Powershell script to create a VLAN'd portgroup on vswitch0 for each ESX host in the appropriate cluster.


Connect-VIServer vcentreServer
$DublinSite1ProdHosts = get-vmhost | where-object {($_.parent -like "DublinCluster01")}
$DublinSite1ProdHosts | ForEach-Object {( get-vmhost $_.name ) | Get-VirtualSwitch -name "vswitch0" | New-VirtualPortGroup -Name Site1IsolatedObsoleteServers -VLanId 181 }


Connect-VIServer vcentreServer2
$DublinSite2ProdHosts = get-vmhost | where-object {($_.parent -like "DublinCluster02")}
$DublinSite2ProdHosts | ForEach-Object {( get-vmhost $_.name ) | Get-VirtualSwitch -name "vswitch0" | New-VirtualPortGroup -Name Site2IsolatedObsoleteServers -VLanId 182 }

PowerShell script to apply a specific GPO and disable another Specific GPO .

$ohewes = Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -LDAPFilter '(name=*)' -searchbase 'ou=users,ou=users,ou=users,dc=ie,dc=companyname,dc=companyname,dc=com' -searchscope Onelevel | Where-object {$_.name -notlike "IT" -and $_.name -notlike "Unassigned*"}

$ohewes | ForEach-Object {
    New-GPLink -name "EncryptionCheck - UserPolicy" -target $_.DistinguishedName  -linkEnabled Yes
}

$ohewes | ForEach-Object { set-GPLink -name "OldEncryptionCheck - User Policy" -target $_.DistinguishedName  -linkEnabled no -whatif }

PowerShell script to refresh training environment to most recent snapshot

#Refreshes the training system to the latest snapshot
connect-viserver viserver
$PSEmailserver = "SMTP.companyname.com"
$CurrentTrainingSnap = (get-snapshot Appserver** | sort-object -Property Created -Descending | select-object -ExpandProperty Name -First 1)
Set-VM Appserver** -Snapshot $CurrentTrainingSnap -Confirm:$false
Send-MailMessage -From "emailaddress" -To "emailaddress" -cc "emailaddress" -Subject "Appserver** has been refreshed"

PowerShell script to check for unencrypted computers and send email alert

Computers log any decryption event to a log file , if the log file is older than a day
then the process is assumed to have failed , in this case an email is sent to our helpdesk system which automatically logs a call for the helpdesk staff to contact the end user and manually remediate the device

$PSEmailserver = "SMTP.emailserver.com"
$DateToCompare = (Get-date).addDays(-1)
$PathToCheck = "\\fileserver\emcryptionuninstall$\DecryptLimbo\"
$LimboComputers = get-childitem $PathToCheck | Where-object {$_.lastwritetime -lt $DatetoCompare}
$limbocomputers | ForEach-Object { Send-MailMessage -From "Security@company.ie" -To "me@company.ie" -cc "others@company.ie" -Subject "The following computer has not completed the encryption Process" -Body (get-content $_.fullname)}

Unable to power off a VM , Hangs at 95%

I had a problem with a Dev Machine that had become completely unresponsive , we were unable to ping it , and unable to control it using vsphere.
I tried to power it down but the progress halted at 95% ,
I putty'd in to the host and tried to power it down using
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms and getting the  vmid
then
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off XX i then checked the power state
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getsate XX and found that the machine was still up

I then tried to pull the rug from under the VM by running

esxcli vm process list - obtained the worldID of the misbehaving VM
esxcli vm process kill --type=soft --world-id=XXXX
Checked powerstate with 
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getsate XX - failed tried a hard kill

esxcli vm process kill --type=hard --world-id=XXXX-Failed again , so last  chance saloon

esxcli vm process kill --type=force --world-id=XXXX
 

Netapp Powershell command to find all snapshots older than 28 days

1 Download dataontap PS module and extract to c:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\1.0\modules

2 Import the netapp powershell module
   Import-Module dataontap

3 define $28days as being todays date - 28 days
   $28days = (get-date).adddays(-28)

4 connect to the controller
   connect-nacontroller "controllername"

5 view the list of snapshots that are older than 28 days
   Get-Navol | Get-NaSnapshot | where-object { $_.name -like "smvi_*" -and $_.created -lt $28days }

6 See what snapshots will be deleted
   Get-Navol | Get-NaSnapshot | where-object { $_.name -like "smvi_*" -and $_.created -lt $28days }  | remove-nasnapshot -whatif

7 Delete the snapshots
     Get-Navol | Get-NaSnapshot | where-object { $_.name -like "smvi_*" -and $_.created -lt $28days }  | remove-nasnapsho

VMware Site Recovery Manager 5  & Netapp SRA 2.0 Failure

(Unable to export the NAS device Ensure that the correct export rules are specified in the ontap_config.txt file  )

VMware Site Recovery Manager and SRA installed and configured , Sites and Resource mappings configured correctly , Netapp Protected site volumes Were mirroring correctly , SRA 2.0 array manager installed and configured correctly , Protection groups defined and configured correctly.

When i attempted to run a recovery plan for any of our sites , i would receive an error on the “recovery steps” tab which stated “Error - Failed to recover datastore 'Vol1'. Failed to create snapshots of replica devices. Failed to create snapshot of replica device /vol/Vol1m. SRA command 'testFailoverStart' failed for device '/vol/Vol1m'. Unable to export the NAS device Ensure that the correct export rules are specified in the ontap_config.txt file  

I Checked the content ontap_config.txt file , this file is used to define the R/W and Root hosts for accessing the cloned export of the mirrored production volume , i confirmed that the VMkernel IP’s for the NFS VMkernel were listed. 

I reset and reran the SRM test and examined the VMware-DR-XXX.log file  
Here i could see that the cloned export of the paging volume came online 

“--> 07-08-2012T10:34:35  Export /vol/testfailoverClone_nss_v10745371_volpagem has root & r/w IP=10.10.10.1”

But the production volumes failed

--> 07-08-2012T10:34:35  Checking existence of storage device /vol/Vol1m
--> 07-08-2012T10:34:35  Storage device /vol/Vol1m is a NFS export
--> 07-08-2012T10:34:35  Creating test Clone volume testfailoverClone_nss_v10745371_Vol1m
--> 07-08-2012T10:34:59  Mapping Export /vol/testfailoverClone_nss_v10745371_Vol1m
--> 07-08-2012T10:34:59  Modify the exportfs for path /vol/testfailoverClone_nss_v10745371_volm2
--> 07-08-2012T10:34:59  Modify failed with error: No such file or directory  

 I logged on to the recovery site filer and had a look at the exports file ,
In there i could see that volpagem had the correct VMkernel IP’s listed as R/W and Root hosts              but for the other two production volumes , the default “All hosts” was listed for both R/W and Root hosts , after much searching i found this post :  

http://communities.vmware.com/message/2051567

The key point being  
“This error is caused by a flaw in the NetApp SRA 2.0. If you have an "-actual" statement in the /etc/exports file on the snapmirror destination filer the SRA will fail to create the flexvol-sharename. So if you are carefull and only use sharenames that equals volumenames for all shares (!) then you avoid the "-actual" statement and the SRA seems to work.

NetApp has confirmed this to be a bug in the SRA.

I read this to mean that if the production export contains  –actual it will cause it to fail , i confirmed that none of the production exports were actual path exports , I thought i hit a brick wall until a colleague noticed that one of the unrelated exports contained an “-actual statement” i confirmed the export was not in use and removed it.
I reran the test and it succeeded.