An issue with snapshots residing in the vmx working directory on vsphere 4.1

[max2001]

Hi,

I am running a script that will create a VI property for each VM which will determine the datastore teir based on the name of the datastore where a vmdk resides as follows:

New-VIProperty -ObjectType VirtualMachine –Name TIER2  -Value { param ($vm) return (get-vm $vm | Get-HardDisk | Where-Object {$_.filename -like "*TIER2*"} | Measure-Object -Property capacityGB -sum).sum }

The above is working fine except when a VM that runs on a vSphere 4.1 host has a snapshot, this is because the snapshot file is created in the vmx wogrking directory rather than the datastore where the vmdk resides. These stuffs up the numbers in the report that I create and causes the tier2 total for the snapshott-ed vmdks  to appear as tier1 as the snapshot resides in a tier1 datastore (i.e where the vmx is).

Is there a way to run the command above and make it look for the base disk (i.e parent) in the case there is a snapshot? This will resolve the issue as the base disk location will never change.

[LucD]

The following will return the filename of the base VMDK.

From there it shouldn't be too hard to extract the datastorename.

$vmName = "MyVM"
$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName
foreach($hd in Get-HardDisk -VM $vm){
  $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.Disk | where {$_.Key -eq $hd.ExtensionData.Key} | %{
    $fileKey = $_.Chain[0].FileKey[0]
    $dsFile = $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File |
    where {$_.Key -eq $fileKey}
  }
  $hd | Select Name,@{N="File";E={$dsFile.Name}}
}

[max2001]

Thanks LucD

That does the job, only thing is that while I have been able to get the sum of all "capacityGB" property, I am unable to create a VI property, it comes back blank, would appreciate it if you could help!

------- here is how i'm getting the total:---------

$vmName = "myvm"

$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName

foreach($hd in Get-HardDisk -VM $vm){

  $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.Disk | where {$_.Key -eq $hd.ExtensionData.Key} | %{

    $fileKey = $_.Chain[0].FileKey[0]

    $dsFile = $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File |

    where {$_.Key -eq $fileKey}

  }

$total += ($hd | Where-Object {$_.filename -like "TIER2*"} | Measure-Object -Property capacityGB -sum).sum

}

$total

--------- when i try to create a property, i do this, but no luck---------

New-VIProperty -ObjectType VirtualMachine -Name TIER2 -Value {

param ($vm) return

foreach($hd in Get-HardDisk -VM $vm){

  $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.Disk | where {$_.Key -eq $hd.ExtensionData.Key} | %{

    $fileKey = $_.Chain[0].FileKey[0]

    $dsFile = $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File |

    where {$_.Key -eq $fileKey}

  }

($hd | Where-Object {$_.filename -like "*TIER2*"} | Measure-Object -Property capacityGB -sum).sum

}

$total }

[LucD]

Try like this

New-VIProperty -ObjectType VirtualMachine -Name TIER2 -Value {
    param ($vm)

  $total = 0
  foreach($hd in Get-HardDisk -VM $vm){
    $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.Disk | where {$_.Key -eq $hd.ExtensionData.Key} | %{
      $fileKey = $_.Chain[0].FileKey[0]
      $dsFile = $vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File | where {$_.Key -eq $fileKey}
      if($dsFile.Name -match "^\[TIER2"){
         $total += $hd.CapacityGB
      }
    }
  }
  $total
} -Force | Out-Null

Get-VM TestVM | Select Name,TIER2

[max2001]

Hi LucD...

something isnt working right,,, it reports total disks as zero if i run the if statement as follows to report all T2 disks:

if($dsFile.Name -contains "^\[TIER-2")  # the key word for our T2 datastores is TIER-2

if i run it like this, it reports the total of all disks that belong to the VM even for the ones stored in a TIER-2 datastore

if($dsFile.Name -notcontains "^\[TIER-2").

any thoughts?

[LucD]

The match that I'm using assumes that the VMDK filename follows this pattern:"[TIER2".

The back-slash is there to escape the special character '['

So if the VMDK filename contains TIER-2, the match (not -contains) should be "[TIER-2".

But this also assumes the datastorename starts with TIER-2, is that correct ?

Or can TIER-2 be anywhere in the datastorename ?