PowerCLI to deploy VMs in VMware vCloud and connect to network

Added March 2, 2016, By Sreejesh Damodaran with No Comments

This PowerCLI script will help you to deploy VMs in VMware Private vCloud and connect to network.

#############################
# Deploy VMs in  vCloud     #
#############################
# Change Log
# 1.0 This script will Create vApp and deploy VMs from the selected TemplateVM.
 
################
# INITIALIZING #
################
 
### DECLARING VARIABLES ###
 
$vCloud_Server = "vCloud Server" # vCloud Server FQDN
$vCloud_Org    =    "Org Name"   # Org Name
$orgNetwork = "orgNwName"        # Target OrgNetworkName for the VM.
$templateVM = "TemplateVMName    # Template VM Name.
$vmCount = 2                     # No of VMs required.
$vmIndex = 4                     # VM starting index.
$vAppNamePrefix =  "RHEL-vApp"   # Prefix string in the vApp Name.
$VMNamePrefix = "RHEL-VM"        # Prefix string in the VM Name.
 
### Connect to the vCloud Server ###
Connect-CIServer $vCloud_Server
 
### Deploying VMs ###
$vmCount = $vmIndex + $vmCount
 
for($i=$vmIndex; $i -le $vmCount; $i++)
{
$vAppName = $vAppNamePrefix+"$i"
$VMName = $VMNamePrefix+"$i"
 
### Creating new vApp ###
New-CIVApp -Name $vAppName -OrgVdc $vCloud_Org
 
### Deploy the VM from template inside the newly created vApp###
New-CIVM -Name "$VMName" -VMTemplate $templateVM -VApp $vAppName -ComputerName "$VMName"
 
### Creating new vApp Network ###
New-CIVAppNetwork -VApp $vAppName -Direct -ParentOrgNetwork $orgNetwork
 
$vAppNetwork = get-civapp $vAppName | Get-CIVAppNetwork $orgNetwork
$cldVMs = get-civapp $vAppName | get-civm
 
### Connecting the vNIC to the network ###
### Please change the allocation model if required###
foreach ($cldvm in $cldVMs) {
    $cldvm | Get-CINetworkAdapter | Set-CINetworkAdapter -vappnetwork $vAppNetwork -IPaddressAllocationMode Pool -Connected $True
}
### Powering on the vApp ###
get-CIVApp -Name $vAppName | Start-CIVApp
}
 
Disconnect-CIServer $vCloud_Server -Force -Confirm:$false

#############################

# Deploy VMs in vCloud #

#############################

# Change Log

# 1.0 This script will Create vApp and deploy VMs from the selected TemplateVM.

################

# INITIALIZING #

################

### DECLARING VARIABLES ###

$vCloud_Server = "vCloud Server" # vCloud Server FQDN

$vCloud_Org = "Org Name" # Org Name

$orgNetwork = "orgNwName" # Target OrgNetworkName for the VM.

$templateVM = "TemplateVMName # Template VM Name.

$vmCount = 2 # No of VMs required.

$vmIndex = 4 # VM starting index.

$vAppNamePrefix = "RHEL-vApp" # Prefix string in the vApp Name.

$VMNamePrefix = "RHEL-VM" # Prefix string in the VM Name.

### Connect to the vCloud Server ###

Connect-CIServer $vCloud_Server

### Deploying VMs ###

$vmCount = $vmIndex + $vmCount

for($i=$vmIndex; $i -le $vmCount; $i++)

{

$vAppName = $vAppNamePrefix+"$i"

$VMName = $VMNamePrefix+"$i"

### Creating new vApp ###

New-CIVApp -Name $vAppName -OrgVdc $vCloud_Org

### Deploy the VM from template inside the newly created vApp###

New-CIVM -Name "$VMName" -VMTemplate $templateVM -VApp $vAppName -ComputerName "$VMName"

