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Topics: Scripting, Virtualization

Using govc

The vSphere web GUI is a nice visual tool, but if you need to retrieve vCenter information in bulk or perform mass operations across VMs, then a command line tool such as govc in invaluable. You can find the repo for govc at https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/tree/master/govc, along with installation instructions. govc is written in Go, which means it has support on Linux as well as most other platforms.

To perform a quick install on Linux, run this command: 

$ sudo curl -L -o - \
"https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/releases/latest/download/govc_$(uname -s)_$(uname \
-m).tar.gz" | sudo tar -C /usr/local/bin -xvzf - govc
Next, you'll want to set up basic connectivity to the vCenter, and for this purpose, you can use a set of environment variables, so the CLI knows how to connect to the vCenter. 
# vCenter host
export GOVC_URL=myvcenter.name.com
# vCenter credentials
export GOVC_USERNAME=myuser
export GOVC_PASSWORD=MyP4ss
# disable cert validation
export GOVC_INSECURE=true
Next, you can try out a few basic commands: 
$ govc about
Name:         VMware ESXi
Vendor:       VMware, Inc.
Version:      6.7.0
Build:        8169922
OS type:      vmnix-x86
API type:     HostAgent
API version:  6.7
Product ID:   embeddedEsx
UUID

$ govc datacenter.info
Name:                mydc
  Path:              /mydc
  Hosts:             1
  Clusters:          0
  Virtual Machines:  3
  Networks:          1
  Datastores:        1

$ govc ls
/mydc/vm
/mydc/network
/mydc/host
/mydc/datastore
Next, set a variable $dc, so that we can use it later: 
$ dc=$govc ls /)
Now you can request various information from the vCenter. For example:

Network: 
$ govc ls -l=true $dc/network

ESXi Cluster: 
# cluster name
govc ls $dc/host
# details on cluster, all members and their cpu/mem utilization
govc host.info [clusterPath]

# all members listed (type: HostSystem, ResourcePool)
govc ls -l=true [clusterPath]
# for each cluster member of type HostSystem, individual stats
govc host.info [memberPath]

Datastores: 
# top level datastores (type: Datastore and StoragePod)
govc ls -l=true $dc/datastore

# for atomic Datastore type, get capacity
govc datastore.info [datastorePath]

# get StoragePod overall utilization
govc datastore.cluster.info [storagePodPath]
# get list of storage pod members
govc ls [storagePodPath]
# then get capacity of each member
govc datastore.info [storagePodMemberPath]

VM information: 
# show basic info on any VM names that start with 'myvm'
govc vm.info myvm*

# show basic info on single VM
govc vm.info myvm-001

# use full path to get detailed VM metadata
vmpath=$(govc vm.info myvm-001 | grep "Path:" | awk {'print $2'})
govc ls -l -json $vmpath

Shtudown VM, power up VM: 
# gracefully shutdown guest OS using tools
govc vm.power -s=true myvm-001
# force immediate powerdown
govc vm.power -off=true myvm-001 

# power VM back on
govc vm.power -on=true myvm-001




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