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Investigating and setting syslog settings for ESXi with #PowerCLI

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Persistent logs in ESXi are useful in all troubleshooting situations.  Earlier this week, I posted about vRealize Log Insight and as part of the quick-start of that product, it can set remote syslog settings on an ESXi host.  What should you do if you want to set your own settings – to a third party syslog or another product – or set persistent logging to a shared VMFS datastore?  PowerCLI can save your bacon for that.

First, you should know the advanced settings that you need to set and what they do.  In the next section, we cover those advanced settings, which are visible under the Configure tab and Advanced System Settings on any ESXi host in vCenter.  But PowerCLI can help you set these across all your hosts easily.

Syslog Advanced Settings

Syslog.global.logDir  – A location on a datastore where the logs can be saved to.  It uses format of “[datastore] path” for the setting.

Syslog.global.logDirUnique – a boolean option to create a host-specific directory under the logDir defined.  This is useful for sharing the same settings across multiple hosts.

Syslog.global.logHost – a comma separated list of remote servers where the logs are sent by syslog.  The format is protocol and host with port – tcp://hostname:514 or udp://hostname:514.

Checking Existing Settings with PowerCLI

Checking the logDir setting on all the hosts attached to your vCenter:

[code]Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity (Get-VMHost) -Name "Syslog.global.logDir" | Select Entity, Name, Value[/code]

Checking the logDirUnique setting on all the hosts attached to your vCenter:

[code]Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity (Get-VMHost) -Name "Syslog.global.logDirUnique" | Select Entity, Name, Value[/code]

Checking the logHost setting on all the hosts attached to your vCenter:

[code]Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity (Get-VMHost) -Name "Syslog.global.logHost" | Select Entity, Name, Value[/code]

Setting the Advanced Settings with PowerCLI

The Set-AdvancedSetting cmdlet utilizes an AdvancedSetting object to make a change, meaning you have to use Set-AdvancedSetting with Get-AdvancedSetting.  Reuse the first part of your code above in order to get the correct Advanced Setting from the host and then pipe it to Set-AdvancedSetting with your new value.

[code]Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity (Get-VMHost) -Name "Syslog.global.logDir" | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value "[VMFS_Name] /systemlogs[/code]

[code]Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity (Get-VMHost) -Name "Syslog.global.logDirUnique" | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value $True[/code]

[code]Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity (Get-VMHost) -Name "Syslog.global.logHost" | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value "udp://hostname:514"[/code]

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DatacenterPowerCLIVirtualization

A simple script to update ESXi host DNS settings in PowerCLI

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Not long ago, we updated our internal DNS to use Cisco Umbrella (aka OpenDNS).  During the migration, we needed to update all of the DNS settings on our ESXi hosts.  There is a built-in cmdlet called Set-VMHostNetwork which will update the settings.  The best practice is to always have multiple DNS servers, so doing that is fairly easy but you will need to create an array with multiple addresses.

To create an array, you have to declare a varaible and assign it to an empty array using @().  Afterwards, you can add your data into the empty array.

The code below assume you already have a connection to vCenter.  If not use a Connect-ViServer cmdlet to connect first.  The code will get all of the ESXi hosts connected to a vCenter and update their DNS settings with the new settings you specify:

[code language=”PowerShell”]$dnsaddress = @()
$dnsaddress += "8.8.8.8"
$dnsaddress += "8.8.4.4"
Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostNetwork -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Set-VMHostNetwork -DnsAddress $dnsaddress[/code]

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DatacenterPowerCLIVirtualization

Automating VMware Tools upgrades on VM reboot with PowerCLI

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

When it comes to improving the health of an existing vSphere environment, one of the first lifts that you should try is upgrading all of the VMware Tools to the current version of your ESXi hosts.  A lot of times, the VMware Tools get installed during initial deployment and forgotten.  VMware has made a lot of progress in the capabilities packaged in VMware Tools.  These capabilities appears to be accelerating with some new developments like AppDefence.

VMware offers a few ways to upgrade the tools, but one of the methods with least impact is the upgrade on reboot.  Officially, Upgrade on Power Cycle was introduced back with vSphere 5.1, but a lot of folks have overlooked this checkbox in the VM configuration.

Step 1

Set your templates!  May sound crazy, but lets fix the future before addressing the past.  Go into your templates and set the Upgrade on Power Cycle setting inside of the VM configuration.   Right click your template, choose Edit Settings and then go to the VM Options tab (in either the vSphere Client or the HTML5 Client).  Check the box for “Check and upgrade VMware Tools before each power on” button and click OK to save the setting.

Step 2

Fix the past!  The PowerCLI below will create an object and then embed another object inside and set its value to “UpgradeAtPowerCycle.”  The same config object can be used to reconfigure every VM in your environment to set this setting.

[code language=”PowerShell”]# VMware Tools Automatic Upgrade on PowerCycle

$vmConfigSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$vmConfigSpec.Tools = New-Object VMware.Vim.ToolsConfigInfo
$vmConfigSpec.Tools.ToolsUpgradePolicy = "UpgradeAtPowerCycle"
Get-VM | Where {$_.ExtensionData.Config.Tools.ToolsUpgradePolicy -like "manual"} | ForEach { $_.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM_task($vmConfigSpec) }[/code]

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DatacenterPowerCLIVirtualization

Find Orphaned VMs in vCenter with PowerCLI

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

After a failure or event with data loss, its possible for vCenter to lose a VM.  When this happens, the VM is marked as orphaned.  Orphaned VMS will exist as a stub in vCenter and you can right click and remove them from Inventory, but getting a list of these VMs prior to making changes is a great first step.  PowerCLI is a great way to capture a full snapshot of that information before making changes.

[code language=”PowerShell”]$OrphanedVMs = Get-VM * | Where {$_.ExtensionData.Summary.Runtime.ConnectionState -eq "orphaned"}[/code]

By storing the full VM information in a variable, you can save it for reference.

Modify the cmdlet slightly and you can automate removal of Orphaned VMs, rather than having to right click each one in vCenter and select Remove From Inventory.

[code language=”PowerShell”]Get-VM * | Where {$_.ExtensionData.Summary.Runtime.ConnectionState -eq "orphaned"} | Remove-VM[/code]

The above cmdlet will prompt you one by one to remove the VM from inventory, or you can select the Yes to All option on the first prompt.

How do you get Orphaned VMs?

vCenter marks a VM as orphaned when vCenter has the VM’s ID in its database, but the location of the VMX file is no longer where vCenter believes it is located.  This does not mean the VM doesn’t exist on a file system somewhere.   By using the PowerCLI above, you get the full details of the VM, including the location where vCenter believes its VMX is located.

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DatacenterPowerCLISoftwareStorageVirtualization

Power disguised as command line – 10 reasons SysAdmins should learn PowerShell scripting

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

I’m a big proponent of learning PowerShell as an administrator, engineer or any other practitioner role. And I think you should learn it.  It is the path to the future.

  1. The pipeline.  I’ve written a blog post in my head many times about the PowerShell pipeline.  I think it is the single feature that makes PowerShell powerful.  No, Microsoft didn’t invent the pipeline and I know I’ll be chastised by *nix admins (ooo we had it first), but the pipeline really does make PowerShell incredibly effective.  Once you have a data set, you can easily send it into another command where it accepts and makes changes based on that data.  Get-this | Do-that.  Its that simple!
  2. Data Objects.  Even non-developers have encountered object oriented programming at one time or another.  Objects exist to encapsulate, define and allow data to be easily manipulated.  Objects are well formed and defined.  You can explore them and find out more about your data.  Objects are mini packages and inside the package are many tools to manipulate the data.
  3. Time.  Doing things in PowerShell will save you lots of time.  If you are repeating a task, it is easy to find a command to retrieve a list of data – whether its mailboxes, accounts, computers, servers, etc. – that you need to change and then pipe it over to another command and make the change you need.  Why click 500 times when you can do it in 30 characters in PowerShell?
  4. Extensibility.  You can DIY til your heart desires.  You’re not constrained to a list of executable files and built in paramters in PowerShell.  If you find something lacking or missing, you can easily change the data in an object, scope it down, and change it to meet your needs.    And you’re not alone.  PowerShell has a thriving community of DIY-ers, many of whom freely contribute their scripts and ideas online.
  5. It is Friendly.  Learning scripting in VBscript, C#, or many other languages require you to really dig in and learn a language.  PowerShell isn’t that way.  You don’t have to learn a lot of complex syntax to begin using PowerShell.  From the first time you launch PowerShell,  For the most part things make a lot of sense and you can pickup the language quickly (but I won’t mention formatting numbers, for instance).
  6. Break the GUI glass. Sometimes you run up against a problem in the Windows management tools where you can’t export or get to the data you really want from the GUI.  PowerShell gives you access to many repositories of information you’d work much harder to access with other tools.  Not only this, PowerShell includes a wide range of formatting commands to take data objects and output them quickly, easily and simply in CSV, HTML, and plain text tables, lists and other views.  With simple SQL-like commands like Select, Where and Sort, you can also limit the output to exactly what you, or more like, what your manager wants to see.
  7. It is Microsoft’s future.  Microsoft has publicly stated that all future server products starting with Wave 15 (which included SharePoint 2013, Exchange 2013, etc.) would include PowerShell as the de-facto administration platform.  Any GUI environments would become secondary and may be missing some things that can be only done in PowerShell.  Don’t get left behind by not adopting PowerShell.  Not only is it Microsoft’s future, but automation is a big part of the future of IT.  PowerShell gives you an effective way to automate.
  8. Its what *nix geeks always wanted.  For years, Unix and Linux admins griped at all the things missing from Windows and how abysmal the command line was in Windows.  Microsoft took all those complaints off the table with PowerShell.  It is a very powerful and capable environment to perform lots of work quickly.  My *nix counterparts have always raved about having MAN pages for everything.  PowerShell also has its version of MAN pages using the Get-Help command to explore other commands and find out parameters and options for each one, including examples.  Going even further than *nix, PowerShell also includes tools like Get-Method to help you discover the functionality hidden in objects.
  9. You can join your Devs and commit your script to Git.  Ok, so I joke a bit, but many time Devs look down on administrators – aka server jockeys – because they are the ones who create the code.  Once you learn proficiency in scripting PowerShell, don’t be afraid to share with the community and start committing your scripts to Git and public repositories for others to use.  That’s how the community grows and learns from one another.  Don’t only be a taker – be a giver, too…  As a byproduct, you may understand your developers a little better, too.
  10. Its not just Microsoft…  Many other vendors have adopted PowerShell for scripting against their tools.  I’ve written a lot (including a book) about PowerCLI, which is VMware’s PowerShell environment.  What is great about third-party support is the ability to leverage everything you already know about the base PowerShell and combine it with specific commands for a particular product.  The same goes for Microsoft’s specific modules for its server products.  Once you adopt PowerShell for Active Directory and Exchange, it is a natural extension to use it for SharePoint and Lync (Skype for Business).

Now, how to you learn?

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DatacenterPowerCLISoftwareVirtualization

From SearchVMware.com: How PowerCLI fit one admin’s VMware automation needs

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

I recently had the opportunity to talk with TechTarget’s Tom Walat, site editor for SearchVMware.com, about PowerCLI and writing the PowerCLI Cookbook.  That conversation is featured in SearchVMware’s new podcast.  Our conversation ranged from my background and responsibilities, to how I decided upon PowerCLI as my go-to automation tool, how someone new can get started with PowerCLI and resources where someone can learn more about PowerCLI.   Head over to SearchVMware and check out How PowerCLI fit one admin’s VMware automation needs.

Some highlights from the conversation:

  • If you’re new to PowerCLI and you don’t have a development background, the easiest way to get started is with the native cmdlets, which work like normal command line tools.  These accept parameters and then go and do work.
  • There is a wide community of contributors who post their PowerCLI scripts that solve all sorts of problems and make them freely available.
  • What made me want to write the PowerCLI Cookbook.
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DatacenterPowerCLIVirtualization

Introducing ‘PowerCLI Cookbook’, the step-by-step guide to adopting PowerCLI

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

If you’ve noticed that my blog posts have been a bit light over the last year, I am happy to finally tell why.  Last week, my first book published.  It was many months in the making, a lot of effort and it is now in the wild.  PowerCLI Cookbook is written to be a guide for beginners to intermediate scripters who want to learn more about PowerCLI.  The format is a Packt Publishing Cookbook, which is a step-by-step guide on how to create complex scripts and routines to solve certain problems.  Although each recipe solves a specific problem, the recipes also cover ways to explore the PowerCLI objects and discover how to do similar things for other problems.

The real power of PowerCLI comes from the native PowerShell pipeline and well-formed data objects.  The book covers both of these to help readers get a handle on how to leverage these features in ways that help create scripts for any purpose administering vSphere and vCloud.

I summed up my whole intent for the book with a tweet this week…

The book is available from Amazon in print and as a Kindle ebook and is also available from the Packt Publishing website.  Packt also has the first chapter available for free as a sample on their website.

Some highlights

  • Put together an automation script for configuring ESXi hosts
  • Configure and manage vCenter Server and vSphere clusters
  • Automate DRS share balancing in clusters
  • Use and manage vSphere snapshots on virtual machines
  • Manage DRS affinity group memberships by building custom functions
  • Auditing vSphere configuration by leveraging native PowerShell commands
  • Create objects with data for reports and format output
  • Use VMware Tools and PowerCLI to execute native commands in the VM guest OS
  • Extend the PowerCLI reach by using ESXCLI objects1
  • Perform vCloud administration
  • and much much more…

By the Numbers

  • 247 Pages
  • 77 step-by-step recipes
  • 10 Chapters
  • 9 months, start to finish
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DatacenterPowerCLISoftwareStorageVirtualization

Enabling Change Block Tracking (CBT) with PowerCLI Script

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Change Block Tracking (CBT) is a technology in VMware used to record all the changed data within a VMDK file so that when backup software runs incremental backups, it knows exactly what has changed and can send only differences to the backup software.  This is a technology that greatly improves backup speed and efficiency by only moving changed data.  With many backup software moving to an incremental forever  process, change block tracking is an enabling technology for the backup.

