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 used an array to connect to each one and then exported the rules for each cluster within those vCenters.
#####################################################
#
# PowerCLI Script to export DRS Rules
# Created by BLiebowitz on 6/26/2017
#
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# Build an array for each vCenter to connect to
$array = "vCenter1", "vCenter2", "vCenter3"
for($count=0;$count -lt $array.length; $count++)
{
# Connect to vCenter
connect-viserver $array[$count]
# Set the export file name & folder location.
$export = "E:\vmware\DRS\$($array[$count])_DRSrules_$((Get-Date).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy')).txt"
# Get the clusters to export rules from
$clusters = get-cluster
# Find and export rules for each cluster
foreach ($cluster in $clusters) {
# Find all the rules
$rules = get-cluster -Name $cluster | Get-DrsRule
# Export each rule
foreach($rule in $rules){
$line = (Get-View -Id $rule.ClusterId).Name
$line += ("," + $rule.Name + "," + $rule.Enabled + "," + $rule.KeepTogether)
foreach($vmId in $rule.VMIds){
$line += ("," + (Get-View -Id $vmId).Name)
}
# Write each rule to a file.
$line | add-content $export –force
# Disconnect from vCenter
disconnect-viserver $array[$count] –confirm:$false
}
}
}
The results will look like this:
An Affinity Rule will look like:
Cluster1,Rule_Name,True,True,VM1,VM2
An Anti-Affinity Rule will look like:
Cluster1,Rule_Name,True,False,VM1,VM2
This is what the line means… CLUSTERNAME, RULENAME, Enabled/Disabled, Affinity=True/Anti-Affinity=False, VMs
Hope someone finds this useful. 🙂
Ben Liebowitz, VCP, vExpert
NJ VMUG Leader
Thanks for script Ben,
one question, any script to restore drs rule?
Sure, you can use something like this to restore to a new switch.
Get-ChildItem “E:\vmware\DRS\vCenter” | Foreach {
New-VDPortgroup -VDSwitch NewVDS -Name “New$($_.BaseName)” -BackupPath $_.FullName
}
Be sure to validate everything once you restore.
Hello,
Looking to do the same however on 6.7 has anything changed? I keep getting errors that say it is not connected to a vCenter server, even thought it showing that it is.
“get-cluster : 1/17/2020 3:36:56 PM Get-Cluster You are not currently connected to any servers. Please connect first using a Connect cmdlet. ”
Even manually going Connect-ViServer before hand and connecting, the error still appears.
I just tested the script in my homelab and had no problems. If you do Connect-viserver and then get-cluster, it should return a list of clusters. In my lab, I only have 1 cluster.
Hi there,
I found a good script to save the DRS rules in a VMware article. Now I would like to import the rules from the files again. Could you maybe help me?
Many Thanks
Here the backup-script:
# Export DRS Rules to CSV
# Requires PowerCLI 6.5.1+
# Export DRS Rules
Get-Cluster | Get-DRSRule | select Name,Cluster,Enabled,Type,@{N=’VMs’;E={[string]::Join(‘,’,((Get-VM -ID $_.VMIDs).Name))}} | Export-CSV -NoType -Delimiter ‘;’ -Encoding Default D:\PS-Scripts\Ausgabe\DRSRule.csv
# Export DRSClusterGroup
Get-Cluster | Get-DRSClusterGroup | Select Name,Cluster,Grouptype,@{N=”Member”;E={[string]::Join(‘,’,($_.Member))}} | Export-CSV -NoType -Delimiter ‘;’ -Encoding Default D:\PS-Scripts\Ausgabe\DRSClusterGroup.csv
# Export DRSVMHostRule
Get-Cluster | Get-DRSVMHostRule | Select Name,Cluster,VMGroup,Type,VMHostGroup,Enabled | Export-CSV -NoType -Delimiter ‘;’ -Encoding Default D:\PS-Scripts\Ausgabe\DRSVMHostRule.csv
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
Now I would like to import the rules from the files again. Could you maybe help me?
Hi Alex,
As I posted back in 2017, you can use this command to restore from a backup file. This will restore each backup file into a new VDS for each. If there’s only 1 backup in the folder, it’ll only restore that one.
Get-ChildItem “E:\vmware\DRS\vCenter” | Foreach {
New-VDPortgroup -VDSwitch NewVDS -Name “New$($_.BaseName)” -BackupPath $_.FullName
}
Have you tried the new way with the Get-DrsVMHostRule command let. the get-drsrule one is deprecated now!.
Thank you.
I haven’t used the new cmdlet as yet. I’ll have to try it out!