Get-view excluding a cluster?

[adamjg]

I've searched around for this but am not really finding anything this specific. I'm running a nightly export similar to this:

$TestWinVMList = @()
# Get all VMs | Keep only PoweredOn | Iterate over all of the results.
Get-View –viewtype VirtualMachine | Foreach-object {
# Skip if powered off
if ($_.Summary.Runtime.Powerstate -eq "poweredOff") {
     return
}
If ($_.Config.GuestFullName.startswith("Microsoft")) {
     $obj = "" | Select u_name, u_hostname, u_disk, u_ram, u_ip_address, u_mac_address, u_os
     $obj.u_name = $_.Name
     $obj.u_hostname = $_.Guest.HostName
          If (!$obj.u_hostname) {$obj.u_hostname = "$($obj.u_name)" + ".phci.org"}
     $diskField = $null
     $_.Guest.disk | Sort DiskPath | foreach-object {
          $diskField += "$($_.DiskPath) $([math]::Round($_.Capacity / 1073741824)) GB "
     }
     $obj.u_disk = $diskField
     $obj.u_ram = [string]([int] $_.Summary.Config.MemorySizeMB / 1024) + " GB"
     $obj.u_ip_address = $_.Guest.Net.IPAddress -join ", "
     $obj.u_mac_address = $_.guest.net.MacAddress -join ", "
     $obj.u_os = $_.Config.GuestFullName
$TestWinVMList += $obj
}

Let's say there's 3 clusters in a vCenter and I don't want to pull data from one of them.  How do I tell Get-View to exclude all VMs in a specific cluster?

[LucD]

You can use the RegEx 'or' to combine the 2 clusternames, and then follow the pointers to get the VMs.

Something like this

$clusterNames = 'Cluster1','Cluster2'

$clusters = Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Property Host -Filter @{'Name'="$($clusterNames -join '|')"}

$esx = Get-View -Id $clusters.Host -Property Name,VM

Get-View -Id $esx.VM

[adamjg]

Hmm, it's still pulling in all 3 clusters.  Is there a way to exclude 1, rather than including the 2?  I'm doing this in a test environment but eventually I'll be rolling it out to a prod environment with a dozen or so clusters.

This is one of those things that's really easy to do with get-cluster | get-vm, but not so easy with get-view it seems.

[LucD]

Seems to be working for me.

In any case, to exclude a specific cluster, try like this.

This excludes 'cluster1', but will retrieve cluster2, cluster3....

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^cluster1]"}

[adamjg]

I'm not sure what the issue is, but still not working. I tried just these two lines:

$clusterNames = 'Cluster Name 1','Cluster Name 2'
$clusters = Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Property Host -Filter @{'Name'="$($clusterNames -join '|')"}

But when I show the output of $clusters, it's showing all 3 clusters.  I do have multiple vCenter connections enabled and am pulling from 2 vCenters, and the names have spaces in them, so I'm not sure if this is screwing things up.  I didn't get anywhere with trying to exclude either.  I'm not very good with regex. I do appreciate the replies though!

[LucD]

Strange, the following is wortking for me.

It excludes the cluster specified in the variable $nameToExclude

$nameToExclude = 'Cluster1'

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($nameToExclude)]"} |

Select Name

As a verification, can you check what is returned with

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource |

Select Name

[adamjg]

I'm getting an error on the Get-View line.  Could it be the spaces in the cluster name?  I'm connecting to 2 vCenters, one with 2 clusters, the other with a single cluster. I started a new session without setting the powercli config to multiple vCenters and am still getting the error. Running PowerCLI 10.1.0.

Get-View : 5/15/2018 3:50:04 PM Get-View                parsing "[^Cluster Name 1]" - [x-y] range in reverse order.

At line:1 char:1

+ Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($name ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-View], VimException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Core_BaseCmdlet_UnknownError,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.DotNetInterop.GetVIView

[LucD]

That is a RegEx message, and that indicates that you have the dash ('-') character in the name.

