VMworld 2013 Luc Dekens, Eurocontrol Alan Renouf, VMware Learn more about VMworld and register at http://www.vmworld.com/index.jspa?src=socmed-vmworld-slideshare

1. PowerCLI Best Practices - A Deep Dive
Luc Dekens, Eurocontrol
Alan Renouf, VMware
VSVC4944
#VSVC4944

2. 2

3. 3
Who Are We?
 Alan Renouf –
Sr. Technical Marketing Architect, VMware
• Automation: PowerCLI
• vExpert
• VMware Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/vipowershell/
• Personal Blog: http://virtu-al.net/
• Twitter: @alanrenouf
 Luc Dekens –
Systems Engineer, Eurocontrol Maastricht
• Personal Blog: http://lucd.info/
• vExpert & PowerShell MVP
• VMTN account: LucD
• Twitter: @Lucd22

4. 4
Introduction
I hope the coffee has kicked in…

5. 5
Background
 We’re back for the 3rd time in a row
• You just cant get enough of PowerCLI!
 No 1 unique solution for a task/problem.
 Some are better
• More performant
• More flexible
 This session shows a number of these, so you don’t have to find
them out yourselves

6. 6
Common PowerCLI Questions
The PowerCLI Community is huge!
This session will make your life easier
(and also full of famous people)

7. 7
Common PowerCLI Questions
The PowerCLI Community is huge!
This session will make you an expert

8. 8
Community Question
I sense a new
force in the galaxy,
what is this PowerCLI ?

9. 9
PowerCLI Overview
 Why PowerCLI?
• PowerShell is universal, easy to use and works with objects
 Why universal?
• The standard on Windows platforms
• Reuse your PowerShell knowledge in different applications
 Easy to use?
• The verb-noun construct in plain English
• Help is available
• Start with minimal set of cmdlets, and grow
 What’s with these objects?
• Think of it as unit that has data and functions
• Objects flow through the pipeline to the next cmdlet

10. 10
PowerCLI Overview – Simple Examples
 Simple to read/write
New-VM –Name VM1 –VMHost MyEsx
 Easy to extend for big(ger) environments
1..10 | Foreach {New-VM –Name VM$_ –VMHost MyEsx}
 Clear, understandable minimal code
Get-Datastore | Select Name,Type,FileSystemVersion
 Access to API covers what is not (yet) there
Get-VMHost |
Select Name,
@{N=“Reboot”;E={$_.ExtensionData.Summary.RebootRequired}}

11. 11
Community Question
I already know
most things…
So what's new in
PowerCLI 5.5 R1?

12. 12
PowerCLI Snap-in’s
 Core
• Managing vSphere
 Image Builder
• Working with Image Profiles
 Auto Deploy
• Deploying ESXi via PXE
 License
• Working with vSphere Licensing
 VDS
• Working with vSphere Distributed Switch
 Cloud
• vCloud Director Providers
 Tenant
• vCloud Director Tenants
Core
Image
Builder
Auto
Deploy
License
Cloud
Tenant
VDS

13. 13
PowerCLI 5.5 R1 - Overview
New Cmdlets to manage vSphere Tags
 Manage Tags in the vSphere environment
 Assign Tags to vSphere Objects
 Remove Tag assignments from vSphere Objects
VDS
 Easy VDS Migration
 Manage Private VLANs
 Manage VDS Policies
 Manage VDS Ports
VM Console
 Open a console for vSphere/vCloud VM
 Open multiple consoles at once
 Output the URL to open VM Consoles
vCloud Director 5.5 Support
 Support for vCD 5.5
Host Licensing
 Assign Host Licensing

14. 14
Community Question
Quit your
jibber jabber, how can I apply
some PowerShell best practices
to PowerCLI, fool!

15. 15
Best Practices
 Store results in variables
• Speed
• Re-use
• Filter on the variables
 Use Get-Help and the Examples –ShowWindow
 Break things down into functions – Don’t forget splatting
 Try/Catch/Throw
 Filter on the left
• Get-Event | Sort Date | Where { $_.Something –eq “5” }
• Get-Event | Where { $_.Something –eq “5” } | Sort Date
 Steal from the best (Lucd.info) and write the rest
 Do not use Write-Host as output, only for output to console
• Use Write-Verbose or Write-Warning

16. 16
Community Question
How do I run these scripts?

