Shutdown full VMware datacenter on UPS failure

13. August 201111. July 2011 by Burkard Josh

To shutdown a VMware datacenter on UPS failure i found a PowerShell script, which i modified:

The script will shutdown the desired VMware datacenter, but it will ask you first, if you are sure. If you like to run the script in silent mode, you can run it with parameter yes.

You have to define the hostname of your VirtualCenter and the name of the datacenter. To run the script, you will need, to have VMware PowerCLI installed.

You can dowload the script shutdownESX.ps1 (right-click -> Save As) or copy/paste it from here:

# ===========================================================================================
#
#  Script Information
#
#  Title:              shutdownESX.ps1
#  Author:             Josh Burkard
#  Date:               11.07.2011
#  Requirements:       Windows Powershell and the VI Toolkit
#  Usage:              .\shutdownESX.ps1
#                      .\shutdownESX.ps1 yes   --&gt;   shutdown the datacenter
#					                                 without any question
#
#  Description:        - Shutdown the defined VMware Datacenter
#                      - you have to set this variables:
#                          - VirtualCenter
#                          - DataCenter
#
#  The script will not run well, if the VirtualCenter server is running as VM in the same
#  data center.
#
#  I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that you need to be extremely careful when testing
#  this script as one false move could shut down everything !
#  Please test this to make sure it works first !
#
#===========================================================================================

$VirtualCenter = "HostName of VirtualCenter"
$DataCenter    = "Test"

# Add the VI-Snapin if it isn't loaded already
if ((Get-PSSnapin -Name "VMware.VimAutomation.Core" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null )
{
	Add-PSSnapin -Name "VMware.VimAutomation.Core"
}

Connect-VIServer $VirtualCenter
clear
if ($args[0] -ne "yes")
{
	Write-Host "Connected to " $VirtualCenter
	Write-Host
	Write-Host "==============================================================================="
	Write-Host "===                                                                         ==="
	Write-Host "===       WARNING!     WARNING!     WARNING!     WARNING!     WARNING!      ==="
	Write-Host "===                                                                         ==="
	Write-Host "==============================================================================="
	Write-Host
	Write-Host "  This script is designed to power off all virtual machines and the ESX host."
	Write-Host
	Write-Host
	$input = Read-Host "  TYPE 'YES' TO CONTINUE THIS SCRIPT AND SHUTDOWN ESX HOSTS NOW."
	if ($input -ne "yes")
	{
		Write-Host
		Write-Host "==============================================================================="
		Write-Host "===               THE SHUTDOWN PROCESS HAS BEEN CANCELLED.                  ==="
		Write-Host "==============================================================================="
		exit
	}
}
Write-Host
Write-Host "==============================================================================="
Write-Host "===                    THE SHUTDOWN PROCESS WILL RESUME.                    ==="
Write-Host "==============================================================================="

# Get All the ESX Hosts for the desired DataCenter
$ESXSRV = Get-DataCenter "Test" | Get-VMHost
Write ""
Write "available VM's:"
Write "==============="

# For each of the VMs on the DataCenter hosts
Foreach ($VM in ($ESXSRV | Get-VM))
{
    # Shutdown the guest cleanly
    If ($VM.Name -ne $VC)
    {
		$VMName = $VM.Name
		$VMState = $VM.PowerState
		Write "$VMName : $VMState"
		if ($VM.PowerState -eq "poweredOn")
		{
			$VM | Shutdown-VMGuest -Confirm:$false
		}
    }
}

# Set the amount of time to wait before assuming the remaining powered on guests are stuck
$waittime = 200 #Seconds

# Wait for the VMs to be Shutdown cleanly
$vms = Get-DataCenter $DataCenter | Get-VM
$numvms = ($vms.count - ($vms | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"}).Count)
Write-Host "Powered on VM's: $numvms "

$Time = (Get-Date).TimeofDay
do
{
	sleep 1.0
	$timeleft = $waittime - ($Newtime.seconds)
	$vms = Get-DataCenter $DataCenter | Get-VM
	$numvms = ($vms.count - ($vms | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"}).Count)
	Write-Host "Waiting for shutdown of $numvms VMs or until $timeleft seconds"
	$Newtime = (Get-Date).TimeofDay - $Time
} until ($numvms -eq 0 -or ($Newtime).Seconds -ge $waittime)

