We’re currently thinking about automating Windows Updates and the involved disaster snapshot-copy to a degree, where we don’t need to intervene anymore.
Right now, we already have a rudimentary scheduler in place, which does the reboots for some (200 ..) systems already. Now, we’d like to extend it to also cover the bi-weekly Windows Update spree.
Since PowerShell (and PowerCLI) work quite well with vSphere automation, I cooked up the below script to first shutdown a virtual machine (for snapshot consistency reasons), then take a snapshot and power on the virtual machine again afterwards.
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# LICENSE: GNU General Public License v2 # COPYRIGHT: Copyright 2010 Christian Heim if ($args.length -lt 1) { Write-Host Write-Host " OfflineSnapshot.ps1 " Write-Host Write-Host " - Name of the virtual machine." Write-Host " Please be aware: This script uses the supplied name to shutdown a virtual machine." Write-Host " Make sure, that a) the name is unique before using this script and b) don't blame me" Write-Host exit 1 } $vcenter = "vcenter.home.barfoo.org" # Add the VI-Snapin if it isn't loaded already if ( (Get-PSSnapin -Name "VMware.VimAutomation.Core" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null ) { Add-PSSnapin -Name "VMware.VimAutomation.Core" } Connect-VIServer -server $vcenter >$NULL 2>&1 $VMname = $args[0] $VMname = "$VMname*" $VM = Get-VM $VMname Shutdown-VMGuest -VM $VM -Confirm:$false >$NULL 2>&1 $VM = Get-VM $VMname # Need to loop here, since Shutdown-VMGuest is asynchronous, meaning it returns after # the command has been sent, instead of returning when the VM is powered off! While ($VM.PowerState -ne "PoweredOff") { Start-Sleep -Seconds 5 $VM = Get-VM $VMname } $fulltime = Get-Date -f "F" $VM | New-Snapshot -Name ( Get-Date -f "d" ) -Description "Automatic snapshot for Windows-Updates, dated $fulltime" >$NULL Start-Sleep -Seconds 5 >$NULL Start-VM -VM $VM -Confirm:$false >$NULL |