VMware Healtcheck script

Introduction:

Healthcheck is a Powershell script that reports information like snapshots, VMware tools version, datastore space, CDROM and/or floppy drives connected, VM details etc. to HTML and e-mail the output. This script can be scheduled so that for example you get every week a rapport in your mailbox with the status of the VMware environment.

Reason for creating this script:

As VMware Consultant I see a lot of common problems in VMware environments like:

• Snapshots are enabled and forgot the commit to the VM.

• Datastores are almost full (for example if snapshots are enabled)

• VMware tools versions are different

• CDROM and floppy drives are still mounted to the VM

• Virtual Machines have CPU and Memory limits or reservations (VMs are swapping)

• In the VM, the VMware Tools timesync option is not enabled

In the Virtual Infrastructure Client (VIC) it is difficult to see this sort of information. By creating a Powershell script, I can do a quick inventory. In a lot of VMware environments I created a scheduled tasks, so the script runs once a week and sent to HTML rapport to the administrator.

What does the script:

I wrote a Powershell script with HELP from the VMTN community that makes a HTML file and sent the output by e-mail to a person or distribution list. The Healthcheck script does the following checks:

• VMware ESX hardware

• VMware ESX versions

• VMware VirtualCenter versions

• Active snapshots

• CDROM and Floppy drive(s) mounted to the VM

• Datastore information like capacity, free space and the percentage free space

• VirtualMachine (VM) information like VMware tools version, CPU, Memory reservations and limits etc.

• On what VMs VMware Tools timesync is not enabled

Requirements:

The following software must be installed:

Microsoft Powershell 1.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/download.mspx)

VMware Infrastucture (VI) toolkit for Windows 1.0

http://www.vmware.com/download/sdk/

Set the ExecutionPolicy in Windows Powershell to RemoteSigned by using the following command:

set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Installation:

• Unzip the Healthcheck.zip script to a directory on the VC server for example.

• When the ZIP if unpacked there are two files:

• Healthcheck.ps1, this is the Powershell script

• Style.CSS, controls the HTML layout

Configuration:

• Edit the Powershell.ps1 file

edit the following variables:

$vcserver="localhost"

Enter the VC server, if you execute the script on the VC server you can use the localhost name

$filelocation="D:\temp\Healthcheck.htm"
Specify the location where to store the HTML output

$enablemail="yes"
Enable (yes) or disable (no) to sent the script by e-mail

$smtpServer = "mail.ivobeerens.nl"
Specify the SMTP server in your network

$mailfrom = "VMware Healtcheck <mailto:powershell@ivobeerens.nl>"
Specify the from field

$mailto = mailto:ivo@ivobeerens.nl

Specify the address where the e-mail to sent to

Usage:

Manually run the Healthcheck.ps1 script":

1. Open Powershell

2. Browse to the directory where the Healthcheck.ps1 script resides

3. enter the command:

./Healthcheck.ps1

To create a schedule task in for example Windows 2003 use the following syntax in the run property:
Powershell -command "& 'path\Healthcheck.ps1'
edit the path

Powershell -command "& 'path\Healthcheck.ps1'

edit the path .

Future:

• List Orphaned VMDK's

• Add performance information like VM usage

• Check timesync on the VMware hosts

Happy testing