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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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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:

    .\Manage-VM.PS1 

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

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

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

    .\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.

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

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

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

Import virtual machines in Copy mode.

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

Import virtual machines in Register mode.

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

Help .\Manage-VM.PS1 -Detailed
 

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

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