Create a report of all unregistered VMs

[dbutch1976]

Hello,

I have found a large number of VMs which were not properly deleted from inventory and have instead been removed from inventory leaving behind many TB's of VMDKs. I would like to re-register these VMs (eventually) so that they can be put through our proper decom process.

I've found a few scripts to play around with, but many of these seem to focus on re-registering the VMs, when there are a large number of VMs I need to ensure are NOT re-registered, such as replicated VMs that should not be turned on.

For this reason I'm looking for a script I can run which simply focuses on generating a list of unregistered VMs at this point, along with relevant information such as the path to the VMX file, the last time the disk was modified. Once I've been able to generate this list in a CSV file I plan to exclude all the VMs until I get a list of only the VMs I want to re-register, then I'll import the CSV into another script and register only those VMs.

I've been playing around with this:

Get-Datastore -name IOMEGA | ForEach-Object { Get-ChildItem -Path $_.Datastore -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Extension -eq ".vmx" -and ! (Get-VM -Name $_.BaseName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) }} | Select-Object *

However this isn't even working on the datastore I'm specifying (IOMEGA), instead I'm getting results from my local laptop (I don't even understand how it's finding these). Sample output from this command here:

PSPath            : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Users\dbutc\Documents\Virtual Machines\nest7\nest7.vmx
PSParentPath      : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Users\dbutc\Documents\Virtual Machines\nest7
PSChildName       : nest7.vmx
PSDrive           : C
PSProvider        : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem
PSIsContainer     : False
Mode              : -a----
VersionInfo       : File:             C:\Users\dbutc\Documents\Virtual Machines\nest7\nest7.vmx
                    InternalName:     
                    OriginalFilename: 
                    FileVersion:      
                    FileDescription:  
                    Product:          
                    ProductVersion:   
                    Debug:            False
                    Patched:          False
                    PreRelease:       False
                    PrivateBuild:     False
                    SpecialBuild:     False
                    Language:         
                    
BaseName          : nest7
Target            : {}
LinkType          : 
Name              : nest7.vmx
Length            : 2761
DirectoryName     : C:\Users\dbutc\Documents\Virtual Machines\nest7
Directory         : C:\Users\dbutc\Documents\Virtual Machines\nest7
IsReadOnly        : False
Exists            : True
FullName          : C:\Users\dbutc\Documents\Virtual Machines\nest7\nest7.vmx
Extension         : .vmx
CreationTime      : 2020-12-29 4:26:55 PM
CreationTimeUtc   : 2020-12-29 9:26:55 PM
LastAccessTime    : 2024-12-09 1:28:25 PM
LastAccessTimeUtc : 2024-12-09 6:28:25 PM
LastWriteTime     : 2020-12-29 4:26:55 PM
LastWriteTimeUtc  : 2020-12-29 9:26:55 PM
Attributes        : Archive

How is it finding a result from my C: when I'm specifying at datastore presented to my esxi hosts?? Can this be refined to get me the information I'm looking for?

[hgdeloitte]

Hi.

You may want to download RVTools from robware.net and use this.  It has a CLI.  Here it is running in a scheduled task each day to provide us information.

[dbutch1976]

I've looked through RVtools and found a great tab for possible zombie vmdk's under the vHealth tab, however I have found nothing about unregistered VMs. Is there a specific place I can check or report I can run? I'm only interested in VMs that can be re-registered, I have a separate report which contains orphaned VMDKs. 

[LucD]

There is a flaw in your code.
The object returned by Get-Datastore does not have a Datastore property.
So the Get-ChildItem is starting from an empty string, which explains why you see that local file.

