ViExec

ViExec is a PowerShell utility to retrieve quick information from any VCenter, simply type:

./viexec 'script-name' 'server-name' 'cluster-name'

Installation and setup

PowerShell and PowerCLI are required to use ViExec:

• Install PowerShell

Once PowerShell is installed:

pwsh

Find-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI

Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser

Using the Docker-start/stop/logs scripts requires Docker to be installed on your machine.

To start using ViExec simply do a clone of the repository:

gh repo clone Dh3va/viexec

git clone https://github.com/Dh3va/viexec.git

Then run the configuration script:

./viexec config

The config script will prompt you for the user and password to connect to the vCenter. Your credentials will be securely stored and re-used by the scripts.

Usage

ViExec can be used to automize and test your PowerCLI scripts:

./viexec.ps1 vminfo localhost DC0_C0

Name                           Port  User
----                           ----  ----
localhost                      443   a

Name               : DC0_C0_RP0_VM5
PowerState         : PoweredOn
GuestId            : otherGuest
NumCpu             : 1
MemoryGB           : 0.03125
DatastoreIdList    : {Datastore-/tmp/govcsim-DC0-LocalDS_0-283607359@folder-5}
VMHost             : DC0_C0_H0
ResourcePool       : Resources
DrsAutomationLevel : AsSpecifiedByCluster
PersistentId       : 9808c19f-53e2-5f57-ada0-f2dedcc70ae5
Id                 : VirtualMachine-vm-470
UsedSpaceGB        : 0

It accepts two fields, 'server' and 'cluster', they both can be autocompleted by pressing 'TAB' and the 'Cluster' option now accepts multiple values, allowing you to execute a script on multiple clusters at the same time:

./viexec vminfo localhost DC0_C0,DC0_C1,DC0_C2

You can add, remove or edit the available servers and clusters in viexec.ps1:

    [ValidateSet("localhost", "Server1", "Server2")]
    [string]$server,
    [ValidateSet("DC0_C0", "Cluster2", "Cluster3")]
    [string]$cluster

Testing environment

ViExec uses nimmis/vcsim to let you test the scripts locally before running them on your vCenters, Docker is required to start the testing environment.

To start the Docker container type:

./viexec docker-start

Running the docker-start script, a vCenter will be automatically deployed with 3 clusters, 6 hosts, 10 Datastores and 35 VMs:

$dockeruid = & "docker" "run" "--detach" "--publish" "443:443" "nimmis/vcsim" "-c" "3" "--data-stores" "10" "--hosts" "6" "--virtual-machines" "35"

To stop the testing environment type:

./viexec docker-stop

Last but not least, the uid of the Docker container is automatically saved under the './temp' folder and will be used by the script 'docker-logs' to retrieve quickly the logs from the Docker container.

A './temp' folder will be automatically created and it will be used to store the uid of the Docker container and the user credentials.

Exporting the results of your scripts

If you need to export the results of the scripts add: > ./path/nameofthefile.txt/csv after the script, example:

./viexec vminfo server1 cluster1 > ./temp/vminfo.txt

If you wish, you can also use the full command with all his parameters, for example:

./viexec -server 'server' -cluster 'cluster' -script 'script'

Add these functions to your scripts to test and use them with ViExec

Place your 'scripts.ps1' inside the './scripts' folder and add the following Functions and lines to integrate them with ViExec:

Ensure-Server-Set

Ensure-Cluster-Set

#Connects to the vCenter using the securely stored credentials
Get-Credentials-Connect

#PowerCLI script goes after the '|'.
Get-Cluster $cluster | 

If your script doesn't need a specific Cluster remove Ensure-Cluster-Set and the Get-Cluster from the script.