Clone vm's and wait-task

[mparent]

I am working on a script to clone a vm a number of times. The way I want it to work is, I check if the source vm is on, if it is I want to shut it off, and have the script wait till it turns off. The problem I am having is with the Wait-task cmdlet. So something like this:

$vm = Get-VM $vmSrc

if ($vm.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn"){

Write-Host "$vmSrc is on, powering off before clone"

Shutdown-VmGuest -VM $vm | Wait-Task

Write-Host "Powered off $vmSrc"

}

However, Wait-task complains because I assume you can't pipe tasks to it?

[admin · Accepted solution]

I am working on a script to clone a vm a number of times. The way I want it to work is, I check if the source vm is on, if it is I want to shut it off, and have the script wait till it turns off. The problem I am having is with the Wait-task cmdlet. So something like this:

$vm = Get-VM $vmSrc

if ($vm.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn"){

Write-Host "$vmSrc is on, powering off before clone"

Shutdown-VmGuest -VM $vm | Wait-Task

Write-Host "Powered off $vmSrc"

}

However, Wait-task complains because I assume you can't pipe tasks to it?

Actually Shutdown-VMGuest doesn't return a task, but a VM guest. Thisis a limitation of the underlying API. Working around this problem may be possible, but it will be tricky as VMware tools stops running almost immediately after you call the API.

[mparent]

Ok, I can figure out a way of doing it. Probably just do a loop with a pause and check the powered state.