How do I clean my PowerCLI output

[jasgrif11]

I run my script and it creates a bunch of vm's and then writes their hostname and mac address to a .csv file.

However the output looks like this

Hostname    macaddress
testvm1    @{MacAddress=00:50:56:bf:00:92}

How do I remove the @{MacAddress=} so that I just get the 00:50:56:bf:00:92 in the output?

Here is part of the script

$macnic1= Get-NetworkAdapter -vm $_.Hostname | where {$_.type -match "e1000"} | select-object MacAddress

$Report.hostname = $($_.Hostname)
$Report.macaddress = $macnic1

$objreport += $Report
}

$objreport | export-csv $outputfile -NoTypeInformation

Many Thanks

J

[LucD]

The Select-Object cmdlet always returns an object, not a single value.

To avoid this you can fetch the actual value of the property, something like this

$macnic1= Get-NetworkAdapter -vm $_.Hostname | where {$_.type -match "e1000"} | %{$_.MacAddress}

$Report.hostname = $($_.Hostname)
$Report.macaddress = $macnic1 $objreport += $Report}

$objreport | export-csv $outputfile -NoTypeInformation

Note that if your VM has more than 1 NIC, this will result in an array of values and the export to a CSV file will not work.

You can convert all the values in the array to a single string, something like this

$macnic1= Get-NetworkAdapter -vm $_.Hostname | where {$_.type -match "e1000"} | %{$_.MacAddress}

$Report.hostname = $($_.Hostname)
$Report.macaddress = [string]::Join(',',$macnic1)

$objreport += $Report}

$objreport | export-csv $outputfile -NoTypeInformation

[jasgrif11]

Hi Luc,

Thanks for that it worked great....

However I noticed I have another problem. If I have one line entry in my .csv file it creates the VM. If I have more than one line entry I get this error.

Property 'hostname' cannot be found on this object; make sure it exists and is
settable.
At C:\powercli\sample.ps1:33 char:9
+ $Report. <<<< hostname = $($_.Hostname)
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PropertyAssignmentException

Property 'macaddress' cannot be found on this object; make sure it exists and i
s settable.
At C:\powercli\sample.ps1:34 char:9
+ $Report. <<<< macaddress = $macnic1
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PropertyAssignmentException

How do i get it to cycle through each line?

Many Thanks

J

Here is my full script

$VI_SERVER = "VCENTER IP"
$importfile = "C:\powercli\sample.csv"
$outputfile = "C:\powercli\sample2.csv"
Connect-VIServer $VI_SERVER
$newvms = import-csv $importfile
$objreport=@()
$Report = import-csv $importfile | select-object *,macaddress
$newvms | %{
$vname=$($_.Hostname)
New-VM  -Name $_.Hostname -VMHost $_.Destination -DiskMB $_.DiskMB -MemoryMB  $_.MemoryMB -NumCpu $_.NumCpu -Datastore $_.Datastore -guestID  rhel5_64Guest
$macnic1= Get-NetworkAdapter -vm $_.Hostname | where {$_.type -match "e1000"} | %{$_.MacAddress}
$Report.hostname = $($_.Hostname)
$Report.macaddress = $macnic1 
$objreport += $Report
}
$objreport | export-csv $outputfile -NoTypeInformation

[LucD · Accepted solution]

Ok, I see, you are trying to add a property to the row you read from the input CSV file.

You have to use an Add-Member cmdlet for that.

Something like this

$VI_SERVER = "VCENTER IP" 
$importfile = "C:\powercli\sample.csv" 
outputfile = "C:\powercli\sample2.csv"

 Connect-VIServer $VI_SERVER 

$objreport=@()

import-csv $importfile | %{
    $Report = $_
    New-VM  -Name $_.Hostname -VMHost $_.Destination -DiskMB $_.DiskMB -MemoryMB  $_.MemoryMB -NumCpu $_.NumCpu -Datastore $_.Datastore -guestID  rhel5_64Guest    $macnic1= Get-NetworkAdapter -vm $_.Hostname | where {$_.type -match "e1000"} | %{$_.MacAddress}

    $Report.hostname = $($_.Hostname)
    Add-Member -InputObject $Report -Name MacAddress -Value $macnic1 -MemberType NoteProperty
    $objreport += $Report
}

$objreport | export-csv $outputfile -NoTypeInformation

[jasgrif11]

Thanks Luc works perfect