How do I list the content of the Datastore

[Dlouw]

Hi,

New to VM, but have been lurking in the background. 🙂 I would like to see what is contained on each LUN via PowerCLI without having to go to Vcenter and browse datastore, I want the browse datastore info. via CLI.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks

[mattboren]

Hello, Dlouw-

Welcome to the communities.

Yes, makes sense.  You can use the "vmstore:" PSDrive to navigate- and browse datastores like you would any other filesystem.

PS C:\> cd vmstore:
PS vmstore:\> dir

Name                           Type                 Id
----                           ----                 --
myDataCenter0                  Datacenter           Datacenter-d...
myDataCenter1                  Datacenter           Datacenter-d...


PS vmstore:\> dir .\myDataCenter0\

Name                               FreeSpaceMB      CapacityMB
----                               -----------      ----------
daterstore01                            321978          476672
ssd01                                    27132          261632


PS vmstore:\> cd .\myDataCenter0\daterstore01
PS vmstore:\myDataCenter0\daterstore01> dir

   Datastore path: [daterstore01]

            LastWriteTime            Type       Length Name
            -------------            ----       ------ ----
      9/11/2011   1:13 PM          Folder              win7test
       9/9/2011  10:43 PM          Folder              testtmpl
      9/18/2011  11:45 PM          Folder              blahh0
     11/25/2011   4:00 PM          Folder              win7test2
      12/7/2011   2:56 PM          Folder              testTemplate
...

The last "dir" above listed the VMs' folders on the given datastore.  You could "cd" (alias for Set-Location) into one of the VMs' folders and list its contents as desired.

This "vmstore:"  PSDrive gets created with the VimDatastore provider when you add the VMware.VimAutomation.Core PSSnapin to your PowerShell session (manually, via your profile, whatever).  Enjoy.

[Dlouw]

Thanks for the very prompt reply, I will try and figure out how to do what you have said... 🙂

[Dlouw]

Is this method still applicable if my hosts are on blades and the storage is on LH nodes?

[mattboren]

Hello, Dlouw-

Yes, this should be the same, regardless of the hosts' physical hardware and the storage backend.  As long as the datastores are visible in vCenter, you should be able to navigate them in this manner.

A couple of notes:

• you need to have already connected to the vCenter server in your PowerShell/PowerCLI session (by using Connect-VIServer <vcenterNameHere>)
• if it was not obvious, the datacenter and datastore names in my example are of a sample environment -- you should see _your_ datacenter names and _your_ datastore names when you are navigating the vmstore: PSDrive

How does that do for you?

[Dlouw]

Thanks, I don't see the vmstore directory?? 

[mattboren · Accepted solution]

Hello-

Well, "vmstore" is not a directory, but rather a PowerShell drive (a PSDrive).  So, when you cd or Set-Location to "vmstore:", it is similar to setting the location to the 😧 drive.  You could use "cd d:\" to change to the 😧 PSDrive.

To try to shed more light on this, you can use the Get-PSDrive cmdlet to list all of the current PSDrives in your PowerShell session, like:

PS C:\> Get-PSDrive

Name           Used (GB)     Free (GB) Provider      Root
----           ---------     --------- --------      ----
Alias                                  Alias
C                  31.76         31.62 FileSystem    C:\
cert                                   Certificate   \
D                 393.04        538.47 FileSystem    D:\
...
Function                               Function
HKCU                                   Registry      HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKLM                                   Registry      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Variable                               Variable
...
vmstore                                VimDatastore  \LastConnectedVCenterServer
vmstores                               VimDatastore  \
...

Examples of the PSDrives in your PowerShell session:  the Windows volumes on your machine ("C:\", "D:\", etc.), Functions and Variables defined in your PowerShell session ("Function:\" and "Variable:\"), the Windows registry on your machine ("HKLM:\" and "HKCU:\" -- HKeyLocalMachine and HKeyCurrentUser), and so on.  To navigate to any of those, you can use Set-Location or the alias "cd".

So, you should be able to do a "cd vmstore:\" to initially get to the "vmstore" PSDrive.  How does that do?

[Dlouw]

Okay, so you are officially the man!!!! THANKS

[Dlouw]

One last question, how do I send the ouput / results to a txt file?

[Dlouw]

Answered my own question - Thanks for all the help.