Even More Efficient PowerShelling with PowerCLI Argument Completers!

Ya-hoo -- tab-completion for several parameters' values and for many VMware PowerCLI cmdlets! We all are accustomed to being super fast on the command line by leveraging tab-completion of, well, most things: paths, cmdlet names, process names, service names, etc.. We also doit in things like editors that have IntelliSense. But, while we may also want to have that same experience with inventory objects in our virtual infrastructures, we do not yet have such capabilities.

So, we here at vN took the time to hammer out some goodness for enabling tab-completion of parameter values on VMware PowerCLI cmdlets -- now we can tab-complete values of actual inventory objects in a snap!

* Update 23 Aug 2019:
We added a Getting Started section in the Docs in the GitHub repo. See https://github.com/vNugglets/PowerShellArgumentCompleters/tree/master/docs for such information, to get going straight away!
* end of 23 Aug 2019 update
What:

• This comes in the form of an argument completer add script, soon to be in PowerShellGallery, and with code already at https://github.com/vNugglets/PowerShellArgumentCompleters
• Initially, for the VMware.PowerCLI module, this adds 301 tab-completion capabilities across 240+ cmdlets and a dozen different parameters

How:

• You register the argument completers in a PowerShell session by first importing any/all VMware PS modules you'll be using, and then running the Register-VMwarePowerCLIArgumentCompleter script from said repo above (again, this will eventaully be available in the PowerShell gallery for easier consumption/updates)

Example:

• The following would result in the user being able to tab through all of the completions for the given parameter after which they pressed the Tab key
• Get-VM -Name matt<tab>
• Get-VMHost myho<tab>
• Get-Datastore -VM myvm0<tab>
• Get-VDSwitch -VMHost <tab>

Further Reading:

• For more detail/background as this pertains to the VMware.PowerCLI module, see the corresponding Support Natural PowerShell Interactive Behavior: tab completion idea at powercli.ideas.aha.io
• To be clear (and to acknowledge others before): others have written about such things on small scale (adding tab-completion for the -Name parameter for something like Get-VM, for example), but this current goodness is an effort to add far more tab-completions to some of our favorite modules
• and, for when you want to Get-ArgumentCompleter, Chris Dent made the excellent (and deep) Get-ArgumentCompleter.ps1 script with which we can see the registered argument completers in our PowerShell session. See his GitHub gist at https://gist.github.com/indented-automation/26c637fb530c4b168e62c72582534f5b

Time to get tabbin'!  And, for when you have stellar ideas for more completers, either let us know, or collaborate with us on GitHub -- we'll make great things together!

Updated vNugglets.VDNetworking PowerShell module

Hurray -- the vNugglets.VDNetworking PowerShell module is now updated (with updates available on the PowerShellGallery)! This module has cmdlets for helping manage your VMware virtual distributed networking infrastructure, like reporting on and configuring traffic filtering/marking configurations. The ChangeLog has all of the juicy details, but the big news with this update:

The Set-VNVMHostNetworkAdapterVDUplink cmdlet provides the ability to manage the VDSwitch Uplink for a VMHost physical NIC ("VMNIC") on the VDSwitch of which the VMNIC is already a part -- finally! (this is not yet available in a native cmdlet in PowerCLI, but I'm sure that VMware has it on their list).

The copious examples show all kinds of ways to use this module.  Grab the module from the PowerShellGallery with the standard
Find-Module vNugglets.VDNetworking | Install-Module
that we all know and love (or, use Update-Module instead of Install-Module to update a previously installed version to current, of course).

Enjoy!

Updated DRSRule PowerShell module, now on PSGallery!

A quick blurb on the DRSRule PowerShell module for managing VMware DRS rules via PowerShell/PowerCLI: the module is updated with several bugfixes and enhancements.

Possibly as exciting of news: the module is now available on the official PowerShellGallery, so it is a snap to install/update the module on your machine!

As with any module on the PowerShellGallery, you save the module with the Save-Module cmdlet (so that you can inspect the code and ensure that things are good -- security first!).  And, you install the module with the Install-Module cmdlet.

The straightforward and memorable instructions for saving- and/or installation of a module are available by default on each module's Gallery page. For this module, see https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/DRSRule.

Enjoy!

Updated vNugglets.Utility PowerShell module: v1.2!

Quick post about some great news -- we have updated the vNugglets.Utility PowerShell module, improving speed, flexibility, and usability of some functions! Additionally, the module is now available in the PowerShell Gallery -- hurray!

As for the easier means by which to get the module:  now you can grab the vNugglets.Utility module in the same way that you get everything else from the PowerShell Gallery.  You save the module with the Save-Module cmdlet (so that you can inspect the code and ensure that things are good -- security first!).  And, you install the module with the, you guessed it, the Install-Module cmdlet. Also, you can see the straightforward instructions for this saving- and installation of the module at https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/vNugglets.Utility.

And, the details about the updates in the latest version are chronicled in the ChangeLog (which is in the module's repo at the vNugglets GitHub project vNuggletsPSMod).  Enjoy the new goodness, and, as always, let us know how it can be better (or, collaborate with us on GitHub)!

vNugglets PowerShell module release!

While we have amassed a healthy stack of useful, VMware vSphere-related functions and code snippets here at vNugglets, the code management/interaction can certainly become tedious in more than one way:  consumption of the snippets is not the most straight forward, finding snippets/functions is a bit tedious, maintenance and updates to code does not necessarily show when the code is in some older post.

So, why not make what the people want:  a vNugglets PowerShell module?  Why not indeed.  So, we did.  This initial module release not only focused on function-ifying snippets, standardizing parameters, fleshing out comment-based help (many of the hallmarks of a legitimate PowerShell module), but also set about improving on several of the vNugglets snippets/functions from across the years -- hurray!  It also captured ideas on several improvements to make in the near future.

For now the module will live at the vNugglets GitHub project vNuggletsPSMod.  It has all kinds of informative supporting docs, like the ReadMe (with a QuickStart section) and the ChangeLog, that will fill you in on all of the nitty-gritty details.

Examples

We also made a vNugglets.Utility Example page so that you can see straight away what are some of the exciting capabilities of this module.

As for getting the module itself, check out the vNuggletsPSMod Releases page, which has the .zip file of just the PowerShell module (see the QuickStart mentioned above for getting started with the module).  The future fate of the module may be that it is housed in the PowerShell Gallery, but we have not invested the time to work on that just yet.

So check out the docs, grab the module, and let the good times roll with a newly born module that will surely be near and dear to all of our hearts.  And, now that we have the project on GitHub, please feel free to help us out in making it even mo better!

