Getting Previous vCenter Tasks

[CRad14]

So I am just having an issue finding where the previous tasks are stored

Get-task only does tasks in the recent pane, and get-vievent only seems to cover the Events portion of the Tasks/Events tab in vCenter.

I just can't find where that big list of Past tasks is located...

Any help would be aprpeciated...

Thanks!

[LucD]

They are in the events, and they are of type TaskEvent.

You can extract them as follows

Get-VIEvent -Start (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) |
where {$_.GetType().Name -eq "TaskEvent"}

Anything particular you were looking for ?

[CRad14]

Nope that is perfect, I am working on a script and for part of it I wanted to be able to find specific tasks from the recent tasks pane later on in the big Tasks list...

It looks like the matching value is the get-task property id    and the get-vievent property info.task

Thanks LucD! I also think its awesome that in your helpful posts you always link to the SDK :smileyhappy:  . Great Stuff as Always

[aerodevil]

Most Excellent!  I was just thinking about this the other day!  Thanks guys!

[CRad14]

Ok, one more quick question.

Get-VIEvent |?{($_.gettype().name -eq "taskevent")}

I am trying to find where in that object it actually states whether the task errored or completed.

I know I can filter with get-vievent -type, however I don't know its status and I want the get-vievent object to tell me....I see the Error, Result, Progress properties under Info, but I am looking at an event that did fail and all of those properties are empty. So I am not sure how to script a return of the tasks result.

I know I can get the Result and Error from a get-task, but I am trying to get it from get-vievent...

Any other assistance would be much appreciated!!!

[LucD]

To get the actual completion status of the tasks we will need to use the TaskHistoryCollector.

Something like this

$hours = 24 # Number of hours back 
$start = (Get-Date).AddHours(-$hours)
$tasknumber = 999 # Windowsize for task collector 
$taskMgr = Get-View TaskManager

$tFilter = New-Object VMware.Vim.TaskFilterSpec
$tFilter.Time = New-Object VMware.Vim.TaskFilterSpecByTime
$tFilter.Time.beginTime = $start
 $tFilter.Time.timeType = "startedTime" 

$tCollector = Get-View ($taskMgr.CreateCollectorForTasks($tFilter))

$dummy = $tCollector.RewindCollector
$tasks = $tCollector.ReadNextTasks($tasknumber)

while($tasks){
    foreach($task in $tasks){
        New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            Name = $task.EntityName
            Task = $task.DescriptionId
            Start = $task.StartTime
            Finish = $task.CompleteTime
            Result = $task.State
            User = $task.Reason.UserName
        }
    }
}
$tasks = $tCollector.ReadNextTasks($tasknumber)

# By default 32 task collectors are allowed. Destroy this task collector. 
$tCollector.DestroyCollector()

You can find another example, that also looks at the associated event chain, in my Events – Part 8 – vMotion history post.

[baburaju]

Hi Lucd,

Is any parameter is there to get the previous vCenter tasks on hourly basis I mean suppose I want to see the taks for last 2 -3 hours how can I do that.

[LucD]

You will have to use the Start and Finish parameters on the Get-VIEvent cmdlet.

[SasideepT]

Hi,

with Get-Task I am getting the details of currently queued/running etc. However in vSphere client under Recent Tasks, I am noticing some tasks which are 15 days and older. is there a cmdlet I can use to get the older tasks also in Recent Tasks tab.

[LucD]

No, not in the Web Client (if that is what you mean).
Use the Get-VIEvent cmdlet and filter on TaskEven objects.

[vcubegiovannive]

Hello everybody,

how to query for past task from Id?

[LucD]

Assuming you have the Task object in variable $task, you could do

Get-VIEvent -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) |

where {$_ -is [VMware.Vim.TaskEvent] -and $task.Id.Replace('Task-','') -eq $_.Info.Key}

[vcubegiovannive]

Thanks LucD‌ for your reply.

I noticed that $tasknumber could not be grater than 1000, isn't it?

[LucD]

Which property are you referring to in $tasknumber ?

[vcubegiovannive]

$tasknumber = 999 # Windowsize for task collector

I think it's a simple variable

[LucD]

That is the windowsize for the TaskHistoryCollector used in the other script.

Each time you do a ReadNextTasks, you get that many, or less, task objects returned.

It is not related to the Task itself.

[vcubegiovannive]

Is there a way to get all tasks from a past point in time?

windowsize variable limits this behaviour...

[Jameel21]

Hello LucD,

How Can I use similarly on the individual esxi host to get the Tasks? please help