by Harold Preyers | Nov 2, 2018 | ESXi, PowerCLI, VMware
The following powershell snippet is going to unconfigure the diagnostic coredump partition using the esxcli version 2 cmdlet. The second part will reconfigure the diagnostic partition with the ‘smart’ option so that an accessible partition is chosen.
If you want to configure a new diagnostic partition the you will find the necessary information in the following VMware knowledge base article: Configuring a diagnostic coredump partition on an ESXi 5.x/6.x host (2004299). There will be additional steps to supply the partition id.
| $srv = Get-VMHost ESXiHost $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $srv -V2 $arg = $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set.CreateArgs() $arg.unconfigure = "true" $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set.Invoke($arg) $arg = $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set.CreateArgs() $arg.unconfigure = "false" $arg.enable = "true" $arg.smart = "true" $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set.Invoke($arg) |
First we connect to the esxi host directly and insert the connection details in the variable $srv:
| $srv = Get-VMHost ESXiHost |
Then we create a esxcli object $esxcli using the variable $srv we created previously:
| $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $srv -V2 |
Now we create a variable $arg to store the arguments we will provide later:
| $arg = $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set.CreateArgs() |
Setting the $arg property ‘unconfigure’ to true will deactivate the diagnostic partition:
| $arg.unconfigure = "true" |
The invoke command will invoke the command remotely on the esxi host. After execution the diagnostic partition is deactivated:
| $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set.Invoke($arg) |
The second part starts with creating a new set of arguments:
| $arg = $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set.CreateArgs() |
Reactivate the coredump, because we deactivated it before:
| $arg.unconfigure = "false" |
Enable the coredump partition:
The ‘smart’ property will try to use an accessible partition:
The last argument will configure the diagnostic partition using the supplied parameters:
| $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set.Invoke($arg) |
by Harold Preyers | Mar 3, 2017 | PowerCLI, VMware, vSphere
Start the ssh service on all hosts:
| Get-VMHost | Foreach { Start-VMHostService -HostService ($_ | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.Key -eq "TSM-SSH"}) } |
If you want to start the ssh service on a single host, change ESXiHostName to your ESXi FQDN:
| Get-VMHost -Name ESXiHostName | Foreach { Start-VMHostService -HostService ($_ | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.Key -eq "TSM-SSH"}) } |
If you want to stop the ssh service on all hosts:
| Get-VMHost | Foreach { Stop-VMHostService -HostService ($_ | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.Key -eq "TSM-SSH"}) } |
If you have multiple cluster in vCenter, are connected to multiple vCenters, be sure to launch the command only to the necessary hosts:
- Get-Cluster -Name ClusterName will filter to the specified Cluster
- Get-VMHost -Name ESXiHostName will filter to the specified ESXi
- Get-VMHost -Server vCenterServerName will filter to the specified vCenter server
| Get-Cluster -Name ClusterName | Get-VMHost -Name ESXiHostName -Server vCenterServerName | Foreach { Stop-VMHostService -HostService ($_ | Get-VMHostService | Where { $_.Key -eq "TSM-SSH"} ) } |
These are other services I frequently use:
- DCUI (Direct Console UI)
- lwsmd (Active Directory Service)
- ntpd (NTP Daemon)
- sfcbd-watchdog (CIM Server)
- snmpd (SNMP Server)
- TSM (ESXi Shell)
- TSM-SSH (SSH)
- vmsyslogd (Syslog Server)
- vmware-fdm (vSphere High Availability Agent)
- vpxa (VMware vCenter Agent)
- xorg (X.Org Server)
There are other services available but I have never used them in this context (yet):
- lbtd (Load-Based Teaming Daemon)
- pcscd (PC/SC Smart Card Daemon)
- vprobed (VProbe Daemon)
Change the startup policy for a service:
- Automatic: Start automatically if any ports are open, and stop when all ports are closed
- On: Start and stop with host
- Off: Start and stop manually
| Get-VMHost | Foreach { Set-VMHostService -HostService ($_ | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM-SSH"}) -policy On } |
by Harold Preyers | Apr 13, 2016 | PowerCLI, VMware, vSphere
Reconfigure diagnostic partition with PowerCLI using Get-EsxCli
The following Get-EsxCli command will unconfigure your diagnostic partition and reconfigure with smart selection. This was needed because the install partition uuid had changed due to an option in the NetApp system while doing system testing.
| $server_list = Get-VMhost Foreach ($srv in $server_list) { $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMhost $srv #$esxcli.system.coredump.file.add($null,"VMFS_log_partition","$srv.name",$null) $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set($null,$null,$null,$true) $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.set($true,$null,$true,$null) $esxcli.system.coredump.partition.get() } |
Many thanks to http://www.virten.net/2014/02/howto-use-esxcli-in-powercli/
by Harold Preyers | Apr 12, 2016 | PowerCLI, VMware
These are powercli goodies I use on a regular base. I have collected them here to find them easily. Some I wrote myself, some are copied from other sites. If I didn’t reference the source, I don’t know anymore where I found it.
