Writing PowerCLI for Performance

I was building a piece of PowerCLU code to check on my vCD Deployed vAPPs for certain errors and because it’s me I was curious what performance difference there was between using array based operations verses piped operations in powershell. Here’s what I found out.

Here is the array based operation – time to completion 2 minutes 30 seconds.

$myVAPP = @(Get-CIVApp | Select-Object Org, Name, Status)
        foreach ($myVAPP.Name in $myVAPP)
            {
                IF ($myVAPP.Status -eq "FailedCreation")
                    {
                        Write-Host 'vAPP' $myVAPP.Name' - Status is' $myVAPP.Status
                    }
                ELSE
                    {
                            IF ($myVAPP.Status -eq "Unresolved")
                            {
                                Write-Host 'vAPP' $myVAPP.Name' - Status is' $myVAPP.Status
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                IF ($myVAPP.Status -eq "Unknown")
                                {
                                    Write-Host 'vAPP' $myVAPP.Name' - Status is' $myVAPP.Status
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                }
                            }                           
                    }
            }
           

Here is the pipe based operation which is recommended for reasons that I now can testify for first hand.

Get-CIVApp -Status "Unresolved", "FailedCreation", "Unknown", "Unrecognized" | Select-Object Org, Name, Status

This operation returned the same results as the array based operation in 14 seconds, that’s 9% of the original time of using an array…

How to find where a VM is hosted

A fairly common problem is if you know a machine is virtual but you don't know where it is hosted. A perfect example is if you get notified that a machine in your environment has a virus and needs powered off but nobody knows where the machine is hosted. This gets even more interesting when you have nested virtual ESX hosts with guests running under them. With a quick google search I found 2 PowerCLI scripts that got close to what I wanted and then tweaked them to make this process very easy.

1. Script #1 is a modified version of the script located on VMware's website on information about the CDP network information: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1007069 and allows you to find what host is tied to a specific CDP enabled switchport. Change the port in bold and cut and paste into PowerCLI

------ Start Script -----
Get-VMHost Where-Object {$_.State -eq "Connected"}
%{Get-View $_.ID}
%{$esxname = $_.Name; Get-View $_.ConfigManager.NetworkSystem}
%{ foreach($physnic in $_.NetworkInfo.Pnic){
$pnicInfo = $_.QueryNetworkHint($physnic.Device)
foreach($hint in $pnicInfo)
{

if( $hint.ConnectedSwitchPort.PortID -eq "GigabitEthernet3/13" )
{
Write-Host We have a match... $esxname is connected to remote switch port $hint.ConnectedSwitchPort.PortID on $physnic.Device -fore green
$hint.ConnectedSwitchPort
}
else
{
Write-Host "Not guilty..."; Write-Host
}
}
}
}
----- End Script ----

Script #2 is a very slightly modified script that I got from one of the comments at http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/07/07/powercli-more-one-liner-power/ and modified ever so slightly to show current power state.

------ Start Script -----
Get-VM where { (Get-NetworkAdapter $_).MacAddress -eq "00:50:56:86:01:f1" } Format-Table Name,Host, PowerState
----- End Script ----

Nothing terribly original but hopefully it will help somebody else.

Collecting from ESX/ESXi with VMware vCM 5.4

If you have VMware vCM (Configuresoft ECM, EMC Ionix SCM) and want to collect from ESX/ESXi you have to create a local user on the ESXi host and give that user Administrator permissions. That can be quite a daunting task if you have more than a handful of machines so I wrote the below powershell program that allows interactive use or automated use with a .CSV file.


---Start Script
Function NextUser
{
if ($newUser)
{
Write-host "Do you want to specify a new service account username or password? [y],[n]" -Fore Green
$continueUser = read-host
if ($continueUser -eq "y")
{
DoIt
}
if ($continueUser -eq "n")
{
DoItUsers
}
}
}

Function ExistingUsers
{
if ($newUser)
{
Write-host "Do you want to specify a new service account username or password? [y],[n]" -Fore Green
$continueUser = read-host
if ($continueUser -eq "n")
{
DoItUsers
}
if ($continueUser -eq "y")
{
DoIt
}
}
if (!$newUser)
{
DoIt
}
}