### Creating new vApp Network ###

New-CIVAppNetwork -VApp $vAppName -Direct -ParentOrgNetwork $orgNetwork

$vAppNetwork = get-civapp $vAppName | Get-CIVAppNetwork $orgNetwork

$cldVMs = get-civapp $vAppName | get-civm

### Connecting the vNIC to the network ###

### Please change the allocation model if required###

foreach ($cldvm in $cldVMs) {

$cldvm | Get-CINetworkAdapter | Set-CINetworkAdapter -vappnetwork $vAppNetwork -IPaddressAllocationMode Pool -Connected $True

}

### Powering on the vApp ###

get-CIVApp -Name $vAppName | Start-CIVApp

}

Disconnect-CIServer $vCloud_Server -Force -Confirm:$false

Steps to find NAA ID of a RDM LUN mapped to a Windows Volume

Added November 26, 2015, By Sreejesh Damodaran with 2 Comments

Scenario:

Customer requested to increase the windows volume T:. The mentioned volume is a RAW LUN located in EMC VMAX storage. To expand the LUN storage team needs NAA ID (or WWN) of the LUN.

Its easy to find the naa id of a LUN from windows Guest OS with the help of EMC’s Inquiry (inq) tool. Please find the steps below to fetch the naa id with inq tool.

Steps:

Download the inq tool to the VM from following hyperlink.
1. inq
Open a CMD window.
1. Go to RUN -> cmd
CD to the directory where inq is downloaded.
Find the device associated to the windows volume T:.
1. Run the command inq -winvol
2. Here the Device name is PHYSICALDRIVE4.
Find the NAA id of the LUN associated to the Device PHYSICALDRIVE4.
1. Run the command inq -wwn
2. You can see that naa id is displayed in WWN column!!!.

To Confirm you can use the following method.

Find virtual device node of the Device.
1. Run the command inq -btl
2. note down the Bus (0) and Tid number (4).
Open VM settings check the NAAID of the disk with Virtual Device Node “0:4”.

Disclaimer :

I have’nt tested it on all windows platforms and tested only with EMC storages. So use at your own risk.

Configure Virtual Machine-FEX with Cisco VIC and Nexus 5K – Part 3

Added April 9, 2014, By Sandeep KA with No Comments

In this final part we discuss on the configuration that needs to be done on vCenter to enable VMFEX.

First step is to install vCenter and login to vCenter as administrator user. Now create a Datacenter where you want to add the hosts which will participate in VM-FEX. In this document, I use the datacenter name DC1.

Configure SVS connection to vCenter

Once the DC is created in vCenter, login to Nexus 5000 Switch using its management IP.

Before starting this configuration, make sure that the Nexus switch management ip is reachable by vCenter server. Following is an example on SVS connection creation.

1. configure
2. svs connection <svs connection name>
3. protocol vmware-vim
4. vmware dvs datacenter-name <vCenter datacenter name>
5. dvs-name <vCenter DVS name>
6. remote ip address <vCenterServer IP> port <vCenter Port> vrf management
7. install certificate default
8. extention-key cisco_nexus_fex

Example screenshot:
Continue reading →

Configure Virtual Machine-FEX with Cisco VIC and Nexus 5K – Part 2

Added April 9, 2014, By Sandeep KA with No Comments

Once the configuration on Cisco VIC adapter is done, we need to do certain configuration settings on Nexus switch to enable VM-FEX. In this section we discuss more on the configuration settings that needs to be done specifically on on Nexus 5000 Series switch to enable VM-FEX. We also discuss on settings that needs to be done on ESXi to enable VMFEX.

A VM-FEX license is required for Cisco Nexus device. The license package name is VMFEX_ FEATURE_PKG. Incase if you are just interested in experimenting with this cool feature, a grace period of 120 days starts when you first configure this feature.

We have to do the following configuration on Nexus 5000 switch:

Enable VM-FEX and other related services
Define port profiles for dynamic Virtual Machine ports
Enable vntag on applicable ports
Install Cisco_nexus_vmfex plugin in vCenter
Configure SVS connection to vCenter
Activate and verify the SVS connection

Continue reading →

Configure Virtual Machine-FEX with Cisco VIC and Nexus 5K – Part 1

Added April 9, 2014, By Sandeep KA with No Comments

Sick and tired of managing physical and virtual network for your data center from different management interfaces? VMFEX is Cisco’s answer to your problem. Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology extends cisco’s fabric extender technology to virtual machines. In simpler words, with VMFEX you will be able to manage both physical and virtual network ports from your Nexus 5000.

