Another powershell blog? Yeah, I guess it’s that kind of a month :). After writing my previous blog on How to add a NIC via Powershell to an AHV-hosted VM I got talking to one of our Services resources about a customer trying to run Citrix PVS with BDM. I figured I could easily modify the script to add a NIC so I could add a CD-ROM drive and mount an ISO file.
Another good usecase would be the VM prep for an automated deployment with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit for example.
To recap (again) the following interfaces are available:
- REST API
- HTML5 GUI
- CLI – ACLI & NCLI
- Scripting interfaces (PowerShell)
The following definitions are from the Nutanix Bible as Steve Poitras already explained this:
| REST API The REST API exposes every capability and data point of the Prism UI and allows for orchestration or automation tools to easily drive Nutanix action. This enables tools like Saltstack, Puppet, vRealize Operations, System Center Orchestrator, Ansible, etc. to easily create custom workflows for Nutanix. Also, this means that any third-party developer could create their own custom UI and pull in Nutanix data via REST. HTML5 GUI (Prism UI) The HTML5 UI is a key part to Prism to provide a simple, easy to use management interface. However, another core ability are the APIs which are available for automation. All functionality exposed through the Prism UI is also exposed through a full set of REST APIs to allow for the ability to programmatically interface with the Nutanix platform. This allow customers and partners to enable automation, 3rd-party tools, or even create their own UI. CLI – ACLI & NCLI The Acropolis CLI (ACLI) is the CLI for managing the Acropolis portion of the Nutanix product. These capabilities were enabled in releases after 4.1.2. The Nutanix CLI is the CLI for managing the Nutanix product and is more heterogeneous across hypervisors. PowerShell Windows PowerShell is a powerful shell (hence the name ;P) and scripting language built on the .NET framework. It is a very simple to use language and is built to be intuitive and interactive. |
As a reminder, when creating a VM via ACLI all you’d need is a few lines to create a VM, assign a nic to the VM on a specific network and do the same with a disk (create/assign) and lastly add a CD-ROM drive and mount the ISO file
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vm.disk_update KBTestVM99 clone_from_adsf_file=/VDI/LiteTouchPE_x64.iso |
Here’s how I managed to do it with Powershell with some error handling on the parameters (i.e. quit the script when the VM can’t be found):
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# kees@nutanix.com # @kbaggerman on Twitter # http://blog.myvirtualvision.com # Created on March, 2019 # Setting parameters for the connection [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $False, ConfirmImpact = "None") ] Param( # Nutanix cluster IP address [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [Alias('IP')] [string] $nxIP, # Nutanix cluster username [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [Alias('User')] [string] $nxUser, # Nutanix cluster password [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [Alias('Password')] [System.Security.SecureString] $nxPassword ) Function write-log { <# .Synopsis Write logs for debugging purposes .Description This function writes logs based on the message including a time stamp for debugging purposes. #> param ( $message, $sev = "INFO" ) if ($sev -eq "INFO"){ write-host "$(get-date -format "hh:mm:ss") | INFO | $message" } elseif ($sev -eq "WARN"){ write-host "$(get-date -format "hh:mm:ss") | WARN | $message" } elseif ($sev -eq "ERROR"){ write-host "$(get-date -format "hh:mm:ss") | ERROR | $message" } elseif ($sev -eq "CHAPTER"){ write-host "`n`n### $message`n`n" } } # Adding PS cmdlets $loadedsnapins=(Get-PSSnapin -Registered | Select-Object name).name if(!($loadedsnapins.Contains("NutanixCmdletsPSSnapin"))){ Add-PSSnapin -Name NutanixCmdletsPSSnapin } if ($null -eq (Get-PSSnapin -Name NutanixCmdletsPSSnapin -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) { write-log -message "Nutanix CMDlets are not loaded, aborting the script" break } # Connecting to the Nutanix Cluster $nxServerObj = Connect-NTNXCluster -Server $nxIP -UserName $nxUser -Password $nxPassword -AcceptInvalidSSLCerts if ($null -eq (get-ntnxclusterinfo)) { write-log -message "Cluster connection isn't available, abborting the script" break } ## VM Creation # Setting Variables $VMPrefix = Read-Host -Prompt 'Input your VM Prefix including the wildcard (*)' $ISO = Read-Host -Prompt 'Input the name of the ISO file' # Searching for the VM defined write-log -message "Searching for VMs with the prefix $VMPrefix" $vminfo = Get-NTNXVM | Where-Object {$_.vmName -like $VMPrefix} # Looping thru all VMs starting with the prefix and adding a disk Foreach ($vm in $vminfo) { Try { $vmId = ($vm.vmid.split(":"))[2] write-log -message "VM found matching the naming: $($vm.vmName) and VM ID $($vmID)" ## Disk Creation Try { # Creating the Disk # Definition of the used ISO $diskCloneSpec = New-NTNXObject -Name VMDiskSpecCloneDTO $ISOImage = (Get-NTNXImage | Where-Object {$_.name -eq $ISO}) $diskCloneSpec.vmDiskUuid = $ISOImage.vmDiskId # Setup the new ISO $vmISODisk = New-NTNXObject -Name VMDiskDTO # Configuring the drive to be a CD-ROM, passing along the specs $vmISODisk.isCdrom = $true $vmISODisk.vmDiskClone = $diskCloneSpec # Adding the CD-ROM and ISO to the VM Add-NTNXVMDisk -Vmid $vmId -Disks $vmISODisk | out-null write-log -message "Adding a cd-rom drive to $($vm.vmName)" } Catch { write-log -message "Failed to add a cd-rom drive to $vm.vmName" } } Catch { write-log -message "Could not find a VM with the name $($vm.vmName)" } } Disconnect-NTNXCluster * write-log -message "Disconnecting from the cluster" |
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Kees Baggerman
Kees Baggerman is a Staff Solutions Architect for End User Computing at Nutanix. Kees has driven numerous Microsoft and Citrix, and RES infrastructures functional/technical designs, migrations, implementations engagements over the years.
Latest posts by Kees Baggerman (see all)
- Nutanix AHV and Citrix MCS: Adding a persistent disk via Powershell – v2 - November 19, 2019
- Recovering a Protection Domain snapshot to a VM - September 13, 2019
- Checking power settings on VMs using powershell - September 11, 2019
- Updated: VM Reporting Script for Nutanix with Powershell - July 3, 2019
- Updated (again!): VM Reporting Script for Nutanix AHV/vSphere with Powershell - June 17, 2019