You might try something like this

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name IOMEGA

New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $ds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx
Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS

------------------------------

Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

------------------------------

[dbutch1976]

Thanks LucD,

This is getting me a complete list of all VMs, both registered and unregistered on the datastore. Can I use this to compare to a list of registered VMs and only give results for VMs it cannot find? I'm not sure how to trim the .vmx in the .name field below, after that I can add an if / else statement and only return results with Name,DatastoreFullPath,LastWriteTime

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name vsanDatastore
$VMs = Get-VM

New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $ds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx
foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) { 
    Get-VM -name $VMX.name(how do I trim the .vmx here?)
    }
Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS

[LucD]

You could do

Get-VM -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','')

------------------------------

Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

------------------------------

[dbutch1976]

Thanks LucD,

Not sure if my approach is the best way, but it's working to some degree:

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name vsanDatastore
$VMs = Get-VM
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $ds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx
foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
    try {
        Get-VM -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop
        } 
        catch {
        $unregistered += $VMX.Name 
        }
    }
Write-Host $unregistered
Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS

The results look like this:

Name                 PowerState Num CPUs MemoryGB       <------------This is a list of registered VMs, I don't want these at all
----                 ---------- -------- --------       
passthrough          PoweredOn  2        16.000         
Skyline              PoweredOff 2        4.000          
LogInsight           PoweredOn  2        8.000          
vROPs                PoweredOn  2        8.000          
torrent              PoweredOn  2        16.000         
unregistered_VSAN2.vmxvc7b.vmxvc7a.vmxDeletemetest1.vmxunregistered_VSAN3.vmxunregistered_VSAN1.vmx    <------- These are correct, however the formatting of the out is unreadable and I would like to add DatastoreFullPath,LastWriteTime to the results. Any chance you could give me a push in the right direction?

[LucD]

That also shows the VMs that are registered.
Try something like this

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name vsanDatastore
$VMs = Get-VM
#$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
$unregistered = @()

New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $ds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx
foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
    try {
        Get-VM -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
        } 
    catch {
        $unregistered += $VMX.Name 
    }
}
Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS

$unregistered

------------------------------

Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

------------------------------

[dbutch1976]

This is almost perfect:

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name vsanDatastore
$VMs = Get-VM
#$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
$unregistered = @()
New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $ds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx
foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
    try {
        Get-VM -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
        } 
    catch {
        $unregistered += $VMX.Name 
    }
}
Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS
$unregistered

    I just need to format this data before exporting it to csv, I'm believe I need to add something like this, but I'm not sure where:
ForEach-Object {
        [PSCustomObject] @{
        Name = $vmx.Name
        DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
        LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
}
}

[LucD]

Something like this

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name vsanDatastore
$VMs = Get-VM
#$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
$unregistered = @()
New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $ds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx
foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
    try {
        Get-VM -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
        } 
    catch {
        $unregistered += PSCustomObject] @{
            Name = $vmx.Name
            DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
            LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
    }
    }
}
Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS

$unregistered | Export-Csv -Path .\report.csv -NoTypeInformation

------------------------------

Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

------------------------------

[dbutch1976]

One minor typo (missing [ in [PSCustomObject]

This is working perfectly, thanks LucD!

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name vsanDatastore
$VMs = Get-VM
#$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
$unregistered = @()
New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $ds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx
foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
    try {
        Get-VM -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
        } 
    catch {
        $unregistered += [PSCustomObject] @{
            Name = $vmx.Name
            DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
            LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
    }
    }
}
Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS

$unregistered # | Export-Csv -Path .\report.csv -NoTypeInformation

[dbutch1976]

Took one final kick at this with the goal of checking all the datastores in the environment and only returning unregistered VMs. Looks like it's working and it's giving me the output I'm looking for. Changes where:

Removed $ErrorActionPreference = "Stop" since it is not required.
Removed $VMs = Get-VM since it's not required.
Added $VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "vCLS-*"} In order to remove all vCLS VMs from the results.

Below is the final script:

 Mind giving it a quick sanity check and suggesting any improvements?

