Deploy VMware VM’s with PowerCLI
Welcome to my first post! Today I am going to show you how to easily deploy VM's using VMware's PowerCLI, and PowerShell. This is all possible through the vCenter client, but I believe most of the questions asked can be skipped in favor of static parameters. For this reason, we will only see 3 prompts when running this script. This could be cut down even further if you allow DHCP to set the IP.
I would like to point out two things about myself at this time. For one, format and style matters to me. You will notice that I like my scripts to look good (they look good to me!). This adds additional lines and unnecessary code, but it helps me sleep at night! The second bit is that I like to use functions. The reason for this is that I like to have the ability to recall the function if there is an issue.
What it does
This script will allow you to easily deploy a VM, set network information, join it to the domain, and move it to the proper OU. Essentially, you can go from nothing to a production ready VM in just a few minutes.
What you need and need to know
- PowerCLI must be installed
- You must use the x86 executable (32bit version) for this script to work properly!
- A Server 2008 / 2008 R2 template (Warning: Do not run sysprep on this template!!)
Learn it
I've tried to make these scripts as usable as possible, thus I like to reuse functions like ConnectAD. All this function does is open a New-PSSession. This allows us to use AD commands when we don't have any AD tools installed. I also avoid the use of Quest AD tools.
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function ConnectAD { $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName "$dc" Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock {Import-Module ActiveDirectory} Import-PSSession -Session $session -Module ActiveDirectory } |
Load the modules (PowerCLI and AD), unless they have already been loaded.
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#Load modules if(!(Get-PSSession | ?{$_.ComputerName -like "$dc*"}) -and $askoncepersessionmodules -ne 1) { $global:askoncepersessionmodules = 1 cls write-host "Connecting to Active Directory, and VIServer. Please wait..." -f yellow; add-pssnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core ConnectAD connect-viserver $VIServer } |
Gather server information in a presentable manner. Please note that you must enter the full Datastore name. It would be possible to use the datastore ID, but I wanted this to be typed out so as to avoid any mistakes.
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#Setup Server info function SetupServer($error) { cls write-host "`n---------------------------------" -f yellow write-host "$window_title" -f green write-host "---------------------------------`n" -f yellow # If $error is not $null, display what the error is. if($error) { write-host "$error`n" -f red } # Gather server information $ServerName = (Read-Host "Server Name").ToUpper() $IPAddress = Read-Host "IP Address" $DefaultGateway = Read-Host "Default Gateway" #Create datastore list $datastores = get-datastore | Sort Name foreach($datastore in $datastores) { if($datastore -notlike "datastore*") { $spacefree = round ($datastore.FreeSpaceMB / 1024) $characters = $datastore | measure-object -character | select -expandproperty characters $maxcharacters = 18; $needed = $maxcharacters - $characters; $count = 1; $periods = $null; while($count -le $needed) { $periods = "$periods."; $count++; } if($spacefree -lt 100) { write-host "$datastore$periods " -nonewline -f red; write-host "$spacefree GB" -f red; } elseif($spacefree -lt 500) { write-host "$datastore$periods " -nonewline -f yellow; write-host "$spacefree GB" -f yellow; } else { write-host "$datastore$periods " -nonewline -f green; write-host "$spacefree GB" -f green; } } } # Which datastore do we want to select? $DatastoreName = (Read-Host "Datastore Name").ToUpper() if(!(get-datastore $DatastoreName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) { $error = "Datastore $DatastoreName not found." SetupServer($error) } #Check our work if(!$ServerName -or !$IPAddress -or !$DefaultGateway -or !$DataStoreName) { $error = "Server Name, IP Address, Default Gateway, and Datastore Name cannot be left blank." SetupServer($error) } else { $result = $null $message = "`nAre you sure you want to create this server? ($ServerName; $IPAddress; $DefaultGateway; $DataStoreName)" $yes = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "&Yes","" $no = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "&No", "" $options = [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]($yes, $no) $result = $host.ui.PromptForChoice($title, $message, $options, 0) if($result -eq 0) { Create-VM } else { SetupServer } } } |
And lastly, we need to actually create the VM. In a nutshell, all we're doing here is taking all the variables that we've put together up to this point, and throwing it all together in a Simple Customizations Spec, which for our purpose is temporary. Once we've created the VM, we power it on, move it to the proper OU, and that's it!
