vmx config params

[emptyglass]

I have just migrated to vsphere 4.1 and esx 4.1. I have powershell 2 and powercli and I am in the process of upgrading the tools and the vm h/w version which i dont have a problem doing however, now i'm trying to edit a vmx file config parameters. i found several powercli scripts and all of them seem to change the config params and one of the files takes input from a .csv file however only one record gets added. how can i get this script to add all of the entries from my csv file to a single vm. here is one of the scripts i'm trying to use. also, are all command & params kosher with powercli?

$vcenter=Read-Host "enter your vcenter servername"

connect-viserver $vcenter

$import=import-csv "c:\path to csv file\vmxsettings.csv"

$vms=get-view (get-vm nameofvm).ID

$vmconfigspec=new-object vmware.vim.virtualmachineconfigspec

     foreach($item in $import){

          $extra=new-object vmware.vim.optionvalue

          $extra.key=$item.key

          $extra.value=$item.value

          $vmconfigspec.extraconfig +=$extra

          $vm.reconfigvm($vmconfigspec)

     }

disconnect-viserver -confirm:$false

[DSTAVERT]

Discussion moved to the PowerCLI forums

[emptyglass]

the errors i get back when i run the script is: property 'key' cannot be found on this object; make sure it exists  and is settable.

property 'value' cannot be found on this object...

[LucD]

Your script is neatly correct, you just have to move the reconfigvm call outside the foreach loop.

I also changed the $vms variable to $vm

$vcenter=Read-Host "enter your vcenter servername"
connect-viserver $vcenter

$import = import-csv "c:\test.csv" -UseCulture
$vm = get-view (get-vm nameofvm).ID

$vmconfigspec = new-object vmware.vim.virtualmachineconfigspec
foreach($item in $import){
    $extra = new-object vmware.vim.optionvalue
    $extra.key=$item.key
    $extra.value=$item.value
    $vmconfigspec.extraconfig +=$extra
}
$vm.reconfigvm($vmconfigspec)

disconnect-viserver -confirm:$false

The next thing to check is the layout of the CSV file.

The one I used for testing looks like this.

"Key","Value"
"key1","value1"
"key2","value2
"key3","value3"

[andreasbrunner]

Interesting discussion. Which values are worth to be changed this way?

Thanks for feedback

regards

Andreas

[LucD]

I mentioned some security-related .vmx parameters in my Security – Hardening – Part 1 – Virtual Machines post.

See also the latest Security Hardening paper.

And most of the .vmx params are documented on the SanBarrow site.

[emptyglass]

Thank you, Lucd, I will try this tomorrow. BTW, is there a way to check if the entries I want to add are not already there like a (-isnot) or (no duplicate)? I want to make sure that none of the entries I want to add are preexisting.

[emptyglass]

Lucd, just as important, how can I have the script check for preexisting entries in the config params file? I want to check that if any of the entries i want to add are already there then only add the remaining entries.

[emptyglass]

I actually have about 15 entries to add

[LucD]

You will find most of the VMX parameters with this line

$vm = Get-VM MyVM

$vm.Extensiondata.Config.ExtraConfig

To check if a specific parameter is already set, you can do

$tgtParam = "isolation.tools.paste.disable"

$vm.Extensiondata.Config.ExtraConfig | where {$_.Key -eq $tgtParam}

To check if a specific value is set for that param, you can do

$tgtParam = "isolation.tools.paste.disable"
$vm.Extensiondata.Config.ExtraConfig | where {$_.Key -eq $tgtParam -and $_.Value}

We can test the Value field in this case like that because it will have a true/false value, which PowerShell will convert to the Boolean $true or $false.