Windows OS Version

[pamiller21]

I am trying to find a simple way to keep up with the MS Windows Audits.  They want to know what version everything is running, so I have a method to do this, but scripting will help me gather things better and a breeze in the future.  What I am looking to do is:

1) Is there a way to take a CSV or TSV file with VM names and put VM tags on them, so I can quickly tag x,y,&z with Windows 2012 Standard or something.

2) Can I make a report that would print the VMs by version and total it at the bottom.  Something like:

Windows 2012 Standard
x

y

z

Total: 3

Windows 2016 Standard....

This would make my life so much simpler! Thanks for any advice.

[LucD]

This will all depend if you have VMware Tools installed and running on your VMs.

For the tagging you could do something like this

$csv = '.\vmnames.csv'

$categoryName = 'OS'

try{

    $cat = Get-TagCategory -Name $categoryName -ErrorAction Stop

}

catch{

    $cat = New-TagCategory -Name $categoryName -Cardinality Single -EntityType VM

}

Get-VM -Name (Import-Csv -Path $csv -UseCulture).VMName -PipelineVariable vm |

ForEach-Object -Process {

    if($vm.Guest.OSFullName){

        try{

            $tag = Get-Tag -Name $vm.Guest.OSFullName -Category $cat -ErrorAction Stop

        }

        catch{

            $tag = New-Tag -Name $vm.Guest.OSFullName -Category $cat

        }

        Get-TagAssignment -Entity $vm -Category $cat -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |

        Remove-TagAssignment -Confirm:$false

        New-TagAssignment -Entity $vm -Tag $tag -Confirm:$false

    }

    else{

        Write-Host "Could not determine Guest OS for $($vm.Name)"

    }

}

For a report you can then do something like this

$categoryName = 'OS'

$cat = Get-TagCategory -Name $categoryName

Get-VM -Name (Import-Csv -Path .\vmnames.csv -UseCulture) -PipelineVariable vm |

Group-Object -Property {$_.Tag.Name} |

Select Name,@{N='Count';E={$_.Group.Count}}

[pamiller21]

I gave this a go, but I got this error:

Get-VM : Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Name'. The argument is null or empty. Provide an argument that is not

null or empty, and then try the command again.

At C:\Users\milleran\Documents\VM-OS.ps1:17 char:14

+ Get-VM -Name (Import-Csv -Path $csv -UseCulture) -PipelineVariable vm ...

+              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [Get-VM], ParameterBindingValidationException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.GetVM

The CSV is just a list of few VMs with commas, but that's all.

[LucD]

The script assumes that the CSV looks like this

VMName

vm1

vm2

If your columnname is different (than VMName) you will have to update the propertyname on the Get-VM.
I just updated the code to reflect the VMName column from the example above.

[pamiller21]

This is what I get now:

Get-VM

VM with name '@{VMName=Victoria-DC}' was not found using the specified

filter(s).

sorry for the format there.

[LucD]

I suspect you don't have the VMName property on the Get-VM line

Get-VM -Name (Import-Csv -Path $csv -UseCulture).VMName -PipelineVariable vm |

[pamiller21]

That worked, but the problem I have is its pulling Windows Server 2016 or later, since VMware doesn't see the difference in 2016 & 2019.  I can provide a CSV list of the 2019 ones and then just need a script to apply those tags.

[LucD]

If you just need to tag the 2019 ones, use that CSV.
You will have to change the Tag value.
Instead of using $vm.Guest.OSFullName you will need to have a static string with something like 'Windows 2019'.

[pamiller21]

That worked great, now I am looking at the reporting piece and what I would like is it to just scan the whole inventory not just the csv at this point and return all OS tags with totals to an html page.  I tried to modify the lines but its still looking for variables within the CSV.

This has been a TREMENDOUS help so far though I really appreciate all this!

[LucD]

Try like this

Get-TagAssignment -Category OS |

Group-Object -Property {$_.Tag.Name} |

Select Name,@{N='Count';E={$_.Group.Count}}

[pamiller21]

Perfect, can it ignore powered off VMs and VMs in specified folders?

[LucD]

Sure, something like this

$folderToSkip = 'MyFolder'

$vmToSkip = Get-Folder -Name $folderToSkip | Get-VM |

    Select -ExpandProperty Name

Get-TagAssignment -Category OS |

where{$_.Entity.PowerState -eq 'PoweredOn' -and $vmToSkip -notcontains $_.Entity.Name} |

Group-Object -Property {$_.Tag.Name} |

Select Name,@{N='Count';E={$_.Group.Count}}