The
vis drive contains the inventory of all vSphere servers connected within the current PowerCLI
session.

You can use the default inventory drives or create custom drives based on the default ones.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

PowerCLI Datastore Provider

The Datastore Provider is designed to provide access to the contents of one or more datastores.

The items in a datastore are files that contain configuration, virtual disk, and the other data
associated with a virtual machine.

When you connect to a server with Connect-VIServer, the cmdlet builds two default datastore
drives: vmstore and vmstores. The vmstore drive provides a list of the datastores available on
the vSphere server that you last connected to.

Note If you establish multiple connections to the same vSphere server, the vmstore drive is not
updated.

The vmstores drive contains all datastores available on all vSphere servers that you connected to
within the current PowerCLI session.

You can use the default datastore drives or create custom drives based on the default ones.

PowerCLI About Articles

You can learn more about some PowerCLI concepts and features from the built-in help articles
named about articles. You can access them through a running PowerCLI process.

Running Help About_* lists all built-in PowerShell and VMware PowerCLI about articles.

Table 1-2. Accessing Built-In Help Articles for PowerCLI

Article Title Command Article Description

Customer Experience Improvement Help About_CEIP Provides information about VMware's

Program (CEIP) Customer Experience Improvement
Program ("CEIP").

Handling Invalid Certificates Help About_Invalid_Certificates When you connect to a server,

VMware PowerCLI checks if the
server certificate is valid. If the
certificate is not trusted for this
server, by default, VMware PowerCLI
fails to connect to the server.

Object-by-Name (OBN) Help About_OBN To help you save time and effort,
PowerCLI lets you select objects by
their names.

VMware PowerCLI Objects Help About_PowerCLI_Objects For their input and output, the
PowerCLI cmdlets use a set
of .NET types that reside in the
VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types
namespace.

Using the RunAsync Parameter Help About_RunAsync When you set the RunAsync
parameter, you indicate that you want
to run the cmdlet asynchronously.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

Table 1-2. Accessing Built-In Help Articles for PowerCLI (continued)

Article Title Command Article Description

Authenticating with a vCenter Server Help About_Server_Authentication To authenticate with vCenter Server
System or a VMware Cloud Director and VMware Cloud Director servers,
Server you can provide a user name
and password through the User
and Password parameters, or a
PSCredential object through the
Credential parameter.

Unique Identifiers for PowerCLI Help About_UID You can uniquely identify a PowerCLI
Objects (UID) object on a server or across multiple
servers by providing its UID.

Datastore Provider (VimDatastore) Help About_VimDatastore The Datastore Provider

(VimDatastore) provides a filesystem-
style view and access to the contents
of datastores.

LicenseDataManager Help About_LicenseDataManager The LicenseDataManager component

lets you extend the vCenter Server
inventory with license data.

VMware, Inc. 21
Installing VMware PowerCLI
2
VMware PowerCLI lets you manage, monitor, automate, and handle lifecycle operations on
VMware vSphere, vRealize Operations Manager, vSAN, VMware Cloud Director, vSphere Update
Manager, VMware NSX, VMware Cloud on AWS, VMware HCX, VMware Horizon, and VMware
Site Recovery Manager systems. You can install VMware PowerCLI modules on all supported
operating systems.

After installing the package on your machine, you can connect to your ESXi, vCenter Server,
vRealize Operations Manager, VMware Cloud Director, VMware NSX, VMware Cloud on AWS,
VMware Horizon, or VMware Site Recovery Manager system by providing valid authentication
credentials.

n Supported Operating Systems

You can install PowerCLI on supported operating systems. You can run guest cmdlets against
virtual machines on which supported guest operating systems are installed.

n Supported VMware Products

You can use the PowerCLI modules to manage all supported VMware products.

n Supported PowerShell Versions

PowerCLI is compatible with multiple versions of PowerShell.

n Install PowerCLI
You can download and install PowerCLI modules from the PowerShell Gallery. You can
install all VMware PowerCLI modules with a single PowerShell command, or install modules
individually.

n Install PowerCLI Offline

You can install all VMware PowerCLI modules in offline mode by using a ZIP file.

n Allow Execution of Local Scripts

If you want to run scripts and load configuration files with PowerCLI, you must set the
execution policy of PowerShell to RemoteSigned.

n Update PowerCLI
You can update PowerCLI when a new version of the product becomes available. See the
PowerShell Gallery for the latest PowerCLI versions.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

n Uninstall PowerCLI
You can uninstall VMware PowerCLI by deleting the VMware PowerCLI modules from your
system.

Supported Operating Systems

You can install PowerCLI on supported operating systems. You can run guest cmdlets against
virtual machines on which supported guest operating systems are installed.

PowerCLI Local Operating Systems

For a list of operating systems on which you can install VMware PowerCLI , see the Compatibility
Matrix on the PowerCLI home page.

PowerCLI Guest Operating Systems

You can run VMware PowerCLI guest cmdlets against virtual machines with supported guest
operating systems. For a list of supported operating systems, see the Compatibility Matrix on the
PowerCLI home page.

Note Guest cmdlets are not compatible with IPv6 environments.

Supported VMware Products

You can use the PowerCLI modules to manage all supported VMware products.

For a list of VMware products with which VMware PowerCLI is compatible, see VMware Product
Interoperability Matrixes.

Supported PowerShell Versions

PowerCLI is compatible with multiple versions of PowerShell.

For a list of PowerShell versions with which VMware PowerCLI is compatible, see the Compatibility
Matrix on the PowerCLI home page.

Install PowerCLI
You can download and install PowerCLI modules from the PowerShell Gallery. You can install all
VMware PowerCLI modules with a single PowerShell command, or install modules individually.

Use the Install-Module cmdlet to download and install PowerCLI modules. See the PowerShell
Gallery for the complete list of available PowerCLI modules.

Prerequisites

n Verify that your system is compatible with PowerCLI. See the Compatibility Matrix on the
PowerCLI home page.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

n Verify that your system is connected to the Internet.

n Verify that PowerShell is available on your system. For Linux and macOS, you must install
PowerShell. See how to install PowerShell on different platforms.

n For Windows, if you have PowerCLI 6.5 R1 or earlier, uninstall it.

Procedure

1 Open PowerShell on your workstation.

2 To install all PowerCLI modules, run the command:

Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser

Alternatively, you can install individual PowerCLI modules by running the Install-Module
cmdlet with the module name.

3 If you see a warning that you are installing modules from an untrusted repository, press y and
then press Enter to confirm the installation.

What to do next

Enable execution of local scripts. See Allow Execution of Local Scripts.

Install PowerCLI Offline

You can install all VMware PowerCLI modules in offline mode by using a ZIP file.

You might need to install PowerCLI on a local machine with no Internet connectivity due to
security reasons and deployment restrictions. If you are using such an environment, you can
download the PowerCLI ZIP file on a computer with Internet access, transfer the ZIP file to your
local machine and install PowerCLI.

Prerequisites

n Verify that your system is compatible with PowerCLI. See the Compatibility Matrix on the
PowerCLI home page.

n Verify that PowerShell is available on your system. For Linux and macOS, you must install
PowerShell. See how to install PowerShell on different platforms.

n For Windows, if you have PowerCLI 6.5 R1 or earlier, uninstall it.

n Download the PowerCLI ZIP file from the PowerCLI home page and transfer the ZIP file to
your local machine.

Procedure

1 Open PowerShell on your local machine.

2 To view the folder paths to which you can extract the PowerCLI ZIP file, run the command:

$env:PSModulePath

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

3 Extract the contents of the PowerCLI ZIP file to one of the listed folders.

4 For Windows, run the command to unblock the copied files.

Get-ChildItem -Path 'folder_path' -Recurse | Unblock-File

Replace folder_path with the path to the folder where you extracted the contents of the ZIP
file.

5 (Optional) Verify that the VMware PowerCLI modules have installed successfully.

Get-Module VMware* -ListAvailable

Results

You can now run PowerCLI on your local machine.

What to do next

Enable execution of local scripts. See Allow Execution of Local Scripts.

Allow Execution of Local Scripts

If you want to run scripts and load configuration files with PowerCLI, you must set the execution
policy of PowerShell to RemoteSigned.

For security reasons, PowerShell supports an execution policy feature. It determines whether
scripts are allowed to run and whether they must be digitally signed. By default, the execution
policy is set to Restricted, which is the most secure policy. For more information about the
execution policy and script digital signing in PowerShell, run Get-Help About_Signing.

You can change the execution policy by using the Set-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet.

Procedure

1 Open the PowerShell console.

2 Run Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned.

Update PowerCLI
You can update PowerCLI when a new version of the product becomes available. See the
PowerShell Gallery for the latest PowerCLI versions.

Use the Update-Module cmdlet to update PowerCLI modules. You can update all VMware
PowerCLI modules with a single command, or update modules individually.

You cannot use the Update-Module cmdlet in offline mode. To update PowerCLI in offline mode,
you must perform a new installation. See Install PowerCLI Offline.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

Procedure

1 Open PowerShell.

2 To update all PowerCLI modules, run the command:

Update-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser

Alternatively, you can update individual PowerCLI modules by running the Update-Module
cmdlet with the module name.

Uninstall PowerCLI
You can uninstall VMware PowerCLI by deleting the VMware PowerCLI modules from your
system.

To uninstall VMware PowerCLI, you must locate your VMware PowerCLI modules and delete
them.

Prerequisites

n Close all PowerShell sessions that are running PowerCLI.

Procedure

1 In PowerShell, to see the location of the Vmware.PowerCLI modules, run Get-Module

-ListAvailable VMware*.

2 In your operating system, navigate to the destination folder(s) and delete all modules that start
with VMware.

Results

You removed PowerCLI from your system.

VMware, Inc. 26
Configuring VMware PowerCLI
3
Configure how VMware PowerCLI responds to invalid server certificates, choose the application
settings for different users and user groups, modify the script configuration file, and add custom
scripts.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates

n Scoped Settings of PowerCLI

Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates

When you try to connect to a server, PowerCLI checks whether the server certificate is valid. You
might have to configure the PowerCLI settings to be able to connect to servers with untrusted
certificates.

You might not be able to connect to a server because of the default action configured for
PowerCLI and untrusted certificates.

By default, PowerCLI is set to deny connections to servers with invalid certificates. You can
retrieve the current setting for invalid server certificates, and configure it as required. For more
information, see Configure the PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates.

Configure the PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates

You can configure how PowerCLI responds when a server certificate is not valid.

Use the InvalidCertificateAction parameter of the Set-PowerCLIConfiguration cmdlet to

configure how PowerCLI responds to invalid server certificates.

Procedure

1 Run Get-PowerCLIConfiguration and view the current setting of the

InvalidCertificateAction parameter.

2 To change the setting, run Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction and

specify one of the following values.

n Unset. This is the default value and corresponds to Fail.

n Fail. PowerCLI does not establish a connection if a certificate is not valid.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

n Ignore. PowerCLI ingnores certificate validity and establishes a connection.

n Warn. PowerCLI logs a warning message that a certificate is not valid, displays additional
information about the certificate, and establishes the connection.

n Prompt. If a server certificate is not valid, PowerCLI prompts you to choose an action
before it continues. You can choose one of the following options.

Option Action

Deny (default) Cancel the server connection.

Accept Once Establish the server connection and suppress further warnings for the current PowerShell
session.

Accept Permanently Save the server certificate in the PowerCLI Trusted Certificate Store for the current user
and establish the server connection.

Accept For All Users Save the server certificate both in the current user's Trusted Certificate Store and in the all
users' Trusted Certificate Store and establish the server connection.

Note For Linux and macOS, only the Fail and Ignore options are supported.

A warning message prompts you to confirm the operation. Press Y and then press Enter to
confirm your choice.

Results

You configured the invalid server certificate action setting. PowerCLI displays a table with the
updated configuration settings.

Trusted certificates are saved in the PowerCLI Trusted Certificate Store.

What to do next

Use PowerCLI to connect to a server system.

PowerCLI Trusted Certificate Store

The PowerCLI trusted certificate store is a CSV file that stores trusted server certificates for the
current user or for all users.

The PowerCLI trusted certificate store is named SslCertificateExceptions.csv and contains

server addresses and certificate thumbprints. You can edit the file with a text editor. You can
transfer the CSV file to another machine if you want to use your saved certificates.

Note You must permanently accept at least one certificate as trusted for the CSV file to appear on
your system.

The certificate store file is saved in a different location depending on the type of user. For
more information about the exact file path of the trusted certificate store file, see PowerCLI
Configuration Files.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

Scoped Settings of PowerCLI

In PowerCLI you can set the scope of the settings to enhance security and personalize the
configuration.

n Configuring the Scope of the PowerCLI Settings

Scoped configuration enhances system security and prevents nonadministrator users from
introducing global changes to the configuration of PowerCLI.

n Priority of Settings Scopes in PowerCLI

PowerCLI loads the program configuration based on the scope that you select for each
setting.

n PowerCLI Configuration Files

The copies of the PowerCLI_settings.xml file on your system contain User and AllUsers
settings for PowerCLI.

Configuring the Scope of the PowerCLI Settings

Scoped configuration enhances system security and prevents nonadministrator users from
introducing global changes to the configuration of PowerCLI.

For greater control over the PowerCLI configuration, the Set-PowerCLIConfiguration cmdlet
provides the Scope parameter.

Table 3-1. Valid Values for the Scope Parameter

Parameter Value Description

Session Configures settings for the current PowerCLI session and

does not modify any PowerCLI configuration files on your
system.

User Configures settings for the current Windows user and

modifies some PowerCLI configuration files on your
system.

AllUsers Configures settings for all users and modifies some

PowerCLI configuration files on your system.

Priority of Settings Scopes in PowerCLI

PowerCLI loads the program configuration based on the scope that you select for each setting.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

Table 3-2. Scope Impact on the Behavior of PowerCLI

Scope Priority Impact

Session High n When started, PowerCLI tries to load settings

with the Session scope first.
n Session settings override User and AllUsers
settings.
n Session settings are valid for the current
PowerCLI session only.

User Medium n When PowerCLI cannot detect Session

settings, the program tries to load User
settings from the PowerCLI configuration files.
n User settings override AllUsers settings.

n User settings are automatically detected from

the PowerCLI configuration files.

AllUsers Low n When PowerCLI cannot detect Session and

User settings, the program loads AllUsers
settings.
n AllUsers settings do not override Session
and User settings.
n AllUsers settings are automatically detected
from the PowerCLI configuration files.

PowerCLI Configuration Files

The copies of the PowerCLI_settings.xml file on your system contain User and AllUsers
settings for PowerCLI.

Configuring PowerCLI by running Set-PowerCLIConfiguration creates a copy of

PowerCLI_settings.xml on your system. The location of the PowerCLI_settings.xml file
depends on the value of the Scope parameter.

Note You must have administrator privileges to change the settings for AllUsers.

Table 3-3. Location of PowerCLI_settings.xml

Operating
System Scope Location Description

Windows User %APPDATA%\VMWare\PowerCLI Contains settings for the

current Windows user.

AllUsers %SYSTEMDRIVE% Contains settings for all users.

\ProgramData\VMware\PowerCLI

Linux User $HOME/.local/share/VMware/PowerCLI Contains settings for the

current Linux user.

AllUsers /var/opt/VMware/PowerCLI Contains settings for all users.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

Table 3-3. Location of PowerCLI_settings.xml (continued)

Operating
System Scope Location Description

macOS User $HOME/Library/Preferences/VMware/ Contains settings for the

PowerCLI current macOS user.

AllUsers /Library/Preferences/VMware/PowerCLI Contains settings for all users.

Users with advanced knowledge and understanding of PowerShell and VMware PowerCLI
can manually modify the contents of PowerCLI_settings.xml to change PowerCLI settings.
Modifying PowerCLI_settings.xml might require administrator privileges.

Note If you modify the contents of PowerCLI_settings.xml manually while PowerCLI is

running, you must restart PowerCLI for the changes to take effect.

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Configuring Customer Experience
Improvement Program 4
When you choose to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP),
VMware receives anonymous information to improve the quality, reliability, and functionality of
VMware products and services.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Categories of Information That VMware Receives

n Join the Customer Experience Improvement Program in PowerCLI

Categories of Information That VMware Receives

This product participates in VMware's Customer Experience Improvement Program ("CEIP").

Details regarding the data collected through CEIP and the purposes for which it is used by
VMware are set forth at the Trust & Assurance Center at http://www.vmware.com/trustvmware/
ceip.html. To join or leave the CEIP for this product, see Join the Customer Experience
Improvement Program in PowerCLI.

Join the Customer Experience Improvement Program in

PowerCLI
You can choose to join the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), or leave the CEIP
at any time.

Procedure

u Run Set-PowerCLIConfiguration.

n To join the CEIP, run the following command.

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -ParticipateInCeip $true

n To leave the CEIP, run the following command.

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -ParticipateInCeip $false

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Managing vSphere with VMware
PowerCLI 5
To help you get started with VMware PowerCLI, this documentation provides a set of sample
scripts that illustrate basic and advanced tasks in vSphere administration.

n Connect to a vCenter Server System

To run PowerCLI cmdlets on vSphere and perform administration or monitoring tasks, you
must establish a connection to an ESXi host or a vCenter Server system.

n Connect to an AD FS - Federated vCenter Server System

If your vCenter Server is federated to Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), you can
authenticate with PowerCLI by using the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code grant type.

n Manage Virtual Machines on vSphere

With PowerCLI, you can automate various administration tasks on virtual machines, for
example retrieving information, shutting down and powering off virtual machines.

n Add a Standalone Host to a vCenter Server System

You can add standalone hosts to a vCenter Server system by using the Add-VMHost cmdlet.
After adding the hosts, you will be able to manage them through the vCenter Server system.

n Set the License Key for a Host on vCenter Server

You can set the license key for a host on a vCenter Server system by using the LicenseKey
parameter of the Set-VMHost cmdlet.

n Activate Maintenance Mode for a Host on vCenter Server

To complete some specific administration tasks, you might need to activate maintenance
mode for a host. On vCenter Server, you can activate maintenance mode by using the Set-
VMHost cmdlet.

n Create vSphere Inventory Objects

By using PowerCLI cmdlets, you can automate creating different inventory objects on
vSphere.

n Create Virtual Machines on vCenter Server Using an XML Specification File

You can use a specification provided in an XML file to automate the creation of virtual
machines on vCenter Server.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

n Manage Virtual Machine Templates on vCenter Server

You can use PowerCLI to create virtual machines templates and convert them to virtual
machines on vCenter Server.

n Create and Use Snapshots on vCenter Server

You can use the Snapshot parameter of Get-VM to take a snapshot of virtual machines and
then revert the states of the virtual machines back to the snapshot.

n Update the Resource Configuration Settings of a Virtual Machine on vCenter Server

You can use the Set-VMResourceConfiguration cmdlet to modify the resource
configuration properties of a virtual machine, including memory, CPU shares, and other
settings.

n Get a List of Hosts on a vCenter Server System and View Their Properties
With PowerCLI, you can get information about all available hosts in a data center and view
their properties.

n Change the Host Advanced Configuration Settings on vCenter Server

You can modify host configuration, including advanced settings related to virtual machine
migration, and apply them to another host.

n Move a Virtual Machine to a Different Host Using VMware vSphere vMotion

You can migrate a virtual machine between vCenter Server hosts by using vSphere vMotion.

n Move a Virtual Machine to a Different Datastore Using VMware vSphere Storage vMotion
You can migrate a virtual machine between datastores using the VMware Storage vMotion
feature of vCenter Server.

n Move a Virtual Machine to a Different vCenter Server System

You can migrate a virtual machine from one vCenter Server system to another by using Cross
vCenter Server vMotion.

n Create a Host Profile on a vCenter Server System

The VMware Host Profiles feature enables you to create standard configurations for ESXi
hosts. With PowerCLI, you can automate creation and modifying of host profiles.

n Apply a Host Profile to a Host on vCenter Server

To simplify operational management of large-scale environments, you can apply standard
configurations called host profiles to hosts on vCenter Server. If you want to set up a host to
use the same host profile as a reference host, you can attach the host to a profile.

n Manage Statistics and Statistics Intervals on vCenter Server

You can use the PowerCLI cmdlets to automate tasks for viewing and managing statistics for
vCenter Server inventory objects.

n Modify the Settings of the NIC Teaming Policy for a Virtual Switch
You can set the NIC teaming policy on a vSwitch. The NIC teaming policy determines the load
balancing and failover settings of a virtual switch and lets you mark NICs as unused.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

n Create a vApp on vCenter Server

With PowerCLI, you can create and manage vApps.

n Modify the Properties of a vApp

With PowerCLI, you can start and stop vApps, and modify their properties.

n Export or Import vApps

You can import and export vApps to OVA and OVF files.

n Create an iSCSI Host Storage

For a host, you can enable iSCSI, add iSCSI targets, and create new host storages.

n Add Passthrough Devices to a Host and Virtual Machine

You can get information about existing passthrough devices and add new SCSI and PCI
devices to virtual machines and hosts.

n Create a Custom Property Based on an Extension Data Property

You can create custom properties to add more information to vSphere objects. Custom
properties based on extension data properties correspond directly to the property of the
corresponding .NET view object.

n Create a Script-Based Custom Property for a vSphere Object

You can create a custom property by writing a script and providing a name for the property.
The script evaluates when the custom property is called for the first time.

n Apply a Customization Object to a Cloned Virtual Machine

You can apply a custom configuration to a cloned virtual machine by using a customization
object.

n Modify the Default NIC Mapping Object of a Customization Specification

You can modify the default NIC mapping object of a customization specification and apply the
specification on a newly created virtual machine.

n Modify Multiple NIC Mapping Objects of a Customization Specification

You can modify multiple NIC mapping objects of a customization specification and apply the
specification to an existing virtual machine.

n Create Multiple Virtual Machines that Use Static IP Addresses

You can deploy multiple virtual machines with a single network adapter and configure
the deployed virtual machines to use static IP addresses by applying a customization
specification.

n Create Multiple Virtual Machines with Two Network Adapters

You can deploy multiple virtual machines with two network adapters each and configure each
adapter to use specific network settings by applying a customization specification.

n Create a vSphere Role and Assign Permissions to a User

With PowerCLI, you can automate management of vSphere permissions, roles, and
privileges.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

n View Actions and Triggers for an Alarm on vCenter Server

You can see which actions and triggers are configured for an alarm.

n Create Alarm Definitions on vCenter Server

With PowerCLI, you can create vCenter Server alarm definitions.

n Modify Alarm Definitions on vCenter Server

With PowerCLI, you can modify vCenter Server alarm definitions.

n Create Alarm Actions and Triggers on vCenter Server

With PowerCLI, you can create vCenter Server alarm actions and triggers.

n Remove Alarm Definitions and Actions

In some cases, you might want to remove obsolete alarm definitions and actions.

n Create and Modify Advanced Settings for a Cluster

You can customize the behavior of a cluster on a vCenter Server system by creating and
modifying custom advanced settings for it.

n Modify the vCenter Server Email Configuration

You can modify the email configuration settings of a vCenter Server.

n Modify the vCenter Server SNMP Configuration

To use SNMP, you must first configure the SNMP settings of the vCenter Server.

n Use Esxtop to Get Information on the Virtual CPUs of a Virtual Machine

You can use the Get-EsxTop cmdlet to retrieve real-time data for troubleshooting
performance problems.

n Filter vSphere Objects with Get-View

You can use the Get-View cmdlet to filter vSphere objects before performing various actions
on them.

n Populate a View Object with Get-View

To save time and efforts, you can use Get-View to retrieve PowerCLI views from previously
retrieved view objects.

n Update the State of a Server-Side Object

You can use the Get-View cmdlet to update server-side objects.

n Reboot a Host with Get-View

You can reboot a host by using its corresponding view object.

n Modify the CPU Levels of a Virtual Machine with Get–View and Get–VIObjectByVIView
You can modify the CPU levels of a virtual machine using a combination of the Get-View and
Get-VIObjectByVIView cmdlets.

n Browse the Default Inventory Drive

You can browse the default inventory drive and view its contents.