Most software can enable CBT on an individual VM, however, if you are in the beginning phases of implementing a new backup software or virtual deployment, you may want to proactively enable CBT across the entire farm.  There may also be instances where a few of your VMs have CBT disabled and you need to enable it for just those VMs.  I developed a script I used myself to enable CBT across an entire vCenter instance, which checks for VMs with CBT disabled and then goes through the process of reconfiguring the VM, taking a snapshot and removing the snapshot to enable CBT on the VM.

The script is below.  Please be warned – as written – this script removes any existing snapshots on the VMs with CBT disabled.

[ps]$targets = Get-VM | Select Name, @{N="CBT";E={(Get-View $_).Config.ChangeTrackingEnabled}} | WHERE {$_.CBT -like "False"}
ForEach ($target in $targets) {
$vm = $target.Name
Get-VM $vm | Get-Snapshot | Remove-Snapshot -confirm:$false
$vmView = Get-vm $vm | get-view
$vmConfigSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$vmConfigSpec.changeTrackingEnabled = $true
$vmView.reconfigVM($vmConfigSpec)
New-Snapshot -VM (Get-VM $vm ) -Name "CBTSnap"
Get-VM $vm | Get-Snapshot -Name "CBTSnap" | Remove-Snapshot -confirm:$false
}[/ps]

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DatacenterPowerCLISoftwareStorageVirtualization

Book Review: Learning PowerCLI

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Whether you’re a new user or an advanced user, Learning PowerCLI by Robert van den Nieuwendijk is a fantastic reference to VMware PowerCLI. van den Nieuwendijk covers all the basics to get PowerCLI installed and running – getting you connected to ESXi hosts and vCenter. He also covers all of the basic and advanced PowerCLI cmdlets exposed to users as of vSphere 5.5. But, van den Nieuwendijk doesn’t stop there. He also delves deeper into utilizing esxcli within PowerCLI to accomplish administrative tasks that PowerCLI cmdlets don’t natively expose.

The book progresses users through a series of topics and groups tasks and administrative areas of vSphere together to logically cover a full range of administration.  The book begins at the beginning, helping to get PowerCLI installed and operational and then moves into some of the basic PowerShell concepts that you will need to know before getting into more specific PowerCLI code.  The book steps through the management of ESXi hosts, virtual machines, networking and storage.  It also covers clustering and vCenter administration.  It is a solid guide to the language and how to get things done using PowerCLI.

I had the pleasure of meeting Robert and talking with him about the book briefly at VMworld.  He poured a lot of time and effort into making it a great book and resource for PowerCLI and it shows in the final form.   I was able to read the book while in draft form as a technical reviewer and then again when published.

If you’re at VMworld, its available at the VMworld book store onsite.  It’s also available at Amazon.com and booksellers around the world.

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DatacenterPowerCLISoftwareStorageVirtualization

Reload inaccessible or invalid VM’s with this PowerCLI one-liner

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Can I let you in on a secret?  Although I blog to help others through my own experiences and troubleshooting, one of the other things I do is use my blog as my own personal knowledge base.  Once I’ve hit something, if I blog it, its there for me as much as you…

One of the problems I have run into several times are “inaccessible” or “invalid” VM in vCenter after a storage outage.  The only solution that I had found was cumbersome.  I had to unregister the VM from vCenter, browse to the appropriate datastore (which is more difficult today with storage pools obfuscating view), then locate the VMX file and register again.  While it works, its neither elegant nor fast.

But, thanks to Matt Vogt’s and Mike Letschin’s research and blog post, there is a much more acceptable solution to recover from this.  Matt’s post focuses on NFS storage, but from my personal experiences, its possible with a Fibre Channel outage and iSCSI, too.  If you have a storage outage and then discover “inaccessible” or “invalid” VMs, you can try the reload function through PowerCLI.  For the full details, check out Matt’s blog on the topic.

Matt links to a French language blog, hypervisor.fr, and I really like the PowerCLI one-liner that I found there.  It was quick and effective to reload the VM’s.

[code lang=”powershell”](Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine) |?{$_.Runtime.ConnectionState -eq "invalid" -or $_.Runtime.ConnectionState -eq "inaccessible"} |%{$_.reload()}[/code]

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