Updated PowerShell Module for Sortable HTML Reporting -- NewHtmlReport v1.2

Great news -- we've updated the NewHtmlReport PowerShell module -- v1.2!  Refresher: this is a module to "easily create functional, somewhat styled HTML reports from data, providing additional functionality to what the base ConvertTo-Html cmdlet provides".

The NewHtmlReport GitHub repo has the whole project, and the Releases page has the link to the .zip file with just the PowerShell module code itself.

The module is now a bit more modern, as we have added things like:

• support for accepting objects from pipeline in the New-HtmlReport function
• cmdlet-based module configuration
• JSON-based module configuration storage
• CDN-based resource usage for the jQuery and TableSorter JS libraries by default, for ease of "getting up and going" right out of the box

The are some examples of the output up at the GitHub Pages page for this repository at http://mtboren.github.io/NewHtmlReport/.

Also, the ReadMe has good info about the module, including the Quick Start steps, and the ChangeLog has more detail on what things changed and how.

Enjoy!

XtremIO PowerShell Module Updated -- v0.9.5 available

Even more updates and improvements!  Version 0.9.5 of the XtremIO.Utils PowerShell module is now available at https://github.com/mtboren/XtremIO.Utils/releases (starting with the 0.8.x line, this module has been on GitHub). There are a vast number of update, improvements, bugfixes, and even some new features in this release.  From supporting several improvements that came in v2 of the XtremIO REST API (which help with cmdlet speed) to further standardization in the object model (property-availability across types) to now having the somewhat overdue New-XIOSnapshot cmdlet (supporting new snapshots in the XIOS v2 API). See the changelog for the exciting details.

Oh, and, while the cmdlets all have built-in help with examples (like every cmdlet should), there is now a GitHub Pages page with a whole slew of examples with output. See https://mtboren.github.io/XtremIO.Utils/ for a load of such examples.  The readme has a link to that page, but sometimes people don't read the readme.  Yes, really.

While you've probably already gone to the changelog to see all of the gorey details, one other tidbit about this version:  the amount of change in this release probably warranted incrementing the "minor" version number of the module, but "0.10.0" seems odd, and it's not time for v1.0 yet.  So, v0.9.5 it is. Enjoy!

New PowerShell Module for Sortable HTML Reporting -- NewHtmlReport

A couple of years ago, after wanting to make some HTML reports to present tabular data that included a bit of style and interactivity, we created a PowerShell module for such things.  While there are some posts/scripts on the web that address this need in various ways, we wanted an easy to use, straight forward, flexible way.

Now we've added a GitHub repository to house this NewHtmlReport Powershell module project.  The module uses many of the features of ConvertTo-Html, but goes further by adding things like:

• jQuery and TableSorter support for HTML tables
• centralized style and script configuration, for uniform results across reports
• "hightlighting" of rows' values (to bring focus to rows whose values might be of concern, like a datastore usage value that is over a desired threshold)
• number formatting so as to make report generation even quicker and easier (you can pass your raw data in, and the cmdlets can handle rounding for you)

The are some examples of the output up at the GitHub Pages page for this repository at http://mtboren.github.io/NewHtmlReport/.

Also, check out the ReadMe and the help at the GitHub repo.  And, for the next feature/fix that you desire:  fork it!

XtremIO PowerShell Module Updated and on GitHub -- v0.9.0 available

Updates and improvements!  Version 0.9.0 of the XtremIO.Utils PowerShell module is now available at https://github.com/mtboren/XtremIO.Utils/releases (starting with the 0.8.x line, this module has been on GitHub). The main focus of version 0.9.0:  providing support for the new object types that came with the XIOS v4 release and its extended API.  See the changelog for the exciting details.

And, if you missed it, the previous v0.8.x releases focused on implementing some PowerShell-y features/functionality, with some great strides in pipelining capabilities of several of the cmdlets.

Note about the changelog and whatnot:  we will be using GitHub as the official home for the module's code, and, so, the changelog available there will be the authoritative source, instead of the copies that we previously hosted at vNugglets.com.  The module's general info page here at vNugglets now holds links to this new home.

DRSRule - New PowerShell Module for DRS Rule and Group Management

There's a new PowerShell module out, and it is for handling your DRS rule- and group needs!  "Hello, DRS rule/group export and import?  It's me, the new DRSRule module!"  The "why" and the "hows" about the module are further below in this post.

<vNugglets_note> I got to work with the PowerCLI master, Luc Dekens, on this module -- what a treat! (Check out his post about the new module at http://lucd.info/drsrule-drs-rules-and-groups-module)  It was a great learning experience for me, not only on the PowerShell/PowerCLI tip, but also on topics like collaborative/concurrent development, GitHub features (organizations, releases, etc.), and more.

The cmdlets from the module are solid as one would expect:  pipeline support, value by object or name, WhatIf support, and so on.  As for using some of the cool features of PowerShell, the module includes things like advanced/custom type support (including enabling tab-completion of properties later in the pipeline; handy), XML-based external help as manufactured by https://pscmdlethelpeditor.codeplex.com/, and leveraging other object storage formats so as to simplify handling/export/import of rich objects (via JSON) -- just a few of the great features/bonuses by Mr. Dekens. </vNugglets_note>

Now, more about the module.

Why the DRSRule module?

The core PowerCLI PSSnapin from VMware allows for many of the DRS rule operations that one might want to perform.  There have been questions over the years in the VMware Communities PowerCLI forum about how to export DRS rules and groups, and, on how to then import such items.

While there are several posts on the web about how to get/export such things, importing/recreating DRS rules/groups from such exported data has not received much focus.  This was the spark for this DRSRule module:  to allow for easy export/import of such rules/groups.  As part of making a module to handle these actions, other cmdlets were born, like the Get-/New-/Remove-/Set-* cmdlet sets for DRS VM groups and VMHost groups, along with sets for DRS VM to VM rules and VM to VMHost rules.

How to use the DRSRule module?

The DRSRule module comes with an about_DRSRule.
Once the module is installed, use that help topic to get a general introduction to the use of the DRSRule module:
Get-Help about_DRSRule

How to get the DRSRule module?

The source for this PowerShell module is hosted on GitHub.com.
The repository is managed by the GitHub organization "PowerCLIGoodies", and the repo itself is at https://github.com/PowerCLIGoodies/DRSRule.

There are a few ways to get the module, and use it in your PowerShell session:

Automated

Via a script
Use a PowerShell script to perform the download and the extract.
The script is included in the repository as file DownloadLatest.ps1.

