Indy VMUG Demo Day 2012 PowerCLI Lab

We, as VMUG members in Indianapolis, IN, volunteered to create a PowerCLI lab for this year's Demo Day event.  This post is not to talk about the number of hours we put into it, or how awesome it was (that goes without saying), but is to talk just a bit about the lab guide, make it available, and to share a bit of the on-the-spot code we wrote to manage the lab environment.

The goal of this lab was to continue on from last year's lab, the PowerCLI lab from Demo Day 2011.

This year's lab starts out with some 101/102-level types of exercises and info, and then progresses into 200-level PowerCLI (and maybe a bit beyond).  I cut off the lab guide at thirty (30) pages -- there is so much to cover, and thirty pages got us through about 75% of the material we outlined to discuss.  Now we have leftovers for next time.

This year's lab guide is available at:

http://static.vnugglets.com/vmugdd2012/

and, if you want it for your offline reading pleasure, it is available for download at:

http://static.vnugglets.com/files/VMUGDemoDays2012-PowerCLILabGuide.zip

Have a look.  There are some lab-environment-specific items in the guide, like vCenter server names, VM Host names, VM names, etc., but the knowledge still carries/shines through.  If there are things that do not make sense or on which you have questions, hit us up -- let us know.

The environment the day of the event:  there was definite room for improvement.  The infrastructure was not put in until the day before the event, which makes building it out a bit of a rush, and does not provide for much capacity/performance testing.  Unfortunately, the user experience suffered due to sub-optimal infrastructure performance.

As for managing the lab -- setting up vApps, configuring the View desktops from which users accessed their individual labs, resetting lab environments when users were done with their lab, etc., we had a running doc in which we put code snippets that we used throughout the day.  I have posted it below.

Keep in mind, this is not a polished set of code, not a top-shelf stack of command, not a suggestion on how to run your show -- it is what evolved the day of the event.  We are posting it here for the entertainment/educational value, to show the answer to the "how did you do that on the day of the event?".  So, for fun, here is the mostly-raw code we came up with and used.  Enjoy:

## various code snipplets used in course of managing lab env.
## vNugglets, Jul 2012

## get the vC admin creds
$credVCAdmin = Get-Credential administrator

Connect-VIServer vmug-vc01 -Credential $credVCAdmin


## to start SSH on VMHosts
Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostService | ?{$_.Key -eq "TSM-SSH"} | ?{$_.Running -eq $false} | Start-VMHostService -Confirm:$false
## to stop SSH on VMHosts
Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostService | ?{$_.Key -eq "TSM-SSH"} | ?{$_.Running -eq $true} | Stop-VMHostService -Confirm:$false


## get creds for ESXi hosts
$credESXiRoot = Get-Credential root

## arr of all VMHosts names
$arrVMHostNames = Get-VMHost | %{$_.Name}

## cmd to add the given line to the config file on VMHosts
$strCmdToRun = "echo 'vhv.allow = ```"TRUE```"' >> /etc/vmware/config"
## cmd to echo out the config file
#$strCmdToRun = "cat /etc/vmware/config"
$arrVMHostNames | %{plink.exe -l root -pw rootPasswd $_ $strCmdToRun}



## added add'l portgroup to the std vSwitch0
Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VirtualSwitch -Name vSwitch0 | %{New-VirtualPortGroup -VirtualSwitch $_ -Name PowerCLI-32 -VLanId 132 -Confirm:$false}
Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VirtualSwitch -Name vSwitch0 | %{New-VirtualPortGroup -VirtualSwitch $_ -Name SRM-32 -VLanId 232 -Confirm:$false}


###############
## clone vApps
## name of cluster in which to make vApps
$strVDIAndMgmtClustername = "VDI and Management"
## prefix name of the vApp
#$strVAppNamePrefix = "SRM"
$strVAppNamePrefix = "PowerCLI"
## the name of the source vApp to clone
$strSourceVAppName = "base_PowerCLI_done"
#$strSourceVAppName = "base_SRM-00_CLONE"

## clone the vApp
21..25 | %{
    $strNewVAppName = "$strVAppNamePrefix-{0:d2}" -f $_
    #$dstToUse = Get-Datastore vapp-vmfs* | sort FreeSpaceMB -Descending:$true | select -First 1
    $dstToUse = Get-Datastore vapp-vmfs* | Get-Random
    New-VApp -Name $strNewVAppName -Location (Get-Cluster $strVDIAndMgmtClustername | Get-VMHost | Get-Random) -Datastore $dstToUse -VApp $strSourceVAppName -RunAsync
} ## end foreach-object

