Introduction to the VMware PowerCLI

Introduction to the VMware PowerCLI is an article that introduces the very interesting commands that helps to administrate a vSphere Environment from Powershell CLI. Besides, it’s a very useful thing to automate a lot of administrative tasks 😉

VMware PowerCLI is a command-line and scripting tool built on Windows PowerShell and provides more than 800 cmdlets for managing and automating VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Director, vRealize Operations Manager, vSAN, VMware NSX-T Data Center, VMware Cloud Services, VMware Cloud on AWS, VMware HCX, VMware Site Recovery Manager, and VMware Horizon environments.

To access the VMware PowerCLI user’s guide, the below link can be used:

https://developer.vmware.com/docs/15315/powercli-user-s-guide

Install and Configure VMware PowerCLI

So, open a Windows Powershell with administrator rights and install the PowerCLI module:

Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI

Note: An alert will show about the Untrusted repository “PSGallery”. Type “A” and then press ENTER. If you don’t have the admin rights for some reason, you can install it with the command below:

Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser

If necessary, update VMware.PowerCLI module:

Update-Module VMware.PowerCLI

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. So, in this example, we will configure PowerCLI to show a prompt:

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Prompt

Another thing is to disable CEIP:

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User -ParticipateInCEIP $false

Connect to the vCenter Server

The FQDN of our vCenter Server in this lab is “vcsa01.lab.local”. So, the PowerCLI string to connect to the vCenter Server is:

Connect-VIServer -Server vcsa01.lab.local

Note: A prompt with an Invalid server certificate warning is showing. Nevertheless, type “P” to accept permanently this certificate. In this context, this certificate is invalid due the client machine doesn’t trust the CA (Certificate Authority) that expedites the vCenter Server certificate.

In the meantime, a Window prompt will be shown. So, type the username and password. In this case, for instance, we are using the “administrator@vsphere.local” to connect to the vCenter Server:

If the connection is established, a message like below will be shown. However, if you don’t receive a message like it, check if the user credentials are correct:

Search for a command, for example, that has “snapshot” on a command:

Get-Command -Name *snapshot*

To get help with a particular command, for example:

Get-Help Get-Snapshot

Note: In some cases, for example, it is necessary to run the “update-help” to update the help content. Type “Y” to update the help content for the command “Get-Snapshot”.

Manage Virtual Machines on vSphere

So, to view all Virtual machines:

Get-VM

Start the VM virtual machine:

Get-VM VM_NAME | Start-VM

Note: Change “VM_NAME” to the correct Virtual Machine name.

Get information on the guest OS of the VM virtual machine:

Get-VMGuest VM | fc

Shut down the OS of the VM virtual machine:

Stop-VMGuest VM_NAME

Power off the VM virtual machine:

Stop-VM VM_NAME

Move/migrate the virtual machine VM from the Host01 host to the Host02 host:

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

Manage Datacenter, Cluster, and ESXi hosts on vSphere

Get all data centers present on the vCenter Server:

Get-Datacenter

Cluster:

Get-Cluster

Get all ESXi hosts managed by the vCenter Server:

Get-VMHost

Put an ESXi host into maintenance mode – However, use this command if DRS is enabled and the fully automated method is used. In this example, the host FQDN is “host01.lab.local”:

Set-VMHost -VMHost host01.lab.local -State "Maintenance"

Remove and ESXi host from maintenance mode – use this command if DRS is enabled and the fully automated method is used:

Set-VMHost -VMHost host01.lab.local -State "Connected"

If DRS is enabled but not automated or partially automated, it needs first generate a DRS recommendation and wait until all powered-on virtual machines are relocated to other hosts:

Set-VMHost -VMHost host01.lab.local -State "Maintenance" -RunAsync

Get and apply the recommendations generated by DRS:

Get-DrsRecommendation -Cluster "CL-LAB.LOCAL" | where {$_.Reason -eq "Host is entering maintenance mode"} | Invoke-DrsRecommendation

Remove the ESXi host from maintenance mode:

Set-VMHost -VMHost host01.lab.local -State "Connected"

Get all Datastores available on the vCenter Server:

Get-Datastore

Create a VM based on a Template

Firstly, it is necessary to get all VM templates available on the vCenter Server:

Get-Template

Secondly, we need to understand the basic syntax to create a VM . So, the basic syntax for it is:

New-VM –Name VM_NAME –ResourcePool CLUSTER_NAME –Template TEMPLATE_NAME -Datastore DATASTORE_NAME

In detail:
— VM_NAME = Virtual Machine name
— CLUSTER_NAME = Cluster name or ESXi host name to host the new Virtual Machine
— TEMPLATE_NAME = Template name that will be used to create the Virtual Machine
— DATASTORE_NAME = Datastore name that will be used to store the Virtual Machine

In our lab, for instance, the syntax to create the VM is:

New-VM -Name "vm-01" -ResourcePool host01.lab.local -Template Template-FreeBSD-13 -Datastore ISCSI02

After a few seconds, the Virtual Machine is created:

On the vSphere Client interface, it’s possible to confirm the task used to create this Virtual Machine:

On the VMs tab, we can see the new Virtual Machine “vm-01′:

Remove a VM from the vCenter Inventory

To remove a Virtual Machine from the vCenter inventory:

Remove-VM -VM VM_NAME

Note: In some cases, it’s necessary to remove a Virtual Machine, especially from Disk, the syntax of the command is:

Remove-VM -VM VM_NAME -DeletePermanently

Create multiple Virtual Machines from a Template

In some cases, especially for lab environments, it’s necessary to create a lot of Virtual Machines for tests or something like that. There is a way to create multiple Virtual Machines using a script. Below, we will give more details about it.

We will use a lot of variables to set the values that we want to use in our script. This is the most important step and, pay attention to it:

— Define the Cluster Name or the Hostname that the Virtual Machines will use:
Get-Cluster –> and copy the cluster name if you want to use the cluster
Get-VMHost –> and copy the hostname if you want to use the host or if the DRS service is disabled on your environment

In this case, for example, we are using the ESXi host02.lab.local. The variable for it is:

$host2 = Get-VMHost host02.lab.local

— Define the Template Name that the Virtual Machine will use:
Get-Template –> and copy the template name

In this example, we are using the template name “Template-FreeBSD-13”. The variable for it is:

$template = Get-Template Template-FreeBSD-13

— Define the Datastore Name that the Virtual Machine will use:
Get-Datastore –> and copy the datastore name

In this example, we are using the datastore name “ISCSI02”. The variable for it is:

$datastore = Get-Datastore ISCSI02

We will create 10 Virtual Machines using the script below:

$vmNameTemplate = “VM-{0:D3}”

$vmList = @()
for ($i = 1; $i –le 10; $i++) {
$vmName = $vmNameTemplate –f $i
$vmList += New-VM –Name $vmName –ResourcePool $host2 -Template $template -Datastore $datastore
}

Note: So, each Virtual Machine will be created with the name “VM-0XX”. In this example, the Virtual Machines’ name there is:

VM-001
VM-002
…
…
VM-010

After running the loop script, each Virtual Machine will be created in a serial way: