Get-Datastore and how it works in PowerCLI 4.1

[mmangiante]

Hello,

I have installed on a server VMWare ESXi 4.1.0. On  this installation, I have two datastores (datastore1 and datastore2) and  on each datastore I have a virtual machine; now, I found a simple  script that help me to backup a virtual machine: in this script I  retrieve the datastore with this line of code:

# We get the datastore of the machine
$ds = Get-Datastore -Server $vh -VM $vm

were $vh and $vm are the connection to the server and the (one) virtual machine on that server.

What  I expect is the datatstore related to that $vm but instead the  Get-Datastore retrieves both the datastores on the server: is this the  behaviour of this function?

In what mode I can retrieve the datastore related to $vm ?

--

Regards,

Marco Mangiante

P

[RvdNieuwendijk]

Hi Marco,

you should remove the -Server parameter. So it will be:

# We get the datastore of the machine
$ds = Get-Datastore -VM $vm

[Sreejesh_D]

this will list the name of datastores associated to the VM.

Connect-VIServer <server>

$HardDisk = Get-VM -Name <VM name>| Get-HardDisk

$HardDisk.FileName.Split("]")[0].TrimStart("[")

[mmangiante]

Hello Robert,

Robert van den Nieuwendijk ha scritto:

Hi Marco,

you should remove the -Server parameter. So it will be:

# We get the datastore of the machine
$ds = Get-Datastore -VM $vm

I tried it but even this retrieves the 2 datastores. For simplicity, this is the code that I'm using:

# Connet to ESX
$vh = Connect-VIServer -Server $server -Port 443 -User $login -Password $password

# Get the machine we are interested in
$vm = Get-VM -Server $vh -Name $machine

#Get the datastore of the machine
$ds = Get-Datastore -VM $vm

where $server, $login, $password and $machine are parameters passed from command line.

--

Regards,

Marco Mangiante

[RvdNieuwendijk]

Are you sure that all of the disks of the VM are on the same datastore? If you split the disks of the vm over multiple datastores then the Get-Datastore cmdlet will return all these datastores.

[IgorAfonin]

Hi Marco,

Maybe any iso connected to vm ?

Get-VM $vm |  Get-CDDrive | FT Parent, IsoPath
#and please, show output
Get-HardDisk -VM $vm

Also check where is vmx file is located.

Have you any snapshots on VM ?

[mmangiante]

Hello Robert,

Robert van den Nieuwendijk ha scritto:

Are you sure that all of the disks of the VM are on the same datastore? If you split the disks of the vm over multiple datastores then the Get-Datastore cmdlet will return all these datastores.

I have 2 physical hdd: on datastore1 (first hard disk) there is the ESXi and the virtual machine that name I pass to the script at command line, on the second datastore (on the second hard disk), there is the virtual machine where I excute the script.

Maybe is this the problem?

--

Regards,

Marco Mangiante

[Sreejesh_D]

then the output you are getting now is expected, both datastores will be listed. Because the VM is associated to both datastore1 and datastore2. 

[mmangiante]

Hello,

yezdi ha scritto:

then the output you are getting now is expected, both datastores will be listed. Because the VM is associated to both datastore1 and datastore2. 

so, to summarize:

datastore1 -> vm-test (that I pass to the script to backup)

datastore2 -> svr-bck (where I execute the script)

So, I execute the script on svr-bck to backup vm-test and so vm-test is associated to both datastores?

--

Regards,

Marco Mangiante

[LucD]

No, that doesn't make sense.

Can you do

Get-VM -Name vm-test | Get-HardDisk | Select Name,FileName 

to see where the harddisk(s) are located.

And this

$vm = Get-VM -Name vm-test 
$vm.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File | Select Name 

should let us see if there are any other (non-VMDK) files on the 2nd datastore.