VMware host firewall rulesetid that contains a space.

[DHatt]

Another question on running a PowerCLI script to change the firewall settings on a VMware Host.

When I run the script below and the "rulesetid" does not contain any spaces, it runs just fine.

However, if the rulesetid has a space I get the following error message:

Message: EsxCLI.CLIFault.summary;
InnerText: Invalid Ruleset Id.EsxCLI.CLIFault.summary
At line:1 char:1
+ $ESXcli.network.firewall.ruleset.set.Invoke($arguments1)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], MethodFault
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.VimException.MethodFault

The output for the hash table is:

Name                           Value
----                           -----    
allowedall        False 
rulsetid                       SSH Client

I have also set the $Security.Name variable in quotes ($Security.'Name' and $Security."Name") which resulted in the rulesetid to be in quotes ("SSH Client).

foreach ($Security in $SecurityProfile1) {

    $arguments1 = @{"rulesetid"= $Security.Name
                    "allowedall" = $Security.Allowed}    

$ESXcli.network.firewall.ruleset.set.Invoke($arguments1)
$ESXcli.network.firewall.ruleset.allowedip.add.Invoke($arguments2)
}

Any suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[LucD]

Can you give a bit more context?

Did you add the new rules directly into the services.xml on the ESXi node?

Where is the content of $SecurityProfile1 coming from? Is that something you read in from a file?

And is there a specific reason you need a blank in the new FW rule?

[DHatt]

No, I did not add the rules to the services.xml file on the ESXi node.

The content for $SecurityProfile1 is coming from a .csv file which has the headers "Name" for the rulessetid and "Allowed" for the allowedall values. The PowerCLI line in the script is: $SecurityProfile1 = Import-Csv -Path 'C:\Test.csv

If you are asking about a space between SSH and Client, the space is present in the name when seen in vSphere Web Client and when I pull the firewall information with PowerCLI using Get-VMHostFirewallException -VMHost <VMHostName>

[LucD · Accepted solution]

The name your seeing in the Web Client and via the Get-VMHostFirewallException is not the rulesetid but the Summary field.

The rulesetid that you need in $esxcli.network.firewall.ruleset.set, is in fact the Name field coming from $esxcli.network.firewall.ruleset.list.

For the 'SSH Client' that rulesetid is in fact sshClient.

I would suggest you update your CSV with the real rulesetid.

In fact you can create a table for that

$esxName = 'MyEsx'

Get-VMHost -Name $esxName |

   Get-VMHostFirewallException |

  Select Name, @{N = 'rulesetid'; E = {$_.Extensiondata.Key}}

[DHatt]

Worked like a charm!!!!!

Thanks!