Via PsGet
If you have the PsGet module loaded in your PowerShell session, then installing this DRSRule module is as simple as updating PsGet and then installing DRSRule:
Update-Module -Verbose -Module PsGet
Install-Module DRSRule


Manual

Grab the .zip file of the latest release from the GitHub repository.
Extract the content to a suitable folder.

You can go for the Modules folder linked to the Windows account you are using.  To find this path, run:
Join-Path ${env:\userprofile} "Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules"

Or, you can select any other folder you desire.

Either way you will end up with a folder named [PathToModule]\DRSRule, in which the PowerShell files for the DRSRule module reside.

Then, load the DRSRule module into your session:
If you selected one of the folders in $env:PSModulePath (your PSModule path), you can do this with
Import-Module DRSRule

If you picked another folder, you should use the full path to the folder that contains the module's files, like:
Import-Module [PathToModule]\DRSRule

Please also read the note below about using Unblock-File, since this module is not Authenticode signed

Note on Unblock-File

This section pertains to using the Manual method above to get the DRSRule module (downloading .zip file).  Since there is no Authenticode certificate supplied for this module, and, assuming that one's PowerShell ExecutionPolicy is at least RemoteSigned, below is a quick/easy way to unblock files.  But, this should only be done when you trust the code in the files that you are unblocking -- inspecting the files is for your own good.
Get-ChildItem [PathToModule]\DRSRule | Unblock-File

Get VMs' Current EVC Mode via PowerCLI

Need to report on what is the current EVC mode in which some VMs are running?  We recently did, and out popped a bit of PowerShell/PowerCLI code to do it, of course. As part of some migrations and retirements, we were moving VMs from clusters at one EVC mode (lower) to clusters with higher- or no EVC mode, but were not scheduling power-cycles for the VMs at migration time, so as to keep smaller the scope of work for that event.  Rather than have to keep track of "here are the X number of VMs that are at EVC mode [low]", which would need power-cycled at some later date to bring them up to the EVC mode of their new cluster, PowerCLI is there for us.
It is pretty straightforward, but is handy for identifying those VMs that are, say, at a different EVC mode than is configured on the cluster.  So, the code:

function Get-VMEVCMode {
    <#  .Description
        Code to get VMs' EVC mode and that of the cluster in which the VMs reside.  May 2014, vNugglets.com
        .Example
        Get-VMEVCMode -Cluster myCluster | ?{$_.VMEVCMode -ne $_.ClusterEVCMode}
        Get all VMs in given clusters and return, for each, an object with the VM's- and its cluster's EVC mode, if any
        .Outputs
        PSCustomObject
    #>
    param(
        ## Cluster name pattern (regex) to use for getting the clusters whose VMs to get
        [string]$Cluster_str = ".+"
    )

    process {
        ## get the matching cluster View objects
        Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Property Name,Summary -Filter @{"Name" = $Cluster_str} | Foreach-Object {
            $viewThisCluster = $_
            ## get the VMs Views in this cluster
            Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Property Name,Runtime.PowerState,Summary.Runtime.MinRequiredEVCModeKey -SearchRoot $viewThisCluster.MoRef | Foreach-Object {
                ## create new PSObject with some nice info
                New-Object -Type PSObject -Property ([ordered]@{
                    Name = $_.Name
                    PowerState = $_.Runtime.PowerState
                    VMEVCMode = $_.Summary.Runtime.MinRequiredEVCModeKey
                    ClusterEVCMode = $viewThisCluster.Summary.CurrentEVCModeKey
                    ClusterName = $viewThisCluster.Name
                })
            } ## end foreach-object
        } ## end foreach-object
    } ## end process
} ## end function

And, some examples: Get EVC mode info for all of the VMs in this cluster:

PS vN:\> Get-VMEVCMode -Cluster myCluster
Name                   PowerState   VMEVCMode        ClusterEVCMode   ClusterName
----                   ----------   ---------        --------------   -----------
somesvr01.dom.com       poweredOn   intel-westmere   intel-westmere   OurCluster
somesvrlm1.dom.com      poweredOn   intel-penryn     intel-westmere   OurCluster
somesvrbs03.dom.com    poweredOff                    intel-westmere   OurCluster
somesvrxp.dom.com       poweredOn   intel-penryn     intel-westmere   OurCluster
...

For all of the VMs in this cluster where their EVC mode does not match the config'd cluster EVC mode, return their info:

PS vN:\> Get-VMEVCMode -Cluster myCluster | ?{($_.VMEVCMode -ne $_.ClusterEVCMode) -and ($_.PowerState -eq "poweredOn")}
Name                   PowerState   VMEVCMode      ClusterEVCMode   ClusterName
----                   ----------   ---------      --------------   -----------
somesvrlm1.dom.com      poweredOn   intel-penryn   intel-westmere   OurCluster
somesvrp83.dom.com      poweredOn   intel-penryn   intel-westmere   OurCluster
somesvra.dom.com        poweredOn   intel-merom    intel-westmere   OurCluster
...

Note:  The function does expect that you are using at least PowerShell v3, which surely everyone is well beyond by now, anyway.  But, if not, the "[ordered]" cast should be the only thing one would need to take out in order to use in older PowerShell versions.

Straightforward, and uses everyone's favorite PowerCLI cmdlet, Get-View, so you know that it is FaF!  Enjoy.

XtremIO PowerShell Module Updated -- v0.7.0 available

Even more updates!  Version 0.7.0 of the XtremIO.Utils PowerShell module is now available.  This release brings some great new features, like superior handling of credentials (via new Connect-XIOServer and Disconnect-XIOServer cmdlets), the rest of the New-XIO* cmdlets for creating items in the XtremIO configuration, and new performance-related cmdlets for focusing in on XtremIO performance reporting from several different aspects.

You can read about the new features available in each updated release in the docs in the repo at https://github.com/mtboren/XtremIO.Utils. We have also made a new general information page for this PowerShell module (like how to get it, how to install it, credentials handling). One can find this info page in the Sticky Posts section at the right, too. Or, if you just want at the module immediately, you can download it from https://github.com/mtboren/XtremIO.Utils/releases/download/Latest/XtremIO.Utils.zip.
Once you have read those items, let us get to some examples!

Connect to a couple of XMS servers:

PS vN:\> Connect-XIOServer -Credential $credMe -ComputerName somexms01.dom.com,somexms02.dom.com -TrustAllCert

ComputerName             ConnectDatetime               Port
------------             ---------------               ----
somexms01.dom.com        11/30/2014 1:54:02 PM         443
somexms02.dom.com        11/30/2014 1:54:02 PM         443

Note: this allows for the rest of the subsequent XIO cmdlet calls to be used without presenting credentials again to the cmdlet -- the cmdlets will use the given XIO connection(s) and corresponding connection credentials! Yes, that also means that you need not supply the XMS name each subsequent call: the default, connected XMS servers will be used, unless otherwise specified by the user.

