VMware

Basic PS scripts for VMware Admin

Tapas Kumar MahantaLeave a comment

VMware admins rely on PowerCLI, esxcli one-liners, and Python scripts for daily tasks like health checks, VM migrations, and storage monitoring to save hours of manual work.​

Daily Health Check Script (PowerCLI)

Purpose: Run every morning to spot issues across cluster, hosts, VMs, and datastores.

powershell# VMware Daily Health Check - Save as HealthCheck.ps1
Connect-VIServer vcenter.example.com

$Report = @()
$Clusters = Get-Cluster
foreach ($Cluster in $Clusters) {
    $Hosts = Get-VMHost -Location $Cluster
    $Report += [PSCustomObject]@{
        Cluster = $Cluster.Name
        HostsDown = ($Hosts | Where {$_.State -ne 'Connected'}).Count
        VMsDown = (Get-VM -Location $Hosts | Where {$_.PowerState -ne 'PoweredOn'}).Count
        DatastoresFull = (Get-Datastore -Location $Hosts | Where {$_.FreeSpaceGB/($_.CapacityGB)*100 -lt 20}).Count
        HighCPUHosts = ($Hosts | Where {$_.CpuUsageMhz -gt 80}).Count
    }
}
$Report | Export-Csv "DailyHealth-$(Get-Date -f yyyy-MM-dd).csv" -NoTypeInformation
Send-MailMessage -To admin@company.com -Subject "VMware Health Report" -Body "Check attached CSV" -Attachments "DailyHealth-$(Get-Date -f yyyy-MM-dd).csv"

Schedule: Windows Task Scheduler daily 8AM, outputs CSV + email summary.​

Host Reboot & Maintenance Script

Purpose: Graceful host maintenance with VM evacuation.

powershell# HostMaintenance.ps1
param($HostName, $MaintenanceReason)

$HostObj = Get-VMHost $HostName
if ((Get-VM -Location $HostObj).Count -gt 0) {
    Move-VM -VM (Get-VM -Location $HostObj) -Destination (Get-Cluster -VMHost $HostObj | Get-VMHost | Where {$_.State -eq 'Connected'} | Select -First 1)
}
Set-VMHost $HostName -State Maintenance -Confirm:$false
Restart-VMHost $HostName -Confirm:$false -Reason $MaintenanceReason

Usage: ./HostMaintenance.ps1 esxi-01 "Patching"​

Storage Rescan & Connectivity Script (ESXi SSH)

Purpose: Fix “LUNs not visible” after SAN changes – run on all hosts.

bash#!/bin/bash
# storage-rescan.sh - Run via SSH or Ansible
for adapter in $(esxcli storage core adapter list | grep -E 'vmhba[0-9]+' | awk '{print $1}'); do
    esxcli storage core adapter rescan -A $adapter
done
esxcli storage filesystem list | grep -E 'Mounted|Accessible'
vmkping -I vmk1 $(esxcli iscsi adapter discovery sendtarget list | awk '{print $7}' | tail -1)
echo "Storage rescan complete on $(hostname)"

Cron: */30 * * * * /scripts/storage-rescan.sh >> /var/log/storage-rescan.log​

VM Snapshot Cleanup Script

Purpose: Auto-delete snapshots >7 days old to prevent datastore exhaustion.

powershell# SnapshotCleanup.ps1
$OldSnapshots = Get-VM | Get-Snapshot | Where {$_.CreateTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7)}
foreach ($Snap in $OldSnapshots) {
    Remove-Snapshot $Snap -Confirm:$false -RunAsync
    Write-Output "Deleted snapshot $($Snap.Name) on $($Snap.VM.Name)"
}

Alert on large snaps: Add Where {$_.SizeGB -gt 10} filter.​

iSCSI Path Failover Test Script

Purpose: Verify multipath redundancy before maintenance.

bash#!/bin/bash
# iscsi-path-test.sh
echo "=== iSCSI Path Status ==="
esxcli iscsi session list
echo "=== Active Paths ==="
esxcli storage core path list | grep -E 'working|dead'
echo "=== LUN Paths ==="
esxcli storage nmp device list | grep -E 'path'

Run weekly: Documents path count for compliance audits.​

NFS Mount Verification Script

Purpose: Check all NFS datastores connectivity.

bash#!/bin/bash
# nfs-check.sh
for datastore in $(esxcli storage filesystem list | grep nfs | awk '{print $1}'); do
    mount | grep $datastore || echo "NFS $datastore NOT mounted!"
    vmkping -c 3 -I vmk0 $(esxcli storage filesystem list | grep $datastore | awk '{print $4}')
done

Performance Monitoring Script (esxtop Capture)

Purpose: Collect 5min esxtop data during issues.

bash#!/bin/bash
# perf-capture.sh
esxtop -b -a -d 300 > /tmp/esxtop-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).csv
echo "Captured $(ls -lh /tmp/esxtop-*.csv | wc -l) perf files"

Analyze: esxtop replay or Excel pivot on %LATENCY, DAVG.​

One-Liner Toolkit

TaskCommand
List locked VMsvmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/datastore/vm.vmdk | grep MAC​
Check VMFS healthvoma -check -disk naa.xxx​
Reset iSCSI adapteresxcli iscsi adapter set -A vmhbaXX -e false; esxcli iscsi adapter set -A vmhbaXX -e true​
Host connection testesxcli network ip connection list | grep ESTABLISHED​
Datastore I/Oesxtop (press ‘d’), look for %UTIL>80%​

Deployment Guide

  1. PowerCLI Setup: Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI on jumpbox.​
  2. ESXi Scripts: SCP to /scripts/, chmod +x, add to crontab.
  3. Confluence Integration: Embed scripts as <pre> blocks, add “Copy” buttons.
  4. Alerting: Pipe outputs to Slack/Teams via webhook or email.
  5. Version Control: Git repo per datacenter, tag releases.

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