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function Create-VM { cls write-host "************ Creating $ServerName; DO NOT CLOSE/STOP THIS SCRIPT! ************" -f red #Create a simple customizations spec: $custSpec = New-OSCustomizationSpec -Type NonPersistent -ChangeSID -OSType Windows -NamingScheme Fixed -NamingPrefix "$ServerName" -OrgName "$OrgName" -FullName "$FullName" -Domain "$domain" –DomainUsername "$DomainUser" –DomainPassword "$DomainPassword" -AdminPassword "$Admin_Password" #Modify the default network customization settings: $custSpec | Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping | Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping -IpMode UseStaticIP -IpAddress $IPAddress -SubnetMask $SubnetMask -Dns $DNS -DefaultGateway $DefaultGateway -Wins $WINS #Deploy a VM from a template using the newly created customization: New-VM -Name "$ServerName" -Template "$template" -VMHost "$vm_host" -datastore "$DatastoreName" | Set-VM -OSCustomizationSpec $custSpec -Confirm:$false #Turn it on Get-VM $ServerName | Get-NetworkAdapter | Set-NetworkAdapter -StartConnected:$true -confirm:$false Start-VM -VM $ServerName #Move Server cls write-host "************ Creating $ServerName; DO NOT CLOSE/STOP THIS SCRIPT! ************`n`n" -f yellow do { Get-ADComputer -identity $servername -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue write-host "." -nonewline -f red sleep 3 } until(Get-ADComputer -identity $servername -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -warningaction silentlycontinue) $serverdn = (Get-ADComputer -identity $servername).distinguishedname Move-ADObject -identity "$serverdn" -TargetPath "$fullpath" #And we're done... cls write-host "$ServerName successfully created!" -f green write-host "Press any key to exit ..." -f red $x = $host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown") exit } |
I hope this post is useful to you, and thank you for reading.
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Source Code
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######################################## # Create VM # Created by Troy Ward ######################################## #Variables $dc = "dc1" # Local domain controller $VIServer = "vcenter1" # vCenter server $OrgName = "Company, Inc." $FullName = "I.T Infrastructure" $Domain = "domain.local" # Domain name $DomainUser = "DomainJoinUser" # Username for user that can join the domain $DomainPassword = "password" # Password for user that can join the domain $vm_host = "ESXI1" # Host that will host this VM $SubnetMask = "255.255.255.0" # Subnet Mask $DNS = "10.1.1.10,10.1.1.20" # DNS info $WINS = "10.1.1.10,10.1.1.20" # Leave blank if you do not use WINS $Admin_Password = "password" # Admin Password for new server $template = "Template" # Server Template name $fullpath = "OU=Servers,OU=location,DC=domain,DC=local" # OU that will hold the servers # No more variables $ui = (Get-Host).UI.RawUI $window_title = "Create VM" $ui.WindowTitle = "$window_title" $vm_host = "$vm_host.$domain" #Connect to Active Directory and load modules function ConnectAD { $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName "$dc" Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock {Import-Module ActiveDirectory} Import-PSSession -Session $session -Module ActiveDirectory } function round($value, [MidpointRounding]$mode = 'AwayFromZero') { [Math]::Round( $value, $mode ) } #Load modules if(!(Get-PSSession | ?