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