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VMware PowerCLI User's Guide

n Create a New Custom Inventory Drive

In addition to the default drive, you can create new custom inventory drives by using the
New-PSDrive cmdlet.

n Manage Inventory Objects Through Inventory Drives

You can use the PowerCLI Inventory Provider to browse, modify, and remove inventory
objects from inventory drives.

n Browse the Default Datastore Drives

You can use the PowerCLI Datastore Provider to browse the default datastore drives:
vmstore and vmstores.

n Create a New Custom Datastore Drive

You can use the PowerCLI Datastore Provider to create custom datastore drives.

n Manage Datastores Through Datastore Drives

You can use the PowerCLI Datastore Provider to browse datastores from datastore drives.

n Modify the Timeout Setting for Web Tasks

To avoid unexpected timeouts, you can run Set-PowerCLIConfiguration to modify the
PowerCLI settings for long-running Web tasks.

n Using Tags
You can assign tags to different types of objects, such as virtual machines, resource pools,
datastores, and vSphere distributed switches. You can use tags to retrieve a specific group of
objects.

n Network Management with vSphere Distributed Switches

The cmdlets provided in the VMware.VimAutomation.VDS module let you manage
networking with vSphere distributed switches and port groups.

n Create a Local Content Library

With PowerCLI, you can create a local content library.

n Create a Subscribed Content Library

With PowerCLI, you can create a subscribed content library.

n Create a Content Library Item

With PowerCLI, you can create content library items.

n Create a Virtual Machine from a Content Library Item

You can deploy a virtual machine from a content library template.

n Create a vApp from a Content Library Item

You can deploy a vApp from a content library template.

n Export Content Library Item's Files to a Local Machine

With PowerCLI, you can export content library item's files to a local machine.

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n Create a New VM-VM DRS Rule

You can create a VM-VM DRS affinity rule within a cluster.

n Create a New VM-VMHost DRS Rule

You can create a VM-VMHost DRS rule within a cluster after creating a VM DRS cluster group
and a VMHost DRS cluster group.

n Managing Certificates
You can use VMware PowerCLI to manage certificates for both vCenter Server and ESXi no
matter if you are using Hybrid, Subordinate CA, or Full Custom Mode.

Connect to a vCenter Server System

To run PowerCLI cmdlets on vSphere and perform administration or monitoring tasks, you must
establish a connection to an ESXi host or a vCenter Server system.

You can have more than one connection to the same server. For more information, see Managing
Default Server Connections.

If your login credentials contain non-alphanumeric characters, you might need to escape them.
For more information, see Providing Login Credentials.

Prerequisites

n If the certificate of the server you want to connect to is not trusted, verify that your PowerCLI
invalid server certificate action settings are configured properly. For more information, see
Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates.

n If you use a proxy server for the connection, verify that it is configured properly, so that the
connection is kept alive long enough for tasks to finish.

Note If you do not want to use a proxy server for the connection, run Set-
PowerCLIConfiguration -ProxyPolicy NoProxy.

Procedure

u Run Connect-VIServer with the server name and valid credentials.

Connect-VIServer -Server vc1.example.com -Protocol http -User 'MyAdministratorUser'

-Password 'MyPassword'

Connect to an AD FS - Federated vCenter Server System

If your vCenter Server is federated to Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), you can
authenticate with PowerCLI by using the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code grant type.

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You can authenticate to a federated vCenter Server by creating a new OAuth security context
and then exchanging it for a SAML security context. You create an OAuth security context for
PowerCLI by using the New-OAuthSecurityContext cmdlet. One way to do this is to authenticate
through the Authorization Code grant type, which is illustrated by this example. This workflow
guarantees a substantial degree of security and can be used with multi-factor authentication.

Note You can use PowerCLI to authenticate with the other OAuth 2.0 grant types as well, such
as the Client Credentials, Refresh Token, and Password grant types. For more information, run
Get-Help New-OAuthSecurityContext -full.

Prerequisites

n Verify that your vCenter Server system is federted to AD FS. For more information, see
Federate vCenter Server to Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) in the VMware
vCenter Server Management Programming Guide.
n Create an OAuth client for PowerCLI on the authentication server (AD FS). Configure the
OAuth client to do the same token transformation as your vCenter Server system . You
must configure a redirect URL according to the requirements in the procedure below. Save
the Client ID and Client Secret that are generated by the authentication server. For more
information, see the Microsoft documentation.

Procedure

1 Create an OAuth security context object for PowerCLI.

In the background, PowerCLI sends an authentication request to the authentication server, AD

FS. A web browser opens that prompts the user to authorize the client application's request.
On confirmation, PowerCLI interacts with the authentication server to obtain the access and ID
tokens (JWT tokens) and creates a new OAuth security context.

$oauthSecContext = New-OAuthSecurityContext -TokenEndpointUrl "https://<AD FS FQDN>/adfs/

oauth2/token/" -AuthorizationEndpointUrl "https://<AD FS FQDN>/adfs/oauth2/authorize/"
-RedirectUrl "http://localhost:8844/auth" -ClientId "powercli-native" -OtherArguments
@{ "resource" = "my-vcenter" }

This script contains the following parameters.

Parameter Description Example value

TokenEndpointUrl The base URL where the authentication server listens for https://<AD
requests to issue access tokens. You can see this value in the FS FQDN>/adfs/
openid-configuration file of the authentication server under oauth2/token/
token_endpoint key.

AuthorizationEndpointUrl The base URL at the authentication server where users https://<AD
are redirected in order to authenticate. You can see FS FQDN>/adfs/
this value in the openid-configuration file under the oauth2/authorize/
authorization_endpoint key.

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Parameter Description Example value

RedirectUrl The URL where the user is redirected after he approves the http://
authentication request. This URL must be on a localhost and localhost:8844/auth
a free port on the machine where PowerCLI is running. This
URL must use the http schema.

ClientId The ID that you received from the authentication server when powercli-native
you registered the client application.

OtherArguments A hashtable of (String, String) pairs that represent arguments { "resource" = "my-
to the server-specific parameters. In the following example, vcenter" }
it is used for an AD FS Application Group for vCenter Server
with an example ID "my-vcenter".

2 Exchange the OAuth security context for an SAML security context.

$samlSecContext = New-VISamlSecurityContext -VCenterServer 'myVC' -OAuthSecurityContext

$oauthSecContext

3 Connect to your vCenter Server system by using the SAML security context.

Connect-VIServer -Server 'myVC' -SamlSecurityContext $samlSecContext

Manage Virtual Machines on vSphere

With PowerCLI, you can automate various administration tasks on virtual machines, for example
retrieving information, shutting down and powering off virtual machines.

Procedure

1 View all virtual machines on the target system.

Get-VM

2 Save the name and the power state properties of the virtual machines in the ResourcePool
resource pool into a file named myVMProperties.txt.

$respool = Get-ResourcePool ResourcePool

Get-VM -Location $respool | Select-Object Name, PowerState > myVMProperties.txt

3 Start the VM virtual machine.

Get-VM VM | Start-VM

4 Get information of the guest OS of the VM virtual machine.

Get-VMGuest VM | fc

5 Shut down the OS of the VM virtual machine.

Stop-VMGuest VM

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6 Power off the VM virtual machine.

Stop-VM VM

7 Move the virtual machine VM from the Host01 host to the Host02 host.

Get-VM -Name VM -Location Host01 | Move-VM –Destination Host02

Note If the virtual machine you want to move across hosts is powered on, it must be located
on a shared storage registered as a datastore on both the original and the new host.

Add a Standalone Host to a vCenter Server System

You can add standalone hosts to a vCenter Server system by using the Add-VMHost cmdlet. After
adding the hosts, you will be able to manage them through the vCenter Server system.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 View all hosts on the vCenter Server system that you have established a connection with.

Get-VMHost

2 Add the Host standalone host.

Add-VMHost -Name Host -Location (Get-Datacenter DC) -User root -Password pass

Set the License Key for a Host on vCenter Server

You can set the license key for a host on a vCenter Server system by using the LicenseKey
parameter of the Set-VMHost cmdlet.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Save the Host host object as a variable.

$vmhost = Get-VMHost -Name Host

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2 Set the host to evaluation mode or provide a valid license key.

u Set the host to evaluation mode by providing the evaluation key.

Set-VMHost -VMHost $vmhost -LicenseKey 00000-00000-00000-00000-00000

u Provide a valid license key.

Set-VMHost -VMHost $vmhost -LicenseKey Your_license_key

Activate Maintenance Mode for a Host on vCenter Server

To complete some specific administration tasks, you might need to activate maintenance mode for
a host. On vCenter Server, you can activate maintenance mode by using the Set-VMHost cmdlet.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Save the Host host object as a variable.

$vmhost = Get-VMHost -Name Host

2 Get the cluster to which Host belongs and save the cluster object as a variable.

$vmhostCluster = Get-Cluster -VMHost $vmhost

3 Start a task that activates maintenance mode for the Host host and save the task object as a
variable.

$updateHostTask = Set-VMHost -VMHost $vmhost -State "Maintenance" -RunAsync

Note If the host is not automated or is partially automated and has powered-on virtual
machines running on it, you must use the RunAsync parameter and wait until all powered-on
virtual machines are relocated or powered off before applying DRS recommendations.

4 Get and apply the recommendations generated by DRS.

Get-DrsRecommendation -Cluster $vmhostCluster | where {$_.Reason -eq "Host is entering

maintenance mode"} | Invoke-DrsRecommendation

5 Get the task output object and save it as a variable.

$myUpdatedHost = Wait-Task $updateHostTask

Create vSphere Inventory Objects

By using PowerCLI cmdlets, you can automate creating different inventory objects on vSphere.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the inventory root folder and create a new folder named Folder in it.

$folder = Get-Folder -NoRecursion | New-Folder -Name Folder

2 Create a new data center named DC in the Folder folder.

New-Datacenter -Location $folder -Name DC

3 Create a folder named Folder1 under DC.

Get-Datacenter DC | New-Folder -Name Folder1

$folder1 = Get-Folder -Name Folder1

4 Create a new cluster Cluster1 in the Folder1 folder.

New-Cluster -Location $folder1 -Name Cluster1 -DrsEnabled -DrsAutomationLevel

FullyAutomated

Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) is a feature that provides automatic allocation of cluster
resources.

5 Add a host in the cluster by using the Add-VMHost command, and provide credentials when
prompted.

$vmhost1 = Add-VMHost -Name 10.23.112.345 -Location (Get-Cluster Cluster1)

6 Create a resource pool in the root resource pool of the cluster.

$myClusterRootRP = Get-Cluster Cluster1 | Get-ResourcePool -Name Resources

New-ResourcePool -Location $myClusterRootRP -Name MyRP1 -CpuExpandableReservation
$true -CpuReservationMhz 500 -CpuSharesLevel high -MemExpandableReservation $true
-MemReservationGB 1 -MemSharesLevel high

7 Create a virtual machine asynchronously.

$vmCreationTask = New-VM -Name VM2 -VMHost $vmhost1 -ResourcePool MyRP01 -DiskGB 100
-MemoryGB 2 -RunAsync

The RunAsync parameter indicates that the command runs asynchronously. This means that
in contrast to a synchronous operation, you do not have to wait for the process to complete
before supplying the next command at the command line.

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Create Virtual Machines on vCenter Server Using an XML

Specification File
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

1 Read the content of the myVM.xml file.

[xml]$s = Get-Content myVM.xml

2 Create the virtual machines.

$s.CreateVM.VM | foreach {New-VM -VMHost $vmHost1 -Name $_.Name -DiskGB $_.HDDCapacity}

Manage Virtual Machine Templates on vCenter Server

You can use PowerCLI to create virtual machines templates and convert them to virtual machines
on vCenter Server.

Note A virtual machine template is a reusable image created from a virtual machine. The
template, as a derivative of the source virtual machine, includes virtual hardware components,
an installed guest operating system, and software applications.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Create a template from the VM1 virtual machine.

New-Template -VM VM1 -Name VM1Template -Location (Get-Datacenter DC )

2 Convert the VM1Template template for use by a virtual machine named VM3.

Get-Template VM1Template | Set-Template -ToVM -Name VM3

3 Create a template from the VM2 virtual machine.

New-Template -VM VM2 -Name VM2Template -Location (Get-Datacenter DC )

4 Convert the VM2Template template to a virtual machine named VM4.

Get-Template VM2Template | Set-Template -ToVM -Name VM4

5 Convert the VM4 virtual machine to a template.

Set-VM –VM VM4 –ToTemplate –Name “VM4Template”

6 Create a template called VM3Template by cloning VM2Template.

Get-Template VM2Template | New-Template -Name VM3Template –VMHost $targetVMHost

Create and Use Snapshots on vCenter Server

You can use the Snapshot parameter of Get-VM to take a snapshot of virtual machines and then
revert the states of the virtual machines back to the snapshot.

Note A snapshot captures the memory, disk, and settings state of a virtual machine at a particular
moment. When you revert to a snapshot, you return all these items to the state they were in at the
time you took that snapshot.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Take a snapshot of all virtual machines in the MyRP01 resource pool.

Get-ResourcePool MyRP01 | Get-VM | New-Snapshot -Name InitialSnapshot

The Location parameter takes arguments of the VIContainer type, on which Cluster,
Datacenter, Folder, ResourcePool, and VMHost object types are based. Therefore, the
Location parameter can use arguments of all these types.

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2 Revert all virtual machines in the MyRP01 resource pool to the InitialSnapshot snapshot.

$VMs = Get-ResourcePool MyRP01 | Get-VM

foreach( $vm in $VMs ) { Set-VM -VM $vm –Snapshot InitialSnapshot }

Update the Resource Configuration Settings of a Virtual

Machine on vCenter Server
You can use the Set-VMResourceConfiguration cmdlet to modify the resource configuration
properties of a virtual machine, including memory, CPU shares, and other settings.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 View the resource configuration for the VM1 virtual machine.

Get-VMResourceConfiguration -VM VM1

2 View the disk share of the VM1 virtual machine.

Get-VMResourceConfiguration -VM VM1 | Format-Custom -Property DiskResourceConfiguration

3 Change the memory share of the VM1 virtual machine to low.

Get-VM VM1 | Get-VMResourceConfiguration | Set-VMResourceConfiguration -MemSharesLevel low

4 Change the CPU shares of the VM1 virtual machine to high.

Get-VM VM1 | Get-VMResourceConfiguration | Set-VMResourceConfiguration -CpuSharesLevel high

5 Change the disk share of the VM1 virtual machine to 100.

$vm1 = Get-VM VM1

$vm1disk = Get-HardDisk $vm1
Get-VMResourceConfiguration $vm1 | Set-VMResourceConfiguration -Disk $vm1disk
-DiskSharesLevel custom -NumDiskShares 100

Get a List of Hosts on a vCenter Server System and View

Their Properties
With PowerCLI, you can get information about all available hosts in a data center and view their
properties.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Get a list of all hosts that are part of a data center.

Get-Datacenter DC | Get-VMHost | Format-Custom

2 View the properties of the first host in the data center.

Get-Datacenter DC | Get-VMHost | Select-Object -First 1 | Format-Custom

3 View the Name and the OverallStatus properties of the hosts in the DC data center.

Get-Datacenter DC | Get-VMHost | Get-View | Format-Table -Property Name, OverallStatus

-AutoSize

4 View all hosts and their properties, and save the results to a file.

Get-Datacenter DC | Get-VMHost | Format-Custom | Out-File –FilePath hosts.txt

5 View a list of the hosts that are in maintenance mode and can be configured for vMotion
operations.

Get-VMHost -State maintenance | Get-View | Where-Object -FilterScript { $_.capability -ne

$null -and $_.capability.vmotionSupported }

Change the Host Advanced Configuration Settings on

vCenter Server
You can modify host configuration, including advanced settings related to virtual machine
migration, and apply them to another host.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Change the migration timeout for the ESXHost1 host.

Get-VMHost ESXHost1 | Set-VmHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name Migrate.NetTimeout -Value

( [system.int32] 10 )

2 Enable creation of a checksum of the virtual machines memory during the migration.

Get-VMHost ESXHost1 | Set-VmHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name Migrate.MemChksum -Value

( [system.int32] 1 )

3 Get the ESXHost1 host migration settings.

$migrationSettings = Get-VMHost ESXHost1 | Get-VmHostAdvancedConfiguration -Name Migrate.*

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4 Apply the migration settings to ESXHost2.

Set-VmHostAdvancedConfiguration -VMHost ESXHost2 -Hashtable $migrationSettings

Move a Virtual Machine to a Different Host Using VMware

vSphere vMotion
You can migrate a virtual machine between vCenter Server hosts by using vSphere vMotion.

Note You can use vSphere vMotion to move a powered-on virtual machine from one host to
another.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

The virtual machine must be stored on a datastore shared by the current and the destination host,
and the vMotion interfaces on the two hosts must be configured.

Procedure

u Get the VM1 virtual machine and move it to a host named ESXHost2.

Get-VM VM1 | Move-VM -Destination (Get-VMHost ESXHost2)

Move a Virtual Machine to a Different Datastore Using

VMware vSphere Storage vMotion
You can migrate a virtual machine between datastores using the VMware Storage vMotion feature
of vCenter Server.

Note You can use Storage vMotion to move a powered-on virtual machine from one datastore to
another.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

The host on which the virtual machine is running must have access both to the datastore where the
virtual machine is located and to the destination datastore.

Procedure

u Get the VM1 virtual machine and move it to a datastore named DS2:

Get-VM VM1 | Move-VM -Datastore DS2

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Move a Virtual Machine to a Different vCenter Server System

You can migrate a virtual machine from one vCenter Server system to another by using Cross
vCenter Server vMotion.

You can move virtual machines between vCenter Server systems of vSphere version 6.0 and later
by using the Move-VM cmdlet. When you move a virtual machine from one vCenter Server system
to another, only datastores are supported as storage destinations.

Procedure

1 Connect to the myVC1 source vCenter Server system.

Connect-VIServer 'myVC1' -Username MyUser1 -Password MyPass1

2 Connect to the myVC2 destination vCenter Server system.

Connect-VIServer 'myVC2' -Username MyUser2 -Password MyPass2

3 Store the MyVM virtual machine, its network adapters, the destination host, port group, and
datastore in variables.

$vm = Get-VM 'myVM' -Location 'myVMhostOnVC1'

$destination = Get-VMHost 'MyVMhostOnVc2'
$networkAdapter = Get-NetworkAdapter -VM $vm
$destinationPortGroup = Get-VDPortgroup -VDSwitch 'myVDSwitchOnVC2' -Name 'myPortGroup'
$destinationDatastore = Get-Datastore 'MyDatastoreOnVc2'

4 Migrate the virtual machine to the specified destination host and datastore and attach the
virtual machine network adapters to the destination port group.

Move-VM -VM $vm -Destination $destination -NetworkAdapter $networkAdapter -PortGroup

$destinationPortGroup -Datastore $destinationDatastore

Create a Host Profile on a vCenter Server System

The VMware Host Profiles feature enables you to create standard configurations for ESXi hosts.
With PowerCLI, you can automate creation and modifying of host profiles.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a host that runs vCenter Server 4.1 or later.

Procedure

1 Get the host named Host1 and store it in the $vmhost variable.

$vmhost = Get-VMHost Host1

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2 Create a profile based on the Host1 host.

New-VMHostProfile -Name MyHostProfile01 -Description "This is my test profile based on

Host1." -ReferenceHost $vmhost

3 Get the newly created host profile.

$hp1 = Get-VMHostProfile -Name MyHostProfile01

4 Change the description of the HostProfile1 host profile.

Set-VMHostProfile -Profile $hp1 -Description "This is my old test host profile based on
Host1."

Apply a Host Profile to a Host on vCenter Server

To simplify operational management of large-scale environments, you can apply standard
configurations called host profiles to hosts on vCenter Server. If you want to set up a host to
use the same host profile as a reference host, you can attach the host to a profile.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a host that runs vCenter Server 4.1 or later.

Procedure

1 Get the Host2 host.

$vmhost2 = Get-VMHost Host2

2 Attach the Host2 host to the HostProfile1 host profile.

Set-VMHost -VMHost $vmhost2 -Profile HostProfile1

3 Verify that the Host2 host is compliant with the HostProfile1 profile.

Test-VMHostProfileCompliance -VMHost $vmhost2

The output of this command contains the incompliant settings of the host, if any.

4 Apply the profile to the Host2 host.

$neededVariables = Invoke-VMHostProfile -Entity $vmhost2 -Profile $hp1 -Confirm:$false

The $neededVariables variable contains the names of all required variables and their default
or current values, as returned by the server. Otherwise, the $neededVariables variable
contains the name of the host on which the profile has been applied.

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Manage Statistics and Statistics Intervals on vCenter Server

You can use the PowerCLI cmdlets to automate tasks for viewing and managing statistics for
vCenter Server inventory objects.

You can modify the properties of a statistics interval and view statistics for a selected cluster.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Increase the amount of time for which statistics of the previous day are stored.

