VMworld 2014/Taking Reporting and Command Line Automation to the Next Level with PowerCLI

Taking Reporting and Command Line Automation to the Next Level with PowerCLI
Alan Renouf: Sr Product Manager, VMware Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI Blog: http://virtu-al.net/ Twitter: @alanrenouf Wrote: vShake script? vExpert

Luc Dekens System Engineer, Eurocontrol Maastricht Blog: http://lucd.info/ vExpert & PowerShell MVP VMTN acount: LucD Twitter: @Lucd22?

PowerCLI built on PowerShell

New: PowerCLI 5.8 R1 (part of vCloud Suite 5.8)

New in PowerCLI 5.8:
 * enhanced startup speed
 * storage policy cmdlets
 * query ovf/ova for deployment properties
 * ovf/ova delpyment and configuraiton
 * added filter by tag to more cmdlets
 * enhanced error reporting
 * support for RelatedObject to Get-HardDisk
 * filtering support for multiple areas
 * support for latest version of vCloud APIs
 * New-CIVM cmdlet
 * support for upcoming versions of SRM

Scripts are organic

"Luc has moved on from writing scripts, to writing scripts that write scripts. Now that's transcendence." :-)

Best Practices
(Code available on slides)

Problem: Link ESXi build and VMware Tools version

uses external information:
 * http://packages.vmware.com/tools/versions

PowerShell script parses this table, and compares against what hosts are running.

Problem: Link multipath policy for RDMs

Add help details: <# .SYNOPSIS text .DESCRIPTION text text

OVF/OVA Deployment Enhancements
Get-OvfConfiguration cmdlet

vCheck
good tool for determining what resources are being used

PowerShell ISE
Use the PowerShell ISE IDE as you can check out the state of variables

Introducing the Windows PowerShell ISE - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd315244.aspx

PowerCLI Dating
funny :-)

"If I ever manage to find a girlfriend I'll have tons of time to spend with her tanks to PowerCLI" -- rbrannigan

Join PowerCLI-Dating.com to find your PowerCLI Partner