Poweroff and Poweron 1000 VMs in Parallel

[shahb]

Hi

I've a maintenance is coming up for which I need to shutdown 1000+ VMs and once the Maintenance is complete, Need to start those VMs back on.

I've a list of 1000 VMs and I can run in for loop but that will take hours to shutdown these VMs and I only have 2 hours of Maintenance window, Can someone please help ?

Here is the script which I got from the community and it works as expected but it runs serially.

foreach ($vmlist in (Get-Content -Path C:\vmlist1.txt)){

$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmlist

Start-VM -VM $vm -Confirm:$false -RunAsync

}

Thanks & Regards

[shahb]

yup.. you nailed it LuCD..

But it did not shutdown the VMs.

I see the line is there -

Get-VM -Name $VMName | Shutdown-VMGuest -Confirm:$false

[LucD]

We will need to check what the output of the background jobs is.

Can you try this version?

It should return the background job output.

$script = {

   param(

   [string]$VMName,

   [string]$vcId

   )

   Connect-VIServer -Session $vcId

   Get-VM -Name $VMName | Shutdown-VMGuest -Confirm:$false

}

$fileName = '.\input.csv'

$MaxJobs = 10

$jobs = @()

Import-Csv -Path $fileName | ForEach-Object -Process {

   if ($jobs.Count -le $MaxJobs) {

   Write-Host "Job for $($_.VMName)"

   $job = (Start-Job -Verbose -ScriptBlock $script -ArgumentList $_.VMName, $global:DefaultVIServer.SessionId)

   Write-Host "`tStarted job $($job.Id)"

   $jobs += $job

   Write-Host "`tRunning jobs $($jobs.Count)"

   }

   else {

   Receive-Job -Job $jobs -Wait

   $jobs = @()

   }

}

[shahb]

Here is the output -

[shahb]

It did not power off the VMs

[LucD]

I added some output to the background jobs.

$script = {

   param(

   [string]$VMName,

   [string]$vcId

   )

   Write-Host "VM $VMName"

   Connect-VIServer -Session $vcId

   Get-VM -Name $VMName | Shutdown-VMGuest -Confirm:$false -Verbose

}

$fileName = '.\input.csv'

$MaxJobs = 10

$jobs = @()

Import-Csv -Path $fileName | ForEach-Object -Process {

   if ($jobs.Count -le $MaxJobs) {

   Write-Host "Job for $($_.VMName)"

   $job = (Start-Job -Verbose -ScriptBlock $script -ArgumentList $_.VMName, $global:DefaultVIServer.SessionId)

   Write-Host "`tStarted job $($job.Id)"

   $jobs += $job

   Write-Host "`tRunning jobs $($jobs.Count)"

   }

   else {

   Receive-Job -Job $jobs -Wait

   $jobs = @()

   }

}

[shahb]

LuCD Sir,

I tired your new code.

It didn't powered down the VMs

[LucD]

Did all the jobs complete?

What does it say when you do a Get-Job?

[shahb]

Job failed -

[shahb]

I don't see the Jobs submitted as vCenter task doesn't show this jobs , not even in failed state

[LucD]

The Status is failed, that means they encountered an error.
But the job also states there is more info.

Are you sure Receive-Job didn't return anything?
What if you do Receive-Job -Id 15 -Keep

[shahb]

All Jobs failed -

[LucD]

But can you do the Receive-Job I just gave?

[shahb]

[LucD]

That's not how it works.
I said Receive-Job -Id 15 -Keep

[shahb]

Sorry Sir,  I thought since the job already failed, it will return error . Sorry about that. here is the output -

[LucD]

Ah, now we are getting somewhere.
The script can't find the PowerCLI cmdlets.

Where and how did you install PowerCLI?

What PowerCLI and PowerShell versions are you using?

What is in the $env:PSModulePath variable?

Run this from a PowerShell prompt.

$PSVersionTable

Get-Module -Name VMware* -ListAvailable

$env:PSModulePath

[shahb]

I can run connect-VIServer from VMWare PowerCli and that's how I first connected to v Center.

I can run this script without any issue -

# Connect to vCenter

Connect-VIServer -Server rwcvc01 -U shahb5

foreach($vmlist in (Get-Content -Path C:\Scripts\MDC\vmlist1.txt)){

$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmlist

if($vm.Guest.State -eq "Running"){

Shutdown-VMGuest -VM $vm -Confirm:$false -RunAsync

}

else{

       Stop-VM -VM $vm -Confirm:$false -RunAsync

   }

}

[LucD]

Are you by any chance running a PowerCLI pre-6.5 R1 version?

What does Get-PowerCLIVersion return?

[LucD]

And you didn't run the Get-Module line

[shahb]

No, I didn't ran Get-Module