Set-StatInterval -Interval "past day" -StorageTimeSecs 700000

2 View the available memory metric types for the Cluster1 cluster.

$cluster = Get-Cluster Cluster1

$statTypes = Get-StatType -Entity $cluster -Interval "past day" -Name mem.*

3 View the cluster statistics collected for the day.

Get-Stat -Entity $cluster -Start ([System.DateTime]::Now.AddDays(-1)) -Finish

([System.DateTime]::Now) -Stat $statTypes

Modify the Settings of the NIC Teaming Policy for a Virtual

Switch
You can set the NIC teaming policy on a vSwitch. The NIC teaming policy determines the load
balancing and failover settings of a virtual switch and lets you mark NICs as unused.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get a list of the physical NIC objects on the host network and store them in a variable.

$pn = Get-VMHost 10.23.123.128 | Get-VMHostNetwork | Select -Property physicalnic

2 Store the physical NIC objects you want to mark as unused in separate variables.

$pn5 = $pn.PhysicalNic[2]
$pn6 = $pn.PhysicalNic[3]
$pn7 = $pn.PhysicalNic[0]

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3 View the NIC teaming policy of the VSwitch01 virtual switch.

$policy = Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost 10.23.123.128 -Name VSwitch01 | Get-NicTeamingPolicy

4 Change the policy of the switch to indicate that the $pn5, $pn6, and $pn7 network adapters
are unused.

$policy | Set-NicTeamingPolicy -MakeNicUnused $pn5, $pn6, $pn7

5 Modify the load balancing and failover settings of the virtual switch NIC teaming policy.

$policy | Set-NicTeamingPolicy -BeaconInterval 3 -LoadBalancingPolicy 3

-NetworkFailoverDetectionPolicy 1 -NotifySwitches $false -FailbackEnabled $false

Create a vApp on vCenter Server

With PowerCLI, you can create and manage vApps.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Create a new vApp named VApp on a host.

New-VApp -Name VApp -CpuLimitMhz 4000 -CpuReservationMhz 1000 -Location (Get-VMHost Host1)

2 Start the new virtual appliance.

Start-VApp VApp

Modify the Properties of a vApp

With PowerCLI, you can start and stop vApps, and modify their properties.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the vApp named VApp and stop it.

Get-VApp VApp | Stop-VApp -Confirm:$false

2 Change the name and memory reservation for the vApp.

Get-VApp VApp | Set-VApp -Name OldVApp -MemReservationGB 2

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Export or Import vApps

You can import and export vApps to OVA and OVF files.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the vApp you want to export.

$oldVApp = Get-VApp OldVApp

2 Export the OldVApp vApp to a local directory and name the exported appliance WebApp.

Export-VApp -VApp $oldVApp -Name WebApp -Destination D:\vapps\ -CreateSeparateFolder

3 Import the WebApp vApp from a local directory to the Storage2 datastore.

Import-VApp -Source D:\vapps\WebApp\WebApp.ovf -VMHost (Get-VMHost Host1) -Datastore (Get-

Datastore -VMHost MyHost01 -Name Storage2)

Create an iSCSI Host Storage

For a host, you can enable iSCSI, add iSCSI targets, and create new host storages.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Enable software iSCSI on a host.

$vmhost = Get-VMHost ESXHost1

Get-VMHostStorage $myHost | Set-VMHostStorage -SoftwareIScsiEnabled $true

2 Get the iSCSI HBA that is on the host.

$iscsiHba = Get-VMHostHba -Type iScsi

3 Add a new iSCSI target for dynamic discovery.

$iscsiHba | New-IScsiHbaTarget -Address 192.168.0.1 -Type Send

4 Rescan the HBAs on the host.

Get-VMHostStorage $vmhost -RescanAllHba

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5 Get the path to the SCSI LUN.

$lunPath = Get-ScsiLun -VMHost $vmhost -CanonicalName ($iscsiHba.Device + "*") | Get-

ScsiLunPath

You can provide the LUN path by using its canonical name beginning with the device name of
the iSCSI HBA.

6 Create a new host storage.

New-Datastore -Vmfs -VMHost $vmhost -Path $lunpath.LunPath -Name iSCSI

Add Passthrough Devices to a Host and Virtual Machine

You can get information about existing passthrough devices and add new SCSI and PCI devices to
virtual machines and hosts.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get a list of the PCI passthrough devices of the VMHost host

$vmhost = Get-VMHost ESXHost

Get-PassthroughDevice -VMHost $vmhost -Type Pci

2 Get a list of the SCSI passthrough devices of the VM virtual machine

$vm = Get-VM VM
Get-PassthroughDevice -VM $vm -Type Scsi

3 Add a SCSI passthrough device to the VM virtual machine

$scsiDeviceList = Get-PassthroughDevice -VMHost ESXHost -Type Scsi

Add-PassthroughDevice -VM $vm -PassthroughDevice $scsiDeviceList[0]

Create a Custom Property Based on an Extension Data

Property
You can create custom properties to add more information to vSphere objects. Custom properties
based on extension data properties correspond directly to the property of the corresponding .NET
view object.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Create a new custom property based on the Guest.ToolsVersion property.

New-VIProperty -ObjectType VirtualMachine -Name ToolsVersion -ValueFromExtensionProperty

'Guest.ToolsVersion'

2 View the ToolsVersion properties of the available virtual machines.

Get-VM | Select Name, ToolsVersion

Results

You have created a custom property named ToolsVersion for VirtualMachine objects.

Create a Script-Based Custom Property for a vSphere

Object
You can create a custom property by writing a script and providing a name for the property. The
script evaluates when the custom property is called for the first time.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Create a new custom property named NameOfHost that stores the name of the host on which
a virtual machine resides.

New-VIProperty -Name NameOfHost -ObjectType VirtualMachine -Value { return

$args[0].VMHost.Name }

2 View the NameOfHost properties of the available virtual machines.

Get-VM | select Name, NameOfHost | Format-Table -AutoSize

Results

You created a custom script property named NameOfHost for VirtualMachine objects.

Apply a Customization Object to a Cloned Virtual Machine

You can apply a custom configuration to a cloned virtual machine by using a customization object.

Note This feature runs only on a 32-bit PowerCLI process.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Get the Spec customization specification and clone it for temporary use.

Get-OSCustomizationSpec Spec | New-OSCustomizationSpec -Type NonPersistent -Name ClientSpec

2 Change the NamingPrefix property of the customization object to the name of the virtual
machine you want to create.

Set-OSCustomizationSpec -Spec ClientSpec -NamingPrefix VM1

3 Create a virtual machine named VM1 by cloning the existing VM virtual machine and applying
the customization specification.

Get-VM VM | New-VM -VMHost Host -Datastore Storage1 -OSCustomizationSpec ClientSpec -Name

VM1

Modify the Default NIC Mapping Object of a Customization

Specification
You can modify the default NIC mapping object of a customization specification and apply the
specification on a newly created virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Create a nonpersistent customization specification for Windows operating systems.

New-OSCustomizationSpec -Type NonPersistent -Name Spec -OSType Windows -Workgroup

Workgroup -OrgName Company -Fullname User -ProductKey “valid_key” -ChangeSid -TimeZone
"Central European" -NamingScheme VM

2 View the default NIC mapping objects of the Spec specification.

Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping -Spec Spec | Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping -IpMode

UseStaticIP -IpAddress 172.16.1.30 -SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -DefaultGateway 172.16.1.1
-Dns 172.16.1

Each customization specification object has one default NIC mapping object.

3 Modify the default NIC mapping object of the Spec customization specification to use static IP.

Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping -Spec Spec | Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping -IpMode

UseStaticIP -IpAddress 172.16.1.30 -SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -DefaultGateway 172.16.1.1
-Dns 172.16.1.1

4 Create a new virtual machine named VM1 from a template, and apply the static IP settings.

New-VM -Name VM1 -VMHost Host -Datastore Storage1 -OSCustomizationSpec Spec -Template
Template

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Modify Multiple NIC Mapping Objects of a Customization

Specification
You can modify multiple NIC mapping objects of a customization specification and apply the
specification to an existing virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Get the network adapters of a virtual machine named VM.

Get-NetworkAdapter VM

When you apply a customization specification, each network adapter of the customized virtual
machine must have a corresponding NIC mapping object. You can correlate network adapters
and NIC mapping objects either by their position numbers, or by MAC address.

2 Create a customization specification named Spec.

New-OSCustomizationSpec -Type NonPersistent -Name Spec -OSType Windows -Workgroup

Workgroup -OrgName Company -Fullname User -ProductKey “valid_key” -ChangeSid -TimeZone
"Central European" -NamingScheme VM

3 Add a new NIC mapping object that uses a static IP address.

New-OSCustomizationNicMapping -Spec Spec -IpMode UseStaticIP -IpAddress 172.16.1.30

-SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -DefaultGateway 172.16.1.1 -Dns 172.16.1.1

4 View the NIC mapping objects and verify that two NIC mapping objects are available.

Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping -Spec Spec

The default NIC mapping object is DHCP enabled, and the newly added one uses a static IP
address.

5 Apply the Spec customization specification to the VM virtual machine.

Get-VM VM | Set-VM -OSCustomizationSpec -Spec Spec

6 Associate a network adapter from the VMNetwork network with the NIC mapping object that
uses DHCP mode.

$netAdapter = Get-NetworkAdapter VM | where { $_.NetworkName -eq 'VMNetwork' }

Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping -Spec Spec | where { $_.IPMode -eq 'UseDHCP' } | Set-
OSCustomizationNicMapping -NetworkAdapterMac $netAdapter.MacAddress

Create Multiple Virtual Machines that Use Static IP

Addresses
You can deploy multiple virtual machines with a single network adapter and configure the
deployed virtual machines to use static IP addresses by applying a customization specification.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you have defined a list of static IP addresses in a CSV file.

Procedure

1 Define the naming convention for the virtual machines.

$vmNameTemplate = "VM-{0:D3}"

2 Save the cluster in which the virtual machines should be created into a variable.

$cluster = Get-Cluster MyCluster

3 Save the template on which the virtual machines should be based into a variable.

$template = Get-Template MyTemplate

4 Create the virtual machines.

$vmList = @()

for ($i = 1; $i –le 100; $i++) {

$vmName = $vmNameTemplate –f $i
$vmList += New-VM –Name $vmName –ResourcePool $cluster –Template $template
}

5 Save the static IP addresses from the stored CSV file into a variable.

$staticIpList = Import-CSV C:\StaticIPs.csv

6 Create the customization specification.

$linuxSpec = New-OSCustomizationSpec –Name LinuxCustomization –Domain vmware.com –

DomainUsername "your_domain_username" –DomainPassword "your_domain_password" –DnsServer
"192.168.0.10", "192.168.0.20" –NamingScheme VM –OSType Linux

7 Clone the customization specification to a nonpersistent type.

$specClone = New-OSCustomizationSpec –Spec $linuxSpec –Type NonPersistent

8 Apply the customization specification to each virtual machine.

for ($i = 0; $i –lt $vmList.Count; $i++) {

# Acquire a new static IP from the list
$ip = $staticIpList[$i].IP

# The specification has a default NIC mapping – retrieve it and update it with the
static IP
$nicMapping = Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping –OSCustomizationSpec $specClone
$nicMapping | Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping –IpMode UseStaticIP –IpAddress $ip –
SubnetMask "255.255.252.0" –DefaultGateway "192.168.0.1"

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# Apply the customization

Set-VM –VM $vmList[$i] –OSCustomizationSpec $specClone –Confirm:$false
}

Create Multiple Virtual Machines with Two Network

Adapters
You can deploy multiple virtual machines with two network adapters each and configure each
adapter to use specific network settings by applying a customization specification.

You can configure each virtual machine to have one network adapter attached to a public network
and one network adapter attached to a private network. You can configure the network adapters
on the public network to use static IP addresses and the network adapters on the private network
to use DHCP.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have defined a list of static IP addresses in a CSV file.

Procedure

1 Define the naming convention for the virtual machines.

$vmNameTemplate = "VM-{0:D3}"

2 Save the cluster in which the virtual machines should be created into a variable.

$cluster = Get-Cluster MyCluster

3 Save the template on which the virtual machines should be based into a variable.

$template = Get-Template MyTemplate

4 Create the virtual machines.

$vmList = @()

for ($i = 1; $i –le 100; $i++) {

$vmName = $vmNameTemplate –f $i
$vmList += New-VM –Name $vmName –ResourcePool $cluster –Template $template
}

5 Save the static IP addresses from the stored CSV file into a variable.

$staticIpList = Import-CSV C:\StaticIPs.csv

6 Create the customization specification.

$linuxSpec = New-OSCustomizationSpec –Name LinuxCustomization –Domain vmware.com –

DnsServer "192.168.0.10", "192.168.0.20" –NamingScheme VM –OSType Linux –Type NonPersistent

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7 Apply the customization specification to each virtual machine.

for ($i = 0; $i –lt $vmList.Count; $i++) {

# Acquire a new static IP from the list
$ip = $staticIpList[$i].IP

# Remove any NIC mappings from the specification

$nicMapping = Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping –OSCustomizationSpec $linuxSpec
Remove-OSCustomizationNicMapping –OSCustomizationNicMapping $nicMapping –Confirm:$false

# Retrieve the virtual machine’s network adapter attached to the public network named
"Public"
$publicNIC = $vmList[$i] | Get-NetworkAdapter | where {$_.NetworkName -eq "Public"}

# Retrieve the virtual machine’s network adapter attached to the private network named
"Private"
$privateNIC = $vmList[$i] | Get-NetworkAdapter | where {$_.NetworkName -eq "Private"}

# Create a NIC mapping for the "Public" NIC that should use static IP
$linuxSpec | New-OSCustomizationNicMapping –IpMode UseStaticIP –IpAddress
$ip –SubnetMask "255.255.252.0" –DefaultGateway "192.168.0.1" –NetworkAdapterMac
$publicNIC.MacAddress

# Create a NIC mapping for the "Private" NIC that should use DHCP
$linuxSpec | New-OSCustomizationNicMapping –IpMode UseDhcp –NetworkAdapterMac
$privateNIC.MacAddress

# Apply the customization

Set-VM –VM $vmList[$i] –OSCustomizationSpec $linuxSpec –Confirm:$false
}

Create a vSphere Role and Assign Permissions to a User

With PowerCLI, you can automate management of vSphere permissions, roles, and privileges.

Note vSphere permissions determine your level of access to vCenter Server, and ESXi hosts.
Privileges define individual rights to perform actions and access object properties. Roles are
predefined sets of privileges.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the privileges of the Readonly role.

$readOnlyPrivileges = Get-VIPrivilege -Role Readonly

2 Create a new role with custom privileges.

$role1 = New-VIRole -Privilege $readOnlyPrivileges -Name Role1

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3 Add the PowerOn privileges to the new role.

$powerOnPrivileges = Get-VIPrivilege -Name "PowerOn"

$role1 = Set-VIRole –Role $role1 –AddPrivilege $powerOnPrivileges

4 Create a permission and apply it to a vSphere root object.

$rootFolder = Get-Folder -NoRecursion

$permission1 = New-VIPermission -Entity $rootFolder -Principal "user" -Role readonly
-Propagate

The Principal parameter accepts both local and domain users and groups if the vCenter
Server system is joined in AD.

5 Update the new permission with the custom role.

$permission1 = Set-VIPermission -Permission $permission1 -Role $role1

Results

You created a new role and assigned permissions to a user.

View Actions and Triggers for an Alarm on vCenter Server

You can see which actions and triggers are configured for an alarm.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get all PowerCLI supported alarm actions for the Host Processor Status alarm.

Get-AlarmDefinition -Name "Host Processor Status" | Get-AlarmAction -ActionType

"ExecuteScript", "SendSNMP", "SendEmail"

2 Get all the triggers for the first alarm definition found.

Get-AlarmDefinition | select -First 1 | Get-AlarmTrigger

Create Alarm Definitions on vCenter Server

With PowerCLI, you can create vCenter Server alarm definitions.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Create an alarm action trigger.

$actionTrigger = New-AlarmActionTrigger -StartStatus Green -EndStatus Yellow

2 Create an alarm action email.

$emailAction = New-AlarmAction -Email -To '[email protected]' -CC @('[email protected]',

'[email protected]') -Body 'Email text' -Subject 'Email subject' -AlarmActionTrigger
$actionTrigger

3 Create an event-based alarm trigger.

$vmReconfigEvt = Get-EventType | Where-Object {$_.Description -eq "VM reconfigured"}

$eventTrigger = New-AlarmTrigger -EventType $vmReconfigEvt -EntityStatus Yellow
-EntityType "VirtualMachine"

4 Create an alarm definition.

$vm = Get-VM | Select-Object -First 1

New-AlarmDefinition -Name "MyAlarm" -Description "Description" -AlarmTrigger $eventTrigger
-AlarmAction $emailAction -Entity $vm

Modify Alarm Definitions on vCenter Server

With PowerCLI, you can modify vCenter Server alarm definitions.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 For all host alarms, modify the interval after the action repeats.

Get-AlarmDefinition -Entity (Get-VMHost) | foreach { $_ | Set-AlarmDefinition

-ActionRepeatMinutes ($_.ActionRepeatMinutes + 1)}

2 Modify the name and the description of a selected alarm definition, and enable the alarm.

Get-AlarmDefinition -Name AlarmDefinition | Set-AlarmDefinition -Name AlarmDefinitionNew

-Description 'Alarm Definition Description' -Enabled:$true

Create Alarm Actions and Triggers on vCenter Server

With PowerCLI, you can create vCenter Server alarm actions and triggers.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Create an alarm action email for the renamed alarm definition.

Get-AlarmDefinition -Name AlarmDefinitionNew | New-AlarmAction -Email -To

'[email protected]' -CC @('[email protected]', '[email protected]') -Body 'Email text'
-Subject 'Email subject'

2 Create an snmp alarm action.

Get-AlarmDefinition -Name AlarmDefinitionNew | New-AlarmAction -Snmp

3 Create a script alarm action.

Get-AlarmDefinition -Name AlarmDefinitionNew | New-AlarmAction -Script -ScriptPath

'c:\test.ps1'

4 Create a metric-based alarm trigger.

$metric = Get-Metric -MetricGroup CPU -Name Usage | Where-Object {$_.Key -eq 2}

$metricTrigger = New-AlarmTrigger -Metric $metric -Red 9000 -RedIntervalSeconds 3000
-EntityType "VirtualMachine" -MetricAlarmOperator Above

5 Create a state-based alarm trigger.

$stateTrigger = New-AlarmTrigger -StatePath "runtime.powerState" -Value "poweredOff"

-EntityStatus Red -EntityType "VirtualMachine" -StateAlarmOperator Equal

Remove Alarm Definitions and Actions

In some cases, you might want to remove obsolete alarm definitions and actions.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Remove all the actions for an alarm definition.

Get-AlarmDefinition -Name AlarmDefinition | Get-AlarmAction | Remove-AlarmAction

-Confirm:$false

2 Remove an alarm definition.

Get-AlarmDefinition -Name AlarmDefinition | Remove-AlarmDefinition

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Create and Modify Advanced Settings for a Cluster

You can customize the behavior of a cluster on a vCenter Server system by creating and modifying
custom advanced settings for it.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Create a new cluster named Cluster.

$cluster = New-Cluster -Name Cluster -Location (Get-Datacenter Datacenter)

2 Create two advanced settings for the new cluster.

$setting1 = New-AdvancedSetting -Type "ClusterHA" -Entity $cluster -Name

'das.defaultfailoverhost' -Value '192.168.10.1'
$setting2 = New-AdvancedSetting -Type "ClusterHA" -Entity $cluster -Name
'das.isolationaddress' -Value '192.168.10.2'

3 Modify the value of the advanced setting stored in the $setting2 variable.

Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity $cluster -Name 'das.isolationaddress' | Set-AdvancedSetting

-Value '192.168.10.3' -Confirm:$false

4 Create another advanced setting.

New-AdvancedSetting -Entity $cluster -Name 'das.allowNetwork[Service Console]' -Value

$true -Type 'ClusterHA'

5 Get the Service Console setting and store it in a variable.

$setting3 = Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity $entity -Name 'das.allowNetwork`[Service Console`]'

The ` character is used to escape the wildcard characters [ and ] in the advanced setting name.

Modify the vCenter Server Email Configuration

You can modify the email configuration settings of a vCenter Server.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 View the current email configuration settings of the vCenter Server from the $srv variable.

Get-AdvancedSetting –Entity $srv –Name mail.*

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2 Update the SMTP server name and port.

Get-AdvancedSetting –Entity $srv –Name mail.smtp.server | Set-AdvancedSetting –Value

smtp.vmware.com
Get-AdvancedSetting –Entity $srv –Name mail.smtp.port | Set-AdvancedSetting –Value 25

Modify the vCenter Server SNMP Configuration

To use SNMP, you must first configure the SNMP settings of the vCenter Server.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 View the current SNMP configuration settings of the vCenter Server from the $srv variable.

Get-AdvancedSetting –Entity $srv –Name snmp.*

2 Modify the SNMP receiver data.

Get-AdvancedSetting –Entity $srv –Name snmp.receiver.2.community | Set-AdvancedSetting –

Value public
Get-AdvancedSetting –Entity $srv –Name snmp.receiver.2.enabled | Set-AdvancedSetting –
Value $true
Get-AdvancedSetting –Entity $srv –Name snmp.receiver.2.name | Set-AdvancedSetting –Value
192.168.1.10

Results

Now you can use SNMP with vCenter Server.

Use Esxtop to Get Information on the Virtual CPUs of a

Virtual Machine
You can use the Get-EsxTop cmdlet to retrieve real-time data for troubleshooting performance
problems.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a server that runs ESX 4.1, vCenter Server 5.0 or later.

Procedure

1 Get the group to which the virtual machine belongs and save it as a variable.

$group = Get-EsxTop -CounterName SchedGroup | where {$_.VMName -eq $vm.Name}

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2 Get the IDs of all virtual CPUs of the virtual machine and store them in an array.