# Force VMs off
Foreach ($VM in ($ESXSRV | Get-VM | Where { $_.PowerState -ne “poweredOff” } ))
{
	$VM | Stop-VM -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
	Write-Host
	Write-Host $VM "has been forced to powering Off"
}

# Place ESX hosts in Maintenance Mode
$ESXSRV | Set-VMHost -State Maintenance | Out-Null
Write-Host
Write-Host "DataCenter" $DataCenter " is in Maintenance Mode"

# Shutdown the ESX Hosts
$ESXSRV | Foreach {Get-View $_.ID} | Foreach {$_.ShutdownHost_Task($TRUE)} | Out-Null
Write-Host
Write-Host "==============================================================================="
Write-Host "===                  THE SHUTDOWN PROCESS HAS COMPLETED.                    ==="
Write-Host "==============================================================================="

# Disconnect from the ESX Server
Write-Host
Disconnect-VIServer -Server $VirtualCenter -Confirm:$False
Write-Host "Disconnected from " $VirtualCenter

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# ===========================================================================================

# Script Information

# Title: shutdownESX.ps1

# Author: Josh Burkard

# Date: 11.07.2011

# Requirements: Windows Powershell and the VI Toolkit

# Usage: .\shutdownESX.ps1

# .\shutdownESX.ps1 yes --> shutdown the datacenter

# without any question

# Description: - Shutdown the defined VMware Datacenter

# - you have to set this variables:

# - VirtualCenter

# - DataCenter

# The script will not run well, if the VirtualCenter server is running as VM in the same

# data center.

# I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that you need to be extremely careful when testing

# this script as one false move could shut down everything !

# Please test this to make sure it works first !

#===========================================================================================

$VirtualCenter = "HostName of VirtualCenter"

$DataCenter = "Test"

# Add the VI-Snapin if it isn't loaded already

if ((Get-PSSnapin -Name "VMware.VimAutomation.Core" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null )

{

Add-PSSnapin -Name "VMware.VimAutomation.Core"

}

Connect-VIServer $VirtualCenter

clear

if ($args[0] -ne "yes")

{

Write-Host "Connected to " $VirtualCenter

Write-Host

Write-Host "==============================================================================="

Write-Host "=== ==="

Write-Host "=== WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! ==="

Write-Host "=== ==="

Write-Host "==============================================================================="

Write-Host

Write-Host " This script is designed to power off all virtual machines and the ESX host."

Write-Host

$input = Read-Host " TYPE 'YES' TO CONTINUE THIS SCRIPT AND SHUTDOWN ESX HOSTS NOW."

if ($input -ne "yes")

{

Write-Host

Write-Host "==============================================================================="

Write-Host "=== THE SHUTDOWN PROCESS HAS BEEN CANCELLED. ==="

Write-Host "==============================================================================="

exit

}

Write-Host

Write-Host "==============================================================================="

Write-Host "=== THE SHUTDOWN PROCESS WILL RESUME. ==="

Write-Host "==============================================================================="

# Get All the ESX Hosts for the desired DataCenter

$ESXSRV = Get-DataCenter "Test" | Get-VMHost

Write ""

Write "available VM's:"

Write "==============="

# For each of the VMs on the DataCenter hosts

Foreach ($VM in ($ESXSRV | Get-VM))

{

# Shutdown the guest cleanly

If ($VM.Name -ne $VC)

{

$VMName = $VM.Name

$VMState = $VM.PowerState

Write "$VMName : $VMState"

if ($VM.PowerState -eq "poweredOn")

{

$VM | Shutdown-VMGuest -Confirm:$false

}

# Set the amount of time to wait before assuming the remaining powered on guests are stuck

$waittime = 200 #Seconds

# Wait for the VMs to be Shutdown cleanly

$vms = Get-DataCenter $DataCenter | Get-VM

$numvms = ($vms.count - ($vms | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"}).Count)

Write-Host "Powered on VM's: $numvms "

$Time = (Get-Date).TimeofDay

{

sleep 1.0

$timeleft = $waittime - ($Newtime.seconds)