$Datastores = get-datastore
$unregistered = @()
ForEach ($datastore in $datastores) {
    $psds = Get-Datastore -Name $datastore
    New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $psds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
    $VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "vCLS-*"}
    foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
            try {
                Get-VM -datastore $datastore -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
                } 
            catch {
                $unregistered += [PSCustomObject] @{
                    Name = $vmx.Name
                    DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
                    LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
                }
            }
        }
        Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS
}
$unregistered | export-csv -Path C:\output\UnregisteredVms1.csv -NoTypeInformation

Output:
Name                     DatastoreFullPath                                                           LastWriteTime        
----                     -----------------                                                           -------------        
unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx [IOMEGA] unregistered_IOMEGA1/unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx                      2024-12-12 2:01:48 PM
unregistered_IOMEGA2.vmx [IOMEGA] unregistered_IOMEGA2/unregistered_IOMEGA2.vmx                      2024-12-12 2:02:34 PM
unregistered_IOMEGA3.vmx [IOMEGA] unregistered_IOMEGA3/unregistered_IOMEGA3.vmx                      2024-12-12 2:03:00 PM
unregistered_VSAN2.vmx   [vsanDatastore] e6335b67-9262-facd-fedc-48210b505bbb/unregistered_VSAN2.vmx 2024-12-12 2:05:11 PM
vc7b.vmx                 [vsanDatastore] 686d1a67-1204-6504-bcbc-48210b506c23/vc7b.vmx               2024-11-05 2:48:57 PM
vc7a.vmx                 [vsanDatastore] 8e611a67-5c6b-ae15-634c-48210b506c23/vc7a.vmx               2024-11-05 2:35:54 PM
Deletemetest1.vmx        [vsanDatastore] 7cd74467-9424-8307-af2a-48210b506c23/Deletemetest1.vmx      2024-11-25 3:01:04 PM
unregistered_VSAN3.vmx   [vsanDatastore] 03355b67-4c56-4145-73f1-48210b505bbb/unregistered_VSAN3.vmx 2024-12-12 2:09:57 PM
unregistered_VSAN1.vmx   [vsanDatastore] 7f335b67-f9b3-5722-bf2e-8d07950ebe8e/unregistered_VSAN1.vmx 2024-12-12 2:03:31 PM

[LucD]

Look ok, great script

------------------------------

Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

------------------------------

[dbutch1976]

Hi LucD,

The script is great, but I see a potential for false positives in the event that the VM is registered to the vCenter using a name which is different than the name as it appears in the datastore. 

Is there a way to modify this line:

 $VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "vCLS-*"}

I would like to exclude all results in which there is an .nvram file located in the same folder as the .vmx file. Not sure how I can approach this, any suggestions? 

*Update* after doing some additional testing, I can see that several legitimately unregistered VMs also have NVRAM files. Perhaps these were created when the VM was turned on, and are not deleted automatically. Perhaps I could check for the presence of a .vmx.lck file instead? (Although this has the disadvantage of only located powered on VMs, but it's better than nothing).

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[dbutch1976]

I feel like I'm close on this but I'm stuck. I know exactly where the error is I think: 

$Datastores = Get-Datastore | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "local" -and $_.name -notmatch "NFS"}
#$Datastores = Get-Datastore -name IOMEGA
$unregistered = @()
ForEach ($datastore in $datastores) {
    $psds = Get-Datastore -Name $datastore
    New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $psds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
    $VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "vCLS-*" -and $_.name -notmatch "zerto*"}
    #$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -eq "unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx"}
    Write-Host "Starting $datastore"
    foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
        try {
                Get-VM -datastore $datastore -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
                } 
            catch {
                $mismatch = Get-ChildItem -Path $VMX.PSParentpath -Filter *.lck | Where-Object {$_.name -contains "$vmx.name.lck"}
                $unregistered += [PSCustomObject] @{
                    Name = $vmx.Name
                    DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
                    LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
                    vCNameMismatch = $mismatch.Name 
                }
            }
        }
        Write-Host "Done"
        Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS
}
$unregistered # | export-csv -Path C:\output\UnregisteredVms1.csv -NoTypeInformation

$mismatch = Get-ChildItem -Path $VMX.PSParentpath -Filter *.lck | Where-Object {$_.name -contains "$vmx.name.lck"}

How do I make the bold into $vmx.name + .lck as the extention? I've tried
"$vmx.name".lck
$vmx.name.lck
$vmx.name'.lck'

The goal is to simply add the vmx.lck file name to the output to simply indicate that the VM is powered on and running under a different name. I'll tackle figuring out the actual name from the .vmx file next.