Get the cluster performance information for all XIO clusters managed by the XMS servers:

PS vN:\> Get-XIOClusterPerformance

Name        WriteBW_MBps   WriteIOPS    ReadBW_MBps   ReadIOPS   BW_MBps      IOPS     TotWriteIOs  TotReadIOs
----        ------------   ---------    -----------   --------   -------      ----     -----------  ----------
somexms01   6.057          771          41.768        531        47.824       1302     4664182545   3886061537
somexms02   67.480         2783         238.808       5286       306.288      8069     31163303937  81948491968

Create a new initiator in initiator group "myserver0" on array managed by "somexms02":

PS vN:\> New-XIOInitiator -Name myserver0-hba2 -InitiatorGroup myserver0 -PortAddress 0x100000000000ab56 -ComputerName somexms02.dom.com

Name                   PortAddress                   PortType              IOPS
----                   -----------                   --------              ----
myserver0-hba2         10:00:00:00:00:00:ab:56       fc                    0

Create a new LUN maps on array managed by "somexms02":

PS vN:\> New-XIOLunMap -Volume myVolume02 -InitiatorGroup myserver0,myserver1 -HostLunId 50 -ComputerName somexms02.dom.com

VolumeName          LunId           InitiatorGroup           tg-name
----------          -----           --------------           -------
myVolume02          50              myserver0                Default
myVolume02          50              myserver1                Default

A couple of Get-XIOEvent examples:

PS vN:\> Get-XIOEvent

EventID  DateTime               Severity     EntityDetails      Description
-------  --------               --------     -------------      -----------
2267     11/30/2014 10:39:29 PM information  myVolume02 [1]     Mapped LUN 50 to Volume myVolume02 TG Defa...
2266     11/30/2014 10:39:29 PM information                     User: vNuggsUser, Command: maplun, Argumen...
...
27672    11/30/2014 1:37:41 PM  information  someVolume03       Small block (blocks smaller than 4KB) IO r...
27671    11/30/2014 1:17:05 PM  information                     External user 'vNuggsUser' authenticated w...
...


PS vN:\> Get-XIOEvent -Category activity -Severity information -EntityType BatteryBackupUnit -Start "11 oct 2014" -End "14 nov 2014 8am"

EventID  DateTime               Severity     EntityDetails   Description
-------  --------               --------     -------------   -----------
195      11/11/2014 9:29:30 PM  information  X2-BBU [2]      Added new Battery Backup Unit - UPS[2] "X2-BB...
193      11/11/2014 9:29:30 PM  information  X1-BBU [1]      Added new Battery Backup Unit - UPS[1] "X1-BB...

While it was quite a bit of doing to make this release happen, the new features are well worth it, and it was quite fun along the way. Now to keep the creativity flowing: on to the next update, in which better pipeline support is one of the targets. Until then, enjoy!

XtremIO.Utils PowerShell Module General Info

Herein lies much of the supporting/side information about this PowerShell module that has been written throughout the related vNugglets posts.  The intention, however, is to create this more central spot for this info, instead of people having to sift through the previous posts to get all of these tidbits. To read about the latest additions and changes, one can refer to the change log and the ReadMe (which are available in the module itself, too).
* Update 15 Nov 2015:
Updated links to changelog and readme to be to GitHub, as well as the link to the PowerShell module itself
* end of 15 Nov 2015 update

Module availability:

One can get the XtremIO.Utils module in a couple of ways:

• via the supercool module PsGet, so installing/updating the module becomes a snap for PsGet module users.  The quick how-to on using PsGet to install the XtremIO.Utils module:
  

  PS vN:\> Install-Module -Verbose -Module XtremIO.Utils
  
  

  Or, to update the existing version you may already have:
  

  PS vN:\> Update-Module -Verbose -Module XtremIO.Utils
  
  

• Or, if you like the "old fashioned" module management route (of manually handling the module grab), you can always follow the steps:
  0. download from https://github.com/mtboren/XtremIO.Utils/releases/download/Latest/XtremIO.Utils.zip
  1. unzip somewhere you like (like, say, in Join-Path ${env:\userprofile} "Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules")
  2. you should now have a folder named <pathToModules>\XtremIO.Utils, in which the PowerShell files reside (see note below about using Unblock-File, since this module is not yet Authenticode signed)
  3. Import-Module <pathToModules>\XtremIO.Utils

Unblock-File discussion:

One of the other "features" of this module:  we have not yet set the Authenticode signature for it.  That is, it is unsigned.  We went back and forth on the solution:

• buy a legit cert for code signing (best solution, but $$$)
• sign it with a self-signed cert (which still leads to a prompt of 'Do you want to run software from this untrusted publisher?' when you try to import the module, since everyone is security-minded and has at least the RemoteSigned execution policy set on their machines)
• ✔ do not add a signature, and make mention that you will need to Unblock-File the files in the module (after careful inspection of the files to make sure that there is nothing dangerous in there; but, we're talking about vNugglets, here -- you can trust us, right?!  a:  No.  Trust no one)

So, since we went with the last option there, below is the quick/easy way to unblock files.  But, again, this should only be done when you trust the code in the files that you are unblocking -- inspecting the files is for your own good.  Anyway, the unblock command:

PS vN:\> Get-ChildItem <pathToModules>\XtremIOInfo | Unblock-File

Credentials discussion:

Credentials come into play in a couple of ways in this module.  One can use the New-XIOStoredCred cmdlet to store one credential persistently on disk.  And, the use of the Connect-XIOServer cmdlet holds credentials in a variable, only for the duration of the PowerShell session (and, only while connected to any XIO servers).

Stored credentials are encrypted using the Windows Data Protection API, via a derivative of HalR9000's Export-PSCredential.  If the encrypted credential file is found at runtime of any of the module's functions that require credentials, the credentials will be imported from said file transparently.

Decryption of the encrypted credentials can only be performed by the user account that performed the encryption, and on the same computer on which the encryption was performed.  This module stores the credential file in the ${env:temp} directory by default, and this location is configurable as desired.

If no credentials are specified to the functions of this module, the given function will look for the credential file in the configured location.  If none exists, the functions behave as before:  they will prompt for credentials as necessary.  And, you can get the stored credential with Get-XIOStoredCred, and remove it from disk, if you would like, with Remove-XIOStoredCred.

XtremIO PowerShell Module Updated -- v0.6.0 available!

