VMware PowerCLI 101 - Part3 - Basic VM operations

Previous posts of this blog series talked about how to install PowerCLI, connecting to ESXi host and basics of working with the vCenter server. In this article, we will go through basic VM operations.

Get basic VM details:
Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine>

To view all properties of a VM object:
Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine> | Get-Member

To start a VM:
Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine> | Start-VM

To restart a VM:
Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine> | Restart-VMGuest

To shut down a VM:
Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine> | Shutdown-VMGuest

To delete a VM permanently:
Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine> | Remove-VM -DeletePermanently

Let's have a look into the "ExtensionData" property of a virtual machine.

Status related details of a VM:
(Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine>).ExtensionData | select GuestHeartbeatStatus,OverallStatus,ConfigStatus

CPU, Memory config details of a VM:
(Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine>).ExtensionData.Config.Hardware

CPU, Memory hot add/ remove features:

Layout details of a VM:
(Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine>).ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File | sort Key | ft

VM tools status and other guest details:
(Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine>).ExtensionData.Guest

Network related info of a VM:

(Get-VM -Name <name of the virtual machine>).ExtensionData.Guest.Net

Hope this was useful. Cheers!

PowerShell quick start guide

This post is for all those who would like to kickstart and learn PowerShell from the very basic level. When I started learning PowerShell I wrote few articles so that it will be helpful for folks who are looking forward to 'how to start and learn it' and I can also refer to it whenever I need. Here in this post, I am just putting all of them together in proper order so that anyone can easily make use of it.

PowerShell 101 blog series

Part 1: Microsoft PowerShell Help System
Part 2: Objects, properties, and methods in PowerShell

Part 3: PowerShell Pipeline and object filtering
Part 4: Avoid disasters in PowerShell
Part 5: PowerShell Remoting

VMware PowerCLI 101 blog series

VMware PowerCLI 101 - Part1
VMware PowerCLI 101 - Part2
VMware PowerCLI 101 - Part3
VMware PowerCLI 101 - Part4

Pester 101 blog series

Infrastructure testing using Pester - Part 1

Infrastructure testing using Pester - Part 2

Infrastructure testing using Pester - Part 3

Hope this was helpful. Cheers!