Good to know, VMware basic PowerCLI

Hi All,

sometimes we have to get details from our V-CENTER, whether for a self-inventory or any task we are planning to proceed. I am assuming that most of you already know these commands, However, it was important for me to demonstrate this for you. Introduce PowerCLI.

I as IT guy like to learn and check new technologies in my leisure time in the home, especially that we are talking about IT technologies.

So let get started,

First of all, you have to connect to your V-CENTER with the following command:

Connect-VIServer -Server “PelegITvcenter01”

What about our VM’s:?

Get-vm |select name

Your HA Cluster didn’t work properly ? do you have 1000 VM’s but don’t know what are their power state? run the following command:

Get-VM | select Name,PowerState

All right, get your cluster:

Get-Cluster

get cluster and host information

Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | sort name

Get power state, Num CPU, Memory GB in regarding your VM:

Get-Cluster | Get-VM | sort name

Would like to know what network adapter type do you use on all VMs’ before starting the task of changing the adapter to VMX?, NP:

get-vm | Get-NetworkAdapter

Would like to Power On VM by Powershell?

Start-VM -VM <VM NAME> -Confirm -RunAsync

Get Virtual Port Group:

Get-VirtualPortGroup

Get Virtual Switch:

Get-VirtualSwitch

Get Virtual machines with Thin or Thick Provision:

Get-VM | Get-HardDisk |select Parent,StorageFormat,Filename

Important!, get snapshot details:

Get-vm | Get-Snapshot

Get all snapshots less than 3 days:

Get-VM | Get-Snapshot | Where {$_.Created -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-3)}

Remove snapshot according to match snapshot name

get-vm | Get-Snapshot | where {$_.Name -match “name of snapshot”} | Remove-Snapshot -confirm:$false

You can use in Export, Filter, where-object, variables to improve your script/query.