Managing storage using PowerCLI

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

vSphere PowerCLI can be used to automate the different virtual machine tasks. vSphere PowerCLI provides easy-to-use C# and PowerShell interface to VMware vSphere APIs.

In PowerShell, commands are called cmdlets, a term used in this article.

This article provides an overview of the different cmdlets that are available to perform these tasks:

• Collecting information about the storage connected to the ESX/ESXi hosts
• Working the datastores

Environment

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 4.0

Resolution

Collecting information about the storage connected to the ESX/ESXi hosts

This section provides information about the commands that can be used to collect information about the storage that is used. The commands can be customized to retrieve the details about specific ESX/ESXi hosts by using the Get-Datacenter, Get-Cluster or Get-VMhost options.

In the example, we use Get-VMHostStorage cmdlet to collect the Storage details (ESX host IP, Datastore Name, Software iSCSI status, Runtime Name, NAA.ID) about all the ESX hosts in the cluster:

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI> Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage | Format-List *

VMHost : 10.112.96.17
FileSystemVolumeInfo : {datastore1 (2), vCloud-1, vCloud-0}
SoftwareIScsiEnabled : True

ScsiLun : {HostSystem-ha-host/mpx.vmhba3:C0:T0:L0, HostSystem-ha-host/naa.600508b1001037383941424344450500,

To retrieve the details about the CanonicalName(naa.id), Raid Level, LunType, ConsoleDeviceName, Capacity, MultipathingPolicy, you can use this command:

Note: The Format-List option is used to get the details about all the properties available for Get-ScsiLun object.

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI> Get-VMHost | Get-ScsiLun -LunType disk | ft -autosize

CanonicalName ConsoleDeviceName LunType CapacityMB MultipathPolicy
------------- ----------------- ------- ---------- ---------------
naa.600508b1001037383941424344450500 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600508b1001037383941424344450500 disk 279964 Fixed
naa.60060160582017005c0a006277b6df11 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.60060160582017005c0a006277b6df11 disk 51200 MostRecentlyUsed
naa.60060160582017005d0a006277b6df11 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.60060160582017005d0a006277b6df11 disk 51200 MostRecentlyUsed

vSphere PowerCLI provides Get-Datastore cmdlets to retreive the details about the Datastore. This command can be further customized to get the datastore details at the Datacenter, Cluster, Host and Virtual Machine level:

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI> Get- Datastore

Name FreeSpaceMB CapacityMB
---- ----------- ----------
vCloud-1 18925 50944

Working with Datastores

This section discuss the cmdlets provided by vSphere PowerCLI to manage the existing storage.

Remove-Datastore removes the specified datastores from their locations.

Note: The cmdlet permanently deletes the content of the removed datastores. If -Confirm:$true parameter is used, the cmdlet asks for confirmation before running. If -Confirm:$false is used, the cmdlet runs without asking for user confirmation.

For example:

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI> Remove-Datastore -Datastore vCloud-0 -VMHost 10.112.96.17 -Confirm:$false

vSphere PowerCLI provides New-Datastore to create a new VMFS/NFS/iSCSI datastores. For example, to create a new VMFS Datastore:

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI> New-Datastore -Name vCloud-0 -Path naa.60060160582017005c0a006277b6df11 -Vmfs

Name: vCloud-0

Name FreeSpaceMB CapacityMB
---- ----------- ----------
vCloud-0 50425 50944

For more information on creating a new datastore using iSCSI, see Work with Host Storages and iSCSI HBA Devices in the vSphere PowerCLI Administration Guide.

Note: If you receive errors that the specified path is in user or not available, connect to the ESX/ESXi host directly using vSphere PowerCLI and then run the command.

vSphere PowerCLI also provides an option to rescan all the HBA's and VMFS volumes on all the ESX/ESXi hosts in the inventory:

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI> Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHba -RescanVmfs | ft -autosize

Id SoftwareIScsiEnabled
-- --------------------
HostStorageSystem-storageSystem False