The objective of this article is to help users setup a VMFEX solution very easily in their virtualized environment with Cisco Rack Servers. This document has been divided into 3 parts.

Part 1: Introduction and VIC configurations

Part2: Nexus 5000 configuration

Part 3: ESXi and vCenter configuration
Continue reading →

VMware vEXPERT 2014!!

Added April 3, 2014, By Sreejesh Damodaran with No Comments

On Monday VMware announced the complete list of vExpert 2014. This year 754 people were named as vExpert. I am one among them!! humbled!!.

For those unknown with the term: “vExpert” is not a technical certification or a general measure of VMware expertise. The annual VMware vExpert title is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. The title is awarded to individuals (not employers) for their commitment to sharing their knowledge and passion for VMware technology above and beyond their job requirements. Here is the complete list of vExperts 2014.

If you feel you have contributed to the VMware community and did not apply for vExpert, good news.. the Q2 applications are already open at http://www.jotformpro.com/form/40285638168967. Good luck!

ESXi bash script to automate Power ON VM if its Powered OFF

Added March 3, 2014, By Sreejesh Damodaran with 2 Comments

This script with the help of crontab will enable ESXi 5.1 to poll the VM state every hour to check if it is ON and if not power it ON.

1. SSH to the host.
2. Copy and paste the following content to the shell script (auto-poweron.sh) which is placed in a vmfs volume.

Eg :-
Having enabled ssh access to your ESXi server, ssh in as root.
~ #vi /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/auto-poweron.sh

vmname="testvm"
vmid=$(vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep "$vmname" | awk '{print $1}')
stat1=$(vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate "$vmid" | grep "off")
if [ "$stat1" == "Powered off" ]
then
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on "$vmid"
fi

vmname="testvm"

vmid=$(vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep "$vmname" | awk '{print $1}')

stat1=$(vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate "$vmid" | grep "off")

if [ "$stat1" == "Powered off" ]

then

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on "$vmid"

3. Replace ‘testvm’ with the appropriate vmName.
Continue reading →

PowerCLI script to list VMFS,RDM and Free LUNs in a cluster

Added February 25, 2014, By Sreejesh Damodaran with 10 Comments

Its always a time consuming job to find out the LUN is FREE, RDM or VMFS. The following script will help to get the details of LUNs from hosts in a cluster and will tell us the LUN is VMFS, RDM or FREE.

If the LUN is an RDM, we can see on which VM RDM is mapped. And if the LUN has VMFS volume, the datastore name will be displayed. Also the script provides the details like LUN number, Capacity and naa id (Canonical Name).

The CSV file that is produced by the script looks like this. In this example cluster has four hosts (esx1,esx2,esx3 and esx4), four LUNs (0,1,2 and 13) are shared among them.

You can see there are four values for TYPE.

1. VMFS :- VMFS volume (datastore)
Continue reading →

VM Inventory as e-mail with hyperlinks to vCenter Web UI and VM console

Added January 6, 2014, By Sreejesh Damodaran with 4 Comments

This post is to publish the enhanced version of the script PowerCLI sccript for exporting VM details to HTML. This version has the following features added.

1. Report will be sent as e-mail in HTML format.
2. Added Hyperlink to the vCenter Web Client to login.
3. Each VM will have the Hyperlink to the corresponding VM Console.

The output that is produced by the script looks like this

Notes:
1. Hyperlinks will work only on vCenters with vSphere version 5.1 or above.
Continue reading →

Trigger e-mail when user RDP to vCenter server.

Added July 18, 2013, By Sreejesh Damodaran with 4 Comments

We have strict logon policy on VMware Management servers like vCenter, View connection brokers etc. We have been looking for a solution to get alerts when someone RDP to the Management Servers (all are Windows 2008/2012).

Combination of Windows Task Scheduler and PowerShell script did the tick.

1. The following Powershell script “Get-RDPUser.ps1” will get the last terminal server (RDP) session details and send e-mail to the team in HTML table format.

Continue reading →