## when clones are done, can move the vApps to the given folder
$strFolderToWhichToMoveVApp = "${strVAppNamePrefix}_vApps"    ## vApp inventory folder is PowerCLI_vApps or SRM_vApps
$oDestFolder = Get-Folder $strFolderToWhichToMoveVApp
Get-VApp "$strVAppNamePrefix*" | ?{$_.ExtensionData.ParentFolder.ToString() -ne $oDestFolder.Id} | Move-VApp -Destination $oDestFolder

## set proper NetworkName for NIC on VMs in the vApps (portgroup names match the vApp names); -NetworkName param is cASeSensitIVe!
21..25 | %{
    $intLabNumber = $_
    $strVAppName = "$strVAppNamePrefix-{0:d2}" -f $intLabNumber
    Get-VApp $strVAppName | Get-VM | Get-NetworkAdapter | Set-NetworkAdapter -NetworkName $strVAppName -Confirm:$false 
} ## end foreach-object

## end clone vApps
###############



###############
## prep vApps
## take snapshots of vApp VMs -- do in PoweredOn or PoweredOff state?
#$strVAppNamePrefix = "SRM"
$strVAppNamePrefix = "PowerCLI"
21..25 | %{
    ## make vApp name
    $strNewVAppName = "$strVAppNamePrefix-{0:d2}" -f $_
    Get-VApp $strNewVAppName | Get-VM | New-Snapshot -Name "0" -Description "Initial state" -Memory -Quiesce -Confirm:$false -RunAsync
} ## end foreach-object

21..25 | %{$strNewVAppName = "$strVAppNamePrefix-{0:d2}" -f $_; Get-VApp $strNewVAppName | Start-VApp -Confirm:$false -RunAsync}
## for the PowerCLI stuff -- restart the ESXi VMs so that vC shows them as powered on
#21..25 | %{$strNewVAppName = "$strVAppNamePrefix-{0:d2}" -f $_; Get-VApp $strNewVAppName | Get-VM esxi* | Restart-VM -Confirm:$false}
21..22 | %{
    ## make vApp name
    $strNewVAppName = "$strVAppNamePrefix-{0:d2}" -f $_
    Get-VApp $strNewVAppName | Get-VM | New-Snapshot -Name "1" -Description "Powered on" -Memory -Quiesce -Confirm:$false -RunAsync
} ## end foreach-object
## end prep vApps
###############


$strVDIVMsBaseName = "PowerCLI"
21..25 | %{Get-VM $("vm-${strVDIVMsBaseName}-{0:d2}" -f $_)} | %{
#Get-VM "vm-${strVDIVMsBaseName}-*" | %{
    $strVMName = $_.Name
    Get-NetworkAdapter -VM $_ -Name "Network Adapter 2" | Set-NetworkAdapter -NetworkName $strVMName.Trim("vm-") -Confirm:$false -WhatIf
} ## end foreach-Object
#-- CHECK ON POWERCLI-06, SRM-03, SRM07 -- not sure 2nd nic is on right virtual network


###############
## reset vApp for next user -- revert all VMs in the vApp to snapshot
$strVAppToReset = "PowerCLI-03"
$strSnapshotName = "1"

$vappToReset = Get-VApp $strVAppToReset
## stop VMs in vApp
#$vappToReset | Get-VM | Stop-VM -Confirm:$false
$vappToReset | Get-VM | Set-VM -Snapshot $strSnapshotName -Confirm:$false

## start the vApp if reverting to snapshot 0 (if snapshot 1, the VMs were on)
#$vappToReset | Start-VApp -Confirm:$false
Get-VM "vm-$strVAppToReset" | Restart-VMGuest -Confirm:$false
## end reset vApp -- revert all VMs in the vApp to snapshot
###############


## reporting stuff
## show snapshots for each vApp
11..20 | %{Get-VApp powercli-$_} | %{$strVAppName = $_.Name; Get-VM -Location $_ | Get-Snapshot | Select @{n="vapp";e={$strVAppName}},Name,VM}

And, other guys besides Allen and Matt of vNugglets.com and the VMUG team that put in work to make the labs happen:  big Joe Filippello (@joefilippello, filippello.com) and Jaron Hilger (@hilgertech).  Thanks, guys.