{$_.ComputerName -like "$dc*"}) -and $askoncepersessionmodules -ne 1) { $global:askoncepersessionmodules = 1 cls write-host "Connecting to Active Directory, and VIServer. Please wait..." -f yellow; add-pssnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core ConnectAD connect-viserver $VIServer } #Setup Server info function SetupServer($error) { cls write-host "`n---------------------------------" -f yellow write-host "$window_title" -f green write-host "---------------------------------`n" -f yellow # If $error is not $null, display what the error is. if($error) { write-host "$error`n" -f red } # Gather server information $ServerName = (Read-Host "Server Name").ToUpper() $IPAddress = Read-Host "IP Address" $DefaultGateway = Read-Host "Default Gateway" #Create datastore list $datastores = get-datastore | Sort Name foreach($datastore in $datastores) { if($datastore -notlike "datastore*") { $spacefree = round ($datastore.FreeSpaceMB / 1024) $characters = $datastore | measure-object -character | select -expandproperty characters $maxcharacters = 18; $needed = $maxcharacters - $characters; $count = 1; $periods = $null; while($count -le $needed) { $periods = "$periods."; $count++; } if($spacefree -lt 100) { write-host "$datastore$periods " -nonewline -f red; write-host "$spacefree GB" -f red; } elseif($spacefree -lt 500) { write-host "$datastore$periods " -nonewline -f yellow; write-host "$spacefree GB" -f yellow; } else { write-host "$datastore$periods " -nonewline -f green; write-host "$spacefree GB" -f green; } } } # Which datastore do we want to select? $DatastoreName = (Read-Host "Datastore Name").ToUpper() if(!(get-datastore $DatastoreName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) { $error = "Datastore $DatastoreName not found." SetupServer($error) } #Check our work if(!$ServerName -or !$IPAddress -or !$DefaultGateway -or !$DataStoreName) { $error = "Server Name, IP Address, Default Gateway, and Datastore Name cannot be left blank." SetupServer($error) } else { $result = $null $message = "`nAre you sure you want to create this server? ($ServerName; $IPAddress; $DefaultGateway; $DataStoreName)" $yes = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "&Yes","" $no = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "&No", "" $options = [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]($yes, $no) $result = $host.ui.PromptForChoice($title, $message, $options, 0) if($result -eq 0) { Create-VM } else { SetupServer } } } function Create-VM { cls write-host "************ Creating $ServerName; DO NOT CLOSE/STOP THIS SCRIPT! ************" -f red #Create a simple customizations spec: $custSpec = New-OSCustomizationSpec -Type NonPersistent -ChangeSID -OSType Windows -NamingScheme Fixed -NamingPrefix "$ServerName" -OrgName "$OrgName" -FullName "$FullName" -Domain "$domain" –DomainUsername "$DomainUser" –DomainPassword "$DomainPassword" -AdminPassword "$Admin_Password" #Modify the default network customization settings: $custSpec | Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping | Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping -IpMode UseStaticIP -IpAddress $IPAddress -SubnetMask $SubnetMask -Dns $DNS -DefaultGateway $DefaultGateway -Wins $WINS #Deploy a VM from a template using the newly created customization: New-VM -Name "$ServerName" -Template "$template" -VMHost "$vm_host" -datastore "$DatastoreName" | Set-VM -OSCustomizationSpec $custSpec -Confirm:$false #Turn it on Get-VM $ServerName | Get-NetworkAdapter | Set-NetworkAdapter -StartConnected:$true -confirm:$false Start-VM -VM $ServerName #Move Server cls write-host "************ Creating $ServerName; DO NOT CLOSE/STOP THIS SCRIPT! ************`n`n" -f yellow do { Get-ADComputer -identity $servername -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue write-host "." -nonewline -f red sleep 3 } until(Get-ADComputer -identity $servername -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -warningaction silentlycontinue) $serverdn = (Get-ADComputer -identity $servername).distinguishedname Move-ADObject -identity "$serverdn" -TargetPath "$fullpath" #And we're done... cls write-host "$ServerName successfully created!" -f green write-host "Press any key to exit ..." -f red $x = $host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown") exit } SetupServer |
