Mastering PowerCLI

Sajal Debnath

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781785286858
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Virtualisation
• Index: Computer Science

Master PowerCLI to automate all aspects of VMware environments

About This Book

• Leverage PowerCLI to perform administration tasks in a more effective and efficient way
• Escape from daily tedious and repetitive tasks by unleashing the full potential of your creative side through scripting
• Master the intricate workings of PowerShell and PowerCLI through easy and real-life examples

Who This Book Is For

If you are a system administrator with working knowledge of PowerShell and PowerCLI who wants to perform quick and easy scripting but at the same time achieve complex results and write production grade scripts, then this book is for you.

What You Will Learn

• Use GitHub for collaboration and Pester to automate unit tests
• Write advanced reusable functions and dynamic variables and learn about error handling in PowerShell
• Automate ESXi host installation using Auto-Deploy, host profile, and host image
• Implement security best practices in a vSphere data center
• Manage SRM, vCloud Air, and vRealize Operations environments
• Access and utilize vSphere APIs to manage advanced aspects of vSphere and work with.NET view objects
• Utilize REST APIs to manage vRealize Automation environments
• Create a Windows GUI through the use of PowerShell and Sapien PrimalForms CE

In Detail

Have you ever wished that every morning you could automatically get a report with all the relevant information about your datacenter in exactly the same format you want? Or whether you could automate that boring, exhausting task? What if some crucial task needs to be performed on a regular basis without any error? PowerCLI scripts do all that and much more for VMware environments. It is built on top of the popular Windows PowerShell, with which you can automate server tasks and reduce manual input, allowing you to focus on more important tasks.

This book will help you to achieve your goals by starting with a short refresher on PowerShell and PowerCLI and then covering the nuances of advanced functions and reusable scripts. Next you will learn how to build a vSphere-powered virtualized datacenter using PowerCLI while managing different aspects of the environment including automated installation, network, and storage. You will then manage different logical constructs of vSphere environment and different aspects of a virtual machine.

Later, you will implement the best practices for a security implementation in vSphere Environment through PowerCLI before discovering how to manage other VMware environments such as SRM, vCloud Director and vCloud Air through PowerCLI. You will also learn to manage vSphere environments using advanced properties by accessing vSphere API and REST APIs through PowerCLI.

Finally, you will build a Windows GUI application using PowerShell followed by a couple of sample scripts for reporting and managing vSphere environments with detailed explanations of the scripts. By the end of the book, you will have the required in-depth knowledge to master the art of PowerCLI scripting.

Style and approach

In this book, every topic is explained in a very easy-to-follow fashion with real-life, simple examples so that you get an idea of not only the topic but also the context in which it should be used or where it can be best utilized.

Mastering PowerCLI

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Table of Contents

Mastering PowerCLI

Credits

Foreword

About the Author

Acknowledgment

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Instant updates on new Packt books

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. PowerShell and PowerCLI Refresher

The essence of PowerShell and PowerCLI

The history of scripting

PowerShell

PowerCLI

The vSphere PowerCLI package

The vCloud PowerCLI package

Implementing programming constructs in PowerShell

Conditional logic

Conditional logic using loops

The difference between Foreach and Foreach-object

Automation through PowerShell scripts

Running and scheduling scripts

Using version control with GitHub

The fork & pull model

The shared repository model

Branch

Testing your scripts using Pester

Connecting to a vCenter and other VMware environments using PowerCLI cmdlets

Summary

2. Reusable Advanced Functions and Scripts

Specifying function attributes

Specifying parameter attributes

Using parameter validation attributes

Dynamic parameters

Switch parameters

PowerShell help files

Creating comment-based help

Error handling in PowerShell

Summary

3. Deploying vSphere Hosts

Image Builder with PowerCLI

Using host profiles

Configuring Auto Deploy for ESXi hosts

Adding hosts to a vCenter server

Summary

4. Managing Networks

Managing vSphere standard switches

Managing networking for ESXi

Managing vSphere distributed switches

Managing port groups

Creating private VLANs

Configuring vSphere network I/O control

Configuring Netflow

Working with ports

Configuring traffic shaping

Configuring port blocking

Configuring the security policy

Configuring the teaming policy

Summary

5. Managing Storage

Managing datastores

Configuring Fibre Channel storage

Configuring iSCSI storage

Configuring NFS storage

Configuring virtual SAN

Using datastore clusters

Using Raw Device Mapping

Managing storage using storage policy-based management

Cmdlets related to policy rules

Cmdlets related to storage policy

Cmdlets related to Spbm capabilities and compatible storage

Cmdlets related to policy application

Cmdlets related to policy backup and migration

Applying VMFS resignaturing

Configuring vFLASH using PowerCLI Extensions

Summary

6. Managing Clusters and Other Constructs

Configuring vCenter logical constructs

Folder

Datacenter

Cluster

Configuring the Enhanced vMotion Compatibility mode

Configuring High Availability

Using Dynamic Resource Scheduling

Using the DRS affinity and anti-affinity rules

Managing resource pools

Managing alarms

Summary

7. Managing Virtual Machines

Creating virtual machines

Modifying virtual machines

Hard disks

Network adapters and USB devices

Passthrough devices

Snapshots

Resource configuration and policies

Managing VMware tools in a VM

Managing templates

Managing OS customization specifications

Managing the guest OS

Managing vApps

Summary

8. Managing vSphere Security, SRM, vCloud Air, and vROps

The vSphere Security Hardening Guide

Managing vSphere Update Manager

Configuring a firewall and services in an ESXi host

Managing host profiles

Managing vCenter Site Recovery Manager

Managing vCloud Air

Managing vRealize Operations Manager

Summary

9. Managing the vSphere API

Using the Get-View cmdlet to return .NET View objects

Using the ExtensionData property to return .NET View objects

Using the vSphere API

Creating a vSphere scheduled task

Configuring Distributed Power Management

Configuring Fault Tolerance

Managing Content Libraries

Managing SRM advanced configurations

Generating PowerCLI code using Onyx

PowerActions for vSphere Web Client

Summary

10. Using REST APIs

Introducing REST APIs

Introducing JSON

Syntax rules

Values

The Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet

vRealize Automation REST APIs

Authenticating and getting a vRA token

Managing tenants

Creating a tenant

Listing identity stores for a tenant

Linking an identity store to a tenant

Managing machines

Listing shared and private catalog items

Managing approvals

Managing provisioned resources

Managing network profiles

Summary

11. Creating Windows GUI

Different ways to create a Windows GUI

Building a GUI using Windows Forms

Creating a button

Creating a TextBox

Creating ListBox

Creating CheckBox

Using SAPIEN PowerShell Studio

Building GUI using WPF

Summary

12. Best Practices and Sample Scripts

Best practices

Security Hardening Script

Capacity check report

Parameter descriptions

Using a proper editor

Sublime Text

ISESteroids

Summary

Index

Mastering PowerCLI

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure t...

Table of contents

• Mastering PowerCLI