17. 17
What Is the Best Way to Run My Script?
 PS1 file / dot source / functions - what does this mean?
 Console (PowerCLI Prompt) / Editor
 Scheduled Task in Windows (add-pssnapin
VMware.vimautomation*)
 vCenter Alert action
• VM Creation – Secure a VM
• Host added to vCenter
 Robust PS Sessions (See demo later)
 WebCommander (Future VMware Fling)

18. 18
Launching the Code
DEMO

19. 19
Community Question
Why is PowerCLI so slow?

20. 20
Why is PowerCLI so Slow?
 Why is PowerCLI slow to launch?
• Load environment
• PowerShell v1, v2, v3 – Caching
 How can I make it even faster?
• Remote session
• Run the Connect-VIServer
• Run a cmdlet
• Disconnect/Reconnect from the session (see demo later)
 Why is PowerCLI slower than a direct API call or other SDK?
• Abstracted Object
• Easier to read code
• Easier to work with / Pipeline Results
• Formulated objects

21. 21
Why is PowerCLI so Slow?
 Making results faster
 Finding the properties you need
• ExtensionData
• New-VIProperty
• Use the Property parameter with Get-View
 Creating a new object
• What to read in the SDK
• How to create it
• Creating the bare frame and filling in what's needed
 Onyx
• How it is helpful
• How it is not helpful

22. 22
Community Question
How do I export my
information?

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Advanced Reporting
 CSV/TXT/XML
• Use whatever is relevant and saves time
• Think about how you can use the information later
 Export-XLS / Word
• Export-XLS is a function available on LucD.Info which exports straight to Excel
• Including multiple sheets and Graphs
 vCheck
• Community driven script to give you the information you need
• Plugins to add your own checks or remove others for speed
• Change the Style easily
• FREE
• Get Involved!

24. 24
Performance: Advanced, and Fun, Reporting
 The performance data is there, use it!
 How to find the available counters?
 VMware Tools gives access to guest OS metrics
 Data where you don’t expect it, like for example through CIM
 And a picture still says more than 1K words
• Replace your CSV files with nice graphs
• Several options available (XLS, MS Chart…)
• Combining metrics in a graph will bring a point across
 Mapping of vDisks to OS Partitions (The holy grail)

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Advanced Reporting
DEMO

26. 26
Community Question
How do the newer
versions of PowerShell
make a difference?

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Use the PowerShell v3 Features
 Use the new CIM cmdlets
• A wealth of information
• Find out what is there (CIM classes)
 Robust sessions
• See the SIW demo later on
 Calling SOAP/REST methods became a lot easier
 Ordered objects

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CIM Demo
DEMO

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CIM/SMASH
 See VMware CIM SMASH/Server Management API for ESXi
Documentation
 Result in PNG/PDF/…

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Server In Waiting
 PowerCLI is great !
 …but do some of these sound familiar ?
• Slow Connect-VIServer
• Slow first cmdlet
• Aligning PowerCLI snapin versions
• Exceptions in big environments
 We did, and we were fed up with those 

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PS Remoting I
 Use PS Remoting with robust sessions !
 A “work horse” box
 Lots of CPU power & memory (if needed)
 Start a remote session
• Load PowerCLI
• Connect-VIServer
• Execute any PowerCLI cmdlet (JIT)
• Disconnect the remote PSSession

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PS Remoting II
 Discover with Get-PSSession
 Use Connect-PSSession !
• Connects to robust session
• PowerCLI environment is ready 
 Some drawbacks
• Reconnect  same account
• Sessions tend to get bloated (leaks)
• Some GUIs have a problem (PSP, PowerGUI)

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PS Remoting III - Schematic
SIW
Session 3
Session 2
Session 1
Server 2012 Core
1
New-PSSession
Disconnect-PSSession
Invoke-Command # PowerCLI environment
2
Get-PSSession
Connect-PSSession
Enter-PSSession
Invoke-Command

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PS Remoting IV - Gotchas
 Set up PowerCLI in the PSSession
 Pre W2K12 – mind the available memory

35. 35
SIW Demo
DEMO

36. 36
Comparison – Classic vs SIW
Classic SIW
Connect-VIServer 14.6 0
Get-
Datacenter(1st)
5.3 0.1
Get-Datacenter 0.1 0.1

37. 37
Community Question
I'm all about Events,
but how can I use them?

38. 38
Events - What
 Used to record significant state changes of managed entities
 Stored in the vCenter DB
 Retention!