$gr = Get-EsxTop -TopologyInfo -Topology SchedGroup | %{$_.Entries} | where

{$group.GroupID -contains $_.GroupId} $group.GroupID
$cpuIds = @()
$gr.CpuClient | %{$cpuIds += $_.CPUClientID}

3 Get the CPU statistics for the virtual machine.

$cpuStats = Get-EsxTop -CounterName VCPU | where {$cpuIds -contains $_.VCPUID}

4 Calculate the used and ready for use percentage by using the UsedTimeInUsec and
ReadyTimeInUsec stats.

$result = @()
$cpuStats | %{ `
$row = "" | select VCPUID, Used, Ready; `
$row.VCPUID = $_.VCPUID; `
$row.Used = [math]::Round(([double]$_.UsedTimeInUsec/[double]$_.UpTimeInUsec)*100, 2); `
$row.Ready = [math]::Round(([double]$_.ReadyTimeInUsec/[double]$_.UpTimeInUsec)*100, 2);`
$result += $row
}

5 View the used and ready for use percentage for each virtual CPU of the virtual machine.

$result | Format-Table –AutoSize

Filter vSphere Objects with Get-View

You can use the Get-View cmdlet to filter vSphere objects before performing various actions on
them.

The filter parameter is a HashTable object containing one or more pairs of filter criteria. Each of the
criteria consists of a property path and a value that represents a regular expression pattern used
to match the property.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Create a filter by the power state and the guest operating system name of the virtual
machines.

$filter = @{"Runtime.PowerState" ="poweredOn"; "Config.GuestFullName" = "Windows XP"}

2 Get a list of the virtual machines by using the created filter and call the ShutdownGuest method
for each virtual machine in the list.

Get-View -ViewType "VirtualMachine" -Filter $filter | foreach{$_.ShutdownGuest()}

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Results

The filter gets a list of the powered-on virtual machines whose guest OS names contain the string
Windows XP. The Get-View cmdlet then initiates shutdown for each guest operating system in the
list.

Populate a View Object with Get-View

To save time and efforts, you can use Get-View to retrieve PowerCLI views from previously
retrieved view objects.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get a view of the VM2 virtual machine by name.

$vm2 = Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Filter @{"Name" = "VM2"}

2 Populate the $vmhostView object.

$vmhostView = Get-View -Id $vm2.Runtime.Host

3 Retrieve the runtime information for the $vmhostView object.

$vmhostView.Summary.Runtime

Update the State of a Server-Side Object

You can use the Get-View cmdlet to update server-side objects.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the VM2 virtual machine by name.

$vm2 = Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Filter @{"Name" = "VM2"}

$vmhostView = Get-View -Id $vm2.Runtime.Host

2 View the current power state.

$vm2.Runtime.PowerState

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3 Power off the virtual machine.

If ($vm2.Runtime.PowerState -ne “PoweredOn”) {

$vm.PowerOnVM($vm2.Runtime.Host)
} else {
$vm2.PowerOffVM()
}

4 View the value of the $vm2 power state.

$vm2.Runtime.PowerState

The power state is not updated yet because the virtual machine property values are not
updated automatically.

5 Update the view object.

$vm2.UpdateViewData()

6 Obtain the actual power state of the virtual machine.

$vm2.Runtime.PowerState

Reboot a Host with Get-View

You can reboot a host by using its corresponding view object.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Use the Get-VMHost cmdlet to get a host by its name, and pass the result to the Get-View
cmdlet to get the corresponding view object.

$vmhostView = Get-VMHost -Name Host | Get-View

2 Call the reboot method of the host view object to reboot the host.

$vmhostView.RebootHost()

Modify the CPU Levels of a Virtual Machine with Get–View

and Get–VIObjectByVIView
You can modify the CPU levels of a virtual machine using a combination of the Get-View and
Get-VIObjectByVIView cmdlets.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the VM2 virtual machine, shut it down, and pass it to the Get-View cmdlet to view the
virtual machine view object.

$vmView = Get-VM VM2 | Stop-VM | Get-View

2 Create a VirtualMachineConfigSpec object to modify the virtual machine CPU levels and call
the ReconfigVM method of the virtual machine view managed object.

$spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec;

$spec.CPUAllocation = New-Object VMware.Vim.ResourceAllocationInfo;
$spec.CpuAllocation.Shares = New-Object VMware.Vim.SharesInfo;
$spec.CpuAllocation.Shares.Level = "normal";
$spec.CpuAllocation.Limit = -1;
$vmView .ReconfigVM_Task($spec)

3 Get the virtual machine object by using the Get-VIObjectByVIView cmdlet and start the
virtual machine.

$vm = Get-VIObjectByVIView $vmView | Start-VM

Browse the Default Inventory Drive

You can browse the default inventory drive and view its contents.

Note For more information about the Inventory Provider and the default inventory drive, see
PowerCLI Inventory Provider.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Navigate to the vi inventory drive.

cd vi:

2 View the drive content.

dir

dir is an alias of the Get-ChildItem cmdlet.

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Create a New Custom Inventory Drive

In addition to the default drive, you can create new custom inventory drives by using the New-
PSDrive cmdlet.

Note An alternative to creating an inventory drive is to map an existing inventory

path. For example, run: New-PSDrive -Name myVi -PSProvider VimInventory -Root
“vi:\Folder01\Datacenter01”.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the root folder of the server.

$root = Get-Folder -NoRecursion

2 Create a PowerShell drive named myVi in the server root folder.

New-PSDrive -Location $root -Name myVi -PSProvider VimInventory -Root '\'

Note You can use the New-InventoryDrive cmdlet, which is an alias of New-PSDrive.
This cmdlet creates a new inventory drive using the Name and Datastore parameters. For
example: Get-Folder -NoRecursion | New-VIInventoryDrive -Name myVi.

Manage Inventory Objects Through Inventory Drives

You can use the PowerCLI Inventory Provider to browse, modify, and remove inventory objects
from inventory drives.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Navigate to a host in your server inventory by running the cd command with the full path to
the host.

cd Folder01\DataCenter01\host\Web\Host01

2 View the content of the host using the ls command.

ls

ls is the UNIX style alias of the Get-ChildItem cmdlet.

This command returns the virtual machines and the root resource pool of the host.

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3 View only the virtual machines on the host.

Get-VM

When called within the inventory drive, Get-VM gets a list only of the virtual machines on the
current drive location.

4 Delete a virtual machine named VM1.

del VM1

5 Rename a virtual machine, for example, from VM1New to VM1.

ren VM1New VM1

6 Start all virtual machines with names that start with VM.

dir VM* | Start-VM

Browse the Default Datastore Drives

You can use the PowerCLI Datastore Provider to browse the default datastore drives: vmstore
and vmstores.

Note For more information about default datastore drives, see PowerCLI Datastore Provider.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Navigate to the vmstore drive.

cd vmstore:

2 View the drive content.

dir

Create a New Custom Datastore Drive

You can use the PowerCLI Datastore Provider to create custom datastore drives.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Get a datastore by its name and assign it to the $datastore variable.

$datastore = Get-Datastore Storage1

2 Create a new PowerShell drive ds: in $datastore.

New-PSDrive -Location $datastore -Name ds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\'

Note You can use the New-PSDrive cmdlet, which is an alias of New-DatastoreDrive.
It creates a new datastore drive using the Name and Datastore parameters. For example:
Get-Datastore Storage1 | New-DatastoreDrive -Name ds.

Manage Datastores Through Datastore Drives

You can use the PowerCLI Datastore Provider to browse datastores from datastore drives.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Navigate to a folder on the ds: drive.

cd VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine

2 View the files of the folder by running the ls command.

ls

ls is the UNIX style alias of the Get-ChildItem cmdlet.

3 Rename a file by running the Rename-Item cmdlet or its alias ren.

For example, to change the name of the vmware-3.log file to vmware-3old.log, run:

ren vmware-3.log vmware-3old.log

All file operations apply only on files in the current folder.

4 Delete a file by running the Remove-Item cmdlet or its alias del.

For example, to remove the vmware-3old.log file from the XPVirtualMachine folder, run:

del ds:\VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-2.log

5 Copy a file by running the Copy-Item cmdlet or its alias copy.

copy ds:\VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-3old.log ds:\VirtualMachines\vmware-3.log

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6 Copy a file to another datastore by running the Copy-Item cmdlet or its alias copy.

copy ds:\Datacenter01\Datastore01\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-1.log
ds:\Datacenter01\Datastore02\XPVirtualMachine02\vmware.log

7 Create a new folder by running the New-Item cmdlet or its alias mkdir.

mkdir -Path ds:\VirtualMachines -Name Folder01 -Type Folder

8 Download a file from the datastore drive to the local machine by running the Copy-
DatastoreItem cmdlet.

Copy-DatastoreItem ds:\VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-3.log C:\Temp\vmware-3.log

9 Upload a file from the local machine by running the Copy-DatastoreItem cmdlet.

Copy-DatastoreItem C:\Temp\vmware-3.log
ds:\VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-3new.log

Modify the Timeout Setting for Web Tasks

To avoid unexpected timeouts, you can run Set-PowerCLIConfiguration to modify the
PowerCLI settings for long-running Web tasks.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 (Optional) Learn more about what settings you can configure with Set-
PowerCLIConfiguration.

Get-Help Set-PowerCLIConfiguration

2 Store the value of the timeout setting for the current session in the $initialTimeout variable.

$initialTimeout = (Get-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope Session).WebOperationTimeoutSeconds

3 Set the timeout setting for the current session to 30 minutes.

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope Session -WebOperationTimeoutSeconds 1800

4 Run your Web task.

n You can run an esxcli command to install a software profile.

$vmHost = Get-VMHost "vmHostIp"

$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $vmHost -V2

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$arguments = $esxcli.software.profile.install.CreateArgs()
$arguments.depot = "http://mysite.com/publish/proj/index.xml"
$arguments.profile = "proj-version"
$esxcli.software.profile.install.Invoke($arguments)

n Alternatively, you can directly specify the arguments hash table in-line.

$vmHost = Get-VMHost "vmHostIp"

$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $vmHost -V2
$esxcli.software.profile.install.Invoke(@{depot="http://mysite.com/publish/proj/
index.xml"; profile="proj-version"})

Note The two examples use the ESXCLI V2 interface of PowerCLI.

5 Revert the timeout setting for the current session to the initial value.

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope Session -WebOperationTimeoutSeconds $initialTimeout

Using Tags
You can assign tags to different types of objects, such as virtual machines, resource pools,
datastores, and vSphere distributed switches. You can use tags to retrieve a specific group of
objects.

Retrieve a Tag and Save It into a Variable

You can retrieve existing tags defined in vSphere and save a specific tag into a variable.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the tag named MyTag.

Get-Tag -Name 'MyTag'

2 Save the tag into a variable.

$tag = Get-Tag -Name 'MyTag'

Retrieve a Tag Category and Save It into a Variable

You can retrieve existing tag categories defined in vSphere and save a specific tag category into a
variable.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Get the tag category named MyTagCategory.

Get-TagCategory -Name 'MyTagCategory'

2 Save the tag category into a variable.

$tagCategory = Get-TagCategory -Name 'MyTagCategory'

Create a Tag Category and a Tag

You can create a tag category and add a new tag in that category.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Create a tag category named Department.

$departmentTagCategory = New-TagCategory -Name 'Department'

2 Create a new tag named SalesDpt in the Department category.

$salesDptTag = New-Tag -Name 'SalesDpt' -Category $departmentTagCategory

Assign a Tag to Virtual Machines

You can assign a tag to a group of virtual machines. For example, you can assign a custom tag to
all virtual machines that belong to a specific department in your organization.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the virtual machines of a department in your organization.

$vms = Get-VM sales-dpt*

2 Assign the custom tag to the group of virtual machines.

New-TagAssignment -Tag $salesDptTag -Entity $vms

Retrieve Objects by Tag

You can retrieve all objects that have a specific tag assigned to them.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

u Get all virtual machines tagged with the salesDptTag tag.

Get-VM -Tag 'salesDptTag'

Note You can only specify a tag filter parameter for the VM, VMHost, Datastore, and
VirtualPortGroup object types.

Generate Tags Automatically by Using a Script

You can use a script to generate tags automatically. For example, you can create a virtual machine
owner tag for each user account in a domain.

You must use the Get-VIAccount cmdlet to retrieve user accounts. For more information, see the
documentation of the cmdlet.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that the user accounts and the vCenter Server system are in the same domain.

Procedure

1 Create a new tag category and specify that tags in this category can only be assigned to
entities of type VirtualMachine.

$ownerTagCategory = New-TagCategory -Name Owner -EntityType VirtualMachine

Note If you do not specify an entity type, tags from this category can be assigned to all entity
types.

2 Retrieve all domain user accounts and save them in a variable.

$accounts = Get-VIAccount -User -Domain 'DomainName' -Category | select -ExpandProperty Id

3 Create a tag for each user account.

$accounts | foreach { New-Tag -Category $ownerTagCategory -Name $_ }

4 Retrieve a specific tag from the Owner category, so that you can later assign it to a specific
virtual machine.

$ownerTag = Get-Tag -Category $ownerTagCategory -Name 'John_Smith'

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Add an Entity Type to a Tag Category

You can extend the list of entity types associated with a tag category.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

u Add the vApp entity type to the ownerTagCategory tag category.

$ownerTagCategory | Set-TagCategory -AddEntityType vApp

Retrieve Tag Assignments

You can retrieve tag assignments by using category and entity filters.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve all virtual machines that have a tag from the ownerTagCategory tag category
assigned to them.

Get-TagAssignment -Category $ownerTagCategory

2 Retrieve the owner of the MyVM virtual machine.

Get-TagAssignment -Category $ownerTagCategory -Entity 'MyVM'

Network Management with vSphere Distributed Switches

The cmdlets provided in the VMware.VimAutomation.VDS module let you manage networking
with vSphere distributed switches and port groups.

Create a Distributed Switch and Configure Networking

A vSphere distributed switch lets you handle networking traffic for all associated hosts in a data
center. After you create a new vSphere distributed switch in PowerCLI, you can add hosts and
connect virtual machines to it.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Get the data center where you want to create the vSphere distributed switch.

$myDatacenter = Get-Datacenter -Name "MyDatacenter"

2 Get all hosts in your data center.

$vmHosts = $myDatacenter | Get-VMHost

3 Create a new vSphere distributed switch.

$myVDSwitch = New-VDSwitch -Name "MyVDSwitch" -Location $myDatacenter

The distributed switch is created with no port groups.

4 Add the hosts in your data center to the distributed switch.

Add-VDSwitchVMHost -VDSwitch $myVDSwitch -VMHost $vmHosts

5 Get a physical network adapter from your hosts.

$hostsPhysicalNic = $vmHosts | Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -Name "vmnic2"

6 Add the physical network adapter to the distributed switch that you created.

Add-VDSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter -VMHostNetworkAdapter $hostsPhysicalNic

-DistributedSwitch $myVDSwitch

7 Create a new distributed port group with 1000 ports and add it to the distributed switch.

$myVDPortGroup = New-VDPortgroup -Name "MyVMsPortGroup" -VDSwitch $myVDSwitch -NumPorts

1000

8 Connect all virtual machines running on the hosts in your data center to the distributed port
group.

$vmHosts | Get-VM | Get-NetworkAdapter | Set-NetworkAdapter -PortGroup $myVDPortGroup

What to do next

Adjust the settings of the distributed switch. See Configure a Distributed Switch.

Configure a Distributed Switch

Based on your networking requirements, you can adjust the settings of a newly created or an
existing distributed switch.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

u Modify the maximum MTU size setting for a distributed switch.

Get-VDSwitch -Name 'MyVDSwitch' | Set-VDSwitch -Mtu 2000

u Modify the number of uplink ports on a distributed switch.

Get-VDSwitch -Name 'MyVDSwitch' | Set-VDSwitch -NumUplinkPorts 4

u Modify the maximum number of ports on a distributed switch.

Get-VDSwitch -Name 'MyVDSwitch' | Set-VDSwitch -MaxPorts 1000

u Modify the discovery protocol settings on a vSphere distributed switch.

Get-VDSwitch -Name 'MyVDSwitch' | Set-VDSwitch -LinkDiscoveryProtocol LLDP

-LinkDiscoveryProtocolOperation Both

Migrate Virtual Machine Networking Configuration from a vSphere

Standard Switch to a vSphere Distributed Switch
To manage virtual machine networks on a data center level, you might need to migrate existing
networks from vSphere standard switches to vSphere distributed switches.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the source vSphere standard switch from which you want to migrate the virtual machine
networking.

$virtualSwitch = Get-VirtualSwitch -Name 'MyVirtualSwitch'

2 Get the source standard port group to which the virtual machines are connected.

$vmsPortGroup = $virtualSwitch | Get-VirtualPortGroup -Name 'VM Network'

3 Get the target vSphere distributed switch to which you want to migrate the virtual machine
networking.

$vdSwitch = Get-VDSwitch -Name 'MyTargetVDSwitch'

4 Get the target port group to which you want to connect the virtual machines.

$vdPortGroup = Get-VDPortGroup -VDSwitch $vdSwitch -Name 'DPortGroup'

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5 Get the virtual machine network adapters connected to the source port group.

$vmsNetworkAdapters = Get-VM -RelatedObject $vmsPortGroup | Get-NetworkAdapter | where

{ $_.NetworkName -eq $vmsPortGroup.Name }

6 Disconnect the retrieved network adapters from the standard port group and connect them to
the distributed port group.

Set-NetworkAdapter -NetworkAdapter $vmsNetworkAdapters -PortGroup $vdPortGroup

Migrate Physical and Virtual NICs to a vSphere Standard Switch

You can migrate both physical and virtual network adapters to a vSphere standard switch
simultaneously.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the physical network adapters that you want to migrate.

$pNics = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost $vmhost -Physical

2 Get the virtual network adapters that you want to migrate.

$vNicManagement = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost $vmhost -Name vmk0

$vNicvMotion = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost $vmhost -Name vmk1

3 Get the vSphere standard switch to which you want to migrate the network adapters.

$vSwitch = Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost $vmhost -Name vSwitch0

4 Migrate all network adapters to the vSphere standard switch.

Add-VirtualSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter -VirtualSwitch $vSwitch -VMHostPhysicalNic $pNics

-VMHostVirtualNic $vNicManagement,$vNicvMotion

Migrate Physical and Virtual NICs to a vSphere Distributed Switch

You can migrate both physical and virtual network adapters to a vSphere distributed switch
simultaneously.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

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Procedure

1 Get the physical network adapters that you want to migrate.

$pNics = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost $vmhost -Physical

2 Get the virtual network adapters that you want to migrate.

$vNicManagement = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost $vmhost -Name vmk0

$vNicvMotion = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost $vmhost -Name vmk1

3 Get the port groups corresponding to the virtual network adapters that you want to migrate to
the vSphere distributed switch.

$vdPortgroupManagement = Get-VDPortgroup -VDSwitch $vds -Name 'Management Network'

$vdPortgroupvMotion = Get-VDPortgroup -VDSwitch $vds -Name 'vMotion Network'

4 Migrate all network adapters to the vSphere distributed switch.

Add-VDSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter -DistributedSwitch $vds -VMHostPhysicalNic

$pNics -VMHostVirtualNic $vNicManagement,$vNicvMotion -VirtualNicPortGroup
$vdPortGroupManagement, $vdPortGroupvMotion

Results

You migrated the $vNicManagement network adapter to the Management Network port group
and the $vNicvMotion network adapter to the vMotion Network port group.

Configure the Traffic Shaping Policy

You can modify the traffic shaping policy of a port group to limit the bandwidth of the incoming
traffic and ensure that enough bandwidth is available for other port groups on the same vSphere
distributed switch.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the current traffic shaping policy of the port group.

$policy = Get-VDTrafficShapingPolicy -Direction In -VDPortGroup $myVDPortGroup

2 Set the peak bandwidth to 100 Mbps.

Set-VDTrafficShapingPolicy -Policy $policy -PeakBandwidth 104857600

Configure the Security Policy

You can modify the security policy of a port group to enable promiscuous mode, which allows
monitoring of the traffic generated by virtual machines.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the current security policy of the port group.

$policy = Get-VDSecurityPolicy -VDPortGroup $myVDPortGroup

2 Enable promiscuous mode for the port group.

Set-VDSecurityPolicy $policy -AllowPromiscuous $true

Create a Local Content Library

With PowerCLI, you can create a local content library.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the datastore that you want to use to store files for library items in this library.

$datastore = Get-Datastore myDatastore

2 Create the My Local Content Library published local content library that uses the myDatastore
datastore.

New-ContentLibrary -Name 'My Local Content Library' -Description 'Local content library
description.' -Datastore $Datastore1 -Published

Create a Subscribed Content Library

With PowerCLI, you can create a subscribed content library.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

u Create the My Subscribed Content Library subscribed content library that uses the
myDatastore datastore.

New-ContentLibrary -Name 'My Subscribed Content Library' -Description 'Subscribed content

library description.' -Datastore $Datastore1 -SubscriptionUrl $Url

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Create a Content Library Item

With PowerCLI, you can create content library items.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the files that you want to upload to the content library.

$files = Get-ChildItem -File

2 Get the content library that you want to upload.

$contentLibrary = Get-ContentLibrary -name 'MyContentLibrary'

3 Create a content library item.

New-ContentLibraryItem -ContentLibrary $contentLibrary -name 'New item' -Files $files

Create a Virtual Machine from a Content Library Item

You can deploy a virtual machine from a content library template.

Note VMware PowerCLI cannot distinguish between OVF content library items of type virtual
machine template and vApp template. As a result, New-VM creates a vApp if you specify a vApp
template from the content library by using the ContentLibraryItem parameter of the cmdlet. If
this happens, New-VM returns an error, notifying that the cmdlet produced an inventory item of the
wrong type. Avoid creating vApps by using the New-VM cmdlet, as this behavior will be deprecated
in future releases.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have a content library with virtual machine templates available.

Procedure

1 Get the virtual machine host.

$myVMHost = Get-VMHost myVMHost

2 Create the MyVM virtual machine from the MyVMContentLibrayItemName content library item.

Get-ContentLibraryItem –Name MyVMContentLibrayItemName | New-VM –Name MyVM –VMHost

$myVMHost

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Create a vApp from a Content Library Item

You can deploy a vApp from a content library template.

Note VMware PowerCLI cannot distinguish between OVF content library items of type virtual
machine template and vApp template. As a result, New-VApp creates a virtual machine if you
specify a virtual machine template from the content library by using the ContentLibraryItem
parameter of the cmdlet. If this happens, New-VApp returns an error, notifying that the cmdlet
produced an inventory item of the wrong type. Avoid creating virtual machines by using the
New-VApp cmdlet, as this behavior will be deprecated in future releases.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have a content library with vApp templates available.

Procedure

1 Get the virtual machine host.

$myVMHost = Get-VMHost myVMHost

2 Create the MyVApp vApp from the MyVAppContentLibrayItemName content library item.

Get-ContentLibraryItem –Name MyVAppContentLibrayItemName | New-VApp –Name MyVApp –VMHost

$myVMHost

Export Content Library Item's Files to a Local Machine

With PowerCLI, you can export content library item's files to a local machine.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get a content library item.

