Useful One-Liners (PowerCLI)
Virtual Centre
Get vCentre software version
Get vCentre software version etc
(Get-View ServiceInstance).Content.About
Get all permissions for a user
Get all permissions for a particular user
Get-VIPermission -Principal "DOMAIN\user" | Select @{Name="Folder"; Expression={ (Get-Folder -Id $_.EntityId).Name}}, Role
Virtual Machine
Get list of VM's
Get list of VM's
Get-VM
Sort by Name
Get list of VM's, sorted by name
Get-VM | Sort -Property Name
Within a Folder
Get VM within a specific folder (for when you've VM's with identical names if different folders)
Get-VM -Name MyVM -Location (Get-Folder -Name "MyFolder")
Get VM guest Info
Get VM guest OS info (IP address, etc)
Get-VMGuest -VM (Get-VM -Name MyVM)
Get VM's UUID
Get list of VM's and their UUID's
Get-VM MyVM | %{(Get-View $_.Id).config.uuid}
Get VM's VMX Path
Get list of virtual machine config file paths in a particular vApp (for VM's in a folder use Get-Folder instead of Get-vApp)
Get-VM -Location (Get-vApp "vApp Name") | Get-View | %{$_.Config.Files.VmPathName} | Sort
Storage vMotion
Storage vMotion (SvMotion) a VM to a different datastore
Get-VM MyVM | Move-VM -datastore (Get-datastore "DestinationDatastore")
Gracefully Shutdown a VM
Sends OS shutdown command via VM Tools
Shutdown-VMGuest -VM (Get-VM -name "vserver1")
Get VM Power On/Off Events
Get Power On/Off times and events for VM
get-VM MyVM | Get-VIEvent | Where {$_.fullFormattedMessage -like "*Power*"}
Get Snapshot info for a VM
Get Snapshot size, date created, and other info for a VM
Get-VM MyVM | Get-Snapshot | Select-Object -Property Name, Description, Created, SizeMB | Format-List *
Move VMs to New PortGroup Network
The following will reconfigure all VM in the specified folder to move from network A to network B
Get-VM -Location (Get-Folder "InThisFolder") | Get-NetworkAdapter | Where {$_.NetworkName -eq "Network A"} | Set-NetworkAdapter -NetworkName "Network B" -Confirm:$false
Borrowed in part from http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/10/19/powercli-mass-vm-portgroup-change/
ESX Host
Get ESX software version etc
Get ESX software version (inc build no)
get-vmhost -name MyESX* | %{(Get-View $_.ID).Config.Product}
Get VLANs
Get VLANs configured on ESX
Get-VMHost MyESX* | Get-VirtualPortGroup | Sort VLanId | Select VLanId, Name
Get Disk VML ID's
Get ESX disk VML ID's (SAN ID are a part of the VML - useful for identifying LUN's with SAN team). See ESX SAN LUN ID
Get-ScsiLun -VMHost MyESX* -LunType disk
Get SCSI paths
Get ESX SCSI paths info
Get-ScsiLun -VMHost MyESX* -LunType disk | Get-ScsiLunPath
Get Fibre Channel HBA info
Get ESX Fibre Channel HBA info
Get-VMHostHba -VMHost MyESX* | Where {$_.Type -eq "FibreChannel"} | Format-List *
Get HA Cluster Primaries
Display ESX hosts that are HA Primaries
Get-Cluster | Get-HAPrimaryVMHost | Select Name
Recent Storage Errors
Display recent ESX storage errors
Get-VIEvent -Entity (Get-VMHost MyESX*) -Type error | Where {$_.FullFormattedMessage -like "*storage*"} | Select CreatedTime, FullFormattedMessage
ESXi Logs
Get Log
Generate diagnostic bundle
Get-Log -VMHost (Get-VMHost "MyESX*") -Bundle -DestinationPath C:\Users\name
VPXA
Get vpxa log
Get-Log vpxa -VMHost (Get-VMHost "MyESX*") | Select -ExpandProperty Entries
Messages
Get messages log
Get-Log messages -VMHost (Get-VMHost "MyESX*") | Select -ExpandProperty Entries
HostD
Get hostd log from line 1000
Get-Log hostd -VMHost (Get-VMHost "MyESX*") -StartLineNum 1000 -NumLines 100 | Select -ExpandProperty Entries
Filtered HostD
Get hostd log entries that include FindMe
Get-Log hostd -VMHost (Get-VMHost "MyESX*") | Select -Expand Entries | Select-String FindMe
Grid View
Dump hostd log into GridView
Get-Log hostd -VMHost (Get-VMHost "MyESX*") | Select -Expand Entries | Out-GridView
Storage
Get VMDKs
Get the virtual HD (VMDK) details for a particular VM
Get-VM -Name "MyVM" | Get-HardDisk | Format-List
Get the VMDK details for a particular VM (as seen from within guest OS)
(Get-VM -name "MyVM" | Get-VMGuest).Disks
Get the VMDK details for all VM’s in a folder (sorted by VMDK path)
Get-VM -Location (Get-Folder -Name "MyFolder") | Get-HardDisk | sort-object -Property Filename
Create PowerShell drive
Create a PowerShell drive for the MyDatastore datastore
New-PSDrive -Name DS -PSProvider ViMdatastore -Root '\' -location (Get-Datastore MyDatastore)
Upload file to datastore
Upload file to datastore (a PowerShell drive needs to be create 1st - see above)
Copy-DatastoreItem C:\Temp\FileToUpload.vmdk -Destination DS:\VMFolder\
List VM RDMs
List VM Raw Device Mapping (RDM) disks
Get-VM | Get-HardDisk -DiskType "RawPhysical","RawVirtual" | Select Parent,Name,CapacityKB,Filename,ScsiCanonicalName,DeviceName
List LUN Multipathing
List all disk multipathing
Get-VMHost | Get-ScsiLun | Select VMHost,Vendor,Model,LunType,CapacityMB,RuntimeName,MultipathPolicy,CanonicalName | Export-Csv lunpath.csv
Set LUN Multipathing
Set all SCSI disks to use round robin multipathing
Get-VMHost | Get-ScsiLun -LunType disk | Set-ScsiLun -MultipathPolicy "roundrobin"
The above came from Troy Clavell's post to be found at http://communities.vmware.com/thread/339480
Note that you should also set the IOPS per path to 1 (default is 1000), there is some debate as to whether you should do this or not, HP recommend it for their SAN's, though some worry about the overhead on the ESX caused by switching paths for every IO. The choice is yours, though for further reading and how to do it...