Getting Started with VMware vSphere PowerCLI

VMware are providing vSphere PowerCLI to make it possible to administer vSphere and vCloud Director using PowerShell.

A good startingpoint is the VMware vSphere PowerCLI Documentation page that is available at: https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/ps_pubs.html

If you´re in a hurry you could follow my quick starting guide below:

Step 1. Download and install VMware vShere PowerCLI:
VMware vSphere PowerCLI is available for download from http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/index.html
Select the release you want to download from the drop-down list and click on the download-link.
Double-click on the downloaded installation-package and follow the instructions to install PowerCLI.

Step 2. Start PowerCLI and connect to a vCenter Server:
Double-click on the “VMware PowerCLI” icon to start PowerCLI.

PowerCLI

Use the CmdLet ‘Connect-VIServer’ as shown below to connect to the vCenter Server:

Connect-VIServer -Server <server-IP> -Protocol https -Username '<Username>' -Password '<Password>'

Now you are ready to explore and manage the VMware vCenter environment using PowerShell. Start by executing the following CmdLet to list all available commands.

Get-VICommand

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Compare-Object

Powershell makes it really easy to compare text-files, just use the following oneliner to compare two files:

Compare-Object -ReferenceObject (Get-Content c:pathtofile1.txt) -DifferenceObjet (Get-Content c:pathtofile2.txt)

Reference: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee156812.aspx

PowerShell Remoting

First of all Powershell Remoting must be enabled on the machine you are going to manage. The command ‘Enable-PSRemoting -Force’ starts the WinRM service, changes its startup mode to automatic and creates a firewall-rule that allows incoming connections.

You can test the connection by entering the following Powershell command from an remote computer:
Test-WsMan

The result should look something like in the following example:
PS C:UsersTestUser> Test-WsMan TESTCOMPUTER

wsmid : http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wsman/identity/1/wsmanidentity.xsd
ProtocolVersion : http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wsman/1/wsman.xsd
ProductVendor : Microsoft Corporation
ProductVersion : OS: 0.0.0 SP: 0.0 Stack: 3.0

To create a remote session, enter the following command:
Enter-PSSession -Computername -Credential <domainusername>

References:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849694(v=wps.620).aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849873(v=wps.620).aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849707(v=wps.620).aspx

Initialize, partition and format disks using PowerShell

I ran into this good blogpost about using PowerShell to Initialize Raw Disks, and to Partition and Format Volumes.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/05/29/use-powershell-to-initialize-raw-disks-and-partition-and-format-volumes.aspx

To summarize, you can initialize raw disks and partition and format volumes using the following simple PowerShell “script”:
Get-Disk | Where partitionstyle -eq ‘raw’ | Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle MBR -PassThru | New-Partition -AssignDriveLetter -UseMaximumSize | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel “disk2” -Confirm:$false

FREE Microsoft eBooks

Microsoft Senior Sales Excellence Manager – Eric Ligman posted a list of almost 300 FREE Microsoft eBooks. You can download them all from hos blog at the following address:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mssmallbiz/archive/2014/07/07/largest-collection-of-free-microsoft-ebooks-ever-including-windows-8-1-windows-8-windows-7-office-2013-office-365-office-2010-sharepoint-2013-dynamics-crm-powershell-exchange-server-lync-2013-system-center-azure-cloud-sql.aspx

Determine SCOM2012 Components File Versions Using PowerShell

Interresting concept:
http://bjornhouben.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/scom2012-determine-opsmgr-components-file-versions-using-powershell-in-scom2012-agent-task/

Use PowerShell to Find Service Accounts

I was looking for a way to find service accounts using PowerShell and found the following post on the “Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog”:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/02/15/the-scripting-wife-uses-powershell-to-find-service-accounts.aspx

To summarize, you can use the Get-WmiObject cmdlet to retrieve information about service accounts as in the following example:

Get-WmiObject win32_service | format-table Name, StartName

How to Create Your Own Windows Azure Publish Settings File

If you are not able to download the “Publish Settings File” from the Windows Azure Portal, this blogpost describes how to create your own Windows Azure Publish Settings File:
http://cloud.dzone.com/articles/how-create-your-own-windows

The broken Operations Manager Shell

I have a management server with the Operations Manager Console installed. When I tried to start the Operations Manager Shell it failed with the following errormessage:
Import-Module : The specified module ‘OperationsManager’ was not loaded because
no valid module file was found in any module directory.
At line:1 char:14
+ Import-Module <<<< OperationsManager; .OperationsManagerFunctions.ps1; .O perationsManagerStartup.ps1
     + CategoryInfo : ResourceUnavailable: (OperationsManager:String)
        [Import-Module], FileNotFoundException
       + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Modules_ModuleNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Comm
        ands.ImportModuleCommand

The term ‘Start-OperationsManagerClientShell’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At C:Program FilesSystem Center 2012Operations ManagerPowershellOperationsManagerStartup.ps1:26 char:35
+ Start-OperationsManagerClientShell <<<< -ManagementServerName: “” -PersistConnection: $true -Interactive: $true;
         + CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Start-OperationsManagerClientShell:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
         + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

The reason for this was that the path to “C:Program FilesSystem Center 2012Operations ManagerPowershell” was missing in the envorinmental variable PSModulePath. Once completed and logged out and back in to the system everything worked as espected.