$item = Get-ContentLibraryItem -Name 'myVM'

2 Export a content library item to a local machine.

Export-ContentLibraryItem -ContentLibraryItem $item -Destination ./myVM-files

Create a New VM-VM DRS Rule

You can create a VM-VM DRS affinity rule within a cluster.

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Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that virtual machines and hosts exist within a cluster with enabled DRS in the vCenter
Server environment.

Procedure

1 Get the virtual machines for the VM-VM DRS rule.

$affinityVMs = Get-VM "VM1", "VM2"

2 Get the cluster where you want to create the rule.

$cluster = Get-Cluster "MyCluster"

3 Create the VM-VM DRS rule within the MyCluster cluster.

New-DrsRule -Cluster $cluster -Name "AffinityRule1" -KeepTogether $true -VM $affinityVMs

Create a New VM-VMHost DRS Rule

You can create a VM-VMHost DRS rule within a cluster after creating a VM DRS cluster group and
a VMHost DRS cluster group.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that virtual machines and hosts exist within a cluster with enabled DRS in the vCenter
Server environment.

Procedure

1 Get the virtual machines for the VM DRS cluster group.

$vms = Get-VM "VM1", "VM2"

2 Get the hosts for the VMHost DRS cluster group.

$vmHosts = Get-VMHost "hostname1", "hostname2"

3 Get the cluster where you want to create the rule.

$cluster = Get-Cluster "MyCluster"

4 Create a VM DRS cluster group.

$vmGroup = New-DrsClusterGroup -Name "MyVmsDrsClusterGroup" -VM $vms -Cluster $cluster

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5 Create a VMHost DRS cluster group.

$vmHostGroup = New-DrsClusterGroup -Name "MyVmHostsDrsClusterGroup" -VMHost $vmHosts

-Cluster $cluster

6 Create the VM-VMHost DRS rule by using the newly created VM DRS cluster group and
VMHost DRS cluster group.

New-DrsVMHostRule -Name "MyDrsRule" -Cluster $cluster -VMGroup $vmGroup -VMHostGroup

$vmHostGroup -Type "MustRunOn"

Managing Certificates
You can use VMware PowerCLI to manage certificates for both vCenter Server and ESXi no matter
if you are using Hybrid, Subordinate CA, or Full Custom Mode.

Starting from VMware PowerCLI 12.4.0, you can do various certificate management operations
in your vSphere environment. The certificate management functionality is included in the
VMware.PowerCLI.VCenter module.

Add a Root Certificate to vCenter Server and ESXi

You can use PowerCLI to add a root certificate or certificate chain to the trusted root store of
vCenter Server and to the certificate stores of the connected ESXi hosts.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that the root certificate or certificate chain you want to add is available on your machine.

Procedure

1 (Optional) List the trusted root certificates on your vCenter Server system and the connected
ESXi hosts.

Get-VITrustedCertificate

2 Create a variable with the root certificate or certificate chain you want to add.

$trustedCertChain = Get-Content "C:\Users\jdoe\Downloads\ca-chain.cert.pem" -Raw

3 Add the root certificate or certificate chain to vCenter Server and to the connected ESXi hosts

Add-VITrustedCertificate -PemCertificateOrChain $trustedCertChain

4 (Optional) Verify that your new root certificate or certificate chain has been added to the
trusted certificate stores.

Get-VITrustedCertificate

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Change the Machine SSL Certificate of vCenter Server

You can use PowerCLI to change the Machine SSL certificate of a vCenter Server system. For
a custom certificate, you must generate a certificate signing request (CSR) and send it to the
certificate authority (CA) of your choice.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that the root certificate of the CA you are going to use is added to the trusted root store
of vCenter Server.

Procedure

1 (Optional) Retrieve the current Machine SSL certificate of the vCenter Server system.

Get-VIMachineCertificate -VCenterOnly

2 Generate a CSR.

$csrParams = @{
Country="US"
Email="[email protected]"
Locality="San Francisco"
Organization="My Company"
OrganizationUnit="PowerCLI"
StateOrProvince="California"
}
$csr = New-VIMachineCertificateSigningRequest @csrParams

3 Save the CSR to your system.

$csr.CertificateRequestPEM | Out-File "C:\Users\jdoe\Downloads\vc.csr.pem" -Force

4 Send the CSR to the CA of your choice.

5 Save the issued custom certificate to your system.

6 Set the new custom certificate to the vCenter Server system.

$vcCert = Get-Content "C:\Users\jdoe\Downloads\vc.cert.jdoe.pem" -Raw

Set-VIMachineCertificate -PemCertificate $vcCert

Important The change of the Machine SSL certificate triggers a restart of vCenter Server.
Wait for the system to reboot and login when available.

Change the Machine SSL Certificate of an ESXi Host

You can use PowerCLI to change the Machine SSL certificates of one or more ESXi hosts in your
vSphere environment.

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Prerequisites

n Verify that the root certificate of the CA you are going to use is added to the trusted root store
of vCenter Server and to the connected ESXi hosts.

Procedure

1 Connect to the vCenter Server system.

$vCenterConnection = Connect-VIServer vc1.example.com `

-User 'My User' `
-Password 'My Password'

2 In the vCenter Server system, retrieve the setting for the ESXi host certificate management
mode.

$certModeSetting = Get-AdvancedSetting "vpxd.certmgmt.mode" -Entity $vCenterConnection

$certModeSetting.Value

3 Change the setting to custom.

Set-AdvancedSetting $certModeSetting -Value "custom"

4 For the new certificate management mode to take effect, reboot your vCenter Server system.

5 Connect to the vCenter Server system.

$vCenterConnection = Connect-VIServer vc1.example.com `

-User 'My User' `
-Password 'My Password'

6 Set the ESXi host you want to manage to Maintenance mode.

$vmhost = Get-VMHost 'MyESXiHost' `

Set-VMHost -VMHost $vmhost -State Maintenance

7 Generate a certificate signing request (CSR) for the ESXi host.

$esxRequest = New-VIMachineCertificateSigningRequest `
-VMHost $vmhost `
-Country "US" `
-Locality "San Francisco" `
-Organization "My Company" `
-OrganizationUnit "PowerCLI" `
-StateOrProvince "California" `
-CommonName <ESXi host's FQDN> or <ESXi host's IP address>

Note For CommonName, you must use either the ESXi host's FQDN or IP address. The
common name must match the identifier you use to add the host to the vCenter Server system.

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8 Save the CSR to your system.

$esxRequest.CertificateRequestPEM | Out-File "C:\Users\jdoe\Downloads\esx.csr.pem" -Force

9 Send the CSR to the CA of your choice.

10 Save the issued custom certificate to your machine.

11 Create a variable with your issued custom certificate.

$esxCertificatePem = Get-Content "C:\Users\jdoe\downloads\myesxcert.pem" -Raw

12 Remove the ESXi host from the vCenter Server system.

Remove-VMHost $vmhost

13 Disconnect from the vCenter Server system.

Disconnect-VIServer $vCenterConnection

14 Connect directly to the ESXi host.

$esxConnection = Connect-VIServer $vmhost.Name `

-User 'My User' `
-Password 'My Password' `
-Force

15 Set the custom Machine SSL certificate to the ESXi host.

$targetEsxHost = Get-VMHost $vmhost.Name

Set-VIMachineCertificate -PemCertificate $esxCertificatePem -VMHost $targetEsxHost | Out-
Null

16 To apply the change, restart the ESXi host.

Restart-VMHost $targetEsxHost

17 Disconnect from the ESXi host.

Disconnect-VIServer $esxConnection

18 Connect to the vCenter Server system.

$vCenterConnection = Connect-VIServer vc1.example.com `

-User 'My User' `
-Password 'My Password'

19 Add the ESXi host to the vCenter Server system.

$vmhost = Add-VMHost -Name <ESXi host's FQDN> or <ESXi host's IP address> `

-Location (Get-Datacenter "My Datacenter")`
-User "My User" `
-Password "My Password"

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20 Set the ESXi host to the Connected mode.

$vmhost = Set-VMHost -VMHost $vmhost -State Connected

21 (Optional) Verify that the Machine SSL certificate of the ESXi host is changed.

Get-VIMachineCertificate -VMHost $vmhost

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Managing vSphere Policy-Based
Storage with VMware PowerCLI 6
To help you get started with VMware PowerCLI, this documentation provides a set of sample
scripts that illustrate basic and advanced tasks in vSphere policy-based storage management.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Create a Tag-Based Storage Policy

n Create a Capability-Based Storage Policy

n Associate a Storage Policy with a Virtual Machine and Its Hard Disk

n Disassociate a Storage Policy Associated with a Virtual Machine and Its Hard Disk

n Remove a Storage Policy

n Edit a Storage Policy

n Export and Import a Storage Policy

n Create a Virtual Machine in a Datastore Compatible with Storage Policy

n Create a vSAN Datastore

n Modify a vSAN Datastore

n Create a vSAN Stretched Cluster

n Enable a vSAN File Service

n Create a vSAN File Service Domain

n Create a vSAN File Share

n Create an NFS 4.1 Datastore

n Add a VASA Provider and Create a Policy

n Invoke a Planned Failover on a Replication Group and Reverse the Replication

n Attach a Flat VDisk to a Virtual Machine

Create a Tag-Based Storage Policy

You can create storage policies by using tags from vCenter Server.

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Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have Profile-driven storage update privileges.

n Verify that a tag named Tag1 exists in the vCenter Server environment.

Procedure

1 Get the Tag1 tag and store it in the $tag variable.

$tag = Get-Tag -Name 'Tag1'

2 Create a rule with the $tag tag and store the rule in the $rule variable.

$rule = New-SpbmRule -AnyOfTags $tag

3 Create a rule set by using the $rule rule and store the rule set in the $ruleset variable.

$ruleset = New-SpbmRuleSet -AllOfRules $rule

4 Create a tag-based policy named Tag-Based-Policy by using the $ruleset rule set and store
the policy in the $policy variable.

$policy = New-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name 'Tag-Based-Policy' -Description 'This policy is

created by using a tag' -AnyOfRuleSets $ruleset

Create a Capability-Based Storage Policy

You can create storage policies by using vendor-exposed capabilities.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have Profile-driven storage update privileges.

n Verify that a storage provider is registered with the vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Get the VSAN.hostFailuresToTolerate capability and store it in the $cap variable.

$cap = Get-SpbmCapability -Name 'VSAN.hostFailuresToTolerate'

2 Create a rule with the $cap capability and store the rule in the $rule variable.

$rule = New-SpbmRule -Capability $cap -value 1

3 Create a rule set by using the $rule rule and store the rule set in the $ruleset variable.

$ruleset = New-SpbmRuleSet -AllOfRules $rule

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4 Create a capability-based policy named Capability-Based-Policy by using the $ruleset rule set
and store the policy in the $policy variable.

$policy = New-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name 'Capability-Based-Policy' -Description 'This policy

is created by using capabilities' -AnyOfRuleSets $ruleset

Associate a Storage Policy with a Virtual Machine and Its

Hard Disk
You can associate a storage policy with a virtual machine and its hard disk and check if they are
compliant with the policy.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that a storage policy named Str-Policy exists in the vCenter Server environment.

n Verify that a virtual machine named Target-VM exists in the vCenter Server environment.

Procedure

1 Get the Str-Policy storage policy and store it in the $policy variable.

$policy = Get-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name 'Str-Policy'

2 Get the Target-VM virtual machine and store it in the $vm variable.

$vm = Get-VM -Name 'Target-VM'

3 Get the hard disk associated with the $vm virtual machine and store it in the $hd variable.

$hd = Get-HardDisk -VM $vm

4 Assign the $policy storage policy to the $vm virtual machine and the $hd hard disk.

Set-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm, $hd -StoragePolicy $policy

5 View the $policy storage policy's compliance with the $vm virtual machine and the $hd hard
disk.

Get-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm, $hd

Note The storage policy can be compliant only if the datastore on which the virtual machine
and hard disk are created is compliant with the storage policy.

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Disassociate a Storage Policy Associated with a Virtual

Machine and Its Hard Disk
You can disassociate a storage policy that is associated with a virtual machine and its hard disk.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that a virtual machine named Target-VM exists in the vCenter Server environment.

n Verify that a storage policy is associated with the Target-VM virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Get the Target-VM virtual machine and store it in the $vm variable.

$vm = Get-VM -Name 'Target-VM'

2 Get the hard disk associated with the $vm virtual machine and store it in the $hd variable.

$hd = Get-HardDisk -VM $vm

3 Disassociate all storage policies that are associated with the $vm virtual machine and the $hd
hard disk.

Set-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm, $hd -StoragePolicy $null

Remove a Storage Policy

You can disassociate all entities associated with a storage policy and remove the policy
completely.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have Profile-driven storage update privileges.

n Verify that a storage policy named pol-tag exists in the vCenter Server environment.

Procedure

1 Get the pol-tag storage policy and store it in the $policy variable.

$policy = Get-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name 'pol-tag'

2 Disassociate all entities associated with the $policy storage policy.

Set-SpbmEntityConfiguration (Get-SpbmEntityConfiguration -StoragePolicy $policy)

-StoragePolicy $null

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3 Remove the $policy storage policy.

Remove-SpbmStoragePolicy -StoragePolicy $policy

Edit a Storage Policy

You can modify a storage policy to replace an existing rule set with a new rule set.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have Profile-driven storage update privileges.

n Verify that a storage provider is registered with the vCenter Server system.

n Verify that a storage policy named pol-tag exists in the vCenter Server environment.

Procedure

1 Get the pol-tag storage policy and store it in the $policy variable.

$policy = Get-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name 'pol-tag'

2 Create a new rule and store it in the $newRule variable.

$newRule = New-SpbmRule -Capability (Get-SpbmCapability -Name

'VSAN.hostFailuresToTolerate') -Value 1

3 Create a new rule set by using the $newRule rule and store it in the $newRuleset variable.

$newRuleset = New-SpbmRuleSet -AllOfRules $newRule

4 Modify the $policy storage policy by replacing the existing rule set with the newly created
$newRuleset rule set.

$modPolicy = Set-SpbmStoragePolicy -StoragePolicy $policy -AnyOfRuleSets $newRuleset

Export and Import a Storage Policy

You can back up a storage policy by exporting it as a file. You can later import the same storage
policy.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have Profile-driven storage update privileges.

n Verify that you have read-write permissions for the directory in which the storage policy is
saved.

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n Verify that a storage policy named pol-tag exists in the vCenter Server environment.

Procedure

1 Export the pol-tag storage policy.

Export-SpbmStoragePolicy -StoragePolicy 'pol-tag' -FilePath 'C:\Policy\pol-tag.xml'

2 Import the pol-tag storage policy and name it Imported-Policy.

Import-SpbmStoragePolicy -FilePath 'C:\Policy\pol-tag.xml' -Name 'Imported-Policy'

-Description 'Imported policy description'

Create a Virtual Machine in a Datastore Compatible with

Storage Policy
You can retrieve a datastore compatible with storage policy and create a virtual machine in the
datastore.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that a tag-based storage policy named Tag-Policy exists in the vCenter Server
environment.

n Verify that the tag of the Tag-Policy storage policy is associated with one of the available
datastores in the vCenter Server environment.

Procedure

1 Get the tag-based Tag-Policy storage policy and store it in the $policy variable.

$policy = Get-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name 'Tag-Policy'

2 Get the tag used in the Tag-Policy storage policy and store it in the $tag variable.

$tag = ($($($policy.AnyOfRulesets).AllOfRules).AnyOfTags)[0]

3 Get a datastore compatible with the $policy storage policy and store it in the $ds variable.

$ds = Get-SpbmCompatibleStorage -StoragePolicy $policy

4 Get the virtual machine host that contains the $ds datastore and store it in the $vmhost
variable.

$vmHost = Get-VMHost -Datastore $ds

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5 Create a virtual machine named VM-Tag in the $ds datastore and store the virtual machine
object in the $vm variable.

$vm = New-VM -Name 'VM-Tag' -ResourcePool $vmHost -Datastore $ds -NumCPU 2 -MemoryGB 4
-DiskMB 1

6 Associate the $policy storage policy with the $vm virtual machine.

Set-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm -StoragePolicy $policy

7 Verify that the $vm virtual machine is compliant with the $policy storage policy.

Get-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm

The status should be Compliant.

8 Get the Tag-Assignment object for the $ds datastore and store it in the $tagAs variable.

$tagAs = Get-TagAssignment -Entity $ds

9 Remove the $tag tag association from the $ds datastore.

Remove-TagAssignment -TagAssignment $tagAs

10 Check the compliance of the $vm virtual machine with the $policy storage policy.

Get-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm

The status should be NonCompliant.

Create a vSAN Datastore

You can create vSAN disk groups on standalone hosts and add the hosts to a vSAN-enabled
cluster to form a vSAN datastore. You can then create a virtual machine on the vSAN datastore
and assign a storage policy to the virtual machine and its hard disk.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have access to at least three virtual machine hosts.

n Verify that each of the virtual machine hosts has at least one SSD and one HDD.

n Verify that the virtual machine hosts are in maintenance mode.

Procedure

1 Create a vSAN enabled cluster with manual disk claim mode.

$vsanCluster = New-Cluster -Name 'VsanCluster' -Location (Get-Datacenter) -VsanEnabled

-VsanDiskClaimMode 'Manual'

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2 Configure a vSAN VMkernel port on each of the three hosts.

New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost 'Host-A' -PortGroup 'VMkernel' -VirtualSwitch 'vSwitch0'

-VsanTrafficEnabled $true
New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost 'Host-B' -PortGroup 'VMkernel' -VirtualSwitch 'vSwitch0'
-VsanTrafficEnabled $true
New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost 'Host-C' -PortGroup 'VMkernel' -VirtualSwitch 'vSwitch0'
-VsanTrafficEnabled $true

3 Create a vSAN disk group on each of the three hosts.

New-VsanDiskGroup -DataDiskCanonicalName 'HDD1-CanonicalName' -SsdCanonicalName 'SSD1-

CanonicalName' -VMHost 'Host-A'
New-VsanDiskGroup -DataDiskCanonicalName 'HDD1-CanonicalName' -SsdCanonicalName 'SSD1-
CanonicalName' -VMHost 'Host-B'
New-VsanDiskGroup -DataDiskCanonicalName 'HDD1-CanonicalName' -SsdCanonicalName 'SSD1-
CanonicalName' -VMHost 'Host-C'

4 Add each of the three hosts to the vSAN cluster to create a vSAN datastore.

Move-VMHost -VMHost 'Host-A' -Destination $vsanCluster

Move-VMHost -VMHost 'Host-B' -Destination $vsanCluster
Move-VMHost -VMHost 'Host-C' -Destination $vsanCluster

5 Revert the virtual machine hosts to the Connected state.

Set-VMHost -VMHost 'Host-A','Host-B','Host-C' -State 'Connected'

6 Create a virtual machine on the vSAN datastore.

$vsanDS = Get-Datastore -Name 'vsanDatastore'

$vm = New-VM -Name 'newVM' -DiskMB 1024 -Datastore $vsanDS -VMHost 'Host-A'

7 Create a storage policy by using any of the vSAN capabilities.

$cap = Get-SpbmCapability -Name vSAN*

$rule = New-SpbmRule $cap[1] $true
$ruleset = New-SpbmRuleSet $rule
$policy = New-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name 'vsan policy' -RuleSet $ruleset -Description 'vSAN-
based storage policy'

8 Assign the storage policy to the virtual machine and its hard disk.

$vmHdd = Get-HardDisk -VM $vm

Set-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm, $vmHdd -StoragePolicy $policy

9 Check the compliance of the virtual machine and its hard disk with the storage policy.

Get-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm, $vmHdd

The status should be Compliant.

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Modify a vSAN Datastore

You can add or remove local disks from existing vSAN disk groups or remove entire vSAN disk
groups.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that at least one vSAN disk group exists in the cluster.

Procedure

1 Get the vSAN disk group from a cluster.

$dgs = Get-VsanDiskGroup -Cluster 'VsanCluster'

2 Get all vSAN disks from the vSAN disk group.

$dg = $dgs[0]
Get-VsanDisk –VsanDiskGroup $dg

3 Add a hard disk to the vSAN disk group.

$disk = New-VsanDisk -CanonicalName 'HDD-CanonicalName' -VsanDiskGroup $dg

4 Remove a hard disk from the vSAN disk group.

Remove-VsanDisk -VsanDisk $disk

5 Remove the entire vSAN disk group.

Remove-VsanDiskGroup -VsanDiskGroup $dg

Create a vSAN Stretched Cluster

You can create a vSAN stretched cluster with a witness node. You can then create a vSAN storage
policy and enable performance service on the vSAN cluster.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have access to at least two virtual machine hosts.

n Verify that each of the virtual machine hosts has at least one SSD and one HDD.

n Verify that the virtual machine hosts are in maintenance mode.

n Verify that you have access to an ESXi host that can be used as a witness host or deploy a
witness appliance on any node. Ensure that the witness host or appliance is outside the vSAN
cluster.

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Procedure

1 Configure a vSAN VMkernel port on each of the two hosts.

New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost 'Host-A' -PortGroup 'VMkernel' -VirtualSwitch 'vSwitch0'

-VsanTrafficEnabled $true
New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost 'Host-B' -PortGroup 'VMkernel' -VirtualSwitch 'vSwitch0'
-VsanTrafficEnabled $true

2 Create a vSAN enabled cluster with automatic disk claim mode.

$vsanCluster = New-Cluster -Name 'VsanCluster' -Location (Get-Datacenter) -VsanEnabled

-VsanDiskClaimMode 'Automatic'

3 Add the two hosts to the vSAN cluster to create a vSAN datastore.

Move-VMHost -VMHost 'Host-A' -Destination $vsanCluster

Move-VMHost -VMHost 'Host-B' -Destination $vsanCluster

4 Revert the virtual machine hosts to the Connected state.

Set-VMHost -VMHost 'Host-A','Host-B' -State 'Connected'

5 Create two fault domains in the vSAN cluster.

$primaryFd = New-VsanFaultDomain -Name 'Primary' -VMHost 'Host-A'

$secondaryFd = New-VsanFaultDomain -Name 'Secondary' -VMHost 'Host-B'

6 Enable stretched cluster.

Set-VsanClusterConfiguration -Configuration $vsanCluster -StretchedClusterEnabled $true

-PreferredFaultDomain $primaryFd -WitnessHost 'Witness-Virtual-Appliance-IP'

7 Create a storage policy by using any vSAN capability.

$cap = Get-SpbmCapability -Name vSAN*

$rule = New-SpbmRule $cap[1] $true
$ruleset = New-SpbmRuleSet $rule
$policy = New-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name 'vsan policy' -RuleSet $ruleset -Description 'vSAN-
based storage policy'

8 Enable performance service on the vSAN cluster.

Set-VsanClusterConfiguration -Configuration $vsanCluster -PerformanceServiceEnabled $true

–StoragePolicy $policy

Enable a vSAN File Service

With PowerCLI, you can enable a vSAN file service.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Add a vSAN file service OVF to the OVF repository of the vCenter Server system.