Function DoIt
{
write-host "Please enter the username that you would like to use for the vCM Service Account:" -Fore Green
$newUser = read-host
write-host "Please enter the password that will be used for the service account:" -Fore Green
$newPass = read-host
write-host "Ok, I am going to add $newUser with a password of $newPass to $connectedServer" -Fore Green
Start-Sleep -seconds 3
New-VMHostAccount -ID $newUser -password $newPass -Description "vCM Service Account"
write-host "Ok, I am now adding administrator permissions to the account we just created" -Fore Green
New-VIPermission -Role admin -Principal $newUser -Entity $connectedServer
write-host "Congratulations, you have added the new vCM service account successfully." -Fore Green
write-host "Would you like to configure another host? [y],[n]" -Fore Green
$nextHost = read-host
if ($nextHost -eq "y")
{
NextHost
}
if ($nextHost -eq "n")
{
write-host "Thanks, have a great day!" -Fore Green
exit
}
}


Function DoItUsers
{
write-host "Ok, I am going to add $newUser with a password of $newPass to $connectedServer" -Fore Green
Start-Sleep -seconds 3
New-VMHostAccount -ID $newUser -password $newPass -Description "vCM Service Account"
write-host "Ok, I am now adding admin permissions to the account we just created" -Fore Green
New-VIPermission -Role admin -Principal $newUser -Entity $connectedServer
write-host "Congratulations, you have added the new vCM service account successfully." -Fore Green
write-host "Would you like to configure another host? [y],[n]" -Fore Green
$nextHost = read-host
if ($nextHost -eq "y")
{
NextHost
}
if ($nextHost -eq "n")
{
write-host "Thanks, have a great day!" -Fore Green
}
}


Function NextHost
{
write-host "Please enter the FQDN of the server that you would like to connect to:" -Fore Green
$server = read-host
write-host "Connecting to $server using the credentials that you specified..." -Fore Green
Connect-VIServer -Server $server -User $existingUser -Password $existingPass
$connectedServer = Get-VMHost
write-host "Now using $connectedServer..." -Fore Green
if (!$connectedServer)
{
write-host ""
write-host "That host does not appear to be valid, please try again." Fore Yellow
NextHost
}

ExistingUsers
}


write-host ""
write-host ""
write-host "-- Welcome to my VMware vCM ESX/ESXi Service Account user deployment tool. This tool will allow you to easily deploy a vCM Service Account to your ESX/ESXi hosts -calebs71.blogspot.com --" -Fore Cyan
write-host ""
if (!$args[0])
{
write-host "Did you know that you can provide a CSV file with your server FQDN, ESX user, ESX Password, New Service User, New Service Password and automate the whole process?" -Fore Yellow
write-host ""
write-host "Example: vCM Service Acct on ESX.ps1 c:\list.csv"
write-host "FQDN,User,Password,SVCuser,SVCPass"
write-host "machine1.test,root,password,vcm_svc,password2"
write-host ""
write-host "Please enter a valid ESX/ESXi account with permissions to add a new user:" -Fore Green
$existingUser = read-host
write-host "Please enter the password:" -Fore Green
$existingPass = read-host
$connectedServer = Get-VMHost
if (!$connectedServer)
{
write-host ""
write-host "You are not connected to an ESX host..." -Fore Yellow
NextHost
}
write-host "You are currently connected to $connectedServer do you want to change servers? [y], [n]" -Fore Green
$response = read-host
if ($response -eq "y")
{
NextHost
}
if ($response -eq "n")
{
write-host "Continuing to use $connectedServer" -Fore Green
DoIt
}
}
if ($args[0])
{
$listMachines = import-csv $args[0]
if ($listMachines)
{
foreach ($MachineItem in $listMachines)
{
# write-host "FQDN : " $MachineItem.FQDN
# write-host "User : " $MachineItem.User
# write-host "Password : " $MachineItem.Password
# write-host "SVC User : " $MachineItem.SVCUser
# write-host "SVC Pass : " $MachineItem.SVCPass
# write-host "Connect-VIServer -Server "$MachineItem.FQDN " -User "$MachineItem.User " -Password "$MachineItem.Password
# write-host "New-VMHostAccount -ID "$MachineItem.SVCUser " -password "$MachineItem.SVCPass " -Description "vCM Service Account""
# write-host "New-VIPermission -Role admin -Principal " $MachineItem.SVCUser " -Entity " $MachineItem.FQDN

Connect-VIServer -Server $MachineItem.FQDN -User $MachineItem.User -Password $MachineItem.Password
New-VMHostAccount -ID $MachineItem.SVCUser -password $MachineItem.SVCPass -Description "vCM Service Account"
New-VIPermission -Role admin -Principal $MachineItem.SVCUser -Entity $MachineItem.FQDN
}

}

}