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coolsport00
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VM Tag Count is Off by 4 - Why?

I ran a simple script against my vCenter to attempt to get # of VMs assigned a certain named tag, and when I run the ".Count" operator on it, the number returns a count 4 more than what it should.
Code:

$vmtags = Get-TagAssignment -Tag "Name-Of-Tag" | Select Entity, Tag

Running just $vmtags returns the proper info -> 13 VMs (objects) assigned this given tag. If I run $vmtags.Count, the number returned is 17. If I attempt to run the same code against a different Tag name, the same behavior occurs...the Count operator shows 4 more than what it should, even tho running the variable alone displays the correct amount of objects (VMs). Can someone explain why this is? Oh, and the Measure-Object cmdlet does the same behavior.

UPDATE: if I remove Select, it both returns the correct objects and the .Count operator rerturns the correct number. Weird. Why is that?

Thank you!

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mpeneva
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Is it possible to have any other entity in your VC associated with the certain tag that could be returned when invoking that script ?

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coolsport00
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Good guess, but already checked that too...against DC, Cluster, & DS objects. Nothing returned. These tags are new...haven't used them before (no need to til now). Could it be, since I'm using 'Select' and/or 'FT' parameters that table headings could be counted? Never experienced that behavior before, so I'm just thinking of anything here. Again, when explicitly getting/calling for VMs with a specified tag name, the count is accurate. Only when using Select and/or FT does the count increment (bogusly) by 4. Not sure why.

Appreciate the response and suggestion.

Cheers!

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mpeneva
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I would suggest to get the vm(s) by the specific tag: Get-VM -Tag <tag_name>

However,

1) could you type here how you get the vms fromyour VC ?

2) could you check which are these 4 extra entities after your filtering by invoking the script ?

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coolsport00
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Yes, I did get the VM count by invoking the VMs directly by using the Get-VM cmdlet instead of just using the Get-TagAssignment cmdlet, as I mentioned above. And that does return the correct count value. I'm just wondering why when using Get-TagAssignment, when populated in a variable and piping 'Select-Object', returns a larger count value (17 objects) than when getting the VMs directly using Get-VM. The script I used which returns the improper count value is in the initial post. I should also state that when looking in vSphere at the tag, it shows as being associated with only 13 objects there too, which is correct. So, the extra 4 values has something to do with PoSH/PoCLI, I'm guessing. I'm just not sure what, thus why I'm here asking for suggestions/assistance 🙂  In other words, I don't know how to check what the 4 other objects/entities are when using my initial script. When using:

$vmtags = Get-TagAssignment -Tag "Name-of-Tag" | Select Entity, Tag | Sort

Then, entering $vmtags, the amount of VMs returned is correct. BUT....if I do a count operator on this variable, i.e. $vmtags.Count, instead of counting my list of VMs manually, the value is incorrect, by an increment of 4. It should show 13, but instead shows 17. If there's a way to display what else is in the variable besides the VMs, besides just typing $vmtags <ENTER>, I'm up for suggestions on how to do so.

And remember, the script I use which returns the incorrect value when using the Count operator, should return any object when I just type $vmtags <ENTER>, because I don't use Get-VMs with it. So the Get-TagAssignment cmdlet should return any object it's associated with. It is only returning VMs because that's the only vSphere object type I've attached my tags to.

Thanks!

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