Accepted Solutions
I'm afraid you'll have to live with the multiple Get-View cmdlets.
But you can still make some improvements. Some suggestions:
- use the Filter parameter on the Get-View instead of the If statement
- do the sort on the results
- use the Property parameter on all the Get-View calls
$gvProps = "Name","Parent",
"Runtime.Host",
"Config.Annotation",
"Config.GuestFullName",
"Config.Hardware.MemoryMB",
"Config.Hardware.NumCPU",
"Config.Template",
"Guest.IpAddress",
"Guest.Disk"
$Report = @()
Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Property $gvProps -Filter @{"Config.Template"="False"} | %{ $row = "" | Select-Object Name,Notes,MemoryGB,Host,CPUs,OS,Cluster,Folder,IPAddress,DiskSpaceGB,UsedSpaceMB
$row.Host = Get-View $_.Runtime.Host -Property Name | Select -ExpandProperty Name
$row.Folder = Get-View $_.Parent -Property Name | Select -ExpandProperty Name
$row.Cluster = (Get-View (Get-View $_.Runtime.Host -Property Parent).Parent -Property Name).Name
$row.Name = $_.Name
$Report += $row
} $Report | Sort-Object -Property Name
I'm pretty sure Matt knows some other Get-View trickery to make it even faster 
I'm pretty sure Matt knows some other Get-View trickery to make it even faster
Lol, Luc. Well, you pretty much have the Get-View tricks handled -- using -Filter instead of the If statement, and specifying -Property on each Get-View call.
The way to further speed this up is to get extra serious and break out the UpdateViewData() method and use the LinkedView properties on the managed objects, instead of the additional Get-View calls. Yes, I am actually about to say this: As sweet as Get-View is, there is a time to use something else.
So, for example, this could be futher speed-optimized like:
## removed a few properties from the list, as they will be handled differently with LinkedViews
$gvProps = "Name",
"Config.Annotation",
"Config.GuestFullName",
"Config.Hardware.MemoryMB",
"Config.Hardware.NumCPU",
"Config.Template",
"Guest.IpAddress",
"Guest.Disk"
Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Property $gvProps -Filter @{"Config.Template"="False"} | %{
## get select properties for a few linked objects (so as not to have to do additional Get-View calls; Get-View is awesome, but even it comes at a cost)
$_.UpdateViewData("Runtime.Host.Name","Parent.Name","Runtime.Host.Parent.Name")
New-Object -Type PSObject -Property @{
Host = $_.Runtime.LinkedView.Host.Name ## use LinkedView instead of add'l Get-View calls
Folder = $_.LinkedView.Parent.Name
Cluster = $_.Runtime.LinkedView.Host.LinkedView.Parent.Name
Name = $_.Name
} ## end new-object
} | Sort-Object -Property Name
## ...leaving the other static items like Annotation and whatnot up to the consumer to add back in -- they did not involve additional Get-View calls
Notice the single Get-View call, and the use of the UpdateViewData() method. In testing, the pretty-well-optimized, multiple Get-View version was bettered considerably by the UpdateViewData() version:
| version | run time (sec), 80 VMs | run time (sec), 465 VMs |
|---|---|---|
| using multiple Get-View calls | 25s | 404s |
| using UpdateViewData() and LinkedViews | 4s | 99s |
| improvement factor | ~6x | ~4x |
There are different scenarios where this method saves even more run time. I wrote about such goodness in my Even Faster PowerCLI Code with Get-View, UpdateViewData() and LinkedViews post at vNugglets.com a bit ago. That post helps to explain the relationship of LinkedViews to the managed objects themselves. If that post needs more info, someone please let us know. And, yes, this somewhat highlights the "speed of code" versus "legibility/understandability of code" discussion, but, if the goal is just speed, speed, speed...
Anyway, how does that do for you, jnewton201110?
