Script to shutdown and remove list of vms?

[max08]

Hello

I would like to use powercli to shutdown and remove a list of virtual machines from a .csv file.  Althought not entirely clear on how to do it, can someone help me out?

[admin]

Hi, there,

Can you provide the format of the csv file? An example would be good.

How do you like to filter them ? Which VMs are going to be removed and shut down ?

Other than deserialization of the csv file to .net objects, it's easy to write such as scirrpt:

$vms =  <deserialize-from-custom-csv>
$filteredVMs = $vms |  ?{ <condition>}

you have 2 approaches here:

$filteredVMs |  Shutdown-VMGuest -confirm:$false

or

$filteredVMs |  Stop-VMt -confirm:$false

Then I suppose you would want to serialize to CSV again

you can do the following:

$remainingVMs = @()
foreach( $vm in $vms){
    if($filteredVms -notcontains $vm){
          $remainingVMs += $vm
    }
}
Export-CSV -Path <your-file-here> -InputObject 
$remainingVMs

If you have trouble in finished the script, don't hesitate to ask.

Best regards,

Leni Kirilov

PowerCLI Team

Export-CSV

[max08]

Hi Leni

I don't have the .csv file as of yet because I dont know what it is I need to include in it.  I would like to just populate the vmname and go from there but not sure if I need to specify the DS or host to accomplish this.

Do you know?

[admin]

Hi, there,

Ok, in that case explain in more details your concrete case. What it is you want to achieve?

- you want to store some VMs in a csv and then use it to shutdown/stop vms ?

- you want to write manually some VM names and IP of their hosts and then use it to extract them and do the same stuff to them?

I can't tell you how the csv looks, because you define it based on your needs.

In either case it's easy to initialize VM objects on which you can use Star-Vm/Stop-Vm etc

Best regards,

Leni Kirilov

PowerCLI Team

[max08]

I want to be able to add a list of vmnames to a .csv file and run a script that will shut them down and remove them permanently.

That list will be updated/editied as the need arises to remove more and more vms.

like so:

remove.csv

Server Name

w2k3sp2s32qa7-vm

w2k8sp2s32qa1-vm

w2k8sp2s64qa8-vm

w2k8sp2s64qa9-vm

w3r232-100

w3r232-121

w3r232-122

[mattboren]

Hello, max08-

To just use that CSV as a list of VM names to stop and remove permanently, you can do something like:

Import-Csv remove.csv | %{Stop-VM $_."Server Name" -Confirm:$false | Remove-VM -DeletePermanently -Confirm:$false -RunAsync}

Note, that is non-interactive once you run it -- it does not prompt to stop the VMs or to delete them from disk, it just does it.  So, be sure that the .csv file has only names of VMs that you really want to kill.

How does that do for you?

[max08]

Awesome, thanks Matt!   Worked like a charm.

[max08]

One more question, can I check to see if the VM is powered on?  If its powered off already it doesn't remove the VM as it attempts to power it off and then skips the removing it IF its already off.

[mattboren]

Hello, max08-

Yes, that would be a matter of adding a piece to check for the VM's power state.  Like:

Import-Csv remove.csv | %{
    $vmTmp = Get-VM $_."Server Name"
    ## if the VM is on, power it off
    if ($vmTmp.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn") {Stop-VM $vmTmp -Confirm:$false}
    Remove-VM -VM $vmTmp -DeletePermanently -Confirm:$false -RunAsync
} ## end foreach-object

Enjoy.

[max08]

Thanks Matt.  One more thing, can we make the script check for that vm before it does anything, if it doesnt find the name then just move on to the next one?  It does it already but it prints an error of "ObjectNotfound".  Can we just skip over that message all together?

[mattboren]

Hello again-

Yes, sure can.  By using the -ErrorAction parameter on Get-VM, there will be no error message for when a VM is not found.  Then, after testing to see if $vmTmp is non-null, the script will go through the power down and removal as before.  Like:

Import-Csv remove.csv | %{
    $vmTmp = Get-VM $_."Server Name" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    if ($vmTmp) {
        ## if the VM is on, power it off
        if ($vmTmp.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn") {Stop-VM $vmTmp -Confirm:$false}
        Remove-VM -VM $vmTmp -DeletePermanently -Confirm:$false -RunAsync
    } ## end if
    else {<# ...do nothing -- no VM by this name #>}
} ## end foreach-object

Enjoy

[max08]

Thanks for your help Matt.

Trying to do the reserve now with simply powering on a list of VMs if they are powered off.

Import-Csv poweron.csv | %{

    $vmTmp = Get-VM $_."Server Name" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    if ($vmTmp) {

    Start-VM $vmTmp -Confirm:$false -RunAsync

    } ## end if

    else {<# ...do nothing -- no VM by this name #>}

} ## end foreach-object

Have an issue with listing the failed attempts because the VM is already powered on.  Can you help me out?

[mattboren]

Hello, max08-

You can check the power state in the If statement, and only try to power on the VM if it is "PoweredOff".  Like:

Import-Csv poweron.csv | %{
    $vmTmp = Get-VM $_."Server Name" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    if ($vmTmp.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff") {
        Start-VM $vmTmp -Confirm:$false -RunAsync
    } ## end if
    else {<# ...do nothing -- no powered off VM by this name #>}
} ## end foreach-object

Enjoy