PowerCLI script to forcibly delete a Datastore that is reported as in use.
Have you ever tried to delete a datastore and get an error saying the Datastore is in use? You browse the datastore and see nothing on it. The pre-checks when you unmount it all pass, yet you cannot delete it. We had this problem. VMware support directed us to delete the partition using the partedUtil command, but I didn’t like…
Updating Dell Firmware/BIOS en mass
We recently ran into an issue where we had to update the Firmware & Bios on a bunch of Dell servers. As these are VMware hosts, we couldn’t just run the Dell System Update Utility, as I would on a normal Windows host. My coworker, @bspagna, and I decided to look at doing this via the iDRAC. Prerequisites: Dell Repository…
PowerCLI Script to Check Host Over-commitment Percentage & Ratios
At my previous employer, we had a Dev/QA vSphere environment that was very over provisioned. The environment had lots of CPUReady issues with VMs having to wait for CPU time, which caused things to be slow, etc. We knew this but the application teams didn’t understand. I ended up writing a PowerCLI script to check the CPU overcommitment and sent…
Script to backup your vCenter DRS Rules
I was thinking yesterday, I have a script that I run on a monthly basis to backup my vDS configs… Shouldn’t I also have something that does the same for my DRS rules? So, I wrote a script that I can schedule to run on a weekly/monthly basis to backup my DRS rules. I have multiple vCenter servers, so I…
Running the vSphere Web Client via Remote Desktop Manager
As you may have seen, I really like a tool from a company called Devolutions called Remote Desktop Manager. I use it to manage my RDP sessions, Credentials, SSH sessions, as well as to manage my iDRAC/iLO connections. I also have it manage my connections to my VMware environments. For the environments that support the VI Client, I have those…
PowerCLI Script to create new vDS Portgroups
We deployed new hosts into one of our office locations. Because these hosts would have different number of uplinks as well as use a LAG group instead of normal dvUplinks, we decided to create a new vDS Switch. Then, we needed to re-create all the portgroups as well. I figured, instead of manually adding 15-20 portgroups, I’ll automate it. I…
Disabling FCOE on vSphere 10gb NICs per VMware KB 2130092
So, we recently had an issue with some of our Dell blade vSphere hosts. Seems they all crashed (PSOD) at the same time (6 nodes across 2 different clusters). After submitting the log bundles and Dell TSRs, support recommended, along with upgrading drivers & firmware (the support go to!) that we remove FCoE from the NICs (as it’s not being…
Creating shortcuts for PowerCLI that automatically log you in.
So, I started a new job a couple of months ago and we have multiple vCenter environments. My friend & temporary co-worker, Brian Spagna (@bspagna) and I both wanted to have shortcuts to launch PowerCLI windows and have a different background color for each to easily identify which environment we were in. We thought it would be cool to have…
Disabling WiFi Power Management Permanently for Raspberry PI 3 with Raspbian Jessie
One problem I found when playing with my Raspberry PI3 (running Raspbian Jessie), is that the WiFi would drop after a certain amount of inactivity. This was problematic at VMUG Meetings, and due to lack of having a screen to connect, I was forced to power-cycle the unit to get it back online. After doing some googling, I found the…
Script to delete folder older than 30 days… by Name
I had a need, on one of my file servers, to delete some data that was older than 30 days, to clear space. This would need to be a re-occurring task, so what better way to accomplish it than to script it! Here’s the rub… The folders are each in a YYYYMMDD format (ex: 20170115), yet the content in the…