Add-VsanFileServiceOvf

2 Verify that the vSAN file service OVF is successfully added.

Get-VsanFileServiceOvfInfo

3 Increase the PowerCLI timeout for the current session, so that the operation does not stop.

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -WebOperationTimeoutSeconds 3600 -Scope Session

4 Retrieve the network that you want to use for the vSAN file service.

$net = Get-VirtualNetwork -Name ‘MyNetwork’

5 Modify the vSAN cluster configuration that you want to use to enable the vSAN file service.

$config = Get-VsanClusterConfiguration
Set-VsanClusterConfiguration $config -FileServiceEnabled $true -FileServiceNetwork $net

Create a vSAN File Service Domain

With PowerCLI, you can create a vSAN file service domain.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that the vSAN file service is enabled.

Procedure

1 Configure a vSAN file server IP configuration. You can use the IPs as an IP pool for the file
service domain.

$ipConfig = New-VsanFileServerIpConfig -Fqdn "h101.vmware.com" -Gateway "192.2.8.3"

-IpAddress "192.2.8.4" -SubnetMask "255.255.254.0" -IsPrimary

2 Create a vSAN file service domain.

New-VsanFileServiceDomain -DnsServerAddress "10.172.199.241" -VsanFileServerIpConfig

$ipConfig -Name "MyFileServiceDomain" -DnsSuffix "vmware.com" -Cluster $config.Cluster

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Create a vSAN File Share

With PowerCLI, you can create a vSAN file share.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that the vSAN file service is enabled.

n Verify that the vSAN file service domain is created.

Procedure

1 Get a vSAN file service domain.

$domain = Get-VsanFileServiceDomain -Name “MyFileServiceDomain”

2 Create a vSAN file share.

New-vsanfileshare -FileServiceDomain $domain -Name "MyVsanFileShare"

Create an NFS 4.1 Datastore

You can create an NFS 4.1 datastore with Kerberos authentication and multipathing.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that the remote NFS share supports multipathing and Kerberos authentication.

Procedure

1 Get the virtual machine host where you want to create the NFS 4.1 datastore.

$vmhost = Get-VMHost 'hostname'

2 Set NTP servers for the virtual machine host.

Add-VMHostNtpServer -VMHost $vmhost -NtpServer 'ntp_server_ip'

3 Set a DNS server and search the domain for the virtual machine host.

$vmhostnetwork = Get-VMHostNetwork -VMHost $vmhost

Set-VMHostNetwork -Network $vmhostnetwork -DnsFromDhcp $false -DnsAddress 'dns_server_ip'
-DomainName 'domain_name' -SearchDomain 'search_domain'

4 Add the virtual machine to the Active Directory domain.

$vmhost | Get-VMHostAuthentication | Set-VMHostAuthentication -JoinDomain -Domain

'AD_domain_name' -Username 'AD_user_name' -Password 'AD_password'

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5 Create an NFS user on the virtual machine host for Kerberos-based authentication for the NFS
4.1 datastore.

New-NfsUser -VMHost $vmhost -Username 'NFS_user_name' -Password 'password'

6 Create an NFS 4.1 datastore with Kerberos authentication and multipathing.

New-Datastore -Name 'NFS_datastore_name' -Nfs -FileSystemVersion '4.1' -VMHost $vmhost

-NfsHost @('remote_host_1_ip', 'remote_host_2_ip') -Path 'NFS_datastore_remote_path' –
Kerberos

7 (Optional) Retrieve the datastore.

$ds = Get-Datastore 'NFS_datastore_name'

8 (Optional) Remove the datastore.

Remove-Datastore $ds -VMHost $vmhost

9 (Optional) Get the NFS user from the virtual machine host.

$user = Get-NfsUser -VMHost $vmhost

10 (Optional) Update the password of the NFS user.

$user = Set-NfsUser -NfsUser $user -Password 'new_password'

11 (Optional) Remove the NFS user.

Remove-NfsUser -NfsUser $user

Add a VASA Provider and Create a Policy

You can add a VASA provider to a vCenter Server system and create a storage policy.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that the datastore is mounted to the ESXi host.

Procedure

1 Add a VASA provider to the vCenter Server system.

$script:vasProvider = New-VasaProvider -Name 'name' -Url 'URL' -Username 'user_name'

-Password 'password' -Description 'description' -Force

2 Get all SPBM capabilities exposed by the registered VASA provider.

Get-SpbmCapability

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3 Create a new SPBM rule with the exposed capabilities of the registered VASA provider.

$rule = New-SpbmRule -Capability $capability -Value $value

4 Create a new SPBM rule set.

New-SpbmRuleSet -Name $ruleset -AllofRules @(($rule))

5 Create a storage policy.

New-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name $storagepolicy -RuleSet $ruleset

6 Refresh the VASA provider registered with the vCenter Server system.

$provider = Get-VasaProvider -Name $providername -Refresh

7 Verify the VASA storage array.

$vasaStorageArray = Get-VasaStorageArray -Provider $vasaProvider -Server $script:vcsrv

8 Refresh the VASA provider registered with the vCenter Server system.

$provider = Get-VasaProvider -Name $providername -Refresh

9 Get the VASA provider registered with the vCenter Server system.

$vasaProvider = Get-VasaProvider -Name $providername

10 (Optional) Remove the VASA provider.

Remove-VasaProvider -Provider $provider -Confirm:$false

11 (Optional) Verify that the VASA provider is removed.

$provider = Get-VasaProvider -Name $providername

Invoke a Planned Failover on a Replication Group and

Reverse the Replication
You can invoke a planned failover on a target replication group and recover the devices on the
target site. After that, you can reverse the direction of the replication and make the target site the
source site.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to the vCenter Server systems of the source and target sites.

n Verify that you have access to at least one virtual machine host on each site.

n Verify that you have registered a Virtual Volume VASA provider and have access to a Virtual
Volume datastore on each site.

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Procedure

1 Create a storage policy with replication capability on the source site.

$replicationCapability = Get-SpbmCapability -Name *replication.RPO -Server $srcServer

$persistenceCapability = Get-SpbmCapability -Name *persistence1-readLatency -Server
$srcServer
$replicationRule = New-SpbmRule -Capability $ replicationCapability -Value (New-TimeSpan
-Hours 4)
$persistenceRule = New-SpbmRule $persistenceCapability -Value 25
$ruleSet = New-SpbmRuleSet -AllOfRules $replicationRule, $persistenceRule
$replicationPolicy = New-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name cokeRep -AnyOfRuleSets $ruleSet -Server
$srcServer

2 Get a datastore compatible with the created replication storage policy and store it in the $ds
variable.

$ds = Get-SpbmCompatibleStorage -StoragePolicy $replicationPolicy

3 Create a virtual machine named MyVM with a hard disk in the $ds datastore.

$vm = New-VM -Name 'MyVM' -VMHost 'Host-Source' -DiskMB 512 -Datastore $ds
$hd = Get-HardDisk -VM $vm

4 Get a replication group for the $ds datastore and the $replicationPolicy storage policy, and
store the replication group in the $rg variable.

$rg = Get-SpbmReplicationGroup –Datastore $ds –StoragePolicy $replicationPolicy

5 Associate the $vm virtual machine and its hard disk with the $replicationPolicy storage policy,
and put them in the $rg replication group.

Set-SpbmEntityConfiguration -Configuration $vm, $hd -StoragePolicy $replicationPolicy

-ReplicationGroup $rg

6 Check the compliance of the $vm virtual machine and $hd hard disk with the
$replicationPolicy storage policy.

Get-SpbmEntityConfiguration $vm, $hd

7 Get the replication pair corresponding to the $rg source replication group, and store that pair
in the $rgPair variable.

$rgPair = Get-SpbmReplicationPair -Source $rg

8 Synchronize the target replication group.

Sync-SpbmReplicationGroup $rgPair.Target

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9 Power off the $vm virtual machine and unregister it.

Stop-VM $vm
Remove-VM $vm

10 Prepare the failover on the source replication group.

Start-SpbmReplicationPrepareFailover $rgPair.Source

11 Synchronize the target replication group again, to get the latest state of the source devices.

Sync-SpbmReplicationGroup $rgPair.Target

12 Invoke the planned failover on the source replication group and store the virtual machine file
path on the target site in the $vmFilePath variable.

$vmFilePath = Start-SpbmReplicationFailover $rgPair.Target

13 Register the virtual machine on the Host-Target host and power on the virtual machine.

$vm = New-VM -VMFilePath $vmFilePath -VMHost 'Host-Target'

Start-VM $vm

14 Reverse the direction of the replication.

Start-SpbmReplicationReverse $rgPair.Target

Attach a Flat VDisk to a Virtual Machine

You can create a flat VDisk object and attach it to a virtual machine as a hard disk. After that, you
can verify whether the operation was completed successfully.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you have access to at least one virtual machine host.

n Verify that there is at least one datastore mounted on the virtual machine host.

Procedure

1 Mount the datastore on the virtual machine host and store the datastore in the $ds variable.

$vmHost = Get-VMHost 'Host-A'

$ds = Get-Datastore -RelatedObject $vmHost

2 Create a flat, thin-provisioned virtual disk with 2-GB capacity on the $ds datastore.

$vDisk = New-VDisk -Name 'VirtualDisk' -DiskType Flat -StorageFormat Thin -CapacityGB 2

-Datastore $ds

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3 Create a virtual machine named VirtualMachine with one hard disk and store this virtual
machine in the $vm variable.

$vm = New-VM -Name 'VirtualMachine' -VMHost 'Host-A' -Datastore $ds -DiskMB 512

4 Power on the $vm virtual machine.

Start-VM -VM $vm

5 Attach the VDisk object to the $vm virtual machine.

New-HardDisk -VM $vm -VDisk $vDisk

6 Verify that the VDisk object has been attached and the virtual machine now has two hard disks.

Get-HardDisk -VM $vm

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Managing VMware Site Recovery
Manager with VMware PowerCLI 7
To help you get started with VMware PowerCLI, this documentation provides a set of sample
scripts that illustrate basic and advanced tasks in VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
administration.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Connect to an SRM Server

n Protect a Virtual Machine

n Create a Report of the Protected Virtual Machines

n Create a Report of the Virtual Machines Associated with All Protection Groups

Connect to an SRM Server

To use the SRM API, you must establish a connection to an SRM server.

Some of the objects returned by the SRM API are objects from the vSphere API. To use those
objects in integration with the vSphere API through PowerCLI, you can connect to the vCenter
Server system that the SRM server is registered with.

Prerequisites

n If the certificate of the server you want to connect to is not trusted, verify that your PowerCLI
invalid server certificate action settings are configured properly. For more information, see
Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates.

n If you use a proxy server for the connection, verify that it is configured properly, so that the
connection is kept alive long enough for tasks to finish.

Note If you do not want to use a proxy server for the connection, run Set-
PowerCLIConfiguration -ProxyPolicy NoProxy.

Procedure

1 To connect to the vCenter Server system that the SRM server is registered with, run Connect-
VIServer with the server name and valid credentials.

Connect-VIServer -Server vc3.example.com -User 'MyAdministratorUser' -Password 'MyPassword'

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2 To connect to the SRM server registered with the connected vCenter Server system, run
Connect-SrmServer.

$srmConnection = Connect-SrmServer

Note If you have previously connected to other vCenter Server systems configured with SRM
server support, this cmdlet invocation establishes a connection to their corresponding SRM
servers as well.

3 (Optional) To use the SRM API, you can call methods of the root object and instances of the
objects that those calls return.

$srmApi = $srmConnection.ExtensionData

Note The root SRM API object is the ExtensionData property of the SrmServer object.

Protect a Virtual Machine

You can protect a virtual machine by replicating it to a remote SRM site.

Procedure

1 Connect to the vCenter Server system that the SRM server is registered with.

Connect-VIServer -Server vc3.example.com -User 'MyAdministratorUser' -Password 'MyPassword'

2 Establish a connection to the local SRM server by providing credentials to the remote SRM
site.

$srmConnection = Connect-SrmServer -RemoteUser 'MyRemoteUser' -RemotePassword

'MyRemotePassword'

3 List all protection groups associated with the SRM server.

$srmApi = $srmConnection.ExtensionData
$protectionGroups = $srmApi.Protection.ListProtectionGroups()

4 Associate the TestVM virtual machine with the ProtGroup1 protection group and enable the
protection for that virtual machine.

$vmToAdd = Get-VM "TestVM"

$targetProtectionGroup = $protectionGroups | where {$_.GetInfo().Name -eq "ProtGroup1" }

$targetProtectionGroup.AssociateVms(@($vmToAdd.ExtensionData.MoRef))

# Enable protection for that virtual machine

$protectionSpec = New-Object

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VMware.VimAutomation.Srm.Views.SrmProtectionGroupVmProtectionSpec
$protectionSpec.Vm = $vmToAdd.ExtensionData.MoRef
$protectTask = $targetProtectionGroup.ProtectVms($protectionSpec)
while(-not $protectTask.IsComplete()) { sleep -Seconds 1 }

Create a Report of the Protected Virtual Machines

You can create a simple report containing information about the protected virtual machines
associated with an SRM server.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you are connected to an SRM server.

Procedure

1 List all protection groups associated with the SRM server.

$srmApi = $srmConnection.ExtensionData
$protectionGroups = $srmApi.Protection.ListProtectionGroups()

2 Generate a report of the protected virtual machines.

$protectionGroups | % {
$protectionGroup = $_

$protectionGroupInfo = $protectionGroup.GetInfo()

# The following command lists the virtual machines associated with a protection group
$protectedVms = $protectionGroup.ListProtectedVms()
# The result of the above call is an array of references to the virtual machines at
the vSphere API
# To populate the data from the vSphere connection, call the UpdateViewData method on
each virtual machine view object
$protectedVms | % { $_.Vm.UpdateViewData() }
# After the data is populated, use it to generate a report
$protectedVms | %{
$output = "" | select VmName, PgName
$output.VmName = $_.Vm.Name
$output.PgName = $protectionGroupInfo.Name
$output
}
} | Format-Table @{Label="VM Name"; Expression={$_.VmName} }, @{Label="Protection group
name"; Expression={$_.PgName} }

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Create a Report of the Virtual Machines Associated with All

Protection Groups
You can create a simple report containing information about the virtual machines associated with
all protection groups.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

n Verify that you are connected to an SRM server.

Procedure

1 List all protection groups associated with the SRM server.

$srmApi = $srmConnection.ExtensionData
$protectionGroups = $srmApi.Protection.ListProtectionGroups()

2 Generate a report of the virtual machines associated with all protection groups.

$protectionGroups | % {
$protectionGroup = $_

$protectionGroupInfo = $protectionGroup.GetInfo()

# The following command lists the virtual machines associated with a protection group
$vms = $protectionGroup.ListAssociatedVms()
# The result of the above call is an array of references to the virtual machines at
the vSphere API
# To populate the data from the vSphere connection, call the UpdateViewData method on
each virtual machine view object
$vms | % { $_.UpdateViewData() }
# After the data is populated, use it to generate a report
$vms | %{
$output = "" | select VmName, PgName
$output.VmName = $_.Name
$output.PgName = $protectionGroupInfo.Name
$output
}
} | Format-Table @{Label="VM Name"; Expression={$_.VmName} }, @{Label="Protection group
name"; Expression={$_.PgName} }

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Managing the vSphere
Automation API with VMware
PowerCLI
8
You can manage the vSphere Automation API with PowerCLI by using the vSphere Automation
SDK for PowerShell. Starting from VMware PowerCLI version 12.4.0, the vSphere Automation SDK
provides low-level cmdlets for all available vSphere Automation API services.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Managing the vSphere Automation API with VMware PowerCLI

n Connecting to a vSphere Automation API Server

n Create a Local User Account in vCenter Server

n Update the Local Accounts Global Password Policy in vCenter Server

n Create a Virtual Machine

n Create Tag Category, Tag, and Tag Association

n Create Content Library and Content Library Item

Managing the vSphere Automation API with VMware

PowerCLI
You can manage the vSphere Automation API with VMware PowerCLI by using the vSphere
Automation SDK for PowerShell.

The vSphere Automation SDK is integrated in VMware PowerCLI, starting from version 12.4.0. The
modules that contain the vSphere Automation SDK start with the VMware.vSphere.Sdk prefix.

The vSphere Automation SDK functions on a low level and communicates directly with the
vSphere Automation API server. The results from the API operations are returned as PowerShell
custom objects.

You can construct vSphere Automation SDK cmdlets by using the Initialize- and Invoke-
cmdlet verbs in combination with the names of the API data structures or operations.

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Figure 8-1. Constructing vSphere Automation SDK Cmdlets

API Data Structure / vSphere Automation

Cmdlet Verb
Operation SDK Cmdlet

Initialize- + VMCreateSpec Initialize-VMCreateSpec

Invoke- + CreateVM Invoke-CreateVM

n Use the Initialize- cmdlets to prepare the data structures, if any, for your API calls. These
cmdlets function on the client side and do not communicate with the API server.

n Use the Invoke- cmdlets to call the vSphere Automation API server and invoke the operations.

Get Help with the vSphere Automation SDK Cmdlets

To get help in PowerShell, use the Get-Help cmdlet in combination with a vSphere Automation
SDK cmdlet name. Add the -Online parameter to the command and the system directs you to the
vSphere Automation API reference website.

Get-Help Invoke-CreateVM -Online

Connecting to a vSphere Automation API Server

You can connect to the vSphere Automation API with VMware PowerCLI through the Connect-
VIServer cmdlet or through a configuration object.

You can access a vSphere Automation API server in two ways with PowerCLI.

n Through the Connect-VIServer cmdlet.

n Through a configuration object.

Connect Through Connect-VIServer

Use the Connect-VIServer cmdlet to connect to a vCenter Server system and access the
vSphere Automation API.

You can have more than one connection to the same server. For more information, see Managing
Default Server Connections.

If your login credentials contain non-alphanumeric characters, you might need to escape them.
For more information, see Providing Login Credentials.

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Prerequisites

n If the certificate of the server you want to connect to is not trusted, verify that your PowerCLI
invalid server certificate action settings are configured properly. For more information, see
Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates.

n If you use a proxy server for the connection, verify that it is configured properly, so that the
connection is kept alive long enough for tasks to finish.

Note If you do not want to use a proxy server for the connection, run Set-
PowerCLIConfiguration -ProxyPolicy NoProxy.

Procedure

u Run Connect-VIServer with the server name and valid credentials.

Connect-VIServer -Server vc3.example.com -User 'MyUser' -Password 'MyPassword'

Connect Through a Configuration Object

You can access the vSphere Automation API by connecting to a vCenter Server system through a
configuration object.

You can create a configuration object and pass information about the vCenter Server system on
which you want to use the vSphere Automation SDK for PowerShell. You can use this connection
method if you don't want to use the PowerCLI high-level cmdlets or if you don't have the
VMware.VimAutomation.Core module installed on your system.

Procedure

1 Create a server configuration for a vCenter Server system.

$Server = 'vCenter Server address'

$User = 'username'
$Password = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Password:"
$serverConfig = New-vSphereServerConfiguration -Server $Server -User $User -Password
$Password -SkipCertificateCheck

2 Create a vSphere Automation API session.

$apiSession = Invoke-CreateSession -WithHttpInfo

3 Update the server configuration with the created API session key.

$serverConfig | Set-vSphereServerConfigurationApiKey -SessionResponse $apiSession

What to do next

To learn more about using server configuration objects with the vSphere Automation SDK, see
Managing vCenter Server Connections Through Configuration Objects.

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Managing vCenter Server Connections Through Configuration Objects

The vSphere Automation SDK for PowerShell features special configuration object cmdlets to
manage vCenter Server connections. А configuration object is a client-side PowerShell object that
holds information about a server that the Invoke- cmdlets can interact with.

Table 8-1. Configuration Object Cmdlets

Cmdlet Description

New-vSphereServerConfiguration Creates a vCenter Server configuration object.

Get-vSphereServerConfiguration Retrieves the existing vCenter Server configuration

objects.

Set-vSphereServerConfiguration Updates a vCenter Server configuration object.

Set-vSphereServerConfigurationApiKey Updates a vCenter Server configuration object with an API

key for authorization.

Remove-vSphereServerConfiguration Removes a vCenter Server configuration object.

Working with Configuration Objects

You can create multiple vCenter Server configuration objects and manage all of them
simultaneously with the Invoke- cmdlets. For example, Invoke-DeleteSession deletes all existing
vSphere Automation API sessions.

If you want to apply the Invoke- cmdlets to a specific configuration object, you must specify it in
the command. For example,

Invoke-ListFolder -Server $serverConfig

Example Use Cases with vCenter Server Configuration Objects

n You can create a session and authenticate to a vSphere Automation API server - see Connect
Through a Configuration Object.

n You can retrieve the active server configurations.

Get-vSphereServerConfiguration

n You can remove a specific server configuration.

$serverConfig | Remove-vSphereServerConfiguration

Create a Local User Account in vCenter Server

You can create a local user account in vCenter Server by using the vSphere Automation SDK for
PowerShell.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vSphere Automation API server.

Procedure

1 Prepare the data structures for the API operation.

$LocalAccountsConfig = Initialize-LocalAccountsConfig -Password '$trongPa$$w0rd' -Roles

"superAdmin"
$LocalAccountsCreateRequestBody = Initialize-LocalAccountsCreateRequestBody -Username
"MyUsername" -Config $LocalAccountsConfig

2 Invoke the API operation.

Invoke-CreateLocalAccounts -LocalAccountsCreateRequestBody $LocalAccountsCreateRequestBody

3 (Optional) Retrieve the local account you created.

Invoke-GetUsernameLocalAccounts -Username "MyUsername"

Update the Local Accounts Global Password Policy in

vCenter Server
You can update the local accounts global password policy in vCenter Server by using the vSphere
Automation SDK for PowerShell.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vSphere Automation API server.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the current local accounts global password policy.

