Had an issue last night with setting a VM’s IP Address, DNS, and name using Invoke-VMScript after powering on the VM. The Invoke-VMScript would timeout because VMware Tools was not started. I tried using sleeps in the script to pause the script long enough so Tools would start. I could not get this to work consistently so I did some searching around and found this bit of PowerCLI code that loops until the status of VMware Tools returns OK.
write-host “Waiting for VM Tools to Start”
do {
$toolsStatus = (Get-VM $vm | Get-View).Guest.ToolsStatus
write-host $toolsStatus
sleep 3
} until ( $toolsStatus -eq ‘toolsOk’ )
Exactly what I needed it to do. Will probably enhance it to update tools if $toolsStatus is equal to ‘toolsOld’ but not sure that will be necessary I am usually pretty good at keeping the VM tools installs up to date in my templates.
I cannot find the source where I found this, it was part of another script and I should have saved the URL. If this is your snippet – THANKS!
“You might want to check out (Get-VM $vm).extensiondata.Guest.ToolsStatus rather than (Get-VM $vm | Get-View).Guest.ToolsStatus it should give you the same results but be slightly quicker. ”
3 thoughts on “PowerCLI to Check for VMware ToolsOK”
This helped me out. For those fooling around with the “Wait-Tools” cmdlet, dont waste your time. Use this little bit of code. I changed it up a bit though
Write-Host “Waiting for VM Tools to Start on $VM”
do {
Set-Variable -name ToolsStatus -Value (Get-VM $VM).extensiondata.Guest.ToolsStatus
Write-Host $toolsStatus
sleep 3
}
until ($toolsStatus -eq ‘toolsOk’)
I use the Set-Variable cmdlet so that it ensures it reruns the commands each time it goes through the loop – and I used Alans tip above. Seems to work ok – just alot of output if the VM takes awhile to start
WORKED GREAT – Thanks so much – I incorporated a few items together and created this
$vms = Get-Content c:\scripts\bp-vm.txt
Connect-VIServer -Server -Protocol https -User -Password
foreach ($vm in $vms){
Get-VM $vm | Start-VM -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
Write-Host “Waiting for VM Tools to Start on $VM”
do {
Set-Variable -name ToolsStatus -Value (Get-VM $VM).extensiondata.Guest.ToolsStatus
Write-Host $toolsStatus
sleep 3
}
until ($toolsStatus -eq ‘toolsOk’)
}
Had an issue last night with setting a VM’s IP Address, DNS, and name using Invoke-VMScript after powering on the VM. The Invoke-VMScript would timeout because VMware Tools was not started. I tried using sleeps in the script to pause the script long enough so Tools would start. I could not get this to work consistently so I did some searching around and found this bit of PowerCLI code that loops until the status of VMware Tools returns OK.
This helped me out. For those fooling around with the “Wait-Tools” cmdlet, dont waste your time. Use this little bit of code. I changed it up a bit though
Write-Host “Waiting for VM Tools to Start on $VM”
do {
Set-Variable -name ToolsStatus -Value (Get-VM $VM).extensiondata.Guest.ToolsStatus
Write-Host $toolsStatus
sleep 3
}
until ($toolsStatus -eq ‘toolsOk’)
I use the Set-Variable cmdlet so that it ensures it reruns the commands each time it goes through the loop – and I used Alans tip above. Seems to work ok – just alot of output if the VM takes awhile to start
Thanks again for this!
Jake
WORKED GREAT – Thanks so much – I incorporated a few items together and created this
$vms = Get-Content c:\scripts\bp-vm.txt
Connect-VIServer -Server -Protocol https -User -Password
foreach ($vm in $vms){
Get-VM $vm | Start-VM -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
Write-Host “Waiting for VM Tools to Start on $VM”
do {
Set-Variable -name ToolsStatus -Value (Get-VM $VM).extensiondata.Guest.ToolsStatus
Write-Host $toolsStatus
sleep 3
}
until ($toolsStatus -eq ‘toolsOk’)
}
This works a lot better for me! Give it a try!
while($true) {
$now = Get-Date -format “dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss”
Write-Host “===================[ $now ]=======================”
Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine | Where-Object {$_.Runtime.PowerState -eq “poweredOn” -and $_.Guest.IPAddress -eq $null} | Select Name,
@{N=”ToolsStatus”;E={
if($_.Guest.GuestState -eq “notRunning”){
“Not running” }
else{
$_.Guest.ToolsVersionStatus.Replace(“guestToolsNeedUpgrade”,”Out of date”).Replace(“guestToolsNotInstalled”,”Not installed”).Replace(“guestToolsCurrent”,”OK”).Replace(“guestToolsUnmanaged”,”Unmanaged”)
}
}},
@{N=’State’;E={$_.Runtime.PowerState}}
Write-Host “`n”
#sleep 3
}