PowerCli: Get thick provisioned disks for a selected group of VM

[paspot]

I'm trying to get all the Thick Provisioned disk from VMs running on specific hosts but the script doesn't work. Why?

Here's my short script which is not returning anything:

$vm=get-vm |where {$_.VMHost -like "xyz*"}

get-vm $vm |get-harddisk |where {$_.StorageFormat -eq "Thick"}

What is working:

"get-vm $vm |get-harddisk" works but it gives me all disks for that list of VM, Thin and Thick. That's not what I want.

"get-vm |get-harddisk |where {$_.StorageFormat -eq "Thick"}" also works but it gives me thick provisioned disks for ALL VMs. That's also not what I want.

Any idea what could be wrong? I know I have Thick disks in that list of VM so why is it not giving me anything when I use "where"?

[LucD]

You can combine that in one pipeline construct

Something like

Get-VMHost -Name xyz* |

Get-VM |

Get-HardDisk |

where{$_.StorageFormat -eq 'Thick'} |

Select @{N='VM';E={$_.Parent.Name}},Name,StorageFormat

If you want the VMs which have Thick harddisks, you can package that in a Where-clause

Get-VMHost -Name xyz* |

Get-VM | where{Get-HardDisk -VM $_| where{$_.StorageFormat -eq 'Thick'}} |

Select Name

[paspot]

It does not work. I tried on a vCenter 6.0 and vCenter 6.7 ans as soon as I use the "where{$_.StorageFormat -eq 'Thick'}" in combination with a specific list of VM, it stops working.

I managed to get what I need from RVTools but I woud like to know why I can't get it from Powershell.

[LucD]

Can you show me how you run it?

[paspot]

I used the following lines:

Get-VMHost -Name xyz* |Get-VM | Get-HardDisk | where{$_.StorageFormat -eq 'Thick'} |Select @{N='VM';E={$_.Parent.Name}},Name,StorageFormat

and

Get-VMHost -Name xyz* | Get-VM | where{Get-HardDisk -VM $_| where{$_.StorageFormat -eq 'Thick'}} | Select Name

Both commands does not give me anything. It should list me 132 thick provisioned disks. (or their parent VM for the second command)

I also made sure that "Get-VMHost -Name xyz*" was giving me the right set of hosts.

If I use "Get-VMHost |Get-VM | Get-HardDisk | where{$_.StorageFormat -eq 'Thick'} |Select @{N='VM';E={$_.Parent.Name}},Name,StorageFormat" without any filter for specific hosts, it works but I get the results for all VM.

Same thing for "Get-VMHost  | Get-VM | where{Get-HardDisk -VM $_| where{$_.StorageFormat -eq 'Thick'}} | Select Name" without any filter for specific hosts, I get a lists of all VMs with thick disks...

[LucD]

And this returns a list of VMs of which some have a Thick harddisk?

Get-VMHost -Name xyz* | Get-VM

Just tried those first 2, and for me, they work correctly.

Are you copying this to the PS prompt or running it from a .ps1 file.

[paspot]

"Get-VMHost -Name xyz* | Get-VM" gives me all VMs on those hosts.

I'm doing a copy/paste of the commands from notepad to the PS prompt. I created a .ps1 and doesn't work either.

I'm running this on "VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 build 12483598". I also tried on older version "VMware PowerCLI 6.5 Release 1 build 4624819". Same result.

[LucD]

The PowerCLI version shouldn't matter with such basic cmdlets.
I can't repeat what you are seeing, there must be something specific in the way you run the code or in your environment.

Did you stop/start your PS session between trial runs?

[LucD]

Ultimately, could you make a screenshot of how you run this from the prompt?

Or attach the .ps1 file?

[paspot]

I was able to make it work on a 3rd vCenter I use for tests. I don't know if it has anything to do with the problem but this one is running 6.7.0.42000 Build 15132721 where my other 2 vCenters are running on 6.7.0.40000 Build 14367737 and 6.0.0 Build 13638473.

I'll try again later once I upgrade my 2 vCenters to the latest version.

Thanks for you time!

[LucD]

This is rather basic stuff.
Afaik this has nothing to do with the vCenter version.