[LucD]

Try with

$mismatch = Get-ChildItem -Path $VMX.PSParentpath -Filter *.lck | Where-Object {$_.name -contains "$($vmx.name).lck"}

------------------------------

Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

------------------------------

[dbutch1976]

That worked perfectly, thanks LucD. Now that I have a way of detecting a false positive, is there a way to then get the correct name from the .vmx file and add that to a variable? I have found the correct name of the VM within the .vmx file under "displayName".

Current script:

$Datastores = Get-Datastore | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "local" -and $_.name -notmatch "NFS"}
#$Datastores = Get-Datastore -name IOMEGA
$unregistered = @()
ForEach ($datastore in $datastores) {
    $psds = Get-Datastore -Name $datastore
    New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $psds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
    $VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "vCLS-*" -and $_.name -notmatch "zerto*"}
    #$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -eq "unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx"}
    Write-Host "Starting $datastore"
    foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
        try {
                Get-VM -datastore $datastore -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
                } 
            catch {
                $mismatch = Get-ChildItem -Path $VMX.PSParentpath -Filter *.lck | Where-Object {$_.name -contains "$($vmx.name).lck"}
                $unregistered += [PSCustomObject] @{
                    Name = $vmx.Name
                    DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
                    LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
                    vCNameMismatch = $mismatch.Name 
                }
            }
        }
        Write-Host "Done"
        Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS
}
$unregistered | export-csv -Path C:\output\UnregisteredVms2.csv -NoTypeInformation

Output:

Name	DatastoreFullPath	LastWriteTime	vCNameMismatch
unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx	[IOMEGA] unregistered_IOMEGA1/unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx	2024-12-17 18:47	unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx.lck
unregistered_IOMEGA2.vmx	[IOMEGA] unregistered_IOMEGA2/unregistered_IOMEGA2.vmx	2024-12-12 14:02
unregistered_VSAN3.vmx	[vsanDatastore] 03355b67-4c56-4145-73f1-48210b505bbb/unregistered_VSAN3.vmx	2024-12-12 14:09
unregistered_VSAN1.vmx	[vsanDatastore] 7f335b67-f9b3-5722-bf2e-8d07950ebe8e/unregistered_VSAN1.vmx	2024-12-17 18:48	unregistered_VSAN1.vmx.lck

[LucD]

You will have to read the content of the VMX file to get the DisplayName.
Something like this

$Datastores = Get-Datastore | Where-Object { $_.name -notmatch "local" -and $_.name -notmatch "NFS" }
#$Datastores = Get-Datastore -name IOMEGA
$unregistered = @()
ForEach ($datastore in $datastores) {
  $psds = Get-Datastore -Name $datastore
  New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $psds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
  $VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object { $_.name -notmatch "vCLS-*" -and $_.name -notmatch "zerto*" }
  #$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -eq "unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx"}
  Write-Host "Starting $datastore"
  $tempFile = New-TemporaryFile
  foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
    try {
      # Check for DisplayName
      Copy-DatastoreItem -Item $VMX.FullName -Destination $tempFile
      $displayName = Get-Content -Path $tempFile | where{$_ -match 'displayName'}
      if($displayName){
        $vmName = $displayName.Split('"')[1]
      }
      else{
        $vmName = $VMX.name.replace('.vmx', '')
      }
      Write-Host "Checking if VM $vmName is registered"
      Get-VM -Datastore $datastore -Name $vmName -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
    } catch {
      $mismatch = Get-ChildItem -Path $VMX.PSParentpath -Filter *.lck | Where-Object { $_.name -contains "$($vmx.name).lck" }
      $unregistered += [PSCustomObject] @{
        Name = $vmx.Name
        DisplayName = $vmName
        DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
        LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
        vCNameMismatch = $mismatch.Name
      }
    }
  }
  Write-Host "Done"
  Remove-Item -Path $tempFile
  Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS
}
$unregistered | Export-Csv -Path C:\output\UnregisteredVms2.csv -NoTypeInformation

