Hi all,
In a previous post PowerShell: VMware PowerCLI Introduction I showed you how to install VMware PowerCLI and a basic introduction of the purpose of this management tool. In this post I will show you how to do the initial connection to the vCenter using the PowerCLI tool. It is important to mention that PowerCLI can be used to connect to both vCenter and vSphere “ESXi” server independently but in this post I will be showing examples only referring to the vCenter server.
To start, we need to establish the initial connection to our vCenter server. PowerCLI provides the “Connect-VIServer” command for this purpose but there are also other commands to manage and even validate existing connections. The following example shows how to deploy the vCenter connect/disconnect commands.
PS /home/rebelinux> Get-Command *VIserver*
CommandType Name Version Source
----------- ---- ------- ------
Alias Get-VIServer 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Connect-VIServer 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Disconnect-VIServer 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
PS /home/rebelinux>
By using the “Connect-VIServer” command we establish the initial connection to the vCenter with the IP address “192.168.5.2” on my HomeLab.
PS /home/rebelinux> Connect-VIServer -Server 192.168.5.2 -Credential (Get-Credential)
PowerShell credential request
Enter your credentials.
User: administrator@vsphere.local
Password for user administrator@vsphere.local: ********
Name Port User
---- ---- ----
192.168.5.2 443 VSPHERE.LOCAL\Administrator
PS /home/rebelinux>
On this example you can see that a connection to vCenter was made by using the (Get-Credential) option to request the credentials on the console. In the same way we could create a variable with preset credentials. In this example I show you how to do it.
PS /home/rebelinux> $Credenciales = Get-Credential
PowerShell credential request
Enter your credentials.
User: administrator@vsphere.local
Password for user administrator@vsphere.local: ********
PS /home/rebelinux> Connect-VIServer -Server 192.168.5.2 -Credential $Credenciales
Name Port User
---- ---- ----
192.168.5.2 443 VSPHERE.LOCAL\Administrator
PS /home/rebelinux>
In the previous example the credentials are saved in a variable with the name $Credentials and then this variable is used as “Input” in the “Connect-VIServer” command using the (-Credential $Credentials) option. Once the initial connection is made you can use the variable $defaultVIServer to validate the existing connection. It is important to mention that the session found in the $defaultVIServer variable will be used by default when using the cmdlet if the “-Server” option is not specified.
PS /home/rebelinux> $defaultVIServer
Name Port User
---- ---- ----
192.168.5.2 443 VSPHERE.LOCAL\Administrator
PS /home/rebelinux>
By using the $defaultVIServers variable we can see all the connections previously made. As you can see in the following example multiple connections are shown where the session with the IP address “192.168.5.253” belongs to an ESXi server.
PS /home/rebelinux> $defaultVIServers
Name Port User
---- ---- ----
192.168.5.253 443 root
192.168.5.2 443 VSPHERE.LOCAL\Administrator
PS /home/rebelinux>
After making the connection to our vCenter we can use any cmdlet included in PowerCLI. On the following example all VM managed by the vCenter are listed using the “Get-VM” cmdlet.
PS /home/rebelinux> Get-VM
Name PowerState Num CPUs MemoryGB
---- ---------- -------- --------
Horizon-OPM-01V PoweredOff 4 16.000
FreeNAS PoweredOff 2 8.000
Horizon-CS-01V PoweredOff 2 5.000
vcenter-01v PoweredOn 2 12.000
Horizon-APV-01V PoweredOff 2 4.000
cluster1-03 PoweredOff 2 8.000
Horizon-CAP-01V PoweredOff 2 4.000
horizon-tp-01v PoweredOff 2 4.000
cluster1-04 PoweredOff 2 8.000
Horizon-LNX-01T PoweredOff 1 2.000
Horizon-IDM-01V PoweredOff 2 6.000
Horizon-SQL-01V PoweredOff 2 4.000
Horizon-IDM-01V PoweredOff 2 6.000
Horizon-RDS-01T PoweredOff 2 4.000
Horizon-RDS-01T PoweredOff 2 4.000
Horizon-OPM-01V PoweredOff 4 16.000
Horizon-UAG-02V PoweredOff 2 4.000
Horizon-UAG-01V PoweredOff 2 4.000
horizon-tp-01v PoweredOff 2 4.000
Management-PC PoweredOff 2 8.000
csr-pharmax-hq PoweredOff 1 4.000
GNS3 Server PoweredOff 4 20.000
Server-DC-01V PoweredOn 2 4.000
csr-pharmax-dr PoweredOff 1 4.000
PS /home/rebelinux
If there are connections to multiple vCenter sessions all VMs of all connected vCenters will be shown. To filter the result to only a specific vCenter you can use the “-Server” option when executing the cmdlet.
PS /home/rebelinux> Get-VMHost -Server 192.168.5.2
Name ConnectionState PowerState NumCpu CpuUsageMhz CpuTotalMhz MemoryUsageGB MemoryTotalGB Version
---- --------------- ---------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------- ------------- -------
esxsvr-00f.pharmax.… Connected PoweredOn 4 348 13628 17.792 63.865 7.0.3
comp-01a.pharmax.lo… NotResponding Unknown 2 0 6816 0.000 7.995
comp-02a.pharmax.lo… NotResponding Unknown 2 0 6816 0.000 7.995
PS /home/rebelinux>
Once finished interacting with the vCenter session you can use the “Disconnect-VIServer” cmdlet to disconnect the session.
PS /home/rebelinux> Disconnect-VIServer -Server 192.168.5.2
Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Performing the operation "Disconnect VIServer" on target "User: VSPHERE.LOCAL\Administrator, Server: 192.168.5.2, Port: 443".
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Yes"): Y
PS /home/rebelinux>
Finally, by using the $defaultVIServers variable you can validate if the session was disconnected successfully.
PS /home/rebelinux> $defaultVIServers
Name Port User
---- ---- ----
192.168.5.253 443 root
PS /home/rebelinux>