PowerCLI: New cmdlets for Update Manager
Mar 3rd
VMware have this morning / last night released some PowerCLI cmdlets for VMware Update Manager (VUM). A short description can be found of them below:
| Cmdlet Name | Cmdlet Description |
| Attach-Baseline | Attaches baselines to the specified Template, VirtualMachine, VMHost, Cluster, Datacenter, Folder, and VApp objects.
Attaching a baseline to a container object such as a folder or datacenter transitively attaches the baseline to all objects in the container. |
| Detach-Baseline | Detaches baselines from the specified inventory objects. |
| Download-Patch | Downloads new patches into the Update Manager patch repository from the enabled patch download sources. |
| Get-Baseline | Retrieves the baselines specified by the provided cmdlet
parameters. |
| Get-Compliance | Retrieve baseline compliance data for the specified object of type Template, VirtualMachine, VMHost, Cluster, Datacenter, Folder, and VApp. |
| Get-Patch | Retrieves all available patches or those specified by the provided cmdlet parameters. |
| Get-PatchBaseline | Retrieves all patch baselines or those specified by the provided cmdlet parameters. |
| New-PatchBaseline | Creates a new patch baseline. Patch baselines can be applied to either hosts or virtual machines. Depending on the patch criteria you select, patch baselines can be either dynamic or static (fixed). |
| Remediate-Inventory | Remediates an inventory object against the specified baselines. |
| Remove-Baseline | Deletes the specified baselines from their servers. Before the
removal, the baselines are detached from all entities they have been attached to. |
| Scan-Inventory | Scans inventory objects for baselines attached to them. |
| Set-PatchBaseline | Modifies the properties of a patch baseline. You can specify explicitly the patches you want to include in the baseline through the IncludePatch parameter. |
| Stage-Patch | Initializes staging of patches. Staging allows you to download
patches from the Update Manager server to the ESX/ESXi hosts, without applying the patches immediately. |
The cmdlets can be downloaded from VMware’s website as a PowerShell Snapin and require PowerCLI 4.0 U1.
I look forward to seeing a few scripts pop out in the next few days that make use of these.
CloudCamp March 2010
Feb 22nd
CloudCamp London is back again. It seems like only last week when I went to the last one. Now although this is only going to be my second attendance at CloudCamp, it promises to be a little different from the norm. Since there will only be one room available there won’t be any breakout sessions but instead a presidential style debate about cloud computing featuring:
- Matt Deacon – Microsoft
- Simon Wardley – Canonical
- Rod Johnston – VMware
- Chris Richardson – Thoughtworks
I’m not particularly familiar with any of them but it could be interesting having VMware and Microsoft squaring up against each other to talk about Clouds.
As an added bonus it’s just round the corner from where I’m working. I think I’ll go and register now. For more details (including the registration process) see CloudCamp’s site.
Date:
Thursday, March 11, 2010 from 6:30 PM – 11:00 PM (GMT)
Location:
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre
Broad Sanctuary
Westminster
SW1P 3EE London
United Kingdom
Veeam Surebackup
Feb 19th
Everybody is talking about it. If I asked my brother-in-law (an advertising creative) he’d probably say that this is a good marketing strategy. It certainly works on me anyway – I’m as curious a hell! Like everyone else who’s been talking about it, I registered to find out more. Some have specualted about features or approaches (VirtualisedReality) and some (the SLOG), better connected than me, may find out more.
Actually I registered a few hours ago now but something has been bugging me. The big reveal is due on March 22nd. There are still 9 days of February to go. Doing the maths, 22 + 9 does not equal 23 (see the image below). It’s a lot closer to 32. Perhaps Veeam have a small code problem? I’d hope not and I think not.
Having had a look at the page source,
it looks like the countdown is configured to run until March 15th. I’m guessing that there will be more revealed or some change to their site around that time. I wait in eager anticipation.
Update (20/02/2010): Found a tweet from @veeam this morning:
RT: @veeam: RT @mpoore: New Post: Veeam Surebackup http://bit.ly/bAVtum <- Good detective work…the countdown will be changed for March 22 (OOPS) 
Get the DN of your Windows account from AD
Feb 19th
You know how it is. A nice, nested OU structure in AD. Everything beautifully organised in containers with weird and wonderful names. There’s a new guy who needs an account creating. Needs the same permissions as you. Simplest answer is to copy the account. But you didn’t set your account up so you have no idea where in the beautifully organised tree it is.
For a quick answer, run this VBScript:
set objSysInfo = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo")
set objUser = GetObject("LDAP://" & objSysInfo.UserName)
wscript.echo "DN: " & objUser.distinguishedName
Ah, found it. Of course, things would be much quicker with PowerShell but 4 hours ago I was the new guy and PowerShell doesn’t really exists that side of the firewall yet 
Basics: Open PowerCLI using different credentials
Feb 19th
Everytime I use a different PC or laptop I always forget to do this after installing PowerCLI. I happily open PowerCLI up and try to connect to a vCenter server and get prompted for my login information. This is how I feel:
Every time in that session that “Connect-VIServer” is used I’ll get it because my normal domain account doesn’t have any privileges in vCenter. The point of this post isn’t to teach anyone to suck eggs but maybe it’ll help me remember in future to make one tiny change after installing PowerCLI.
Right click on the PowerCLI shortcut and open the shortcut’s properties.
Click the “Advanced” button.
Tick the box “Run with different credentials”. OK everything.
The next time the the shortcut is used the option to specify different credentials is shown:
Entering a different account here saves having to do it each time “Connect-VIServer” is used. There are other things that can be done of course. Maybe I’ll save those for another day.