------------------------------

Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

------------------------------

[dbutch1976]

Hi LucD,

With your help I think I have created a thing of beauty. I changed your script a little to only check the .vmx file for a different displayname in the event that it actually finds a matching vmx.lck file, I believe this makes the script run faster. There's just one thing that can be done to improve the script at this point, make the script capable of running with only read-only + datastore.browse privileges. Any idea if/how this could be done? Otherwise, is would "Datastore.Create" and "Datastore.Delete" be required?  This script is borderline magic, tested and working with VMFS and VSAN datastores and probably any other type:

$Datastores = Get-Datastore | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "local" -and $_.name -notmatch "NFS"}
$unregistered = @()
ForEach ($datastore in $datastores) {
    $psds = Get-Datastore -Name $datastore
    New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $psds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
    $VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "vCLS-*" -and $_.name -notmatch "zerto*"}
    #$VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -eq "unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx"}
    Write-Host "Starting $datastore"
    foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
        try {
                Get-VM -datastore $datastore -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
                } 
            catch {
                $VMname = $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','')
                $mismatch = Get-ChildItem -Path $VMX.PSParentpath -Filter *.lck | Where-Object {$_.name -contains "$($vmx.name).lck"}
                if ($mismatch -ne $null) {
                    $tempFile = New-TemporaryFile
                    Copy-DatastoreItem -Item $VMX.FullName -Destination $tempFile
                    $displayname = Get-Content -Path $tempFile | where{$_ -match 'displayName'}
                    $vmxfilename  = $displayName.Split('"')[1]
                    $result = "NAME MISMATCH - Powered on and running as $vmxfilename."
                    Write-host "$VMname is running using a different name. Result-MISMATCH."
                    }
                    else{
                    write-host "$VMname is not found on $global:DefaultVIServers.name and is not running. Result-UNREGISTERED."
                    $result = "UNREGISTERED."
                    }
                        $unregistered += [PSCustomObject] @{
                        Name = $vmx.Name
                        DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
                        LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
                        Result = $result
                }
            }
        }
        Write-Host "Done"
        Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS
}
$unregistered  | export-csv -Path C:\output\UnregisteredVms3.csv -NoTypeInformation

Sample output:

Name	DatastoreFullPath	LastWriteTime	Result
unregistered_IOMEGA2.vmx	[IOMEGA] unregistered_IOMEGA2/unregistered_IOMEGA2.vmx	2024-12-12 14:02	UNREGISTERED.
unregistered_IOMEGA3.vmx	[IOMEGA] unregistered_IOMEGA3/unregistered_IOMEGA3.vmx	2024-12-12 14:03	UNREGISTERED.
unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx	[IOMEGA] unregistered_IOMEGA1/unregistered_IOMEGA1.vmx	2024-12-17 18:47	NAME MISMATCH - Powered on and running as Unmatched_IOMEGA1.
unregistered_VSAN2.vmx	[vsanDatastore] e6335b67-9262-facd-fedc-48210b505bbb/unregistered_VSAN2.vmx	2024-12-12 14:05	UNREGISTERED.
vc7b.vmx	[vsanDatastore] 686d1a67-1204-6504-bcbc-48210b506c23/vc7b.vmx	2024-11-05 14:48	UNREGISTERED.
vc7a.vmx	[vsanDatastore] 8e611a67-5c6b-ae15-634c-48210b506c23/vc7a.vmx	2024-11-05 14:35	UNREGISTERED.
Deletemetest1.vmx	[vsanDatastore] 7cd74467-9424-8307-af2a-48210b506c23/Deletemetest1.vmx	2024-11-25 15:01	UNREGISTERED.
unregistered_VSAN3.vmx	[vsanDatastore] 03355b67-4c56-4145-73f1-48210b505bbb/unregistered_VSAN3.vmx	2024-12-12 14:09	UNREGISTERED.
unregistered_VSAN1.vmx	[vsanDatastore] 7f335b67-f9b3-5722-bf2e-8d07950ebe8e/unregistered_VSAN1.vmx	2024-12-17 18:48	NAME MISMATCH - Powered on and running as Unmatched_VSAN1.

