PeetersOnline » Custom Fields

Add Vmx Path to VI Client using Powershell

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:56:41 +0000

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:

##############################
# Script created by Hugo Peeters #
# http://www.peetersonline.nl   #
##############################
 
# Variables
$VCServerName = "MYVCSERVER"
$CustomFieldName = "VMX"
$ManagedObjectType = "VirtualMachine"
 
# Script
$VC = Connect-VIServer $VCServerName
$SI = Get-View ServiceInstance
$CFM = Get-View $SI.Content.CustomFieldsManager
 
$myCustomField = $CFM.Field | Where {$_.Name -eq $CustomFieldName}
If (!$myCustomField)
	{
	# Create Custom Field
	$FieldCopy = $CFM.Field[0]
	$CFM.AddCustomFieldDef($CustomFieldName,$ManagedObjectType,$FieldCopy.FieldDefPrivileges,$FieldCopy.FieldInstancePrivileges)
	$myCustomField = $CFM.Field | Where {$_.Name -eq $CustomFieldName}
	}
 
# Fill Custom Fields
$VMs = Get-VM
ForEach ($VM in $VMs)
	{
	$VMView = $VM | Get-View
	$VMXPath = $VMView.Config.Files.VMPathName
	# Compare value to current value
	If ($VMXPath -ne ($VMView.CustomValue | ?{$_.Key -eq $myCustomField.Key}).Value)
		{
		# Set Custom Value
		$VMView.setCustomValue($CustomFieldName,$VMXPath)
		}
	Clear-Variable VMXPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	Clear-Variable VMView -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	}
Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$False

Enjoy!
Hugo

Add RDM Size info to VI Client using Powershell

admin — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:20:33 +0000

I have had a lot of comments on my sample scripts that add information to the VI Client using Custom Fields. I did have to resolve some issues with the scripts, so I have updated the scripts in the original post here. Be sure to refresh your browser to get the latest versions.

In the VMware VI Toolkit Communities, a request was made for a similar script that adds the total size of all Raw Device Mappings (RDMs) on a VM to a Custom Field in the VI Client. The difference between this sample script and the ones I showed you earlier, is that the information is now pulled from $VM and not from $VMView. So I pulled the Get-View command inside the loop and here’s the result:

add-vmrdmsize (rename to .ps1)

Let me know if you can’t get it to work.

Hugo

Add Custom Fields to VI Client with Powershell (Samples)

admin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:00:59 +0000

In my previous post, I showed you how to add information to your VI Client using Custom Fields. Here are some ready-to-go scripts to add very useful info:

Snapshot Count

I already showed you how to do this, but I have now added an IF-statement so that only changes are updated (equal values are not overwritten). And I have added Julian Wood’s correction. add-vmsnapshotcount (rename to .ps1)

Total Snapshot Size

The number of snapshots is quite inetresting, but even more interesting, is the total size of the delta files all snapshots are occupying. They might be eating up all your precious SAN space. Plus, reverting to or committing a large snapshot is tricky. add-vmsnapshotsize1 (rename to .ps1)

Host Hardware Model

Want to see what models of hardware you are using in your datacenter? You could look at the summary tab of each host. Or run this script to add the info to the every Hosts tab in the VI Client. Select your Datacenter, select the Hosts tab and enjoy! add-vmhostmodel (rename to .ps1)

Host ESX Version

Did you update all your ESX Servers to the latest version? Check it quickly using this script. add-vmhostversion (rename to .ps1)

Host LUN Count

Last but certainly not least: are you sure every datastore you are using is available to all your ESX Servers? It is visible at a glance when you add the LUN Count to your VI Client! add-vmhostluncount (rename to .ps1)

Happy Holidays!

Hugo

Add Snapshot Information to the VI Client using Powershell

admin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:02:09 +0000

Although I spend quite some time in the Powershell Command Line Interface, the main tool for managing the Virtual Infrastructure remains the VI Client. So wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow show the results of our Powershell VI Toolkit scripts inside the VI Client?
Well, we can! Let’s take a closer look at Custom Fields / Custom Attributes.
If you select either a VMHost (ESX Server) or a VM in the VI Client and open the Summary tab, you will see the Annotations section in the bottom left. When you click Edit, I’m sure you have used the Notes section to enter Descriptions. But have you ever used the Attributes section? Here you can manually add and remove custom attributes and their values. Go ahead and create one. Then select a cluster or datacenter and click the Hosts or Virtual Machines tab. You will notice you can display your custom attribute in this table view, just like all the other properties of your VMs / Hosts. Pretty sweet!
But we don’t want to add and update those fields manually, now do we? Of course not, we’ve got Powershell! Let’s see how we can automate this.
We start by connecting to the Custom Fields Manager:

$VCServerName = “MYVCSERVER”
$VC = Connect-VIServer $VCServerName
$SI = Get-View ServiceInstance
$CFM = Get-View $SI.Content.CustomFieldsManager

Take a look at the $CFM.Field property. It contains an array of available fields. Next step: add our own custom field.

# Variables
$CustomFieldName = “Snapshots”
$ManagedObjectType = “VirtualMachine”
# Check if the custom field already exists
$myCustomField = $CFM.Field | Where {$_.Name -eq $CustomFieldName}
If (!$myCustomField)
{
# Create Custom Field
$FieldCopy = $CFM.Field[0]
$CFM.AddCustomFieldDef($CustomFieldName, $ManagedObjectType, $FieldCopy.FieldDefPrivileges, $FieldCopy.FieldInstancePrivileges)
}

Final step: Fill the custom field with some relevant information:

# Fill Custom Fields
$VMs = Get-VM
$VMViews = $VMs | Get-View
ForEach ($VMView in $VMViews)
{
$SnapshotCount = ($VMView.Snapshot.RootSnapshotList | Measure-Object).Count
If ($SnapShotCount)
{
$VMView.setCustomValue($CustomFieldName,$SnapShotCount)
}
}

Now take a look at the VI Client:

More examples coming soon!
Hugo

PS: Don’t forget to schedule the script to run at an interval, so the values are kept up-to-date!