17 July 2014

Get VMHost FC HBA WWN Info Most Quickly with PowerCLI

VMHba WWN Info
People know about getting VMHost HBA info via PowerCLI -- there are plenty of posts about doing so, generally via Get-VMHostHba.  Since that works great, there is barely a reason to write something else to do the same thing, save one reason that is near and dear to our vNugglets hearts:  speed.  We made this a couple of years ago, have tweaked it a few times, and now it seems like time to post it (like, maybe it will be helpful in an upcoming post, or something?  So exciting).

This function uses everybody's favorite PowerCLI cmdlet Get-View.  The speed reward:  well worth it.  For example:
Technique
Time, 28 hosts
Time, 270 hosts
Get-VMHostHba
61.9s
720s
Get-VMHostHBAWWN
1.32s
14.1s
improvement:
46x
51x

More than 45 times faster?  I'm in.  Now for the function, complete with examples in comment-based help:  (double-click anywhere in the code to Select All)
function Get-VMHostHBAWWN {
<#    .Description
    Get the Port- and Node WWN(s) for HBA(s) in host(s). Feb 2012, vNugglets
    .Example
    Get-VMHostHBAWWN -VMHost myhost0.dom.com
    VMHostName       DeviceName  HBAPortWWN               HBANodeWWN               HBAStatus
    ----------       ----------  ----------               ----------               ---------
    myhost0.dom.com  vmhba1      10:00:00:00:00:00:00:ca  20:00:00:00:00:00:00:ca  online
    myhost0.dom.com  vmhba2      10:00:00:00:00:00:00:83  20:00:00:00:00:00:00:83  online
    Get the HBA WWNs for hosts whose name match the pattern myhost0.dom.com
    .Example
    Get-VMHostHBAWWN -VMHost ^my.+
    VMHostName       DeviceName  HBAPortWWN               HBANodeWWN               HBAStatus
    ----------       ----------  ----------               ----------               ---------
    myhost0.dom.com  vmhba1      10:00:00:00:00:00:00:ca  20:00:00:00:00:00:00:ca  online
    myhost0.dom.com  vmhba2      10:00:00:00:00:00:00:83  20:00:00:00:00:00:00:83  online
    mytest1.dom.com  vmhba1      10:00:00:00:00:00:00:da  20:00:00:00:00:00:00:da  online
    mytest0.dom.com  vmhba2      10:00:00:00:00:00:00:93  20:00:00:00:00:00:00:93  online
    Get the HBA WWNs for hosts whose name match the pattern ^my.+
    .Example
    Get-Cluster mycluster | Get-VMHostHBAWWN
    ...
    Get the HBA WWNs for hosts in the cluster "mycluster"
    .Outputs
    PSCustomObject
#>
[CmdletBinding()]param(
    ## Name pattern of the host for which to get HBA info (accepts regex patterns)
    [parameter(Mandatory=$true,ParameterSetName="SearchByHostName")][string]$VMHostName_str,
    ## Name pattern of the cluster for whose hosts to get HBA info (accepts regex patterns)
    [parameter(Mandatory=$true,ParameterSetName="SearchByCluster",ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName)][Alias("Name")][string]$ClusterName_str
) ## end param
Begin {
    ## helper function for formatting WWN as hex string with colon-separators
    function _Format-AsHexWWNString {
        param([parameter(Mandatory=$true)][long]$WWN_long)
        (("{0:x}" -f $WWN_long) -split "(\w{2})" | ?{$_ -ne ""}) -join ":"
    } ## end function
}

Process {
    ## params for the Get-View expression for getting the View objects
    $hshGetViewParams = @{
        ViewType = "HostSystem"
        Property = "Name", "Config.StorageDevice.HostBusAdapter"
    } ## end hashtable
    Switch ($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName) {
        ## if host name pattern was provided, filter on it in the Get-View expression
        "SearchByHostName" {$hshGetViewParams["Filter"] = @{"Name" = $VMHostName_str}; break;} ## end case
        ## if cluster name pattern was provided, set it as the search root for the Get-View expression
        "SearchByCluster" {$hshGetViewParams["SearchRoot"] = (Get-Cluster $ClusterName_str).Id; break;}
    } ## end switch

    Get-View @hshGetViewParams | Foreach-Object {
        $viewHost = $_
        $viewHost.Config.StorageDevice.HostBusAdapter | Where-Object {$_ -is [VMware.Vim.HostFibreChannelHba]} | Foreach-Object {
            New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property ([ordered]@{
                VMHostName = $viewHost.Name
                DeviceName = $_.Device
                HBAPortWWN = _Format-AsHexWWNString -WWN $_.PortWorldWideName
                HBANodeWWN = _Format-AsHexWWNString -WWN $_.NodeWorldWideName
                HBAStatus = $_.Status
            }) ## end new-object
        } ## end foreach-object
    } ## end foreach-object
} ## end process
} ## end function

Not terribly fancy, but something to get it done more quickly (FaF, in fact).  And, handy for other things down the road.  Like, oh, using the WWN info when creating some initiator groups on your XtremIO array?  What a good idea.

Oh, and if you have not yet seen/used parameter splatting, this provides a decent example of that, too -- the hashtable of parameters used on line 54.  Enjoy!

6 comments:

  1. It runs, but no output, no errors

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello, Andrew-

      Aw, man -- that's no fun. So, you are doing something like:
      Get-Cluster someCluster0 | Get-VMHostHBAWWN

      and, getting no output?

      I assume that the VMHosts involved in the query do have at least one fiber channel HBA in them -- is that the case?

      Delete
    2. same here, where do I need to enter the cluster or host variables - it's not prompting me when I run the script.

      Delete
    3. Hello, Anonymous-

      No need to populate variable, you just need to call the function with a parameter (or pipe objects to the function).

      So, after you have defined the function in your PowerShell session (by dot-sourcing a .ps1 file that contains the function definition, or by pasting the function definition into your session), you invoke the function. Like:
      ## use param explicitly:
      Get-VMHostHBAWWN -VMHostName myhost0.dom.com

      ## or, pipe an object to the function:
      Get-VMHost myhost0.dom.com | Get-VMHostHBAWWN

      Keep in mind, this function is getting the WWNs of fiber-channel HBAs in the host. So, of course, it only returns info for VMHosts with fiber-channel HBAs in them (nothing is returned for a VMHost with no FC HBA).

      How about now -- how's the function do for you?

      Delete
  2. Pretty cool and gets the job done fast!

    Thanks!!!!

    Ken

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, Ken-

      Glad that you found it to be useful. And, fast, for sure! Cheers

      Delete

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