PowerCLI Mass VM Port Group Change

1.    First off, you will have to declare your variables once you are logged into the vCenter server. You do this by the following:
    a.    You can declare your cluster variable with: $Cluster = “TestCluster”
    b.    You can then you can declare your old network with: $OldNetwork = “TestPG”
    c.    Finally, set the variable for the new network with: $NewNetwork = “NewTestPG”

2.    Now your variables are set and you can now pull them in the following script:
    a.    Get-Cluster $Cluster |Get-VM |Get-NetworkAdapter |Where {$_.NetworkName –eq $OldNetwork} |Set-NetworkAdapter –NetworkName $NewNetwork –Confirm:$false

3.    That is for clusters, if you just want to do all your VMs, you can do the following:
    a.    Declare your variables:
        i.    Set your variable for the old PortGroup: $OldNetwork = “TestPG”
        ii.    Set the variable for the new PortGroup: $NewNetwork = “NewTestPG”

4.    Now you set your variables for your port groups, you can go ahead and execute your script with the declared variables:
    a.    Get-VM |Get-NetworkAdapter |Where {$_.NetworkName –eq $OldNetwork} |Set-NetworkAdapter –NetworkName $NewNEtwork –Confirm:$false

5.    You should see the process go through in the PowerCLI area and also you should see it in vCenter.

How to Login to vCenter or ESXi with PowerCLI

·         Open PowerShell ISE or the PowerCLI command line.

o   If you open through PowerShell or PowerShell ISE, you need to load the PowerCLI environment variables.

o   Open the "Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1 script located at C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\PowerCLI\Scripts.

§  (This will be here after you installed PowerCLI)

·         In order to get the PowerCLI to connect to servers on the network, you have to bypass the certificate error by putting in the following:

o   “Set-PowerCLIConfiguration –InvalidCertificateAction Ignore”

·         Then you can connect to your vCenter/ESXi server with the following command:

o   “Connect-VISever –Server “yourIPaddress/FQDN” –User “yourDomain\UserName” – Password “YourPassword”.

o   Example: Connect-VIServer –Server 1.1.1.1 –User vsphere.local\JohnDoe –Password 12345678

·         You should get a confirmation you have logged into the server and you can now start executing PowerCLI commands.

Simple PowerCLI for Deleting Orphaned VMs

• First, you can try these steps from the official VMware KB. I tried this and it failed on several occasions, so I pursued another avenue.
• https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1011468
• So if the above did not work, there are other ways to do this (I found a few in Google), but this PowerCLI was the easiest and simplest way to delete these VMs.
• Open PowerShell ISE in Administrator Mode
• Open the "Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1 script located at C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\PowerCLI\Scripts
• This will be here after you installed PowerCLI
• In order to get the Power CLI to connect to servers on the network, you might have to bypass the certificate error by putting in the following code:
• Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore
• Then you can connect to your server with the following command:
• Connect-VIServer -Server x.x.x.x -User vsphere.local\example - Password XXXXXXX
• Once this is done, you can now start deleting the orphaned VMs in vSphere by executing the following:
• Remove-VM –VM (VM Name) –DeletePermanently –Confirm:0
• Be WARNED! This will remove the VM from vSphere and you need to make sure this is the exact one you need to delete.

Simple PowerCLI Backup for OVA/OVF

• Before performing this process, make sure you have your VM CD-Rom not pointing to a datastore and pointed to the “Client Device” and have the CD Rom disconnected. Having the CD-Rom pointed to a datastore can cause problems.
• Open PowerShell ISE in Administrator Mode
•  Open the "Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1 script located at C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\PowerCLI\Scripts
•  This will be here after you installed PowerCLI
• In order to get the Power CLI to connect to servers on the network, you have to bypass the certificate error by putting in the following code:
•  Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore
•  Then you can connect to your server with the following command:
•   Connect-VIServer -Server x.x.x.x -User vsphere.local\example - Password XXXXXXX
• Once this is done, you can now start your exporting of your OVA/OVF with the next steps.
•  Make sure you know your destination folder and the name of your VM from vCenter. Once you have this, perform the following command:
•  Get-VM –Name ExampleTest | Export-VApp –Destination C:\Users\Example\Desktop –Format Ovf or ova