Recently while working on couple of customer cases, I had to write some useful vSphere PowerCLI scripts. I had submitted these scripts on VMware Sample Exchange, I thought to share on blog as well. If you haven’t still explored VMware Sample Exchange , please have your “My VMware” account created (Mandatory to have My VMware account to contribute or request) and enjoy the single pane of glass for VMware API samples across any product, any programming language and any platform (including CLIs). You can browse already existing samples as well as request new API sample that you are looking for. This is really cool site for learning VMware APIs, it is a must book-mark if you ask me. Here is the VMTN Sample Exchange community for more details.
Here we go for the PowerCLI scripts that I am talking about.
Below are the use-cases these script will help you on.
1. Report on vSphere compute cluster usage/capacity data on CPU, Memory and Storage.
2. Report on DRS VM-VM affinity rules associated with each VMs in the cluster.
3. Solution 1 : Report on VMs with “multi-writer” flag enabled.
4. Solution 2: Report on VMs with “multi-writer” flag enabled.
1. Report on vSphere compute cluster usage/capacity data on CPU, Memory and Storage. Sample exchange script location
[powershell]
< #
.SYNOPSIS Getting Cluster usage/capacity data on CPU, Memory and Storage
.NOTES Author: Vikas Shitole
.NOTES Site: www.vThinkBeyondVM.com
.NOTES Reference: https://vthinkbeyondvm.com/category/powercli/
.NOTES Please add the vCenter server IP/credentails as per your environment
#>
Connect-VIServer -Server 10.92.166.82 -User Administrator@vsphere.local -Password xyz!23
$report = @()
Write-host "Report Generation is in Progress…"
foreach ($cluster in Get-Cluster ){
$row = ” | select ClusterName,CpuCapacity , CpuUsed, MemCapacity,MemUsed ,StorageCapacity,StorageUsed
$cluster_view = Get-View ($cluster)
$resourceSummary=$cluster_view.GetResourceUsage()
$row.ClusterName =$cluster_view.Name
$row.CpuCapacity =$resourceSummary.CpuCapacityMHz
$row.CpuUsed =$resourceSummary.CpuUsedMHz
$row.MemCapacity =$resourceSummary.MemCapacityMB
$row.MemUsed =$resourceSummary.MemUsedMB
$row.StorageCapacity =$resourceSummary.StorageCapacityMB
$row.StorageUsed =$resourceSummary.StorageUsedMB
$report += $row
}
$report | Sort ClusterName | Export-Csv -Path "D:Clusterstats.csv" #Please change the CSV file location
Write-host "Report Generation is completed, please chekc the CSV file"
[/powershell]
2. Report on DRS VM-VM affinity rules associated with each VMs in the cluster. Sample Exchange script location
[powershell]
< #
.SYNOPSIS Getting DRS VM-VM affinity rules associated with each VMs in the cluster.
.NOTES Author: Vikas Shitole
.NOTES Site: www.vThinkBeyondVM.com
.NOTES Reference: https://vthinkbeyondvm.com/category/powercli/
.NOTES Please add the vCenter server IP/credetails as per your environment
#>
Connect-VIServer -Server 10.192.x.y -User Administrator@vsphere.local -Password xyz!23
$clusterName = "BLR" #Your cluster name
$cluster = Get-Cluster -Name $clusterName
$vms = Get-View ($cluster| Get-VM)
$cluster_view = Get-View ($cluster)
$report = @()
Write-host "Report Generation is in Progress…"
foreach ($vm in $vms ){
$row = ” | select VMName, Rules
$rules=$cluster_view.FindRulesForVm($vm.MoRef)
$ruleNameArray=" "
#There can be more than one rule assciated with single VM
foreach($rule in $rules){
$ruleNameArray+=$rule.Name
$ruleNameArray+=","
}
$row.VMName =$vm.Name
$row.Rules = $ruleNameArray
$report += $row
}
$report | Sort Name | Export-Csv -Path "D:VMsRules.csv" #Please change the CSV file location
Write-host "Report Generation is completed, please chekc the CSV file"
[/powershell]
3. Solution 1 : Report on VMs with “multi-writer” flag enabled. Sample exchange script location
[powershell]
< #
.SYNOPSIS: This script first downloads all the VMX files (per host/cluster/datacenter/VC)at specified file location
.Once downloaded, it will scan each VMX file one by one to get "multi-writer" entry inside VMX
.Finally it will list all matching VMX file names into specified file location.
.As it downloads all the VMX files, it is going to take more time, that should be fine.
.It is all right to download the VMX file when VM is up and running.
.If name of the VM is changed, VMX file can be different from VM display name (visible from inventory).
.There are 2 file locations you need to specify. 1. Directory where VMX file will be downloaded 2. Output file.
.NOTES Author: Vikas Shitole
.NOTES Site: www.vThinkBeyondVM.com
.NOTES Reference: https://vthinkbeyondvm.com/category/powercli/ and https://communities.vmware.com/message/2269363#2269363
.NOTES Please add the vCenter server IP/credetails as per your environment
.NOTES Alternatively you can use this script where API properties are used. https://github.com/vThinkBeyondVM/vThinkBVM-scripts/blob/master/Powershell-PowerCLI/VMMultiWriterReport.ps1
#>
Write-host "Connecting to vCenter server.."
