VMware PowerCLI Snippets

Configuration

This page is a Pastbin for PowerCLI Snippets I use. If you have any questions, feel free to comment.

Import/Export vCenter Roles

#Export Role
$role = Get-VIRole -Name "MyRole" |Get-VIPrivilege; $role.id -join ","

#Import Role (Use the output from the command above)
New-VIRole -Name "MyRole" -Privilege (Get-VIPrivilege -Id System.Anonymous,System.View,System.Read)

Create Profile

New-Item -Path $Profile -ItemType file -Force
notepad $profile

Load VMware Cmdlet

Add-PsSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ea "SilentlyContinue"

Connect to vCenter Server

Connect-VIServer -server <Server> -user administrator -password <Password>

PowerShell Basics

Where statements

get-vm  | Where-Object PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"
get-vm  | ? PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"

Snippets

Move ESXi Hosts between Datacenters or Clusters

Get-VMHost -Name <ESX> | Move-VMHost -Destination <Cluster or Datacenter>

Create VMKernel Port for vMotion

$esx = Get-VMHost <HOST>
$vs = Get-VirtualSwitch -Name "dvSwitch"
$pg = Get-VirtualPortGroup -Name "dvPortGroup"
New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost $esx -PortGroup $pg -VirtualSwitch $vs -IP <IP> -SubnetMask <MASK> -VMotionEnabled:$true

Create VMKernel Port for vMotion one-liner

New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost "<HOST>" -PortGroup "<PORTGROUP>" -VirtualSwitch "dvSwitch Lab" -IP <IP> -SubnetMask <MASK> -VMotionEnabled:$true

Add multiple Hosts to vCenter by Hostname Range

1..20 | Foreach-Object { Add-VMHost esx$_.virten.lab -Location (Get-Datacenter Lab) -User root -Password <Password> -RunAsync -force:$true}

Add multiple Hosts to vCenter by IP-Address Range

10..20 | ForEach-Object { [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostbyAddress("192.168.0.$_")  } |
select-object HostName | ForEach-Object { Add-VMHost $_.HostName -Location (Get-Datacenter Lab) -User root -Password <Password> -RunAsync -force:$true }

Add multiple Hosts to vCenter by Input Textfile

Get-Content hosts.txt | Foreach-Object { Add-VMHost $_ -Location (Get-Datacenter Lab) -User root -Password <Password> -RunAsync -force:$true}

#Migrate E1000 Adapter to vmxnet3

Get-VM -name "<VM>" | Get-NetworkAdapter | Where { $_.Type -eq "E1000"} | Set-NetworkAdapter -Type "vmxnet3"