Invoke-GetLocalAccountsGlobalPolicy

2 Prepare the data structures for the operation.

$LocalAccountsPolicyInfo = Initialize-LocalAccountsPolicyInfo -MaxDays 352 -MinDays 1

-WarnDays 7

3 Invoke the API operation.

Invoke-SetLocalAccountsGlobalPolicy -LocalAccountsPolicyInfo $LocalAccountsPolicyInfo

4 (Optional) Retrieve the new local accounts global password policy.

Invoke-GetLocalAccountsGlobalPolicy

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Create a Virtual Machine

You can create virtual machines in vCenter Server by using the vSphere Automation SDK for
PowerShell.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vSphere Automation API server.

Procedure

1 Retrieve a target datastore ID.

$targetDatastore = Invoke-ListDatastore -Names 'local-0'

2 Retrieve a target folder ID.

$targetFolder = Invoke-ListFolder -Names 'vm'

3 Retrieve a target host ID.

$targetHost = Invoke-ListHost -Names '10.185.41.87'

4 Prepare the virtual machine placement specification.

$placementSpec = Initialize-VMPlacementSpec -Folder $targetFolder.folder -Datastore

$targetDatastore.datastore -VarHost $targetHost.host

5 Prepare the virtual machine create specification.

$vmCreateSpec = Initialize-VMCreateSpec -Name 'TestVM' -GuestOS WIN_31 -Placement

$placementSpec

6 Invoke the CreateVM API operation.

Invoke-CreateVM -VMCreateSpec $vmCreateSpec

Create Tag Category, Tag, and Tag Association

You can create a tag category, tag, and tag association by using the vSphere Automation SDK for
PowerShell.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vSphere Automation API server.

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Procedure

1 Create a tag category.

$categoryCreateSpec = Initialize-TaggingCategoryCreateSpec -Cardinality 'MULTIPLE'

-AssociableTypes 'VirtualMachine' -Name 'TestCategory' -Description 'TestDescription'
$categoryId = Invoke-CreateCategory -TaggingCategoryCreateSpec $categoryCreateSpec

2 Create a tag.

$tagCreateSpec = Initialize-TaggingTagCreateSpec -Name 'TestVMTag' -Description 'This is a

test tag for vms' -CategoryId $categoryId
$tag = Invoke-CreateTag -TaggingTagCreateSpec $tagCreateSpec

3 Create a tag association.

$vmId = Invoke-ListVM -Names 'MyVM'

$vmDynamicId = Initialize-StdDynamicID -Type 'VirtualMachine' -Id $vmId
$tagAssociationBody = Initialize-TaggingTagAssociationAttachRequestBody
-ObjectId $vmDynamicId Invoke-AttachTagIdTagAssociation -TagId $tag
-TaggingTagAssociationAttachRequestBody $tagAssociationBody

Create Content Library and Content Library Item

You can create a content library and content library item by using the vSphere Automation SDK
for PowerShell.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vSphere Automation API server.

Procedure

1 Specify a datastore for storage backing.

$backingDatastore = Invoke-ListDatastore -Names 'local-0'

2 Create a content library.

$storageBacking = Initialize-LibraryStorageBacking -DatastoreId

$backingDatastore.datastore -Type 'DATASTORE'
$libraryModel = Initialize-LibraryModel -Name 'TestLocalContentLibrary' -StorageBackings
$storageBacking
$contentLibraryId = Invoke-CreateContentLocalLibrary -LibraryModel $libraryModel

3 Create a content library item.

$libraryItemModel = Initialize-LibraryItemModel -Name 'TestContentLibraryItem' -LibraryId

$contentLibraryId
$libraryItemId = Invoke-CreateContentLibraryItem -LibraryItemModel $libraryItemModel

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Managing VMware Cloud Director
with VMware PowerCLI 9
To help you get started with VMware PowerCLI, this documentation provides a set of scripts that
illustrate basic and advanced tasks in cloud administration.

n Connect to a VMware Cloud Director Server

To run cmdlets on a VMware Cloud Director server and perform administration or monitoring
tasks, you must establish a connection to the server.

n Create and Manage Organizations

Organizations provide resources to a group of users and set policies that determine how
users can consume those resources. Create and manage organizations for each group of
users that requires its own resources, policies, or both.

n Create and Manage Organization Virtual Data Centers

To allocate resources to an organization, you need to create an organization virtual data
center (vDC). When the demands of the organization change, you can modify or remove the
organization vDC.

n Filter and Retrieve Organization Virtual Data Center Networks

To generate reports about organization vDC networks, you need to retrieve the respective
organization vDC networks. You can use search criteria to filter the results returned by Get-
OrgVdcNetwork.

n Import a vApp Template from the Local Storage

To make an OVF package from your local storage available to other cloud users, you can
import the package and save it as a vApp template in a catalog.

n Create a vApp Template from a vApp

Creating vApp templates from vApps in the cloud might minimize future efforts for cloning
vApps. You can use the templates later to create vApps that are based on the source vApp.

n Import a vApp from vSphere

To make a virtual machine from the underlying vSphere infrastructure available to your
VMware Cloud Director server, you can import it and save it as a vApp.

n Create and Modify a vApp

You can use vApp templates to instantiate vApps. After creating the vApp, you can modify its
settings to minimize the consumption of computing and storage resources.

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n Manage Virtual Machines with vApps

For a large-scale approach to administration, you can start, stop, or restart virtual machines
or their guest operating systems by running cmdlets on the associated vApps.

n Manage Virtual Machines and Their Guest Operating Systems

For a targeted approach to administration, you can use the CIVM and CIVMGuest cmdlets to
handle lifecycle operations for one or more virtual machines.

n Retrieve a List of the Internal and External IP Addresses of Virtual Machines in vApps
When managing vApps in the cloud, you might need to obtain information about the NIC
settings of the associated virtual machines.

n Create and Manage Access Control Rules

By defining access control rules you can assign levels of access to separate users, user
groups, or everyone in the organization. You can define access control rules for catalogs and
vApps.

n Filter and Retrieve vApp Networks

To generate reports about vApp networks, you need to retrieve the respective vApp
networks. You can use search criteria to filter the results returned by Get-CIVAppNetwork.

n Create vApp Networks for a Selected vApp

To define how the virtual machines in a vApp connect to each other and access other
networks, you need to create a vApp network. When creating the vApp network, you can
select the settings for the network, or adopt them from an organization policy.

n Modify or Remove vApp Networks

Based on the type of the vApp network, you can configure various network settings, such as
DNS, static IP pools, and firewalls. If you no longer need a vApp network, you can remove it.

Connect to a VMware Cloud Director Server

To run cmdlets on a VMware Cloud Director server and perform administration or monitoring
tasks, you must establish a connection to the server.

You can have more than one connection to the same server. For more information, see Managing
Default Server Connections.

If your login credentials contain non-alphanumeric characters, you might need to escape them.
For more information, see Providing Login Credentials.

Prerequisites

n If the certificate of the server you want to connect to is not trusted, verify that your PowerCLI
invalid server certificate action settings are configured properly. For more information, see
Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates.

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n If you use a proxy server for the connection, verify that it is configured properly, so that the
connection is kept alive long enough for tasks to finish.

Note If you do not want to use a proxy server for the connection, run Set-
PowerCLIConfiguration -ProxyPolicy NoProxy.

Procedure

u Run Connect-CIServer with the server name and valid credentials.

Connect-CIServer -Server cloud.example.com -User 'MyAdministratorUser' -Password

'MyPassword'

Create and Manage Organizations

Organizations provide resources to a group of users and set policies that determine how users can
consume those resources. Create and manage organizations for each group of users that requires
its own resources, policies, or both.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server as a provider administrator.

Procedure

1 Generate a customized report for all organizations on the server.

Get-Org | Select Name, Enabled, StoredVMQuota, DeployedVMQuota

2 Add a new organization on the server and provide a name and a full name for it.

New-Org -Name 'MyOrg1' -FullName 'My Organization 1'

By default, the new organization is enabled. Enabling the organization lets users log in.

3 Add a description for the new organization.

Get-Org -Name 'MyOrg1' | Set-Org -Description "This organization provides resources to

John Doe."

4 Deactivate and remove the new organization.

Get-Org -Name 'MyOrg1' | Set-Org -Enabled $false | Remove-Org

Create and Manage Organization Virtual Data Centers

To allocate resources to an organization, you need to create an organization virtual data center
(vDC). When the demands of the organization change, you can modify or remove the organization
vDC.

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Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server as a provider administrator.

n Verify that at least one enabled provider vDC is available on the server.

Procedure

1 Create a new organization vDC using the Pay As You Go model for resource allocation.

$myOrg = Get-Org -Name 'MyOrg1'

$myPVdc = Get-ProviderVdc -Name 'MyProvidervDC'
New-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgvDC' -AllocationModelPayAsYouGo -Org $myOrg -ProviderVdc $myPVdc
-VMCPUCoreMHz 1000

To create the organization vDC, VMware Cloud Director PowerCLI uses a default configuration
based on the selected resource allocation model.

n VMMaxCount is set to 100

n NetworkMaxCount is set to 1024

n The vDC is automatically enabled

n Thin provisioning is deactivated

n Fast provisioning is deactivated

n NicMaxCount is set to $null (unlimited)

n MemoryGuaranteedPercent is set to 100

n CpuGuaranteedPercent is set to 0

2 Modify the vCPU speed setting for the virtual machines in the organization vDC.

Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc' | Set-OrgVdc -VMCpuCoreMhz 2000

3 Enable fast provisioning for the virtual machines in the organization vDC.

Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc' | Set-OrgVdc -UseFastProvisioning $true

4 Deactivate and remove the new organization vDC.

Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc' | Set-OrgVdc -Enabled $false | Remove-OrgVdc

Filter and Retrieve Organization Virtual Data Center

Networks
To generate reports about organization vDC networks, you need to retrieve the respective
organization vDC networks. You can use search criteria to filter the results returned by Get-
OrgVdcNetwork.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

Procedure

u Get all organization vDC networks for the organization named MyOrgVdc.

Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc' | Get-OrgVdcNetwork

u Get the organization vDC network that is named MyOrgVdcNetwork.

Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc' | Get-OrgVdcNetwork -Name 'MyOrgVdcNetwork'

Import a vApp Template from the Local Storage

To make an OVF package from your local storage available to other cloud users, you can import
the package and save it as a vApp template in a catalog.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the catalog to which you want to add the imported vApp template.

$myCatalog = Get-Catalog -Name 'MyCatalog'

2 Retrieve the organization virtual data center (vDC) to which you want to add the imported
vApp template.

$myOrgVdc = Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc'

3 Import a virtual machine from your local storage and save it as a vApp template in the cloud.

Import-CIVAppTemplate -SourcePath 'C:\OVFs\WindowsXP\WindowsXP.ovf' -Name

'MyWindowsXPVAppTemplate' -OrgVdc $myOrgVdc -Catalog $myCatalog

Create a vApp Template from a vApp

Creating vApp templates from vApps in the cloud might minimize future efforts for cloning vApps.
You can use the templates later to create vApps that are based on the source vApp.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

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Procedure

1 Retrieve the source vApp for the vApp template that you want to create.

$myVApp = Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp'

2 If the source vApp is running, stop it.

$myVApp = Stop-CIVApp -VApp $myVApp

3 Retrieve the catalog to which you want to add the new vApp template.

$myCatalog = Get-Catalog -Name 'MyCatalog'

4 Retrieve the organization vDC to which you want to add the new vApp template.

$myOrgVdc = Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc'

5 Create a vApp template.

New-CIVAppTemplate -Name 'MyVAppTemplate' -VApp $myVApp -OrgVdc $myOrgVDC -Catalog

$myCatalog

6 Start the source vApp.

$myVApp = Start-CIVApp -VApp $myVApp

What to do next

Create a vApp from the template and modify the vApp. See Create and Modify a vApp.

Import a vApp from vSphere

To make a virtual machine from the underlying vSphere infrastructure available to your VMware
Cloud Director server, you can import it and save it as a vApp.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server as a provider administrator.

n Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the vSphere virtual machine that you want to import.

$myVm = Get-VM -Name 'MyVMToImport'

2 Retrieve the organization vDC to which you want to import the virtual machine.

$myOrgVdc = Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc'

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3 Import the virtual machine and store it as a vApp.

Import-CIVApp -VM $myVm -OrgVdc $myOrgVdc

Create and Modify a vApp

You can use vApp templates to instantiate vApps. After creating the vApp, you can modify its
settings to minimize the consumption of computing and storage resources.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the organization vDC to which you want to add the new vApp.

$myOrgVdc = Get-OrgVdc -Name 'MyOrgVdc'

2 Retrieve the source vApp template for your new vApp.

$myVAppTemplate = Get-CIVAppTemplate -Name 'MyVAppTemplate'

3 Create your new vApp.

$myVApp = New-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp' -VAppTemplate $myVAppTemplate -OrgVdc $myOrgVDC

By default, the vApp is powered off.

4 Renew the runtime lease for the new vApp and set it to 12 hours.

Set-CIVApp -VApp $myVApp -RuntimeLease "12:0:0" –RenewLease

To set leases, you can use the days.hours:minutes:seconds syntax.

5 Start the new vApp.

Start-CIVApp -VApp $myVApp

Manage Virtual Machines with vApps

For a large-scale approach to administration, you can start, stop, or restart virtual machines or
their guest operating systems by running cmdlets on the associated vApps.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

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Procedure

1 Power on all virtual machines in all vApps with names starting with MyVApp.

Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp*' | Start-CIVApp

2 Suspend all virtual machines in all vApps with names starting with YourVApp.

Get-CIVApp -Name 'YourVApp*' | Suspend-CIVApp

3 Power off all virtual machines in the vApp named MyVApp1.

Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp1' | Stop-CIVApp

4 Shut down the guest operating systems of all virtual machines in the vApp named MyVApp2.

Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp2' | Stop-CIVAppGuest

5 Restart the guest operating systems of all virtual machines in the vApp named MyVApp3.

Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp3' | Restart-CIVAppGuest

6 Reset all virtual machines in the vApp.

Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp4' | Restart-CIVApp

Manage Virtual Machines and Their Guest Operating

Systems
For a targeted approach to administration, you can use the CIVM and CIVMGuest cmdlets to
handle lifecycle operations for one or more virtual machines.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

Procedure

1 Retrieve all virtual machines with names starting with MyVM and power them on.

Get-CIVM -Name 'MyVM*' | Start-CIVM

2 Suspend all virtual machines with names starting with YourVM.

Get-CIVM -Name 'YourVM*' | Suspend-CIVM

3 Power off the virtual machine named MyVM1.

Get-CIVM -Name 'MyVM1' | Stop-CIVM

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4 Shut down the guest operating system of the virtual machine named MyVM2.

Get-CIVM -Name 'MyVM2' | Stop-CIVMGuest

5 Restart the guest operating system of the virtual machine named MyVM3.

Get-CIVM -Name 'MyVM3' | Restart-CIVMGuest

6 Reset the nonresponsive virtual machine named MyVM4.

Get-CIVM -Name 'MyVM4' | Restart-CIVM

Retrieve a List of the Internal and External IP Addresses of

Virtual Machines in vApps
When managing vApps in the cloud, you might need to obtain information about the NIC settings
of the associated virtual machines.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the organization for which you want to generate the report.

$myOrg = Get-Org -Name 'MyOrg'

2 Retrieve all vApps in the organization.

$vApps = Get-CIVApp -Org $myOrg

3 Populate an array with the information that you want to report.

$vAppNetworkAdapters = @()
foreach ($vApp in $vApps) {
$vms = Get-CIVM -VApp $vApp
foreach ($vm in $vms) {
$networkAdapters = Get-CINetworkAdapter -VM $vm
foreach ($networkAdapter in $networkAdapters) {
$vAppNicInfo = New-Object "PSCustomObject"
$vAppNicInfo | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name VAppName
-Value $vApp.Name
$vAppNicInfo | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name VMName
-Value $vm.Name
$vAppNicInfo | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name NIC
-Value ("NIC" + $networkAdapter.Index)
$vAppNicInfo | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name
ExternalIP -Value $networkAdapter.ExternalIpAddress
$vAppNicInfo | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name
InternalIP -Value $networkAdapter.IpAddress

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$vAppNetworkAdapters += $vAppNicInfo
}
}
}

Running this script retrieves the names of the virtual machines and their associated vApp, the
IDs of the NICs of the virtual machines, and external, and internal IP addresses of the NICs.

4 Display the report on the screen.

$vAppNetworkAdapters

Create and Manage Access Control Rules

By defining access control rules you can assign levels of access to separate users, user groups, or
everyone in the organization. You can define access control rules for catalogs and vApps.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

Procedure

1 Create a new rule for accessing the vApp named MyVApp.

New-CIAccessControlRule -Entity 'MyVApp' -EveryoneInOrg -AccessLevel "Read"

All users in the organization have read-only access to the vApp.

2 Modify the access rule for a trusted user who needs full control over MyVApp.

New-CIAccessControlRule -Entity 'MyVApp' -User "MyAdvancedUser" -AccessLevel "FullControl"

3 Restrict the full control access of MyAdvancedUser to read/write access.

$accessRule = Get-CIAccessControlRule -Entity 'MyVApp' -User 'MyAdvancedUser'

$accessRule | Set-CIAccessControlRule -AccessLevel "ReadWrite"

4 Remove the custom rule that you created earlier for MyAdvancedUser.

$accessRule | Remove-CIAccessControlRule

Filter and Retrieve vApp Networks

To generate reports about vApp networks, you need to retrieve the respective vApp networks.
You can use search criteria to filter the results returned by Get-CIVAppNetwork.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

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Procedure

u Get the vApp network named MyVAppNetwork.

Get-CIVAppNetwork -Name 'VAppNetwork'

u Get all vApp networks for the vApp named MyVApp.

Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp'| Get-CIVAppNetwork

u Get all vApp networks of connection type direct and direct fenced.

Get-CIVAppNetwork -ConnectionType Direct, DirectFenced

u Get all direct vApp networks that connect to the organization vDC network named
MyOrgVdcNetwork.

Get-OrgVdcNetwork -Name 'MyOrgVdcNetwork' | Get-CIVAppNetwork -ConnectionType Direct

Create vApp Networks for a Selected vApp

To define how the virtual machines in a vApp connect to each other and access other networks,
you need to create a vApp network. When creating the vApp network, you can select the settings
for the network, or adopt them from an organization policy.

To address multiple networking scenarios for a vApp, you can create multiple vApp networks.

n Create an Isolated vApp Network

When you do not want the virtual machines in a vApp to connect to objects outside the vApp,
you must create an isolated vApp network.

n Create an NAT Routed vApp Network

To provide a vApp network with DHCP, firewall, NAT, and VPN services, you must create it as
an NAT routed vApp network.

n Create a Direct vApp Network

To establish a network connection between the virtual machines in a vApp and an
organization network, you need to create a direct vApp network.

Create an Isolated vApp Network

When you do not want the virtual machines in a vApp to connect to objects outside the vApp, you
must create an isolated vApp network.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

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Procedure

1 Retrieve the vApp for which you want to create a vApp network.

$myVApp = Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp'

2 Create the new vApp network with a selected gateway and network mask.

New-CIVAppNetwork -VApp $myVApp -Name 'MyVAppInternalNetwork' -Routed -Gateway

'192.168.2.1' -Netmask '255.255.255.0' -ParentOrgVdcNetwork $null

By default, the vApp network has an enabled firewall.

Create an NAT Routed vApp Network

To provide a vApp network with DHCP, firewall, NAT, and VPN services, you must create it as an
NAT routed vApp network.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the vApp for which you want to create a vApp network.

$myVApp = Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp'

2 Retrieve the organization vDC network to which you want to connect the vApp network.

$myOrgVdcNetwork = Get-OrgVdcNetwork -Name 'MyOrgVdcNetwork'

3 Create the new vApp network with a gateway and network mask, defined pool of static IP
addresses, and a deactivated firewall.

New-CIVAppNetwork -VApp $myVApp -ParentOrgVdcNetwork $myOrgVdcNetwork -Name

'MyVAppInternalNetwork' -Routed -Gateway '192.168.2.1' -Netmask '255.255.255.0'
-DisableFirewall -StaticIPPool "192.168.2.100 - 192.168.2.199"

If you do not run New-CIVAppNetwork with the DisableFirewall parameter, the new vApp
network has an active firewall by default.

Create a Direct vApp Network

To establish a network connection between the virtual machines in a vApp and an organization
network, you need to create a direct vApp network.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

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Procedure

1 Retrieve the vApp for which you want to create a vApp network.

$myVApp = Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp'

2 Retrieve the organization vDC network that you want to connect to.

$myOrgVdcNetwork = Get-OrgVdcNetwork -Name 'MyOrgVdcNetwork'

3 Create a direct vApp network that connects to the selected organization vDC network.

New-CIVAppNetwork -VApp $myVapp -Direct -ParentOrgVdcNetwork $myOrgVdcNetwork

By default, the new vApp network has an enabled firewall.

Modify or Remove vApp Networks

Based on the type of the vApp network, you can configure various network settings, such as DNS,
static IP pools, and firewalls. If you no longer need a vApp network, you can remove it.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a VMware Cloud Director server.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the vApp for which you want to modify vApp networks.

$myVApp = Get-CIVApp -Name 'MyVApp'

2 Modify the settings for DNS and static IP pool for the vApp network named MyVAppNetwork.

Get-CIVAppNetwork -VApp $myVApp -Name 'MyVAppNetwork' | Set-CIVAppNetwork -PrimaryDns

10.17.0.94 -SecondaryDns 10.17.0.95 -DnsSuffix 'my.domain.com' -StaticIPPool "10.151.168.1
- 10.151.169.240"

3 (Optional) Remove MyVAppNetwork.

$myVApp | Get-CIVAppNetwork -Name 'MyVAppNetwork' | Remove-CIVAppNetwork

4 (Optional) Remove all isolated vApp networks for the vApp named MyVapp.

$myVApp | Get-CIVAppNetwork -ConnectionType Isolated | Remove-CIVAppNetwork

5 Retrieve the organization vDC network named MyOrgVdcNetwork1.

$myOrgVdcNetwork1 = Get-OrgVdcNetwork -Name 'MyOrgVdcNetwork1'

6 Retrieve the organization vDC network named MyOrgVdcNetwork2.

$myOrVdcgNetwork2 = Get-OrgVdcNetwork -Name 'MyOrgVdcNetwork2'

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7 Redirect all vApp networks that connect to MyOrgVdcNetwork1 to connect to

MyOrgVdcNetwork2.

