Script to create a scheduled task

[MariusRoma]

I created a script to create scheduled tasks to move VMs among datastores based on the excellent page Scheduled Tasks - MethodAction - LucD notes

It worked fine until I replaced the old vCenter 5.5 with a VCSA 6.5.

I attempted to use the same script but I got lots of errors and I cannot see the list of created scheduled tasks.

Should I change the script?

Regards

marius

[LucD]

Can you attach the script?
And show the first errors you are getting?

[MariusRoma]

The errors look like:

Eccezione durante la chiamata di "CreateScheduledTask" con "2" argomento/i: "

Required parameter entity is missing

while parsing call information for method CreateScheduledTask

at line 1, column 171

while parsing SOAP body

at line 1, column 64

while parsing SOAP envelope

at line 1, column 0

while parsing HTTP request for method create

on object of type vim.scheduler.ScheduledTaskManager

at line 1, column 0"

In C:\Users\<my_script>.ps1:64 car:1

+ $scheduledTaskManager.CreateScheduledTask($vm.MoRef, $spec)

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VimException

The first line (in Italian) sounds like:

Exception while calling "CreateScheduledTask" with "2" argomento/i: "

The script is based on yours, with some minimal customization.

Regards

marius

[LucD · Accepted solution]

Just tried the script, slightly adapted, on vSphere 6.7.

Seems to work for.
From the error you listed, it might be that there is a MoRef missing.
Can you try with this variation (ther eis no CSV required, I place the VM name in a here-string and use ConvertFrom-Csv.

Make sure that you pick a name for an existing VM.

Check that the Get-View actually returns 1 VM object.

Update the $tgtDatastore with a name of one of your datastores.

$csv = @'

VMname

TS2

'@

$tgtDatastore = "DS2"

$emailAddr = "lucd@lucd.info"

$startTime = (Get-Date).AddDays(2)

$startInterval = 5

$si = Get-View ServiceInstance

$scheduledTaskManager = Get-View $si.Content.ScheduledTaskManager

$offset = 0

ConvertFrom-Csv -InputObject $csv | % {

   $vm = Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Filter @{"Name" = "^$($_.VMname)$"}

   $spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.ScheduledTaskSpec

   $spec.Name = "svMotion " + $_.VMname

   $spec.Description = "Migrate " + $_.VMname + " to " + $tgtDatastore

   $spec.Enabled = $true

   $spec.Notification = $emailAddr

   $spec.Scheduler = New-Object VMware.Vim.OnceTaskScheduler

   $spec.Scheduler.runat = $startTime.AddMinutes($offset)

   $offset += $startInterval

   $spec.Action = New-Object VMware.Vim.MethodAction

   $spec.Action.Name = "RelocateVM_Task"

   $arg1 = New-Object VMware.Vim.MethodActionArgument

   $arg1.Value = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineRelocateSpec

   $arg1.Value.datastore = (Get-Datastore $tgtDatastore | Get-View).MoRef

   $arg1.Value.pool = $vm.ResourcePool

   $arg1.Value.host = $vm.Runtime.Host

   $spec.Action.Argument += $arg1

   $arg2 = New-Object VMware.Vim.MethodActionArgument

   $arg2.Value = [VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineMovePriority]"defaultPriority"

   $spec.Action.Argument += $arg2

   $scheduledTaskManager.CreateScheduledTask($vm.MoRef, $spec)

}

[MariusRoma]

Many thanks.

Let me provde a feed-back, I hope it will useful for other people.

The original script based on the original sample provided by LucD worked fine without changes.

The error was due to an unwanted space in the name of the VM used for testing.

Many thanks again

marius

[MariusRoma]

I made some further tests and discovered that the scheduled task is created fine.

However, the scheduled task is set to change either host and datastore, so that if the VM is powered on I get an error saying that the task cannot be completed in the current state of the VM.

How can I specify that the task must change only the datastore, so that the operation can be completed even if the VM is powered on?

Regards

marius

[LucD]

Try by just leaving out the Host and Pool assignments.

Something like this

$csv = @'

VMname

TS2

'@

$tgtDatastore = "DS2"

$emailAddr = "lucd@lucd.info"

$startTime = (Get-Date).AddDays(2)

$startInterval = 5

$si = Get-View ServiceInstance

$scheduledTaskManager = Get-View $si.Content.ScheduledTaskManager

$offset = 0

ConvertFrom-Csv -InputObject $csv | % {

   $vm = Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Filter @{"Name" = "^$($_.VMname)$"}

   $spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.ScheduledTaskSpec

   $spec.Name = "svMotion " + $_.VMname

   $spec.Description = "Migrate " + $_.VMname + " to " + $tgtDatastore

   $spec.Enabled = $true

   $spec.Notification = $emailAddr

   $spec.Scheduler = New-Object VMware.Vim.OnceTaskScheduler

   $spec.Scheduler.runat = $startTime.AddMinutes($offset)

   $offset += $startInterval

   $spec.Action = New-Object VMware.Vim.MethodAction

   $spec.Action.Name = "RelocateVM_Task"

   $arg1 = New-Object VMware.Vim.MethodActionArgument

   $arg1.Value = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineRelocateSpec

   $arg1.Value.datastore = (Get-Datastore $tgtDatastore | Get-View).MoRef

   $spec.Action.Argument += $arg1

   $arg2 = New-Object VMware.Vim.MethodActionArgument

   $arg2.Value = [VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineMovePriority]"defaultPriority"

   $spec.Action.Argument += $arg2

   $scheduledTaskManager.CreateScheduledTask($vm.MoRef, $spec)

}