Normally a dash inside a [] construct indicates a range, if you want to have a literal dash, you have to escape it.

Like this

$nameToExclude = 'Cluster\-Name\-1'

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($nameToExclude)]"} |

Select Name

[adamjg]

I'm still doing something wrong here.  I was trying to leave out the cluster name, but now I'm convinced the cluster name is the cause.  Here's what's going on:

PS C:\> Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource | Select Name

Name

----

TWB TST E5-2680 App Delivery

TWB TST E5-2680

PS C:\> Get-Cluster | select Name

Name

----

TWB TST E5-2680

TWB TST E5-2680 App Delivery

PS C:\>

PS C:\> $nameToExclude = 'TWB TST E5\-2680 App Delivery'

PS C:\>

PS C:\>

PS C:\> Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($nameToExclude)]"} | Select Name

PS C:\>

I'm not getting any errors, but I'm also not getting any results.  This is just one vCenter, without multiple vCenter connections allowed. I know it would be easier to just include the single cluster, but I do want to move this to another vCenter that has a dozen clusters in it, so I'm really looking to get the exclusion to work.  Any ideas?

[LucD]

The back-slash is a special character for RegEx, so you have to escape it.

Try like this

$nameToExclude = 'TWB TST E5\-2680 App Delivery'

$nameToExclude = [System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Escape($nameToExclude)

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($nameToExclude)]"} | Select Name

[adamjg]

I only put the backslash in to try and escape the dash character in the name. Now I get:

$nameToExclude = 'TWB TST E5\-2680 App Delivery'

$nameToExclude = [System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Escape($nameToExclude)

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($nameToExclude)]"} | Select Name

Get-View : 5/17/2018 11:27:42 AM        Get-View                parsing "[^TWB\ TST\ E5\\-2680\ App\ Delivery]" - [x-y]

range in reverse

order.

At line:1 char:1

+ Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($name ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-View], VimException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Core_BaseCmdlet_UnknownError,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.DotNetInterop.

   GetVIView

Or if I take the backslash out, back to where we were before:

$nameToExclude = 'TWB TST E5-2680 App Delivery'

$nameToExclude = [System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Escape($nameToExclude)

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($nameToExclude)]"} | Select Name

Get-View : 5/17/2018 11:28:01 AM        Get-View                parsing "[^TWB\ TST\ E5-2680\ App\ Delivery]" - [x-y] ra

nge in reverse

order.

At line:1 char:1

+ Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($name ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-View], VimException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Core_BaseCmdlet_UnknownError,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.DotNetInterop.

   GetVIView

[LucD]

Ok, that previous entry put me on the wrong foot.

Yes, you have to escape the dash.
I created a cluster with the same name in my test environment, and it works for me.

Could it be that your clustername contains some other, invisible character besides blanks.
Can you test with a dummy test cluster with a name with a dash in it?

[adamjg]

OK, now we're getting somewhere!  I think it has to do with the fact that the first parts of the cluster names are the same.  So here's the clusters now:

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource | Select Name

Name

----

Dashes Are-Annoying

TWB TST E5-2680 App Delivery

TWB TST E5-2680

If I run the same command with the new cluster name, I get the same errors.  However, look at this:

$nameToExclude = 'TWB TST E5\-2680 App Delivery'

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="[^$($nameToExclude)]"} | Select Name

Name

----

Dashes Are-Annoying

Notice now it only shows the single cluster name. Since both clusters contain the same "TWB TST E5-2680", I think it's having an issue with that. Aside from renaming the "App Delivery" cluster (which isn't out of the question), any ideas?  Thank you so much for the help, I really do appreciate it!

[LucD]

Ok, try like this

$nameToExclude = 'TWB TST E5\-2680 App Delivery'

Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Filter @{'Name'="^((?!$($nameToExclude)).)*$"} | Select Name

[adamjg]

That did it!  Thank you sir, much appreciated!