Change portgroup on a lot of vm’s
Testing with one vm
| get-vm my_vm_name | Get-NetworkAdapter |where {$_.networkname -eq "current_network_label"} | set-networkadapter -portgroup "new_network_label" -confirm:$false |
Reconfigure all vm’s with the string “vdi” in the name
| get-vm *vdi* | Get-NetworkAdapter |where {$_.networkname -eq "current_network_label"} | set-networkadapter -portgroup "new_network_label" -confirm:$false |
Find all vm’s with more than 8 CPUs
| (get-view -viewtype virtualmachine).summary.config | where {$_.numcpu -gt 8} |
Reload Syslog via esxcli
While executing the NetApp MetroCluster testplan, the syslog service stops logging to the presented syslog datastore. To restart the logging reload the syslog service on all impacted hosts. The following command will reload the syslog service on all hosts in the connected vCenters. Check the $global:defaultviservers to know which vCenters are connected.
| $server_list = Get-VMhost Foreach ($srv in $server_list) { $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMhost $srv $esxcli.system.syslog.reload() } |
Speed-up the initialization of PowerCLI
This needs to be done for each registered version of PowerCLI. This one worked for me on Windows Server 2012 R2
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe install “VimService55.XmlSerializers, Version=5.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=10980b081e887e9f” /ExeConfig:c:\windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell_ISE.exe
Change the Power Management Policy for each host in cluster
| #get connected esxi hosts $vmhostlist = get-vmhost |sort|select name #for each host show the power management policy setting foreach ($entry in $vmhostlist) { #list power management policy on all connected esxi hosts get-vmhost |sort|select name, @{ N="CurrentPolicy"; E={$_.ExtensionData.config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.ShortName}},@{N="CurrenPolicyKey"; E={$_.ExtensionData.config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.Key}},@{N="AvailablePolicies";E={$_.ExtensionData.config.PowerSystemCapability.AvailablePolicy.ShortName} } #for each host change the power management policy to high performance foreach ($entry in $vmhostlist) { $view=(get-vmhost $entry.name|get-view);(get-view $view.configmanager.powersystem).configurepowerpolicy(1)} #list power management policy on all connected esxi hosts get-vmhost |sort|select name, @{ N="CurrentPolicy"; E={$_.ExtensionData.config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.ShortName}},@{N="CurrenPolicyKey"; E={$_.ExtensionData.config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.Key}},@{N="AvailablePolicies";E={$_.ExtensionData.config.PowerSystemCapability.AvailablePolicy.ShortName} } |
Update:
Apparently there were some errors (curly brackets missing or in the wrong place) in the previous code.
It also ran several times per host because per host there was a Get-VMHost in the ForEach iteration. So If you had three hosts it would run three times per host.
The updated and optimized code:
| $VMHosts = Get-VMHost #for each host show the power management policy setting ForEach ($entry in $VMHosts) { #list power management policy on all connected esxi hosts $entry | Select Name, @{ N="CurrentPolicy"; E={$_.ExtensionData.Config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.ShortName}},@{N="CurrenPolicyKey"; E={$_.ExtensionData.Config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.Key}},@{N="AvailablePolicies";E={$_.ExtensionData.Config.PowerSystemCapability.AvailablePolicy.ShortName}} } #for each host change the power management policy to high performance ForEach ($entry in $VMHosts) { $view=($entry | Get-View);(Get-View $view.ConfigManager.PowerSystem).ConfigurePowerPolicy(1) #list power management policy on all connected esxi hosts $entry | Select Name, @{ N="CurrentPolicy"; E={$_.ExtensionData.Config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.ShortName}},@{N="CurrenPolicyKey"; E={$_.ExtensionData.Config.PowerSystemInfo.CurrentPolicy.Key}},@{N="AvailablePolicies";E={$_.ExtensionData.Config.PowerSystemCapability.AvailablePolicy.ShortName}} } |
show connected vcenters/esxi’s
connect to previously connected vcenters/esxi’s
move vm storage vmotion
| get-vm Win* | move-vm -Datastore (Get-Datastore sdc-t*) |
Mounting and unmounting NFS datastores
Mount NFS datastore
| get-vmhost | New-Datastore -Nfs -Name Datastore_Name -Path /vol/Name_on_NFS_host -NfsHost NFS_host_IP |
Remove NFS datastore
| get-vmhost | Remove-Datastore -datastore Datastore_Name |
Change the default ‘ESX Admins’ AD group to your group name
ESXi servers will by default search for the group ‘ESX Admins’ in Active Directory. The following command will change this to ‘my_group_name’.
| get-vmhost | Get-AdvancedSetting "Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup" | Set-AdvancedSetting -value "my_group_name" -Confirm:$false |
