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Posts Tagged ‘powershell’

Here are some bookmarks for resources that I have recently referenced:

• vCenter 4 and ESX 4 Now Use 10 Year Default SSL Certificate | VM /ETC – Rich Brambly has some guidance on installing a new SSL certificate on vCenter, with very useful links in his post to official VMware documentation and KB’s on the subject.
• VMware vSphere Client on Microsoft Windows 7! | Virtual Lifestyle – Heiko Verlande has found a way to run the VMware vSphere Client on Windows 7.
• Virtu-Al » PowerCLI: Daily Report V2 – Version two of a handy PowerShell based VMware Environment Daily Report from VMware vExpert and PowerShell guru Alan Renouf
  What’s new/Bug Fixes
  * Active VMs count
  * Inactive VMs count
  * DRS Migrations count and list
  * Correct NTP Server check for each host
  * VMs stored on local datastores
  * NTP Service check for each host
  * vmkernel warning messages for each host
  * VM CPU ready over x%
• VMware Self-Service- VMware Update Manager Plug-In fails to install -Troubleshooting steps for vCenter Plug-in install problems.
• Using VMware VDI and vmSight for Stronger and Sustainable HIPAA and PCI Compliance – Virtualization brings new options for protecting sensitive data by moving it from the desktop into the datacenter.
• Counter of the Week : Analyzing Storage Performance – The purpose of this article is to provide prescriptive guidance on how to troubleshoot logical and physical disk response times in regards to Windows performance analysis. Start with the following performance counters to analyze disk response…
• NetApp, Compellent, HP, Dell top the field in 12-product test – Network World – A terabyte isn’t what it used to be. Disks are slower than you think. And a Gigabit Ethernet is plenty of bandwidth for many storage applications.

VMware released version 1.5 of the VI Toolkit for Windows – the PowerShell management and reporting tool of choice for many VMware administrators. The new version carries build number 142961. You can download v1.5 here: http://blogs.vmware.com/vipowershell/. The update includes some 32 new cmdlets, including ones for getting/setting NTP settings on ESX, getting/setting Advanced configuration options on ESX, getting/setting ESX Firewall settings, and the ability to modify DRS rules using PowerShell. Existing cmdlets have also been updated with new parameters, and several fixes have been introduced. Check out the release notes here: http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/windowstoolkit/wintk15/windowstoolkit15-200901-releasenotes.html.

There are plenty of examples on the Internet to get you started with the VI Toolkit for Windows. Check out these sites to get started:

Start at the VMware Community site for the Windows Toolkit for great examples and a little help from some friends: http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/windows_toolkit/
There are also some good example scripts and resources floating around, such as:

http://vmetc.com/2008/08/27/powershell-scripting-examples-for-vmware-virtual-infrastructure/
http://www.peetersonline.nl/
http://www.ivobeerens.nl/?p=106
http://www.vmguru.com/

Not a hard-core scripter? Grab this handy tool for a little GUI on your PowerShell, and extend it with the VMware Infrastructure PowerPack 2.0

What tools or examples are you using to extend the power of PowerShell into your Virtual Infrasturucture?  Leave a comment to share!

I wrote about a method for determining guest free disk space using a PowerShell script a couple weeks ago.  Scott Lowe picked up the post on his blog last week.  Since then I have had several other conversations with folks looking the best way to report on inefficiencies in their environments (it’s the economy, stupid) and mitigate those inefficiencies as budgets get tighter.

When it comes to reporting there are a ton of options available.  The solution you choose will be dependent on your environment and the tools you already have in place.  Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMB’s) often do not have full blown, network-wide monitoring and management solutions, so VMware-specific solutions are often a great fit.  There are several examples beyond my simple script, and many are free.  The short list includes: Mightycare Solutions MCS StorageView 1.1, Rich Garsthagen’s VCplus, and Rob de Veij’s RVTools.

There are many other mid-tier solutions – both enterprise-wide and VMware specific – constantly emerging as the virtualization ecosystem matures.  Offerings from ManageIQ, Embotics, Veeam, V-Kernel, Zenoss, Hyperic, and others are increasingly able to provide fresh and relevant data on what is happening under the covers in your virtual environment.

Larger IT shops most likely have a systems monitoring solution easily capable of reporting this – think offerings from the likes of Microsoft, Altiris,  BMC, or CA.  The trick in these solutions is narrowing down the information to your virtualized resources and getting the information to the right teams.  Customized reports using fields such as the BIOS Vendor string can help show only servers running VMware, for example.  As a side note, the Vendor BIOS string can also come in handy when applying Group Policies (GPO), allowing you to filter policies for only virtualized resources (disabling screen savers on Windows guests through GPO is a good example of this).

And don’t forget, we’re not reporting for reporting sake.  We’re after relevant information that allows us to be more efficient and proactive in the overall goals of our environments.  Good reporting identifiies areas in need of improvement, and smart system administrators look for creative ways to improve their systems efficiency.