Determining the LUN ID for a specific LUN in your VMware Infrastructure used to be simple. It was listed as one of the properties of the datastore you selected in the VI Client. Nowadays, more often than not, I dont see the LUN ID in the vSphere Client. Instead, I see some sort of identifier like “EMC Fibre Channel Disk (sym.12673548127)”.
Even more unfortunate is the fact that all my scripts show the same identifier, where they used to show the LUN ID. So I decided to create a script that can translate the identifier (sometimes referred to as Canonical Name) back to a LUN ID.
By the way: in the vSphere Client, you can still find the LUN ID by opening the datastore’s properties window and clicking Manage Paths. Or you could write down the canonical name, switch to the devices view and look up the device there. That is essentially what my script does for you.
Here we go:
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Find LUN ID’s in VMware with Powershell
Fix DCOM Event 10005 with Powershell
Do you get these events in your system log?
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it. attempting to start the service ntmssvc with arguments “-Service” in order to run the server:
{D61A27C6-8F53-11D0-BFA0-00A024151983}
Symantec explains this is caused by disabling the Removable Storage Manager and provides a solution.
Removing those registry keys on a bunch of servers manually is a pain. Modifying DCOM settings even more so. So I explored fixing this with Powershell.
Report vSphere Alarms with Powershell
Add Vmx Path to VI Client using Powershell
The following script is a request from David Gontie, who was kind enough to comment on a previous post.
He’d like to add the location of his vm’s to a custom field. This is especially handy if you store all the files for a vm in a single datastore.
Here you go David:
Set VMware Snapshot Location with Powershell
Snapshots are m*th3rfcukers. If you’re not careful, they will mass-murder your vms. Yet they allow you to time-travel! You want to use them, but how to prevent a massacre? Here’s how: relocate the delta files.
When you create a snapshot, the current state of the vm is preserved by leaving the disk files alone. All changes since the moment of creating the snapshot are written to delta files. The delta files are stored in the vm’s working directory. The working directory is – by default – the location where the vmx and other config files reside. If that datastore runs out of free space – especially if it also contains disk files – you’re in a bit of a kerfuffle. Vms not booting or being frozen as if they stared into Medusa’s reptoid eyes.
So you can do two things: reserve overhead in your datastores and stay afraid some overactive snapshot might destroy your environment, or set the working directory of your vms to some big-ass datastore you don’t use for anything else and let the snapshots enjoy themselves. If they fill up the datastore, they only kill all vms with snapshots, not the rest.
But how, you ask? You can edit the vmx files of you vms manually - which requires your vms to be powered down – and add the line: workingDir = “/vmfs/volumes/<insanely long guid you need to somehow find>/”
Or, you run my script and change the working location on the fly:
User Confirmation in Powershell
Built-in cmdlets usually offer the -Confirm parameter whenever you need user confirmation. When writing your own scripts, you might want to ask the eventual user of the script for confirmation yourself. This handy little function (store it in your profile!) allows you to ask for confirmation whenever, where-ever. (Try not to bug your users too much.)
Create a vSwitch Port Overview with Powershell
WARNING: VMware vmotion does not check wether there are sufficient ports available on the virtual switch on the destination host. Migrating a vm to a host with insufficient ports will cause the vmotion to complete without warnings, yet the virtual NIC will be disconnected! This issue is descripbed in this KB article.
The solution to this problem is to create vSwitches with sufficient ports, obviously. Do you want to know how many ports are currently being used on every vSwitch in your environment? vSphere PowerCLI to the rescue! Try the following script:
Examine VMware CPU Ready Times with Powershell
When your (VMware) consolidation ratios are becoming high, it might be smart to keep an eye on your vm’s CPU Ready Times. Unfortunately, by default, the VI Client will only show realtime ready time statistics. Plus you’d have to look at each vm individually. Thank God VMware for the PowerCLI! Read this document for more information on how to interpret the results.
Managing Scheduled Tasks Remotely Using Powershell
The following Powershell functions allow you to manage querying, creating and removing scheduled tasks on one or more computers remotely.
The functions use schtasks.exe, which is included in Windows. Unlike the Win32_ScheduledJob WMI class, the schtasks.exe commandline tool will show manually created tasks, as well as script-created ones. The examples show some, but not all parameters in action. I think the parameter names are descriptive enough to figure it out, really. If not, take a look at schtasks.exe /?. One tip: try piping a list of computer names to foreach-object and into this function.
Increment PowerGUI Xml Version with Powershell
If you are using PowerGUI (which you should) and some of your collaegues do too, you might want to use a central configuration. Whenever you want to update the central configuration xml file, you need to increment the version number in order to push this change out to your collaegues. The following function increments the version number for you and even allows you to store the new file to the central location at the same time. All without having to edit the complex xml file manually. It even saves a backup copy of your central config file in case you mess up ;) It assumes you use a simple x.y version number, so please start out with 2.0 when setting up your config.
To update your central config: just make the modifications within PowerGUI and then run this function.
