ManageVM

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PowerShell script to manage Hyper-V Virtual Machines based on JSON configuration file.

• ManageVM
  • Motivation
  • Objectives
  • License
  • Features
  • Supportability
    • System Requirements
  • Usage
    • EXAMPLE1
    • EXAMPLE2
    • EXAMPLE3
    • EXAMPLE4
    • EXAMPLE5
    • EXAMPLE6
  • Help
  • Dependency
    • Deploy-VHD.ps1
    • Enable Nested VM

Motivation

When I was preparing a demo lab with 10 virtual machines running in 20+ Hyper-V physical machines each, I create new virtual machines with same configuration in one physical machine first, then export, import them to other hosts. I felt very boring to do it by clicking mouse button with Hyper-V console. So UI is not good way to do this job. Automation is definitely the way to manage the virtual machines in large scale.

Objectives

Using script to create, export, import or remove multiple virtual machines with same configuration, administrator only needs to setup the configuration file, and then run the script. And edit existed virtual machines to align the configuration is also necessary.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Features

Script will use a term "Project" as the entry folder name to save files of all virtual machines. Each virtual machine will be named begin a prefix, the folder name is the same as virtual machine name. These settings are included in JSON configuration file. Following settings can be set in configuration file:

• Project name
• Virtual machine type (if it is virtual host with nested virtualization or not)
• OS disk template
• Virtual machine number
• Virtual machine name prefix
• Virtual machine generation
• Power on or not after creating
• Network adapter settings
• Hardware (CPU, memory, data disk)

Manage Virtual Machine features:

• Create New Virtual Machine
  • Generation 1 and 2.
  • Check OS disk partition type (GUID or MBR).
  • Create internal virtual network switch if not existed.
  • Update existed virtual machine configuration with same name.
  • Attach OS disk based on VHD(X) template.
  • Attach data disks to SCSI controller (up to 63 disks).
  • Create virtual network adapters and attach to switch.
  • Enable nested VM if necessary.
• Export existed Virtual Machines
  • Export virtual machines based on JSON configuration file.
• Import Virtual Machines
  • Import virtual machines under one project folder if destination folder is provided.
  • Register virtual machines under one project folder if no destination folder.
  • Ignore virtual machine configuration file (.VMCX) under snapshot folder.
• Remove Virtual Machines (Forcefully to remove folders)
  • Remove virtual machines based on JSON configuration file.
  • Remove all virtual machines in Hyper-V host.
  • Shutdown virtual machine if it is running and then remove.
  • Remove files and folders with "-ForceFully" switch

Hyper-V role installation state checking.

PowerShell console administrative mode checking.

Supportability

System Requirements

You can run the script on following OS versions and PowerShell version:

• Windows Server 2016
• Windows 10
• PowerShell 4 or above with elevated mode console

Usage

Put the script and all other files under a folder. Run PowerShell command window in "Elevated" mode. Then go to the folder to run it.

Please refer following table for file list:

File Name	Description	Memo
Manage-VM.ps1	Main script
DeployVHD.ps1	Dependency	Set the un-attend settings to OS disk.
Example.Manage-VM.ps1	Example script	Use Manage-VM.ps1 to create multiple VMs.
Example.Manage-VM.Settings.Client.JSON	Example configuration file	VM configuration for client.
Example.Manage-VM.Settings.DomainController.JSON	Example configuration file	VM configuration for Domain Controller.
Example.Manage-VM.Settings.S2D.JSON	Example configuration file	VM configuration for storage.
Example.Manage-VM.Settings.SDN.JSON	Example configuration file	VM configuration for network.
unattend_amd64_Client.xml	Un-attend file template.	For Windows Server.
unattend_amd64_Server.xml	Un-attend file template.	For Windows Client.

EXAMPLE1

    .\Manage-VM.PS1 

Create new virtual machines based on default configuration file Manage-VM.Setting.JSON.

EXAMPLE2

    .\Manage-VM.PS1 -VMCF .\Manage-VM.Settings.ProjectAlpha.JSON 

Create new virtual machines based on configuration file Manage-VM.Settings.ProjectAlpha.JSON.

EXAMPLE3

    .\Manage-VM.PS1 -Export -ExportDestinationPath V:\VM\Exported 

Export the virtual machines to folder V:\VM\Exported. VM names are provided in Manage-VM.Setting.JSON. Folder name will be the project name in configuration file.

EXAMPLE4

    .\Manage-VM.PS1 -ForceRemoval -VMCF .\Manage-VM.Settings.ProjectAlpha.JSON  

Remove virtual machines based on information of configuration file Manage-VM.Settings.ProjectAlpha.JSON.

EXAMPLE5

    .\Manage-VM.PS1 -Import -ImportSourcePath V:\VM\Exported\ProjectAlpha -ImportDestinationPath V:\VM

Import virtual machines in Copy mode.

EXAMPLE6

    .\Manage-VM.PS1 -Import -ImportSourcePath V:\VM\ProjectAlpha

Import virtual machines in Register mode.

Help

The script aligns with standard PowerShell help format. To get the help of the script, just run command:

Help .\Manage-VM.PS1 -Detailed
 

Dependency

Deploy-VHD.ps1

The script depends on the script 'Deploy-VHD.ps1' which is from my another repository. It is used to create un-attend files and put in to the OS disk.

'Deploy-VHD.ps1' version 2.0.100.Main.20170218.1015.0.Release is included in this repository.

Please refer to: https://github.com/wellsluo/DeployVHD

Enable Nested VM

The script 'Enable-NestedVm.ps1" is used to enable nested virtualization feature of Hyper-V.

Please refer following blog for detail: Windows Insider Preview: Nested Virtualization