$vms = Get-DataCenter $DataCenter | Get-VM

$numvms = ($vms.count - ($vms | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"}).Count)

Write-Host "Waiting for shutdown of $numvms VMs or until $timeleft seconds"

$Newtime = (Get-Date).TimeofDay - $Time

} until ($numvms -eq 0 -or ($Newtime).Seconds -ge $waittime)

# Force VMs off

Foreach ($VM in ($ESXSRV | Get-VM | Where { $_.PowerState -ne “poweredOff” } ))

{

$VM | Stop-VM -Confirm:$false | Out-Null

Write-Host

Write-Host $VM "has been forced to powering Off"

}

# Place ESX hosts in Maintenance Mode

$ESXSRV | Set-VMHost -State Maintenance | Out-Null

Write-Host

Write-Host "DataCenter" $DataCenter " is in Maintenance Mode"

# Shutdown the ESX Hosts

$ESXSRV | Foreach {Get-View $_.ID} | Foreach {$_.ShutdownHost_Task($TRUE)} | Out-Null

Write-Host

Write-Host "==============================================================================="

Write-Host "=== THE SHUTDOWN PROCESS HAS COMPLETED. ==="

Write-Host "==============================================================================="

# Disconnect from the ESX Server

Write-Host

Disconnect-VIServer -Server $VirtualCenter -Confirm:$False

Write-Host "Disconnected from " $VirtualCenter

Notify AD user with mail when password expires

4. July 20113. July 2011 by Burkard Josh

In my environment, i have a lot of users, which never comes to the office, but need remote access to the company network. for this they have an AD user account, which password will expires for company policy after 90 days. Cause they never logon to a domain computer, they didn’t get the “Change Password Request” when the password expires. So they will have at one day an blocked account, but needing it for syncing mobile phone or remote access over VPN. So i wrote a litle script which will notify every user per Mail about the expiring password: read more

Remove all disabled users from distribution lists

14. July 201123. June 2011 by Burkard Josh

Cause of company policy we don’t delete users which are leaving, but we disabled them. The exchange mailbox will be removed after some months. For this incomming mails have to be forwarded to an exchange contact with an unresolvable address, so the sender receives an error message.

Cause of this, we need to remove the disabled users from all distribution list. If not, senders receive error messages each time a message was send to a distribution list with disabled users.

To automate this, i wrote a script. You can filter it by OU and run it first in a display-only mode before you remove the disabled users definitely from all distribution lists. read more

Add third-party SSL-Certificate to Cisco WLC’s web authentication page

27. September 201231. May 2011 by Burkard Josh

If you create a guest network with a Cisco Wireless Lan Controller, you will like to create and import a third-party SSL-Certificate for the Web Auth page. If you don’t add a third-party SSL certificate, your guest users will receive an error-message, that the WLC’s selfsigned certificate isn’t valid. Cause i searched long time around, how to setup a third-party SSL certificate and it seems not to be the easiest thing, i wrote a Step-by-Step guide for integrating SSL-certificate to a Cisco WLC 5508 with Version 7.0.98.

Prerequisites

To create and import a third-party SSL-certificate you will need:

an WLC 5508 with IOS Version 7.0.98 (i didn’t test it with other WLC’s or other versions, but maybee it will run the same way)

an external Certificate Authority (CA). in this document i will use www.startssl.org, which offers free Class 1 certificates.

a separated VLAN for the guest network with a DNS- and a DHCP-server.

OpenSSL 0.9.8h for Windows

a TFTP-server software (i use TFTP32)

Collect CDP informations with SCCM

23. June 201126. May 2011 by Burkard Josh

Did you ever need to know, to wich network switch a computer is connected? When you are a system administrator in a large company with tousends of users, this can be difficult. But when you use SCCM for OS or Software deployment, you have a good inventory tool integreated. Unfortunately SCCM by default only collect datas which the client operating system knows. Your Windows computers doesn’t known to which switch or port they are connected, but if you have Cisco switches the computers would be able to collect this information. Fact is that switches from Cisco are spreading all 60 seconds a lot of information about them to the connected ports (you can disable this, but by default it’s enabled). So you need only a tool to gather this information an write it to the SCCM. read more

VariantTypes

26. August 201123. May 2011 by Burkard Josh

When you manualy edit a monitor or rule in the SCOM Authorin Console, maybee you have to edit the field @VariantType. The VariantType describes the type of the value that is returned.

