Script to automatically remove VM's older than 14 days.

[mars0077]

Hi guys,

A while back Mr. LucD helped me with a script that automatically deletes any VM that has been powered off longer than 14 days. The script does work as intended but I wanted to see if someone could help me by modifying it so that instead of me having to update the script manually to exclude a VM from being deleted, we could simply make it so that if a virtual machine or multiple virtual machines are inside a folder, these would not get deleted. In other words, if we manually move a VM to a folder, the script will NOT remove any of the virtual machines inside it.

Below is the script I am using.

##Load all VMware related snap-ins

#Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core

Get-Module -ListAvailable VM* | Import-Module

##vCenter connection information

$vcenter = 'vcenter instances'

$vcenteruser = 'vadmin'

$vcenterpw = ''

##Connects to all vCenter instances

Connect-VIServer $vcenter -User $vcenteruser -Password $vcenterpw

#Here's where you can exclude any virtual machines from being removed by the script. You will need to un-comment this line.

#You will also need to comment the $excludedVM = @{} line in order to honor this line.

#$excludedVM = 'Some VM' -----> This is where a folder would be a lot safer to use.

#Here's where you can ignore the exclusions. If you un-comment this line, all virtual machines that meet the 7 day criteria will be removed.

#If you comment this line, then you will need to un-comment the #$excludedVM = 'VM Name Line' in order to honor this line.

$excludedVM = @{}

#Here you're defining the any VM variable

$vms = @{}

#This piece will get all powered off VMs and exclude the ones from the list that were defined in the $excludedVM variable

Get-VM | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff" -and $excludedVM -notcontains $_.Name} | % {$vms.Add($_.Name, $_)}

#Get-VM | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"} | % {$vms.Add($_.Name, $_)}

#Exclude any virtual machine that was powered off before the last 7 days

Get-VIEvent -Start (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) -Entity $vms.Values -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) | where {$_ -is [VMware.Vim.VmPoweredOffEvent]} | Sort-Object -Property CreatedTime -Unique | % {$vms.Remove($_.VM.Name)}

#Remove the remaining VMs

#Remove-VM -VM $vms.Values -DeletePermanently -Confirm:$false -WhatIf

Remove-VM -VM $vms.Values -DeletePermanently -Confirm:$false

[LucD]

If you replace that line with

$excludedVM = Get-Folder -Name SafePlace | Get-VM

all VMs in the folder SafePlace will be excluded.

[mars0077]

Mr. Luc,

Thanks again for helping me on this one. It looks like the code modification may not be working and I say "may" cause I'm not 100 percent sure. There are a number of virtual machines (VM01 - VM05) that have been powered off for longer than a month and even though I have moved them to the "Exclude" folder, according to the Remove-VM statement they will still be removed.

I'm  executing the code you provided in the following order:

1. $excludedVM = Get-Folder -Name Exclude | Get-VM

2. $vms = @{}

3. Get-VM | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff" -and $excludedVM -notcontains $_.Name} | % {$vms.Add($_.Name, $_)}

4. Get-VIEvent -Start (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) -Entity $vms.Values -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) | where {$_ -is [VMware.Vim.VmPoweredOffEvent]} | Sort-Object -Property CreatedTime -Unique | % {$vms.Remove($_.VM.Name)}

5. Remove-VM -VM $vms.Values -DeletePermanently -Confirm:$false -WhatIf

The output here tells me that VM01 - VM05 will still be removed even though they have been moved to the Exclude folder.

What if: Performing operation 'Removing VM from disk.' on VM 'VM01'

What if: Performing operation 'Removing VM from disk.' on VM 'VM02'

What if: Performing operation 'Removing VM from disk.' on VM 'VM03'

What if: Performing operation 'Removing VM from disk.' on VM 'VM04'

What if: Performing operation 'Removing VM from disk.' on VM 'VM05'

If i test the $excludeVM variable it does get the correct VMs. These are the VMs that have been powered off longer than a month. Also, it doesn't really matter if I change the Get-Date to 1 or 14. I don't think it would anyways.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> $excludedVM

Name                 PowerState Num CPUs MemoryGB

----                 ---------- -------- --------

VM01       PoweredOff 6        16.000

VM02       PoweredOff 2        8.000

VM03       PoweredOff 8        16.000

VM04       PoweredOff 6        32.000

VM05       PoweredOff 4        32.000

Am I doing something wrong here or am I not testing this properly? Thanks again for your help sir.

[mars0077]

Sir,

Any other options I can try to prevent the script from removing the virtual machines that have been placed inside the Exclude directory?

[LucD · Accepted solution]

I think there was indeed an issue with that line I gave.
Try changing it to

$excludedVM = (Get-Folder -Name SafePlace | Get-VM).Name

[mars0077]

Thank very much sir. I will try it and let you know soon.

[mars0077]

Mr. Luc!

Thank you very much. The last code modification did the trick.