Copy System Settings Advanced from one host to another

[vmCalgary]

(Get-EsxCli -VMHost 'esx001').system.settings.advanced.list($true)

The above command is great, but I'd like to go one step further when adding a new virtual host to a cluster. How do I copy the advanced system settings from one host to another? The process of setting them to our standard is tedious. Powercli has to be able to do something for me to ensure nothing is missed.

[depping · Accepted solution]

Are you setting that many advanced settings? I assume you have that documented, wouldn't it be easier to create a script that simply sets the settings instead of reading, comparing to default, then writing to new host?

[LucD]

Looks like you are reinventing HostProfiles 😁

Seriously though, I agree with Duncan, just setting them would be a lot easier.
Do you have the desired settings in an external file?

[vmCalgary]

Thank you Duncan and LucD. I'm not sure why our teams don't use host profiles. I'll ask the question to our team. Failing that I'll just script for the various variables.

[vmCalgary]

@LucD @depping  It turns out that our environment is currently not setup to have host profiles due to the inconsistencies between clusters. Instead, one of our team members has written standardized functions. This was a valuable exercise as I often wondered why we didn't have host profiles, and now I know.

Thanks as always.

[depping]

In some cases writing your own scripts for these things can definitely be easier then host profiles, nothing wrong with it 🙂