Controlling Output in PowerShell

bammrm-21 · 2021-06-01T15:47:25.000Z

Hello!

I am building a script to ask for user input in the form of a file path which points to an excel file full of server names. I will then start a loop that, for each server in the list, gets the wmi object property “model.”

The problem I am running into is that I don’t know how to properly output that data into something quick and easy. I would like the command to just spit out data inside of PowerShell with a list of all the virtual machines and their model(which can be distinguished by the model “VmWare”) and the physical machines and their model.

How would you guys approach this?

function Sort-VMPhysical {
   
    $AllServers = Get-Content $AllServerInput
   
# @($AllServers) - "C:\Users\bam\Documents\PowerShell\Test.csv"
   
    ForEach($server in $AllServers){
        get-wmiobject win32_computersystem -ComputerName "$server" | fl "model","Name"
       
      # Write-Host "----------" -ForegroundColor Green
                                  }

}

$AllServerInput = Read-Host -Prompt "Input server list filepath without quotes"

Neally · 2021-06-01T15:51:13.000Z

Welcome

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Neally · 2021-06-01T15:54:36.000Z

spicehead-bwzv3:

How would you guys approach this? Code below.

function Sort-VMPhysical {

$AllServers = Get-Content $AllServerInput

@($AllServers) - “C:\Users\bam\Documents\PowerShell\Test.csv”

ForEach($server in $AllServers){
get-wmiobject win32_computersystem -ComputerName “$server” | fl “model”,“Name”

Write-Host “----------” -ForegroundColor Green

}

}

$AllServerInput = Read-Host -Prompt “Input server list filepath without quotes”

→ not make it a function. If you are new to powershell, make it work regularly first, before you throw a function in the mix

→ " excel file" PowerShell does not read excel natively. Use a CSV file (import-csv) or look into the importExcel module

bammrm-21 · 2021-06-01T15:56:23.000Z

Neally,

Thanks for the reply! How would you control the output then?

PowerShell is reading the csv just fine. But I realize your concern. Thank you.

Neally · 2021-06-01T15:57:01.000Z

e.g.

$AllServerInput = Read-Host "Input server list filepath without quotes"
$AllServers     = Get-Content $AllServerInput

$Report = 
ForEach ($server in $AllServers) {
    # you should look into 'cim' instead
    get-wmiobject win32_computersystem -ComputerName "$server"
}

$report | select model,name

Neally · 2021-06-01T15:59:17.000Z

spicehead-bwzv3:

How would you control the output then?

I don’t understand your question.

What do you want the output to look like?

bammrm-21 · 2021-06-01T19:58:53.000Z

Ah I see now exactly how vague I was; my apologies!

The output is great but I would like, if possible, for PowerShell to group all the same models together and then print it out similar to the output you had above.

Ex:

Model: Name:

Vm Hostname

Physical Pysical

Thank you for your time.

Neally · 2021-06-01T20:02:46.000Z

there is a cmdlet called ‘group-object’

$AllServerInput = Read-Host "Input server list filepath without quotes"
$AllServers     = Get-Content $AllServerInput

$Report = 
ForEach ($server in $AllServers) {
    # you should look into 'cim' instead
    get-wmiobject win32_computersystem -ComputerName "$server"
}

$report | select-object model,name | group-object model

give it a try