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore -Confirm:$false -DisplayDeprecationWarnings:$false -Scope User
Connect-VIServer -Server 10.192.67.143 -User administrator@vsphere.local -Password Admin!23
$tgtFolder = "C:\Temp\VMX\" #Create this directory as per your environment
#$tgtString = ‘scsi0:0.sharing="multi-writer"’
$tgtString = ‘"multi-writer"’
foreach ($vm in Get-VM ){
Get-VM -Name $vm.get_Name() | %{
$dsName,$vmxPath = $_.ExtensionData.Config.Files.VmPathName.Split()
$dsName = $dsName.Trim(‘[]’)
$ds = Get-Datastore -Name $dsName
New-PSDrive -Location $ds -Name DS -PSProvider VimDatastore -Root "\" | Out-Null
Copy-DatastoreItem -Item "DS:$vmxPath" -Destination $tgtFolder
Remove-PSDrive -Name DS -Confirm:$false
}
}
Get-ChildItem -Path $tgtFolder -Filter "*.vmx" | Where {Get-Content -Path $_.FullName | Select-String -Pattern $tgtString} | Select Name | Out-File C:\test1.txt
Write-host "Execution is done… please check the file with all VMX file names."
# Below cmdlet can help to scan VMs per Datacenter/Datastore/Host/Cluster. Please modify the script as required.
#$myDatacenter = Get-Datacenter -Name "MyDatacenter"
#Get-VM -Location $myDatacenter
#$myDatastore = Get-Datastore -Name "MyDatastore"
#Get-VM -Datastore $myDatastore
#$myHost=Get-VMHost -Name "HostName"
#Get-VM -Location $myHost
#$myCluster=Get-Cluster -Name "ClusterName"
#Get-VM -Location $myCluster
[/powershell]
4. Solution 2 : Report on VMs with “multi-writer” flag enabled. Sample Exchange script location
[powershell]
< #
.SYNOPSIS: This script connects to the vCenter Server and prepares a report on All VMs with at-least one disk enabled with "Multi-Writer" sharing.
.Report will be generated as CSV file with "VM Name". This can be modified to add some more columns as needed
.VC IP/UserName/Password are hardcoded below, please change them as per your environment
.By default this script scans all the VMs/VMDK in the vCenter Server. It can be easily twicked to scan VM per cluster or host or datacenter
.NOTES Author: Vikas Shitole
.NOTES Site: www.vThinkBeyondVM.com
.NOTES Reference: https://vthinkbeyondvm.com/category/powercli/
.NOTES Please add the vCenter server IP/credetails as per your environment
Alternate solution by scanning VMX file is here: https://github.com/vThinkBeyondVM/vThinkBVM-scripts/blob/master/Powershell-PowerCLI/VMMultiWriterReport2.ps1
#>
Write-host "Connecting to vCenter server.."
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore -Confirm:$false -DisplayDeprecationWarnings:$false -Scope User
Connect-VIServer -Server 10.192.x.y -User administrator@vsphere.local -Password xyz@123
$report = @()
Write-host "Report Generation is in Progress…"
foreach ($vm in Get-VM ){
$view = Get-View $vm
$settings=Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity $vm
if ($view.config.hardware.Device.Backing.sharing -eq "sharingMultiWriter" -or $settings.value -eq "multi-writer"){
$row = ” | select Name
$row.Name = $vm.Name
$report += $row
}
}
$report | Sort Name | Export-Csv -Path "D:MultiWriter.csv" #Please change the CSV file location
Write-host "Report is generated successfully, please check the CSV file at specified location"
#If you want to generate report per Datacenter/Datastore/Host/Cluster, modify script using below code.
#$myDatacenter = Get-Datacenter -Name "MyDatacenter"
#Get-VM -Location $myDatacenter
#$myDatastore = Get-Datastore -Name "MyDatastore"
#Get-VM -Datastore $myDatastore
#$myHost=Get-VMHost -Name "HostName"
#Get-VM -Location $myHost
#$myCluster=Get-Cluster -Name "ClusterName"
#Get-VM -Location $myCluster
[/powershell]
Vikas Shitole is a Senior Tech Lead at VMware by Broadcom, VCF division, India, where he leads system test efforts—including scale, stress, and resiliency testing—and drives product quality across VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), Broadcom’s flagship private cloud platform. He is an AI and Kubernetes enthusiast, and is passionate about VMware customers and automation around vSphere and VCF. Vikas has been honoured as a vExpert for 13 consecutive years (2014–2026) for his sustained technical contributions and community leadership. He is the author of two VMware Flings, holds multiple industry certifications including VCF admin 9.0, and is one of the top contributors to the VMware API Sample Exchange, where his automation scripts have been downloaded over 50,000 times. Vikas has shared his expertise as a speaker at international conferences such as VMworld Europe and VMworld USA, and was selected as an official VMworld 2018 blogger. He also served as lead technical reviewer for the Packt-published books vSphere Design and VMware Virtual SAN Essentials. Beyond tech, Vikas is a dedicated cricketer, cycling enthusiast, and a lifelong learner in fitness and nutrition, with the personal goal of completing an Ironman 70.3