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Events – Objects - Inheritance
Event VmEvent
VmDeployed
Event
Template srcTemplateCreatedTime
…
vm
EventEx
ExtendedEvent
Arguments
eventTypeId
…
General
Event
message
data
eventTypeId
…

40. 40
Events – Simple Retrieval
 Get-VIEvent
 Attention points
• MaxSamples: default is 100
• Entity: is not recursive
$esx = Get-VMHost -Name ESX1
$start = (Get-Date).AddDays((-1)
Get-VIEvent -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) -Entity $esx -Start $start

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Events – Filtering I
 Get-VIEvent has limited filters
 Use a Where-clause on all returned objects
• Filtering done on your machine !
$esx = Get-VMHost -Name ESX1
$start = (Get-Date).AddDays((-1)
Get-VIEvent -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) -Entity $esx -Start $start |
Where {$_ -is [VMware.Vim.VmDeployed]}

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Events Demo I
DEMO

43. 43
Events – Filtering II
 Use EventHistoryCollector
• Filtering on vSphere Server
• More filtering options
$esx = Get-VMHost -Name ESX1
$start = (Get-Date).AddDays((-1)
Get-VIEventPlus -Entity $esx -Start $start -EventType “VmDeployed”
Up to 80 times faster !

44. 44
Events Demo II
DEMO

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Events – Which One ?
 The ‘regular’ events are in the SDK Reference
 Other, go via EventManager
 Or, use the Event-O-Matic !

46. 46
Events Demo III
DEMO

47. 47
Community Question
This stuff is MAGIC
How do I take it further?

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Integration Next Steps
 PowerShell has many Snapins/Modules and doesn’t care what the
technology is
• Microsoft
• CIM Cmdlets / Active Directory Cmdlets / Windows Cmdlets
• 3rd Party
• NetApp / PernixData
 Rest API
• Invoke-RestMethod
• Invoke-Webrequest
 Read from files
• XML
• CSV
• TXT

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Further Automation of your Day to Day Tasks
 Do you do the same thing every day?
• Snapshot a VM to make sure its ok
 Do you love documentation?
• PowerGUI Export / PowerGUI Reports / Export to Word / Export-XLS
• CIM Demo
 Module for vShield
• REST API
 Other VMware products with Automation (Automation Triangle)
 Built-in with policies  1st choice
 Orchestration/workflows  integration
 Scripts  quick solutions
 Andy Troup blog article: http://url.vmware.com/j2g5

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Community Question
Where do I go now?

51. 51
Where Do I Go Now
 Community
 Official PowerCLI Blog
 External PowerCLI Blogs
 New Developer Network
 Books
 Trainsignal Videos

52. 52
Take Aways
1. PowerCLI, a quick and easy tool for automating your “vTasks”
2. Take PowerCLI and Automation to the next level
3. Automating the components you didn’t think were possible
4. Combine everything you have learned

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PowerCLI Summary
Additional Resources and references
 PowerCLI Blog - http://blogs.vmware.com/vipowershell/
 PowerCLI Download - http://vmware.com/go/PowerCLI
 PowerCLI Documentation - http://vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/
 PowerShell Performance - http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/donjones/archive/2012/05/07/powershell-
performance-it-s-the-dlr.aspx
 Detailed PowerCLI cmdlet reference with examples -
http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/PowerCLI501/html/index.html
 PowerCLI Community -
http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/server/vsphere/automationtools/powercli?view=discussions
 vSphere Automation Blog - http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/automation/
 Luc Dekens Blog – http://Lucd.info
 Alan Renoufs Blog – http://virtu-al.net
 Google ”PowerCLI”

54. 54
VMware vSphere™ PowerCLI

55. 55
What Else Do You Want from PowerCLI ?
Before you ask,
no I don’t know who this is!
@alanrenouf and @LucD22
#VSVC4944
Q&A
Winners will be tweeted
back by me during VMworld
Tweet a comment about this session to win!

56. 56
Other VMware Activities Related to This Session
 HOL:
HOL-SDC-1307
vCloud Automation Solutions
 Group Discussions:
VSVC1005-GD
PowerCLI and Automation with Alan Renouf

57. THANK YOU

59. PowerCLI Best Practices - A Deep Dive
Luc Dekens, Eurocontrol
Alan Renouf, VMware
VSVC4944
#VSVC4944