1

Hi everyone

I have a script that we can use to create a list of VMs, their IPs, RAM, OS and CPUs from all of our vCenters.

connect-viserver vcentsy01ewdu
$vms = get-view -viewtype "VirtualMachine" -Filter @{"runtime.PowerState" = "poweredOn"}
$vmlist += $vms
disconnect-viserver vcentsy01ewdu -confirm:$false

connect-viserver vcentsy02ewdu
$vms = get-view -viewtype "VirtualMachine" -Filter @{"runtime.PowerState" = "poweredOn"}
$vmlist += $vms
disconnect-viserver vcentsy02ewdu -confirm:$false

connect-viserver vcentsy03ewdu
$vms = get-view -viewtype "VirtualMachine" -Filter @{"runtime.PowerState" = "poweredOn"}
$vmlist += $vms
disconnect-viserver vcentsy03ewdu -confirm:$false

connect-viserver vcentsy08ewdu
$vms = get-view -viewtype "VirtualMachine" -Filter @{"runtime.PowerState" = "poweredOn"}
$vmlist += $vms
disconnect-viserver vcentsy08ewdu -confirm:$false

connect-viserver vcentsy01ewwe
$vms = get-view -viewtype "VirtualMachine" -Filter @{"runtime.PowerState" = "poweredOn"}
$vmlist += $vms
disconnect-viserver vcentsy01ewwe -confirm:$false

$vmlist|select-object {$_.Config.Name}, {$_.Config.GuestFullName}, {$_.config.hardware.numcpu}, {$_.config.hardware.memorymb}, {$_.guest.IPAddress}|export-csv c:\temp\dublinwe.csv

This works pretty well, but we are moving and updating a lot of VMs over the next couple of months. I would like to be able to schedule this, but each vCenter prompts me for my login info. How can I edit this script so it would use either the current login account, or the account that is running the script to run

I would also like it to email me the file each week, but I have the function for that, and can put that in very easily.

Any help is appreciated

thanks y’all

app

6 Spice ups
2

Use Get-Credential and store your cred into a variable and pending that it is the same for all servers, you can pass $cred to each one.

There are some varied methods on storing these credentials - here’s one that seems to be pretty safe:

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/PowerShell-Credentials-d44c3cde

Create an array to store your server names, then use a ForEach to loop through each one:

[array]$Servers = "vcentsy01ewdu","vcentsy02ewdu","vcentsy03ewdu"
ForEach ($Server in $Servers) { 
   #Do stuff
}
1 Spice up
3

It looks like Connect-ViServer takes a [PSCredential] object for it’s -Credential parameter. You can save a credential to disk using Export-CliXml and use that later:

To save a credential to disk:

Get-Credential | Export-CliXml -Path c:\creds\username_computername.clixml

To import a credential object in a script:

$Credential = Import-CliXml -Path c:\creds\username_computername.clixml

Then you can call Connect-ViServer with the -Credential parameter:

Connect-ViServer -Server 'servername' -Credential $Credential

Note that these saved credentials will only work for the user that saved them on the same computer. That means you need to create the saved credential using the user that will ultimately be used to launch the scheduled task and on the computer that will run the task.

2 Spice ups
4

Better yet, configure your vCenters to accept your Active Directory accounts then grant your service account read-only permissions to the vCenters.

3 Spice ups
5

The help here doesn’t state whether you can use implicit credentials (the current user):

https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/windowstoolkit/wintk40u1/html/Connect-VIServer.html

This would only work if the user running the script had the right privileges for every machine in your list.

6

That would be nice. I don’t have VMWare and have never used the snapin before, so I’m just guessing at what the OP needs. The main question seemed to be how to automate the login portion. Implicit creds would be awesome but I don’t know if that’s possible.

7

Definitely is, do it all the time :slight_smile:

8

Yes, absolutely yes. Would make it much simpler to deal with.