Learning PowerCLI

Robert van denNieuwendijk

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781782170174
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Virtualisation
• Index: Computer Science

"Learning PowerCLI" is written in a friendly and practical style with a focus on getting you started and automating daily tasks quickly and efficiently. If you manage or administrate a vSphere environment, and want to make that easier and more efficient, then this book is for you! This book is ideal for you if you want to learn how to automate your VMware vSphere infrastructure, by getting the most out of PowerCLI. It's assumed that you have some experience in administrating a VMware vSphere environment. Knowledge of Microsoft's Windows PowerShell is not a prerequisite.

Learning PowerCLI

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Table of Contents

Learning PowerCLI

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Introduction to PowerCLI

Downloading and installing PowerCLI

Downloading PowerCLI

Installing PowerCLI

Modifying the PowerShell execution policy

Connecting and disconnecting servers

Connecting to a server

Connecting to multiple servers

Suppressing certificate warnings

Disconnecting from a server

Retrieving the PowerCLI configuration

Using the credential store

Retrieving a list of all of your virtual machines

Suppressing displaying deprecated warnings

Using wildcard characters

Filtering objects

Using comparison operators

Using aliases

Retrieving a list of all of your hosts

Displaying the output in a grid view

Summary

2. Learning Basic PowerCLI Concepts

Using the Get-Command, Get-Help, and Get-Member cmdlets

Using Get-Command

Using Get-VICommand

Using Get-Help

Using Get-PowerCLIHelp

Using Get-PowerCLICommunity

Using Get-Member

Using providers and PSDrives

Using providers

Using PSDrives

Using the vSphere PowerCLI Inventory Provider

Using the vSphere PowerCLI Datastore Provider

Copying files between a datastore and your PC

Using arrays and hash tables

Creating calculated properties

Using raw API objects with ExtensionData or Get-View

Using the ExtensionData property

Using the Get-View cmdlet

Using Managed Object References

Using the Get-VIObjectByVIView cmdlet

Extending PowerCLI objects with the New-VIProperty cmdlet

Working with vSphere folders

Summary

3. Working with Objects in PowerShell

Using objects, properties, and methods

Using methods

Expanding variables and subexpressions in strings

Understanding what expands a string

Expanding a string when it is used

Using here-strings

Using the pipeline

Using the ByValue parameter binding

Using the ByPropertyName parameter binding

Using the PowerShell object cmdlets

Using the Select-Object cmdlet

Using the Where-Object cmdlet

Using the ForEach-Object cmdlet

Using the Sort-Object cmdlet

Using the Measure-Object cmdlet

Rounding a value

Using the Group-Object cmdlet

Using the Compare-Object cmdlet

Using the Tee-Object cmdlet

Creating your own objects

Using the New-Object cmdlet

Using a hash table to create an object

Creating objects using the Select-Object cmdlet

Adding properties to an object with Add-Member

Using type declarations

Using COM objects

Summary

4. Managing vSphere Hosts with PowerCLI

Adding a host to a VMware vCenter Server

Creating a datacenter

Creating a cluster

Adding a host

Enabling and disabling maintenance mode

Working with host profiles

Creating a host profile

Attaching the host profile to a cluster or a host

Testing the host profile for compliance

Applying a host profile to a host or cluster

Using host profile answer files

Exporting a host profile

Importing a host profile

Working with host services

Retrieving information about host services

Starting a host service

Stopping a host service

Restarting a host service

Modifying the startup policy of a host service

Configuring the host firewall

Getting the host firewall default policy

Modifying the host firewall default policy

Getting the host firewall exceptions

Modifying a host firewall exception

Configuring vSphere Image Builder and Auto Deploy

Configuring Image Builder

Configuring Auto Deploy

Using esxcli from PowerCLI

Listing all of the available esxcli commands

Using the vSphere CLI commands from PowerCLI

Removing a host from the VMware vCenter Server

Summary

5. Managing Virtual Machines with PowerCLI

Creating a virtual machine

Creating a virtual machine from scratch

Creating a virtual machine from a template

Cloning a virtual machine

Registering a virtual machine

Using OS customization specifications

Starting and stopping a virtual machine

Starting a virtual machine

Suspending a virtual machine

Shutting down a virtual machine's guest operating system

Stopping a virtual machine

Modifying the settings of a virtual machine

Using the VMware vSphere API

Adding devices to a virtual machine

Adding a hard disk

Adding a SCSI controller

Adding a network adapter

Adding a floppy drive

Adding a CD drive

Modifying devices added to a virtual machine

Modifying a hard disk

Moving a hard disk to another datastore

Modifying a SCSI controller

Modifying a network adapter

Modifying a floppy drive

Modifying a CD drive

Removing devices from a virtual machine

Removing a hard disk

Removing a network adapter

Removing a floppy drive

Removing a CD drive

Converting a virtual machine i...

Table of contents

• Learning PowerCLI