PowerCLI to zip up a VM to a different datastore...

[awliste]

Howdy everybody.

I'm working on a hobby question, just to see. Anyone have any thoughts or examples on a way, using pCLI, to resolve a VM, zip it up in it's entirety to a datastore it is not resident in and continue on? I know about ghettoVCB and gVCB2, but I was curious if anyone has ever attempted this trick to backup VMs with pCLI?

Thanks for any time and thoughts you put in.

R/,

- abe

Integritas!

Abe Lister

Just some guy that loves to virtualize

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[DougBaer · Accepted solution]

I've never tried this since VCB has been around and that works for what I need.

I did notice that there is an 'Export-VApp' cmdlet in the new PowerCLI that does what you're asking for vApps instead of individual VMs. Bonus is that you get OVFs instead of ZIPs.

Get-VApp myVApp | Export-VApp "c:\vapps\"

If you wrap your VMs in vApp wrappers, you can do it that easily.

[awliste]

I never thought of that. It might work for what I'm trying to do. Definitely worth exploring. Many thanks!

[DougBaer]

After digging a bit, I found this that may do what you want

http://xtravirt.com/powercli-simple-vm-backup-script

[awliste]

Doug,

Thanks for all the help. Both of your ideas punch out parts of my problem on both methods - what I need is to find a way to string them together, and that's what I'm working on ATT. I have a unique environment where I need to export the vApp into a datastore in as few files as is possible. I can come at it a different way I think (the joys of NFS), but I'd really like to be able to have a VIHost write the ovf into a datastore vice locally. Just a matter of juggling parts and pointers around I guess.

Your comments have certainly been very helpful. Many thanks for your time and attention. The work continues on...

R/,

- abe

Integritas!

Abe Lister

Just some guy that loves to virtualize

==============================

Ain't gonna lie. I like points. If what I'm saying is something useful to you, consider sliding me some points for it!