The variant types are:

Empty = 0
Null = 1
Short = 2
Integer = 3
Single = 4
Double = 5
Currency = 6
Date = 7
String = 8
Object = 9
Error = 10
Boolean = 11
Variant = 12
DataObject = 13
Decimal = 14
Byte = 15
Char = 16
Long = 17

Free iSCSI Target for Windows available

26. May 201121. May 2011 by Burkard Josh

For years, when you need to define a Windows Storage as iSCSI target, you need a paid software, cause Microsoft iSCSI target software did only run on the Windows Storage Server edition.

As of April 2011, the target software is now available for free and supported in any Windows 2008 R2 edition!

You can use this for:

highly available VMs

clustering of file and print services

testing environments

Problem with SCOM Authoring Console after CU4

21. May 201117. May 2011 by Burkard Josh

When you update your SCOM 2007 R2 to CU4 (Cumulative Update 4), you will have problems to load a management pack with SCOM Authoring Console.

You will receive a message, searching for management pack Microsoft.SystemCenter.Library with Version 6.1.7221.61:

Unfortunately you will found only version 6.1.7221.0 on your disk. Microsoft didn’t published the newer version as separated management pack file (*.mp).

To solve this open your management pack with a text- or xml-editor and change from:

&lt;Reference Alias="SystemCenter"&gt;
 &lt;ID&gt;Microsoft.SystemCenter.Library&lt;/ID&gt;
 &lt;Version&gt;6.1.7221.61&lt;/Version&gt;
 &lt;PublicKeyToken&gt;31bf3856ad364e35&lt;/PublicKeyToken&gt;
&lt;/Reference&gt;

<ID>Microsoft.SystemCenter.Library</ID>

</Reference>

to:

&lt;Reference Alias="SystemCenter"&gt;
 &lt;ID&gt;Microsoft.SystemCenter.Library&lt;/ID&gt;
 &lt;Version&gt;6.1.7221.0&lt;/Version&gt;
 &lt;PublicKeyToken&gt;31bf3856ad364e35&lt;/PublicKeyToken&gt;
&lt;/Reference&gt;

<ID>Microsoft.SystemCenter.Library</ID>

</Reference>

Change Version from 6.1.7221.61 to 6.1.7221.0 read more

Change string value to integer in a SNMP monitor

17. May 201116. May 2011 by Burkard Josh

When you create an SNMP monitor in SCOM 2007 R2, SCOM assumes that the values are in STRING-format. So if you define, that your monitor should check an SNMP-OID to be greather than 70 and the SNMP OID gives a value of 100 back, your monitor will generate an error. To correct this, you have to tell your monitor, that it’s an INTEGER-value. Unfortunately, you can’t do this with SCOM Console.

The easiest way to do this, you have to export your management pack and open it with the SCOM Authoring Console. read more

Monitor a SNMP device with Microsoft SCOM 2007 R2

26. August 201116. May 2011 by Burkard Josh

To monitor SNMP devices with SCOM 2007 R2 is a litle special, as i know other products witch are more easy for monitoring SNMP devices. But SCOM has some good feature and if you have SCOM, you don’t want to have another tool only for monitoring SNMP devices.

Here is an overview for monitoring one ore more SNMP devices:

Create a separated Management Pack for each device type.
Create the SNMP device.
Create a group for each device type.
Find out, which Values a SNMP devices can have and which OID’s you have to use.
Create one ore more SNMP Monitors.
Enable the monitor to the device group.
Make some adjustments to the monitor.

Here is a step-by-step guide to monitor one ore more SNMP devices:

Create a separated Management Pack for each device type

Make a separated Management Pack for each device type. You will have only benefits:

you are able to make some special changes with an xml-editor or the Authoring Console.
you can test the Management Pack, go forward and backward.
you can export and distribute the Management Pack.

Create the SNMP device

Right click Network Devices under Device Management from Administration pane and select Discovery Wizard. read more

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Prerequisites

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Create a separated Management Pack for each device type

Create the SNMP device

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