[LucD]

There might be a few flaws in your code.

You are creating a temp file for each VMX file that is found, you should only need one since it is overwritten for each VMX.
And you can remove that Temp file at the end of the loop.

I used a test to determine if the VMX file contained a DisplayName entry, that is not always the case.
You left that test out, so you can end up with an empty string in the $displayName variable.

I don't think there is a .lck file when a VM is powered off.

To have an account with the privileges "read-only + datastore.browse privileges" depends on the permissions you placed on your Datastores and VMs.
I would start with a read-only account and check which missing privileges are reported, and continue till all privileges are there.
Also note that PowerCLI requires some rather basic privileges to read the inventory.

------------------------------

Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

------------------------------

[dbutch1976]

I see your point RE "I don't think there is a .lck file when a VM is powered off." There isn't one, so some VMs will be marked as unregistered when they're actually in inventory under a different name and powered off. I'm willing to accept these, I'll catch them when I attempt to re-register them and I get an error, my main concern was misreporting a powered on (potentially critical) VM as unregistered.
I've added fixed the temporary file creation/removal as suggested.
From my initial testing it appears that the permission needed are Datastore.Low level file operations, which is a little unfortunate because these permissions also allows performing write, delete, and rename operations in the datastore browser in addition to read, but looks like it can't be helped.

#PERMISSIONS REQUIRED - Datastore.Browse + Datastore.Low level file operations
$Datastores = Get-Datastore | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "local" -and $_.name -notmatch "NFS"}
$unregistered = @()
ForEach ($datastore in $datastores) {
    $psds = Get-Datastore -Name $datastore
    New-PSDrive -Name TgtDS -Location $psds -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root '\' | Out-Null
    $VMXS = Get-ChildItem -Path TgtDS: -Recurse -Filter *.vmx | Where-Object {$_.name -notmatch "vCLS-*" -and $_.name -notmatch "zerto*"}
    Write-Host "Starting $datastore"
    $tempFile = New-TemporaryFile
    foreach ($VMX in $VMXS) {
        try {
                Get-VM -datastore $datastore -name $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','') -ErrorAction:Stop | Out-Null
                } 
            catch {
                $VMname = $VMX.name.replace('.vmx','')
                $mismatch = Get-ChildItem -Path $VMX.PSParentpath -Filter *.lck | Where-Object {$_.name -contains "$($vmx.name).lck"}
                if ($mismatch -ne $null) {
                    Copy-DatastoreItem -Item $VMX.FullName -Destination $tempFile
                    $displayname = Get-Content -Path $tempFile | where{$_ -match 'displayName'}
                    $vmxfilename  = $displayName.Split('"')[1]
                    $result = "NAME MISMATCH - Powered on and running as $vmxfilename."
                    Write-host "$VMname is running using a different name. Result-MISMATCH."
                    }
                    else{
                    write-host "$VMname is not found on $global:DefaultVIServers.name and is not running. UNREGISTERED VM found."
                    $result = "UNREGISTERED."
                    }
                        $unregistered += [PSCustomObject] @{
                        Name = $vmx.Name
                        DatastoreFullPath = $vmx.DatastoreFullPath
                        LastWriteTime = $vmx.LastWriteTime
                        Result = $result
                }
            }
        }
        Write-Host "Done"
        Remove-PSDrive -Name TgtDS
        Remove-Item -Path $tempFile
}

$unregistered  | export-csv -Path C:\output\UnregisteredVms3.csv -NoTypeInformation