Getting the datastore of a VM

[TheVMinator]

I'm attempting to get the datastore of a VM, but format it in such a way as to be used with vmrun. My current vmrun statement is:

vmrun -T vc -h https://<ipaddress>:443/sdk -u <username> -p <password> runProgramInGuest "[<datastorename>] <datastorefolder>/<virtualmachinename>.vmx" c:\myscript.bat

So the idea is to replace <datastorename> with the name of the LUN that a given virtual machine is running on. In this case, I am running my vmrun statement from inside a PowerCLI script. So I could use a powerCLI variables, if the vmrun statement can take them, and use whatever escape sequences are required to fit the format that vmrun needs for this argument.

[LucD]

Afaik, you can use the "[datastore] folder/name.vmx" notation in the vmrun command.

You can that path quite easily as follows

get-vm  | select Name,@{N="VMX path";E={$_.Extensiondata.Config.Files.VmPathName}}

This requires you to run PowerCLI 4.1 !

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Twitter: lucd22

[admin]

Hi,

Why don't use Invoke-VMScript? It allows you to start process inside the guest, it does the same you want to do with vmrun.exe! Give it a try!

Vitali

PowerCLI Team

[TheVMinator]

Ok thanks. Does Invoke-VMscript require me to know the ESX host of the VM before I write the script so that I can specify the ESX host as a parameter, or can I just log into the vCenter Server? In DRS clusters you don't always know what ESX host a VM is running on unless you use PowerCLI to discover what host it is currently on - just logging into vCenter Server is easier if possible...

[LucD]

You need to provide credentials (-Hostuser & -Hostpassword or -Hostcredential) for the host your guest is running on.

So yes, you will need to know which ESX.

Unless, your ESX account are synchronised between all nodes in the cluster.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22

[TheVMinator]

OK, so assuming I have the same credentials already established on every ESX host - i.e., the same username and password, then I really don't need to know which particular host in the cluster my VM happens to be running on - I just add those credentials as arguments?

Thx

[LucD · Accepted solution]

That is correct.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22