With the release of Windows Server 2016, we did a complete overhaul of all of our VM templates. The current way that I was building VMs (link to article) and configuring the NICs (link to article) stopped working because we increased the security footprint in the templates. So I was stuck figuring out how to revamp my build script. … Continue reading
Automation with Ecobee3, and Alexa
Ecobee3 Thermostat with Sensor
With all of the home automation articles floating around the web these days, I thought that I would take some steps to get my house some updates. About 4 months back I had the HVAC system in my house replaced, but we didn’t opt for the installers to add a smart thermostat. … Continue reading
Using PowerCLI to Find Datastore with Missing VM
PowerCLI to Find Datastore with missing VM
During the last maintenance window at work, we starting having issues with vCenter, so to resolve the issues vCenter services were restarted. After the vCenter services came back up, I noticed one of the servers on a host had lost it connection. To make things worse, the datastore for the VM changed from the human readable format to location name.… Continue reading
New PowerCLI Release: PowerCLI 6.5 R1
PowerCLI 6.5 R1
VMware just release a new version of PowerCLI just today. Like every new release, they have packed with one with a ton of new features, and updates to the existing cmdlets to help with automation and daily operations.
Updated Cmdlets
Move-VM – This cmdlet has been updated to support the ability to vMotion machines between vCenters. … Continue reading
Get vMotion IPs from all VMHost
I was recently asked to gather the vMotion IPs for all of the hosts in our environment. We have about 80 or so VM Hosts, so this was a job for PowerCli. Below is the script.
vMotion IPs Gather from the Script
First there needs to be a place to put all of the information that is going to be collected. … Continue reading
Issues with PowerShell Modules and Duplicate Cmdlets
At the end of the day I always take my laptop with me as I never know when I’ll get a call about server issues. So my PowerShell sessions remain open all of the time, with all of the modules loaded. Granted I do save my scripts that I work on frequently, and I had a problem before losing a few scripts without having a recent save. … Continue reading
Using PowerCli to gather NIC settings
We had some changes recently in the environment, and the old DNS and WINS servers were decommissioned. So I was tasked with getting all of the NIC settings of the virtual machines so we can see how many were using the old settings. So I started with a simple WMI call to gather the settings from the NICs.… Continue reading
Setting up VMware Tools Shared Product Locker with PowerShell
With the changes to how VMware Tools will be released, we finally decided to setup Product Locker. These changes were released in September 2015 VMware decided that the tools would be no longer depended on vSphere releases or ESXi builds.
Download VMware Tools here
One of our other VMware engineers found a script (link here) that could do this task, but it was seemed like it was wrote for a smaller environment than what we work with. … Continue reading
Using PowerShell to work with SSL Certificates
At my office we have a certificate renewal process that happens every other year. This year, we have a plan to document the location of all of the certificates that are installed on the servers to help the next time the renewal happens. So I have worked out a quick and simply one liner that will get all of the certificates installed on the server in the LOCALMACHINE\My certificate store.… Continue reading
Installing PowerShell on Linux Ubuntu
Now that Microsoft has made PowerShell open source it can be installed on Mac OS X and Linux. In this article I’ll discuss the steps on installing it on Linux Ubuntu.
Step 1 – Download the package
As seen in the image above, I have the newest distro of Ubuntu. The first step into getting PowerShell installed is downloading the package from Github as it hasn’t been added to any of the repositories yet.… Continue reading