Get-CIVAppNetwork -ParentOrgVdcNetwork $myOrgVdcNetwork1 | Set-CIVAppNetwork

-ParentOrgVdcNetwork $myOrgVdcNetwork2 -NatEnabled $false -FirewallEnabled $false

The operation deactivates the firewall and NAT routing for all vApp networks that are
connected to MyOrgVdcNetwork1.

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Managing vSphere Update
Manager with VMware PowerCLI 10
To help you get started with VMware PowerCLI, this documentation provides a set of sample
scripts that illustrate basic and advanced tasks in vSphere Update Manager administration.

The vSphere Update Manager module provides a set of cmdlets for downloading software
patches, creating and modifying baselines, and for scanning and remediating virtual machines
or hosts.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Connect to a vCenter Server System

n Create Patch Baselines

n Attach and Detach Baselines

n Scan a Virtual Machine

n Check Virtual Machine Baseline Status

n Stage Patches

n Remediate a Virtual Machine

n Upgrade Virtual Machine Hardware

n Remediate a Cluster

n Remediate a Host

n Download Patches and Scan Objects

Connect to a vCenter Server System

To run Update Manager PowerCLI cmdlets on vSphere, you must establish a connection to an
ESXi host or a vCenter Server system.

You can have more than one connection to the same server. For more information, see Managing
Default Server Connections.

If your login credentials contain non-alphanumeric characters, you might need to escape them.
For more information, see Providing Login Credentials.

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Prerequisites

n If the certificate of the server you want to connect to is not trusted, verify that your PowerCLI
invalid server certificate action settings are configured properly. For more information, see
Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates.

n If you use a proxy server for the connection, verify that it is configured properly, so that the
connection is kept alive long enough for tasks to finish.

Note If you do not want to use a proxy server for the connection, run Set-
PowerCLIConfiguration -ProxyPolicy NoProxy.

Procedure

u Run Connect-VIServer with the server name and valid credentials.

Connect-VIServer -Server vc3.example.com -User 'MyAdministratorUser' -Password 'MyPassword'

Create Patch Baselines

You can apply patch baselines to hosts. Depending on the patch criteria you select, patch
baselines can be either dynamic or fixed.

Patch data in dynamic baselines changes depending on the criteria you specify each time Update
Manager downloads new patches. Fixed baselines contain only the patches you have selected,
regardless of new patch downloads.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve all host patches released after 1 Jan 2015 for ESXi products, and create a fixed
baseline named Static Baseline, containing the retrieved patches.

$patches = Get-Patch -After "1 Jan 2015" -Product "ESXi"

$staticBaseline = New-PatchBaseline -Static -Name "Static Baseline" -IncludePatch $patches

2 Create a critical dynamic baseline named Dynamic Baseline by using a fetch-all query.

$criticalPatchBaseline = New-PatchBaseline -Dynamic -Name "Dynamic Baseline"

-SearchPatchSeverity Critical

3 Create an extension baseline that contains all available extensions.

$extensions = Get-Patch -BundleType Extension

New-PatchBaseline -Static -Name "Extension Baseline" -Extension -IncludePatch $extensions

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Attach and Detach Baselines

You can attach baselines to individual objects and to container objects, such as folders, hosts,
clusters, and data centers. Attaching a baseline to a container object attaches the baseline to all
objects in the container.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Attach the host patch baselines stored in the provided variables to the host named Host.

Add-EntityBaseline -Baseline $staticBaseline, $criticalPatchBaseline -Entity Host

2 Detach the two baselines from the host.

Remove-EntityBaseline -Baseline $dynamicBaseline, $staticBaseline -Entity Host

Scan a Virtual Machine

You can scan a virtual machine against the baselines attached to it or inherited by its parent
object.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Initialize scanning on a virtual machine that is named VM against baselines containing virtual
machine hardware upgrades and VMware Tools upgrades.

$task = Test-Compliance -Entity VM -UpdateType VmHardwareUpgrade, VmToolsUpgrade -RunAsync

The command initializes a task on the server, returns a snapshot object of the initial state of the
task, and saves it in the $task variable.

2 View the initial status of the scanning task.

$task

Note The task object is not updated with the actual state of the task process running on the
server. Even after the task is completed, the $task variable value is running. To view the actual
status of the tasks running on the server, use the Get-Task cmdlet.

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3 (Optional) Run the Wait-Task cmdlet to monitor the process progress and wait for the task to
complete before running other commands.

Wait-Task -Task $task

Check Virtual Machine Baseline Status

You can check whether a virtual machine has any baselines with unknown compliance status
attached to it and start a scan.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the compliance statuses with the value Unknown for the baselines attached to the VM
virtual machine and store them in the $statuses variable.

$statuses = Get-Compliance -Entity VM -ComplianceStatus Unknown

2 Check whether the virtual machine has any baselines with unknown compliance status
attached to it and start a scan.

if ($statuses.Count -gt 0) {
Test-Compliance -Entity VM -RunAsync"
}

Stage Patches
Staging allows you to download patches and extensions from the Update Manager server to the
ESXi hosts without applying the patches and extensions immediately.

Note Staging can be performed only for hosts, clusters, and data centers.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve a host and store it in the $vmHost variable.

$vmHost = Get-VMHost -Name 10.23.112.233

2 Stage the patches for upgrading the host.

Stage-Patch -Entity $vmHost

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Remediate a Virtual Machine

You can retrieve all baselines attached to a virtual machine and remediate the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve all baselines attached to the VM virtual machine.

$baselines = Get-Baseline –Entity VM

2 Remediate the virtual machine.

Update-Entity –Entity VM –Baseline $baselines

Upgrade Virtual Machine Hardware

You can upgrade virtual machine hardware and VMware Tools for all virtual machines in a data
center.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve all virtual machines in the Datacenter data center.

$vms = Get-VM -Location Datacenter

2 Retrieve all virtual machine upgrade baselines.

$ugradeBaselines = Get-Baseline -TargetType VM -BaselineType Upgrade

3 Remediate all virtual machines against the virtual machine upgrade baselines.

foreach ($vm in $vms) {

Update-Entity -Entity $vm -Baseline $upgradeBaselines
}

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Remediate a Cluster
You can retrieve all baselines attached to a cluster and remediate the cluster.

Note Before remediation, you must temporarily deactivate the Distributed Power Management
(DPM), High Availability (HA) admission control, and Fault Tolerance (FT) features of the
clusters you want to remediate. After remediation, Update Manager automatically activates the
deactivated features.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve all baselines attached to the Cluster cluster.

$baselines = Get-Baseline –Entity Cluster

2 Remediate the cluster.

Update-Entity –Entity Cluster –Baseline $baselines

-ClusterDisableDistributedPowerManagement $true –ClusterDisableHighAvailability $true
-ClusterDisableFaultTolerance $true

Remediate a Host
You can retrieve all baselines attached to a host and remediate the host.

Note When remediating a host, you can configure the maintenance mode settings. You can
temporarily disconnect any removable media devices that might prevent the host from entering
maintenance mode as well.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve all baselines attached to the Host host.

$baselines = Get-Baseline –Entity Host

2 Remediate the host.

Update-Entity –Entity Host –Baseline $baselines –HostFailureAction Retry –

HostNumberOfRetries 2 -HostDisableMediaDevices $true

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Download Patches and Scan Objects

You can download patches from a previously defined location.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Retrieve all entities from the Datacenter data center and store the result in a variable.

$entities = Get-Inventory -Location Datacenter

2 Download all available patches and store the result in a variable.

$result = Sync-Patch

3 Check whether new patches are downloaded and start scanning the entities in the Datacenter
data center.

if ($result.Count > 0) {
Test-Compliance -Entity $entities
}

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Managing vRealize Operations
Manager with VMware PowerCLI 11
To help you get started with VMware PowerCLI, this documentation provides a set of sample
scripts that illustrate basic and advanced tasks in vRealize Operations Manager.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Connect to a vRealize Operations Manager Server

n Check Memory Waste Levels

n Get Remediation Recommendations

n Change Alert Ownership

n Create a Report for Problematic Hosts

Connect to a vRealize Operations Manager Server

To run vRealize Operations Manager cmdlets, you must establish a connection to a vRealize
Operations Manager server and a vCenter Server system that is monitored by the vRealize
Operations Manager instance.

You can have more than one connection to the same server. For more information, see Managing
Default Server Connections.

If your login credentials contain non-alphanumeric characters, you might need to escape them.
For more information, see Providing Login Credentials.

Prerequisites

n If the certificate of the server you want to connect to is not trusted, verify that your PowerCLI
invalid server certificate action settings are configured properly. For more information, see
Configuring PowerCLI Response to Untrusted Certificates.

n If you use a proxy server for the connection, verify that it is configured properly, so that the
connection is kept alive long enough for tasks to finish.

Note If you do not want to use a proxy server for the connection, run Set-
PowerCLIConfiguration -ProxyPolicy NoProxy.

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Procedure

1 Run Connect-OMServer with the server name and valid credentials.

Connect-OMServer -Server vrops3.example.com -User 'MyAdministratorUser' -Password

'MyPassword'

2 Run Connect-VIServer with the server name and valid credentials.

Connect-VIServer -Server vc3.example.com -User 'MyAdministratorUser' -Password 'MyPassword'

Check Memory Waste Levels

You can check the memory waste levels of a virtual machine host for a specific period of time. For
example, you can check the memory waste levels in the last month.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vRealize Operations Manager instance.

n Verify that you are connected to the vCenter Server system that is monitored by the vRealize
Operations Manager instance.

Procedure

1 Browse the vCenter Server inventory and select a virtual machine host for which you want to
check the memory waste levels.

$vmHost = Get-VMHost 'MyHost'

2 Get the vRealize Operations Manager resource that refers to this virtual machine host.

$hostResource = $vmHost | Get-OMResource

3 Check the defined metrics for this vRealize Operations Manager resource type.

Get-OMStatKey -AdapterKind $hostResource.AdapterKind -ResourceKind

$hostResource.ResourceKind

4 Get data for a specific metric.

$hostResource | Get-OMStat -Key "mem|waste"

Note This command retrieves all available metric data with the highest available granularity.

5 Get metric data for the last month aggregated on a daily basis.

$hostResource | Get-OMStat -Key "mem|waste" -From ([datetime]::Now.AddMonths(-1))

-IntervalType Days -IntervalCount 1 -RollupType Avg

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Get Remediation Recommendations

You can get remediation recommendations for a specific resource, such as a problematic virtual
machine.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vRealize Operations Manager instance.

n Verify that you are connected to the vCenter Server system that is monitored by the vRealize
Operations Manager instance.

n Verify that at least one alert is triggered for the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Get the virtual machine you want to check for alerts.

$myVm = Get-VM 'MyVM'

2 Get the associated vRealize Operations Manager resource and its associated active alerts.

$myVmAlerts = $myVm | Get-OMResource | Get-OMAlert –Status Active

3 List the remediation recommendations for the obtained alerts.

$myVmAlerts | Get-OMRecommendation

Change Alert Ownership

You can retrieve all active alerts for a specific datastore and assign the alert ownership to your
user profile.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vRealize Operations Manager instance.

n Verify that you are connected to the vCenter Server system that is monitored by the vRealize
Operations Manager instance.

Procedure

1 Get all active alerts for the datastore.

$alerts = Get-Datastore 'shared' | Get-OMResource | Get-OMAlert –Status Active | where

{ ($_.AssignedUser -eq $null) -and ($_.ControlState -eq 'Open') }

2 Assign the obtained alerts to the user profile you are currently using.

$alerts | Set-OMAlert –TakeOwnership

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Create a Report for Problematic Hosts

You can create a report for virtual machine hosts that have problematic health status.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to a vRealize Operations Manager instance.

n Verify that you are connected to the vCenter Server system that is monitored by the vRealize
Operations Manager instance.

Procedure

1 Get all problematic host resources in vRealize Operations Manager that have red or yellow
health status.

$hosts = Get-OMResource | where { $_.ResourceKind -eq 'HostSystem' -and $_.Health -in

('Red', 'Yellow') }

2 Get the virtual machine hosts that cause the problem.

$hosts | Get-VmHost

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Managing VMware Cloud on AWS
with VMware PowerCLI 12
To familiarize yourself with VMware PowerCLI, you can use a set of scripts that illustrate basic and
advanced tasks in the VMware Cloud on AWS administration.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Connecting to VMware Cloud on AWS

n Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS by Using an API Token

n Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS by Using an OAuth Security Context

n Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US)

n View the Available Software-Defined Data Centers

n Connect to a vCenter Server on VMware Cloud on AWS

n Connect to a vCenter Server on VMware Cloud on AWS by Using an OAuth 2.0 Authentication

n Create a Software-Defined Data Center

n Create a Cluster in a Software-Defined Data Center

n Set the Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler (EDRS) Policy of a Cluster

n Remove a Cluster from a Software-Defined Data Center

n Add Hosts to a Software-Defined Data Center

n Remove Hosts from a Software-Defined Data Center

Connecting to VMware Cloud on AWS

You can use VMware Cloud on AWS to provision and manage vCenter Server virtual data centers
in the cloud. VMware Cloud on AWS is a cloud service that belongs to the VMware Cloud services
platform.

The VMware Cloud services platform is a web-based application that supports any number of
VMware Cloud services. When you sign up for VMware Cloud services, you access your services
and manage all your users, organizations, and payment methods through this platform. The
VMware Cloud services platform manages common requirements for all cloud services, such as
authentication, user roles, and so on.

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When connecting to a VMware Cloud on AWS service, you need to authenticate with the
corresponding VMware Cloud services platform.

Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS by Using an API Token

To authenticate with VMware Cloud on AWS, you can use an API token from the VMware Cloud
service web portal.

Prerequisites

Use the VMware Cloud service web portal to generate an API token for authentication with
PowerCLI.

Procedure

u To connect to a VMware Cloud on AWS server by using the API token, run the following
command.

Connect-Vmc -ApiToken "Your API token"

Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS by Using an OAuth

Security Context
To connect to VMware Cloud on AWS through an OAuth 2.0 authentication mechanism, you need
an OAuth security context for the VMware Cloud services platform.

You can create an OAuth security context by using the New-VcsOAuthSecurityContext cmdlet.

Prerequisites

Use the VMware Cloud service web portal to generate an API token for authentication with
PowerCLI.

Procedure

1 Create an OAuth security context for the VMware Cloud services platform by using an API
token.

$oauthSecContext = New-VcsOAuthSecurityContext -ApiToken "Your API token"

2 Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS by using an OAuth security context.

Connect-Vmc -OAuthSecurityContext $oauthSecContext

Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US)

You can use PowerCLI to connect to VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US).

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Prerequisites

Use the VMware Cloud service web portal to generate an API token for authentication with
PowerCLI.

Procedure

1 Create variables to store the VMware Cloud API token and the VMware Cloud on AWS
GovCloud (US) endpoints.

$APIToken = "Your API Token"

$VCSEndpoint = "console.cloud-us-gov.vmware.com"
$VMCEndpoint = "www.vmc-us-gov.vmware.com"

2 Create an OAuth security context and login to VMware Cloud services.

$oauthSecContext = New-VcsOAuthSecurityContext -VcsServer $VCSEndpoint -ApiToken $APIToken

3 Connect to VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US).

Connect-Vmc -Server $VMCEndpoint -OAuthSecurityContext $oauthSecContext

View the Available Software-Defined Data Centers

With PowerCLI, you can view the available Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDCs) in your
VMware Cloud on AWS organization.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

Procedure

u View the available SDDCs in your VMware Cloud on AWS organization.

Get-VmcSddc

Connect to a vCenter Server on VMware Cloud on AWS

You can use PowerCLI to connect to a vCenter Server system running on VMware Cloud on AWS.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

n Configure the VMware Cloud on AWS networking to provide access to the vCenter Server
system running on the cloud.

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Procedure

1 Create a variable with the SDDC you want to connect to.

$SDDC = Get-VmcSddc 'Your SDDC'

2 To connect to the vCenter Server system, provide the vCenter host name and credentials.

Connect-VIServer $sddc.VCenterHostName -Credential $sddc.VCenterCredentials

Connect to a vCenter Server on VMware Cloud on AWS by

Using an OAuth 2.0 Authentication
If the vCenter Server system has an OpenID authentication enabled, you can authenticate with
the vCenter Server system by using an OAuth security context for the VMware Cloud services
platform.

Prerequisites

n Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

n Configure the VMware Cloud on AWS networking to provide access to the vCenter Server
system running on the cloud.

Procedure

1 Create an OAuth security context for the VMware Cloud service by using an API token.

$oauthSecContext = New-VcsOAuthSecurityContext -ApiToken "Your API token"

2 Create a variable with the SDDC you want to connect to.

$SDDC = Get-VmcSddc 'Your SDDC'

3 Exchange the OAuth security context for an SAML security context.

$samlSecContext = New-VISamlSecurityContext -VCenterServer $sddc.VCenterHostName

-OAuthSecurityContext $oauthSecContext

4 Connect to a vCenter Server system by using an SAML security context.

Connect-VIServer -Server $sddc.VCenterHostName -SamlSecurityContext $samlSecContext

Create a Software-Defined Data Center

With PowerCLI, you can create a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) in your VMware Cloud on
AWS organization.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

Procedure

1 Get a VMware Cloud on AWS account.

$awsAccount = Get-AwsAccount

2 Get the VMware Cloud on AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) subnets.

$awsVpcSubnets = Get-AwsVpcSubnet -AwsAccount $awsAccount -Region "US_EAST_1"

3 Create an SDDC.

New-VmcSddc -Name "MySDDC" -HostCount 3 -Region "US_EAST_1" -AwsAccount $awsAccount

-AwsVpcSubnet $awsVpcSubnets[0]

Create a Cluster in a Software-Defined Data Center

With PowerCLI, you can create a cluster in a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) in your
VMware Cloud on AWS organization.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

Procedure

1 Retrieve the SDDC in which you want to create a cluster.

$sddc = Get-VmcSddc 'Your SDDC'

2 Create the cluster.

New-VmcSddcCluster -Sddc $sddc -HostCount 3

Set the Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler (EDRS)

Policy of a Cluster
With PowerCLI, you can set the Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler (EDRS) policy of clusters.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

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Procedure

1 Create a variable with the SDDCs of the clusters you want to manage.

$sddc = Get-VmcSddc 'Your SDDC'

2 Create a variable with the clusters you want to manage.

$cluster = Get-VmcSddcCluster -Name 'Your Cluster' -Sddc $sddc

3 Set the EDRS policy.

Set-VmcClusterEdrsPolicy -Cluster $cluster -PolicyType cost -MinHostCount 6 -MaxHostCount

15

Remove a Cluster from a Software-Defined Data Center

With PowerCLI, you can remove clusters from Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDCs) in your
VMware Cloud on AWS organization.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

Procedure

1 Create a variable with the SDDCs from which you want to remove clusters.

$sddc = Get-VmcSddc 'Your SDDC'

2 Create a variable with the clusters you want to remove.

$cluster = Get-VmcSddcCluster -Name 'Your Cluster' -Sddc $sddc

3 Remove the clusters.

Remove-VmcSddcCluster -VmcSddcCluster $cluster

Add Hosts to a Software-Defined Data Center

With PowerCLI, you can add hosts to a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) in your VMware
Cloud on AWS organization.

Add hosts to an SDDC with PowerCLI. You can use the Cluster parameter to indicate in which
cluster you want to add the hosts. If you do not specify a cluster, the hosts are added to the
default cluster of the SDDC.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

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Procedure

1 Create a variable with the SDDCs in which you want to add hosts.

$sddc = Get-VmcSddc 'Your SDDC'

2 Add the hosts to the default cluster of the specified SDDCs.

Add-VmcSddcHost -Sddc $sddc -HostCount 2

Remove Hosts from a Software-Defined Data Center

With PowerCLI, you can remove hosts from a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) in your
VMware Cloud on AWS organization.

Remove hosts from an SDDC with PowerCLI. You can use the Cluster parameter to indicate from
which cluster you want to remove hosts. If you do not specify a cluster, the hosts are removed
from the default cluster of the SDDC.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to VMware Cloud on AWS.

Procedure

1 Create a variable with the SDDCs from which you want to remove hosts.

$sddc = Get-VmcSddc 'Your SDDC'

2 Remove hosts from the default cluster of the specified SDDCs.

Remove-VmcSddcHost -Sddc $sddc -HostCount 2

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Help and Support for VMware
PowerCLI 13
If you cannot resolve a problem with PowerCLI on your own, you can file a support request under
the conditions of your VMware contract.

You can use the following options to troubleshoot problems with PowerCLI.

Self-Help
As a first step, use the existing documentation to search for a solution to your problem. You can
search the following resources.

n The PowerCLI official documentation.

n The PowerCLI community.

n The PowerCLI blog.

File a Support Request Under a Basic or Production Support

Contract
You can file a technical support request under the terms of a Basic or Production Suport contract
with VMware. You can get support for the following types of problems.

n Cmdlets are not working as documented.

n Installation problems with PowerCLI.

Note PowerCLI is not available for selection as a product in the technical support request form.
You must select the product that you are having issues with, for example, vCenter Server, VMware
ESXi, and so on.

File a Support Request Under an SDK and API Support

Contract
The SDK and API Support package increases the scope of the professional assistance you can
request. In addition to the incidents covered under Basic and Production support, you can request
the following assistance.

n Clarification of the scope of tasks for which you can use PowerCLI.

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n Guidance on how to use PowerCLI to accomplish tasks.

n Assistance with custom scripts.

Note The SDK and API support engineers do not write or test your code, but they might suggest
sample code for a possible solution.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n Generate a PowerCLI Support Bundle

Generate a PowerCLI Support Bundle

Generate a PowerCLI support bundle and send it to VMware support to help them resolve your
problem.

If you encounter a problem in PowerCLI that you cannot resolve, you can open a support request
for VMware.

Generate and download a PowerCLI support bundle in the form of a ZIP file and attach it to your
VMware support request.

Procedure

1 Create a variable with the script that produced the error.

$errorcode={
$vm = Get-VM vCLS*
Start-VM $vm
}

2 Generate and download the support bundle by running the Get-ErrorReport cmdlet.

Get-ErrorReport -ProblemScript $errorcode -Destination .\Downloads -ProblemDescription "VM

would not power on"

Optional: Тo limit the size of your support bundle, include the MaxDataDepth parameter which
specifies object data depth for the report. For example, to limit object data depth to one level,
add -MaxDataDepth 1 to the above example.

Results

The ZIP file that contains environmental information about the error is saved at the specified
destination.

What to do next

Attach or upload the ZIP file and submit your VMware support request.

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