How to use Horizon Module with PowerCLI

Today I've been looking at the Extensibility to Horizon View, but primarily using VMware PowerCLI with Horizon.

VMware Horizon PowerCLI provides Windows PowerShell cmdlets for administering VMware Horizon from the command line.

Windows PowerShell uses the Microsoft.NET object model and provides administrators with management and automation capabilities.

As with any console environment, you work with Windows PowerShell by running commands, which are called cmdlets. They follow the verb-noun structure for example Get-Help

View Connection Server includes more than 45 Windows PowerShell-based cmdlets. You can use these cmdlets with the VMware vSphere® PowerCLITM cmdlets. You can also use the VMware Horizon cmdlets to examine the configuration of vCenter Server systems and management of licensing, global configuration, connection brokers, pools, entitlements, and desktop-user assignment. This enhancement enables automation and scripting and provides extensibility to administration tasks.

VMware Horizon PowerCLI is installed during the View Connection Server installation.

For more information download the View Integration guide

For a quick overview watch the following video.

VMware PowerCLI Poster version 10

I've got quite a collection of these posters now, but here's a link for  the VMware PowerCLI 10 poster.

VMware PowerCLI poster

VM shows as orphaned in vCenter - Web Client

This week we've been creating and deleting VMs, and in one of the labs we delete a VM and then when we access the Web Client and connect to our we see the VM shown as orphaned.

This is because the vCenter server database still see the VM.

The fix for this in vSphere 6.5 is a straightforward task.

Step 1. Download PowerCLI 6.5

Step 2. Run PowerCLI and connect to your vCenter Server from PowerCLI

connect-viserver vc-fqdn (replace with FQDN eg vc01.bryanoconnor21.co.uk)

Step 3. List the VMs

get-vm | select name

Step 4. Delete the orphaned VM

remove-vm VMName

Step 5. Verify deletion

get-vm | select name

The machine should no longer be listed.

Another way to delete the orphaned VM is to use the Web Client

Highlight the VM right click the VM > All Virtual Infrastructure Actions > Remove from Inventory

Automating NSX® for vSphere with PowerNSX - VMware Press Book

One of the things that's an expectation of my job is that, I'm going to have to do a lot of reading.

Also that I'm going to stand in front of people and talk a lot.

The vast majority of the VMware courses I now deliver involve talking about VMware NSX, and why not? It's a good product.

Thanks to those lovely people at VMware Press for making the following book available for download.

Automating NSX® for vSphere with PowerNSX - VMware Press Book, written by Anthony Burke

The book covers the following over 176 pages

Introduction from the book itself.

"This book has been written to cater to administrators and architects of an VMware NSX for vSphere environment. This book should serve as a primer for users with skillsets ranging from beginner to advanced. Some prior knowledge around the following topics will help readers. These topics include:

• Microsoft PowerShell:  pipelines, variables,loops, scripting.

• VMware vSphere PowerCLI™:  basic vSphere administration.

• VMware NSX for vSphere: concepts and configuration specifics.

It is assumed that the reader will be familiar with NSX for vSphere constructs and terminology."

New Release: PowerCLI 6.5.3

In my role as a VCI, as you can imagine, I run a lot of VMware courses.

At my company, we have an excellent course support team, this team ensures that on a Monday morning, I'm ready to go. They build the labs for me to utilse throughout the week.

In order to automate the process we use PowerCLI.

So, getting to the point, VMware have now released PowerCLI v6.5.3

PowerCLI 6.5.3 comes packed with the following:

• New module for NSX-T functionality
• Addition of a ‘Create’ method for use with the ‘Get-*Service’ cmdlets
• Several issues have been resolved

For more information visit the following link PowerCLI Reference Site