I looked at it and thought uh! But then a few memories started to trigger in my brain. Having previously programmed the SDK in C# I recognized that this was calling the SDK direct some way. \u00a0So let’s break it down line by line an try and find out what’s going on:<\/p>\n $cluster = Get-Cluster <clustername> | Get-View<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n DPM is configured in the settings of a cluster. The line above declares a variable $cluster<\/em><\/strong> and then we pass in the results of the Get-Cluster<\/em><\/strong> cmdlet which in turn was piped through the Get-View<\/em><\/strong> cmdlet.<\/p>\n The Get-Cluster<\/em><\/strong> part will return the status of the specified cluster but it’s not enough and this is where piping it into Get-View<\/em><\/strong> helps. This will return the fine detail about the cluster including its’ MoRef.<\/p>\n In the script where we see VMware.Vim.~~~ <\/em><\/strong>this refers to the use of the VI SDK API.<\/p>\n The next line sets up a custom specification of type: ClusterConfigSpecEx . A custom specification is an object which directs the SDK calls down the right road.<\/p>\n $spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.ClusterConfigSpecEx<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n So now $spec<\/em><\/strong> is an object in its own right with properties.<\/p>\n The next thing we have to do is declare to .dpmconfig<\/em><\/strong> property of the $spec<\/em><\/strong> object as a ClusterDpmConfigInfo property.<\/p>\n $spec.dpmConfig = New-Object VMware.Vim.ClusterDpmConfigInfo<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This will allow us to influence the properties of Clusters DPM properties.<\/p>\n Now we even have properties of $spec.dpmconfig object and in our case it’s the enabled property which is of interest to us:<\/p>\n $spec.dpmConfig.enabled = $true<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Changing this from $true<\/em><\/strong> to $false <\/em><\/strong>is the same as enabling and disabling DPM.<\/p>\n The last line performs the changes.<\/p>\n $taskMoRef = $cluster.ReconfigureComputeResource_Task($spec, $true)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The $taskMoref is a pointer to the Task object which will perform the task based on the criteria. The criteria being \u00a0the cluster object . The task is delivered through method execution, in our case ReconfigureComputeResource. This method requires the parameters as specified in the $spec object.<\/p>\n When there isn’t a relevant PowerCLI cmdlet you can fall back on calling the SDK APIs. In this example we are using the ReconfigureComputeResource<\/a> method that is available on the ComputeResource<\/a> managed object. One of the parameters for this method are passed through the ClusterConfigSpecEx<\/a> object.<\/p>\n Now this is a bit much to ingest for a beginner but this is something we are going to have to get used to over time.<\/p>\n My best advice to you is study the following resources:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.vmware.com\/pdf\/GettingStarted201.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0137153635?ie=UTF8&tag=doublecloudor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0137153635<\/a><\/p>\n Now back to the job in hand.<\/p>\n We still need to do a bit more to fully automate this operation.<\/p>\n I needed to execute the\u00a0scripts\u00a0I create by scheduling them. After saving my scripts (DPMOFF.ps1 & DPMON.ps1) I used the windows scheduler (boooo, I know) to execute them at given times. To execute them, the scripts have to be passed into the powershell.exe<\/em><\/strong> command like so:<\/p>\n powershell.exe c:\\dpmon.ps1<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n But executing the script as shown above isn’t enough. It would fail in its current state. First of all we have to tell powershell to use the VMware API snapin with the following line:<\/p>\n Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Next thing we need to do is connect to the relevant vCenter server so you don’t need to be there to manually connect:<\/p>\n Connect-VIServer -server vctest -user administrator -password passwd<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Now on the DPMOFF (not DPMON.ps1) script I needed to make sure the hosts where out of stand-by mode:<\/p>\n Start-VMHost esx1.virtualplanet.local -RunAsync -Confirm:$false<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Start-VMHost esx2.virtualplanet.local -RunAsync -Confirm:$false<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This starts each host, doesn’t prompt you for a “are you sure” question and doesn’t make the script wait until the hosts are powered.<\/p>\n Job done.<\/p>\n So the script looks like this:<\/p>\n That’s it for this lesson.<\/p>\n Previous<\/a>\u00a0Next<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This lesson I thought I’d talk about some realworld stuff.\u00a0 In my lab I had a need to use VMware DPM to reduce the heat my home servers where creating by shutting down 1 server while not needed. What I wanted though was to control at what point’s through the day DPM was enabled or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-powersehll","category-vmware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"http:\/\/virtualizeplanet.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/initscript.jpg\" "\\"initscript\\"")
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