Oh, boy -- more updates!  I committed the module at version 0.6.0 on 24 Sep 2014, and am just now making the time to post about it.  Plenty of good stuff in this release, with some preparation for changes to come. The release notes and change log are in the repo, of course, at https://github.com/mtboren/XtremIO.Utils, but some of the highlights:

• added explicit Get-XIO* cmdlets for object types, in place of using -ItemType on the Get-XIOItemInfo cmdlet, so as to make things more PowerShell-y
• more properties available, including loads of performance-related items in a new PerformanceInfo property for many objects
• added support for new things available in the XIOS v3.0 release (properties, object types)

And, I recently added XtremIO.Utils as a module available via PsGet, so installing/updating the module becomes a snap for PsGet module users.  The quick how-to on using PsGet to install the XtremIO.Utils module:

PS vN:\> Install-Module -Verbose -Module XtremIO.Utils

Or, to update the existing version you may already have:

PS vN:\> Update-Module -Verbose -Module XtremIO.Utils

Or, if you like the "old fashioned" module management route (of manually handling the module grab), you can always follow the steps outlined in our previous XtremIO post here.

And, a couple of futures, in development for the next version of this module:

• Connect-XIOServer / Disconnect-XIOServer, so as to handle credentials at a connection level instead of a per-call for every cmdlet
• more New-XIO* cmdlets

In the meantime, enjoy!

XtremIO PowerShell Module Updated -- Now with New-XIO* Functions!

Since releasing the XtremIO PowerShell module that had "Get" capabilities (about which you can read in our previous XtremIO + PowerShell post, if you missed it), we've been working to improve the module!  Some such improvements:

• added functions to cover New-XIO* activities, for things like volumes and initiator groups (yes, with -WhatIf)
• added credential storing, so that you need not specify credentials for every call
• expanded Get-XIOItemInfo to support more object types (as the API has expanded), like volume folders, initiator group folders, target groups, and bricks
• updated numeric properties on return objects to actually be numeric (were returned as strings, previously)
• added function to open the Java GUI (most of the time, "yuck", but, sometimes useful)
• changed the module name to XtremIO.Utils, as it now does more than reporting information

In the works:  making module available via PsGet, so that it is that much easier to get.  I shall update this post once this is done.

* Update 28 Oct 2014:
Made the time to make this module available via the extra-cool PsGet.  In order to install the XtremIO.Utils module via PsGet's Install-Module:

PS vN:\> Install-Module -Verbose -Module XtremIO.Utils

That's it -- no muss, no fuss!  And, have a look at the PsGet page to see the easy, one-line install of the PsGet module itself if you do not already use it.
End of update - 28 Oct 2014

Now, how about some examples?  Sure!

Create an encrypted, stored credential, that the functions in this module will use by default (so you need not specify credentials for every command):

PS vN:\> New-XIOStoredCred
Windows PowerShell credential request.
Enter credentials to use for XtremIO access
User: mattXio
Password for user mattXio: *********************

VERBOSE: Credentials encrypted (via Windows Data Protection API) and saved to:
'C:\Users\Matt\AppData\Local\Temp\xioCred_by_Matt_on_VM-MattDesktop-002.enc.xml'

Create a new volume:

PS vN:\> New-XIOVolume -ComputerName myxms0.dom.com -Name testvol3 -SizeGB 5120 -ParentFolder "/testVols"

Name        NaaName   VolSizeTB   IOPS
----        -------   ---------   ----
testvol3              5.00        0

Note: there is no NaaName value at this piont, as the NaaName property does not get populated in the volume object until the volume has been mapped to an initiator group for the first time

Create a new initiator group:

PS vN:\> New-XIOInitiatorGroup -ComputerName myxms0.dom.com -Name testIG0 -ParentFolder "/testIGs" -InitiatorList @{"myserver-hba2" = "10:00:00:00:00:00:00:F4"; "myserver-hba3" = "10:00:00:00:00:00:00:F5"}

Name     Index   NumInitiator   NumVol   IOPS
----     -----   ------------   ------   ----
testIG0  21      2              0        0

Create a new initiator group for each host in a cluster:

PS vN:\> ## general params to use for each New-XIOInitiatorGroup call
PS vN:\> $hshGeneralParamsForNewXioIG = @{
    Computer = "myxms0.dom.com"
    TrustAllCert = $true
    Port = 443
    WhatIf = $true
} ## end hashtable

PS vN:\> ## get the HBA WWNs for the VMHosts in the given cluster, and for each VMHost, create a new XtremIO initiator group with initiators for each HBA
PS vN:\> Get-Cluster -Name myCluster0 -PipelineVariable cluThisOne | Get-VMHostHBAWWN | Group-Object -Property @{e={$_.VMHostName.Split(".")[0]}} | Foreach-Object{
    $strVMHostShortname = $_.Name
    ## make a hashtable of key/value pairs that are initiator-name => HBA WWN; initiator names will be like "myhost0-hba2"
    $_.Group | Foreach-Object -begin {$hshInitList = @{}} {$hshInitList["${strVMHostShortname}-$($_.DeviceName.Replace("vmhba","hba"))"] = $_.HBAPortWWN}
    ## make a hashtable of parameters specific to this new initiator group to make
    $hshParamForNewXioIG = @{
        Name = $strVMHostShortname
        InitiatorList = $hshInitList
        ParentFolder = "/$($cluThisOne.Name)"
    } ## end hashtable
    ## create the new initiator group via the given params
    New-XIOInitiatorGroup @hshGeneralParamsForNewXioIG @hshParamForNewXioIG
} ## end foreach-object

Name      Index   NumInitiator   NumVol   IOPS
----      -----   ------------   ------   ----
myhost0   21      2              0        0
myhost1   22      2              0        0
...

This creates an initiator group for each VMHost in the given cluster, each group with an initiator for each of the VMHost's HBAs.  Utilizes the vNugglets function Get-VMHostHBAWWN that we posted in Get VMHost FC HBA WWN Info Most Quickly.  These initiator groups are created in the existing initiator-group folder that is defined for this cluster (of the same name as the cluster).

Open the management console (Java GUI):

PS vN:\> Open-XIOMgmtConsole myxms0.dom.com

Credentials discussion:

Stored credentials are encrypted using the Windows Data Protection API, via a derivative of HalR9000's Export-PSCredential.  If the encrypted credential file is found at runtime of any of the module's functions that require credentials, the credentials will be imported from said file transparently.

Decryption of the encrypted credentials can only be performed by the user account that performed the encryption, and on the same computer on which the encryption was performed.  This module stores the credential file in the ${env:temp} directory by default, and this location is configurable as desired.

If no credentials are specified to the functions of this module, the given function will look for the credential file in the configured location.  If none exists, the functions behave as before:  they will prompt for credentials as necessary.  And, you can get the stored credential with Get-XIOStoredCred, and remove it from disk, if you would like, with Remove-XIOStoredCred.

To use the module, just:  (also, updated above:  install this module via PsGet. See update at top of post)

0. download from https://github.com/mtboren/XtremIO.Utils/releases/download/Latest/XtremIO.Utils.zip
1. unzip somewhere you like (like, say, in Join-Path ${env:\userprofile} "Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules")
2. you should now have a folder named <pathToModules>\XtremIO.Utils, in which the PowerShell files reside (see note in previous XtremIO + PowerShell post about using Unblock-File, since this module is not yet Authenticode signed)
3. Import-Module <pathToModules>\XtremIO.Utils

Other upcoming changes:

• add the other New-XIO* functions for things like folders, single initiators, lun-maps, more
• expand Get-XIOItemInfo to support even more object types (as the API continues to expand), like volume snapshots, events, dataprotection-groups
• actually get the project on GitHub

Enjoy, and let us know what features would be best to add the soonest!

* Update 06 Aug 2014:  included the MIT License file in the .zip file.

Get VMHost FC HBA WWN Info Most Quickly with PowerCLI

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!

XtremIO PowerShell module -- Report on your all-flash arrays!

All-flash arrays -- if you do not have any, get some.  If you have XtremIO, you are likely ecstatic with the performance, ease of setup, low maintenance, etc.  You are potentially also fairly sad about the Java-based management GUI for when you want to report, especially when you want to report in bulk (say, across ten XtremIO arrays), as it is a separate interface to launch for each array.

How to turn that frown upside-down?  Hello, RESTful API!  After a bit of exploring the API, I have created a module for reading info from the XMS (XtremIO Management Server) appliances (the appliances that are used to manage the XtremIO arrays).  While the APIs provide support for nearly all management activities (create/delete/modify/read config), this module is starting out with just the configuration/stats-reading types of actions.

The XtremIO RESTful API provides item types upon which to report, like volumes, lun-maps, clusters, and initiators.  Newer releases of the XMS appliances add item types of bricks, snapshots, ssds, storage-controllers, and xenvs.  At the end of this post, after the examples, is more info on the differences between the appliance versions and how those difference affect the way one uses this module.

As for the module itself, it is linked below, it is still being improved upon, and the intentions are to [eventually]:

0. house it on GitHub or the likes
1. add the rest of the supported item types
2. add functionality beyond read-only reporting (think config/manage)
3. finish error handling for some scenarios (invalid item types for given API version, for example)

To use the module, just

0. download from https://github.com/mtboren/XtremIO.Utils/releases/download/Latest/XtremIO.Utils.zip
1. unzip somewhere you like (like, say, in Join-Path ${env:\userprofile} "Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules")
2. you should now have a folder named <pathToModules>\XtremIOInfo, in which the PowerShell files reside (see note below about using Unblock-File, since this module is not yet Authenticode signed)
3. Import-Module <pathToModules>\XtremIOInfo

You can use Get-Command -Module XtremIOInfo and Get-Help to find out all about the functionality provided by the module and its currently one (1) exported function, including examples.  You will also find the ItemType values currently supported by the module (more to come).

And, some quick examples to whet appetites:

PS vN:\> Get-XIOItemInfo -Computer somexms01.dom.com, somexms02.dom.com, somexms03.dom.com -Credential $credMyAcct -ItemType clusters

Name    TotSSDTB   UsedSSDTB   FreeSSDTB   UsedLogicalTB   TotProvTB   DedupeRatio   IOPS
----    --------   ---------   ---------   -------------   ---------   -----------   ----
xio01   7.47       4.03        3.44        12.17           50          3.0           7886
xio02   7.47       1.13        6.34        3.17            50          2.8           2821
xio03   7.47       5.23        2.24        17.79           50          3.4           28363


PS vN:\> Get-XIOItemInfo -Computer somexms04.dom.com -Credential $credMyAcct -TrustAllCert -Port 443 | Format-List

Name               : xio04
TotSSDTB           : 7.47
UsedSSDTB          : 2.43
FreeSSDTB          : 5.04
FreespaceLevel     : healthy
UsedLogicalTB      : 8.02
TotProvTB          : 50
OverallEfficiency  : 21:1
DedupeRatio        : 3.3
ThinProvSavingsPct : 76
IOPS               : 18160
SWVersion          : 2.2.3-25
SystemSN           : APM00000000004
ComputerName       : somexms04.dom.com

Various notes:
While the module has the ability to connect to different versions of the XMS appliances (v2.2.2 listens on a different port for API requests than does v2.2.3+), not all items are available on the older versions.  For example, one can retrieve info on the item type ssds only from from the newer version of the appliances.

When connecting to an appliance of the newer version, one might save a bit of time by specifying the port on which to communicate -- port 443.  The function tries the default port of the old appliances first (42503), and, if that port is not found to be responsive, tries the default port of the new appliances.  Also, if you did not put "legitimate" SSL certificate on the appliance (as opposed to the self-signed cert that is on it by default), _and_ you are sure that the address to which you are connecting in the appliance, you can use the -TrustAllCert switch parameter.  This is to allow the PowerShell session to establish the SSL connection by not stopping at a "self-signed cert found" error.

One of the other "features" of this module:  we have not yet set the authenticode  signature for it.  That is, it is unsigned.  We went back and forth on the solution:

• buy a legit cert for code signing (best solution, but $$$)
• sign it with a self-signed cert (which still leads to a prompt of 'Do you want to run software from this untrusted publisher?' when you try in import the module, since everyone is security-minded and has at least the RemoteSigned execution policy set on their machines)
• ✔ do not add a signature, and make mention that you will need to Unblock-File the files in the module (after careful inspection of the files to make sure that there is nothing dangerous in there; but, we're talking about vNugglets, here -- you can trust us, right?!  a:  No.  Trust no one)

So, since we went with the last option there, below is the quick/easy way to unblock files.  But, again, this should only be done when you trust the code in the files that you are unblocking -- inspecting the files is for your own good.  Anyway, the unblock command:
Get-ChildItem <pathToModules>\XtremIOInfo | Unblock-File

Alright, enough with the notes, for now.  XtremIO storage arrays: awesome.  Now, the ability to start interacting with management appliances via PowerShell: excellanté!

Get VM Disks and RDMs via PowerCLI

Need to get info about a VM's hard disks?  Like, "regular" virtual disks and RDMs, in a handy and fast manner?  We need to, occasionally, and so wrote a function to do so (a while ago -- just finally posting it).  It gets things like the hard disk name, the SCSI ID, the storage device display name, the disk size, the SCSI canonical name, and [optionally] the full datastore path for the disk files.  Here again, not the first bit of code around to retrieve such things, but a version that is written to do things most quickly.

The script:

<# .Description
    Function to get a VM's hard disk and RDM info
    Originally from Sep 2011, updated Dec 2013 -- vNugglets.com
    .Example
    Get-VMDiskAndRDM -vmName someVM -ShowVMDKDatastorePath | ft -a
    VMName HardDiskName ScsiId DeviceDisplayName SizeGB ScsiCanonicalName                    VMDKDStorePath
    ------ ------------ ------ ----------------- ------ -----------------                    --------------
    someVM Hard disk 1  0:0                          50                                      [dstore0] someVM/someVM.vmdk
    someVM Hard disk 2  1:0    someVM-/log_dir       20 naa.60000945618415615641111111111111 [dstore0] someVM/someVM_1.vmdk
    Get the disks (including RDMs) for "someVM", and include the datastore path for each VMDK
#>
function Get-VMDiskAndRDM {
    param(
        ## name pattern of the VM guest for which to get info
        [parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$vmName_str = "myVM",
        ## switch to specify that VMDK's datastore path should also be returned
        [switch]$ShowVMDKDatastorePath_sw
    )

    ## the cool, FaF way (using .NET View objects)
    ## get the VM object(s)
    $arrVMViewsForStorageInfo = Get-View -Viewtype VirtualMachine -Property Name, Config.Hardware.Device, Runtime.Host -Filter @{"Name" = "$vmName_str"}
    if (($arrVMViewsForStorageInfo | Measure-Object).Count -eq 0) {Write-Warning "No VirtualMachine objects found matching name pattern '$vmName_str'"; exit} ## end if

    $arrVMViewsForStorageInfo | %{
        $viewVMForStorageInfo = $_
        ## get the view of the host on which the VM currently resides
        $viewHostWithStorage = Get-View -Id $viewVMForStorageInfo.Runtime.Host -Property Config.StorageDevice.ScsiLun

        $viewVMForStorageInfo.Config.Hardware.Device | ?{$_ -is [VMware.Vim.VirtualDisk]} | %{
            $hdThisDisk = $_
            $oScsiLun = $viewHostWithStorage.Config.StorageDevice.ScsiLun | ?{$_.UUID -eq $hdThisDisk.Backing.LunUuid}
            ## the properties to return in new object
            $hshThisVMProperties = @{
                VMName = $viewVMForStorageInfo.Name
                ## the disk's "name", like "Hard disk 1"
                HardDiskName = $hdThisDisk.DeviceInfo.Label
                ## get device's SCSI controller and Unit numbers (1:0, 1:3, etc)
                ScsiId = &{$strControllerKey = $_.ControllerKey.ToString(); "{0}`:{1}" -f $strControllerKey[$strControllerKey.Length - 1], $_.Unitnumber}
                DeviceDisplayName = $oScsiLun.DisplayName
                SizeGB = [Math]::Round($_.CapacityInKB / 1MB, 0)
                ScsiCanonicalName = $oScsiLun.CanonicalName
            } ## end hsh
            ## the array of items to select for output
            $arrPropertiesToSelect = "VMName,HardDiskName,ScsiId,DeviceDisplayName,SizeGB,ScsiCanonicalName".Split(",")
            ## add property for VMDKDStorePath if desired
            if ($ShowVMDKDatastorePath_sw -eq $true) {$hshThisVMProperties["VMDKDStorePath"] = $hdThisDisk.Backing.Filename; $arrPropertiesToSelect += "VMDKDStorePath"}
            New-Object -Type PSObject -Property $hshThisVMProperties | Select $arrPropertiesToSelect
        } ## end foreach-object
    } ## end foreach-object
} ## end function

Some example usage:

PS vN:\> Get-VMDiskAndRDM -vmName myVM01 -ShowVMDKDatastorePath | ft -a

VMName HardDiskName ScsiId DeviceDisplayName SizeGB ScsiCanonicalName                    VMDKDStorePath
------ ------------ ------ ----------------- ------ -----------------                    --------------
myVM01 Hard disk 1  0:0                          50                                      [dstore0] myVM01/myVM01.vmdk
myVM01 Hard disk 2  1:0    myVM01-/data001      660 naa.60000946665554443331111111111111 [dstore0] myVM01/myVM01_1.vmdk

The disks with no values for the DeviceDisplayName or ScsiCanonicalName properties are the "regular" virtual disks, and the others are RDMs.  And, this VM has hard disks on two separate SCSI controllers.

Note:  the vmName parameter is used as a regular expression when getting the .NET View object of the given VM.  As such, one can use a pattern, and can get info on multiple VMs that share the same name pattern.

And, that is that:  some juicy disk/RDM info for VMs, and on the quick!  Thanks, Get-View, for keeping things FaF!  Enjoy

BTW:  related post, Get VM by RDM with PowerCLI:  how to get the VM that is using a particular SAN storage device as an RDM.

Get VM By RDM with PowerCLI

Sometimes one needs to find a VM by RDM.  This is not a new thought, and there are plenty of spots on the internet that give ways to achieve this.  When this need arose for us a couple of years ago, we found no spot that gave a way to achieve this quickly.  So, with vNugglets' focus on speed, I put together a function to do just that:  quickly find the VM that is using a given SAN device as an RDM.

Then, just recently, a VMware Communities forum post made me realize that we had not yet shared this function with the world.  So, here we go:

<#    .Description
    Function to find what VM (if any) is using a LUN as an RDM, based on the LUN's SCSI canonical name. Assumes that the best practice of all hosts in a cluster seeing the same LUNs is followed.
    vNugglets, originally from Nov 2011
    .Example
    Get-VMWithGivenRDM -CanonicalName naa.60000970000192602222333031314444 -Cluster myCluster0 | ft -a
    Find a VM using the given LUN as an RDM, formatting output in auto-sized table.  Output would be something like:
    VMName            VMDiskName     DeviceDisplayName   CanonicalName
    ------            ----------     -----------------   -------------
    myvm033.dom.com   Hard disk 10   myvm033-data3FS     naa.60000970000192602222333031314444
    .Outputs
    Zero or more PSObjects with info about the VM and its RDM
#>
function Get-VMWithGivenRDM {
    param(
        ## Canonical name of the LUN in question
        [parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string[]]$CanonicalNameOfRDMToFind_arr,
        ## Cluster whose hosts see this LUN
        [parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$ClusterName_str
    ) ## end param

    ## get the View object of the cluster in question
    $viewCluster = Get-View -ViewType ClusterComputeResource -Property Name -Filter @{"Name" = "^$([RegEx]::escape($ClusterName_str))$"}
    ## get the View of a host in the given cluster (presumably all hosts in the cluster see the same storage)
    $viewHostInGivenCluster = Get-View -ViewType HostSystem -Property Name -SearchRoot $viewCluster.MoRef | Get-Random
    ## get the Config.StorageDevice.ScsiLun property of the host (retrieved _after_ getting the View object for speed, as this property is only retrieved for this object, not all hosts' View objects)
    $viewHostInGivenCluster.UpdateViewData("Config.StorageDevice.ScsiLun")

    ## if matching device(s) found, store some info for later use
    $arrMatchingDisk = &{
    ## get the View objects for all VMs in the given cluster
    Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Property Name, Config.Hardware.Device -SearchRoot $viewCluster.MoRef | %{$viewThisVM = $_
        ## for all of the RDM devices on this VM, see if the canonical name matches the canonical name in question
        $viewThisVM.Config.Hardware.Device | ?{($_ -is [VMware.Vim.VirtualDisk]) -and ("physicalMode","virtualMode" -contains $_.Backing.CompatibilityMode)} | %{
            $hdThisDisk = $_
            $lunScsiLunOfThisDisk = $viewHostInGivenCluster.Config.StorageDevice.ScsiLun | ?{$_.UUID -eq $hdThisDisk.Backing.LunUuid}
            ## if the canonical names match, create a new PSObject with some info about the VirtualDisk and the VM using it
            if ($CanonicalNameOfRDMToFind_arr -contains $lunScsiLunOfThisDisk.CanonicalName) {
                New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{
                    VMName = $viewThisVM.Name
                    VMDiskName = $hdThisDisk.DeviceInfo.Label
                    CanonicalName = $lunScsiLunOfThisDisk.CanonicalName
                    DeviceDisplayName = $lunScsiLunOfThisDisk.DisplayName
                } ## end new-object
            } ## end if
        } ## end foreach-object
    } ## end foreach-object
    } ## end scriptblock

    ## if a matching device was found, output its info
    if ($arrMatchingDisk) {$arrMatchingDisk | Select VMName, VMDiskName, DeviceDisplayName, CanonicalName}
    ## else, say so
    else {Write-Verbose -Verbose "Booo. No matching disk device with canonical name in '$CanonicalNameOfRDMToFind_arr' found attached to a VM as an RDM in cluster '$ClusterName_str'"}
} ## end fn

Some example usage:

PS vN:\> Get-VMWithGivenRDM -CanonicalName naa.60000123412342602222333031314444 -Cluster myMegaCluster

VMName            VMDiskName     DeviceDisplayName   CanonicalName
------            ----------     -----------------   -------------
myvm002.dom.com   Hard disk 13   myvm002-dataFS_7    naa.60000123412342602222333031314444
...

The point of having a Cluster param is to focus the scope of the search (one generally knows to what set of hosts a particular LUN has been presented).

And, some thoughts on how to make this function even better:

• take cluster input from pipeline
• add ability to check entire vCenter inventory, but keep things fast by first narrowing scope to only the VMHosts that see given device, then check those hosts' clusters for a VM with RDM using said device (removes need for "Cluster" param)
• maybe:  add other info to output object, if there are other things that would be useful/valuable

So, how does this do -- FaF for you, too?  Yeah, just as we thought!

Get VMs by Virtual Port Group with PowerCLI

How to find out what VMs use a particular virtual port group, and quickly?  Well, we have just the thing.  And, it also helps to illustrate the practical use of LinkedViews and the UpdateViewData() method of .NET View objects (about which we posted a while back in Even Faster PowerCLI Code with Get-View, UpdateViewData() and LinkedViews), along with the kind of speed increase that said method brings.

So, the function:

<#  .Description
    Function to get info about what VMs are on a virtual portgroup.  vNugglets, Oct 2013
    Highlights the use of the UpdateViewData() method of a .NET View object
    .Outputs
    PSObject
#>
function Get-VMOnNetworkPortGroup {
    param(
        ## name of network to get; regex pattern
        [parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$NetworkName_str
    ) ## end param

    ## get the .NET View objects for the network port groups whose label match the given name
    $arrNetworkViews = Get-View -ViewType Network -Property Name -Filter @{"Name" = $NetworkName_str}
    if (($arrNetworkViews | Measure-Object).Count -eq 0) {Write-Warning "No networks found matching name '$NetworkName_str'"; exit}

    ## get the networks' VMs' names, along with the name of the corresponding VMHost and cluster
    $arrNetworkViews | %{$_.UpdateViewData("Vm.Name","Vm.Runtime.Host.Name","Vm.Runtime.Host.Parent.Name")}
    ## create a new object for each VM on this network
    $arrNetworkViews | %{
        $viewNetwk = $_
        $viewNetwk.LinkedView.Vm | %{
            New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{
                VMName = $_.Name
                NetworkName = $viewNetwk.Name
                VMHost = $_.Runtime.LinkedView.Host.Name
                Cluster = $_.Runtime.LinkedView.Host.LinkedView.Parent.Name
            } | Select-Object VMName,NetworkName,VMHost,Cluster
        } ## end foreach-object
    } ## end foreach-object
} ## end fn

And, some sample usage:

PS vN:\> Get-VMOnNetworkPortGroup -NetworkName "223|237"

VMName        NetworkName   VMHost           Cluster
------        -----------   ------           -------
dubuntu0      223.Prod      esxi01.dom.com   Cluster0
vma5          223.Prod      esxi02.dom.com   Cluster0
vcsa02        223.Prod      esxi02.dom.com   Cluster0
tmpl_test1    237.Dev       esxi12.dom.com   Cluster1
...

This illustrates the use of a regular expression pattern to match virtual networks whose names contain "223" or "237".

And, on the topic of speed increases:

## using standard cmdlets:
PS vN:\> Measure-Command {Get-VirtualPortGroup -Name SomeNetworkName | Get-VM | select name,@{n="VMHostName"; e={$_.VMHost.name}},@{n="ClusterName"; e={$_.VMHost.Parent.Name}}}
...
TotalSeconds      : 25.4870345


## using vNugglets function:
PS vN:\> Measure-Command {Get-VMOnNetworkPortGroup -NetworkName SomeNetworkName}
...
TotalSeconds      : 0.9676149      ## big winner!

So, while similar results can be had with native PowerCLI cmdlets, leveraging this function definitely comes in handy, especially when you are as impatient as we can be here at vNugglets.  Enjoy!