Using PowerCLI to set ESXi Dump Collector Settings

I needed to check the configuration of all hosts in an environment for their ESXi Dump Collector Settings and then ensure they were all set to the correct values. I was using the handy ESXi Dump Collector which ships as part of the vCenter 5.1 package.

There are no PowerCLI cmdlets for doing this (yet) so I made my own, Get-VMHostDumpCollector and Set-VMHostDumpCollector. Since you can get and set this item via esxcli I used the Get-ESXCli cmdlet for most of the work. Usage is pretty straightforward. To query the settings for all hosts.

Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostDumpCollector | Format-Table VMHost,HostVNic,NetworkServerIP,NetworkServerPort,Enabled -Auto

To configure all hosts with the same settings

Get-VMHost | Set-VMHostDumpCollector -HostVNic "vmk0" -NetworkServerIP "192.168.0.100" -NetworkServerPort 6500

Here are the functions:

function Get-VMHostDumpCollector { <# .SYNOPSIS Function to get the Dump Collector config of a VMHost.

.DESCRIPTION Function to get the Dump Collector config of a VMHost.

.PARAMETER VMHost VMHost to configure Dump Collector settings for.

.INPUTS String. System.Management.Automation.PSObject.

.OUTPUTS System.Management.Automation.PSObject.

.EXAMPLE PS> Get-VMHostDumpCollector -VMHost ESXi01

.EXAMPLE PS> Get-VMHost ESXi01,ESXi02 | Get-VMHostDumpCollector #> \[CmdletBinding()\]\[OutputType('System.Management.Automation.PSObject')\]

Param (

\[parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$true)\] \[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()\] \[PSObject\[\]\]$VMHost )

begin {

$DumpCollectorObject = @() }

process {

foreach ($ESXiHost in $VMHost){

try {

if ($ESXiHost.GetType().Name -eq "string"){

try { $ESXiHost = Get-VMHost $ESXiHost -ErrorAction Stop } catch \[Exception\]{ Write-Warning "VMHost $ESXiHost does not exist" } }

elseif ($ESXiHost -isnot \[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.VMHostImpl\]){ Write-Warning "You did not pass a string or a VMHost object" Return }

\# --- Get Dump Collector Config via ESXCli

$ESXCli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $ESXiHost

$DumpCollector = $ESXCli.System.Coredump.Network.Get()

$hash = @{

VMHost = $ESXiHost HostVNic = $DumpCollector.HostVNic NetworkServerIP = $DumpCollector.NetworkServerIP NetworkServerPort = $DumpCollector.NetworkServerPort Enabled = $DumpCollector.Enabled } $Object = New-Object PSObject -Property $hash $DumpCollectorObject += $Object

} catch \[Exception\]{

throw "Unable to get Dump Collector config" } } } end {

Write-Output $DumpCollectorObject } }

function Set-VMHostDumpCollector { <# .SYNOPSIS Function to set the Dump Collector config of a VMHost.

.DESCRIPTION Function to set the Dump Collector config of a VMHost.

.PARAMETER VMHost VMHost to configure Dump Collector settings for.

.PARAMETER HostVNic VNic to use

.PARAMETER NetworkServerIP IP of the Dump Collector

.PARAMETER NetworkServerPort Port of the Dump Collector

.INPUTS String. System.Management.Automation.PSObject.

.OUTPUTS None.

.EXAMPLE PS> Set-VMHostDumpCollector -HostVNic "vmk0" -NetworkServerIP "192.168.0.100" -NetworkServerPort 6500 -VMHost ESXi01

.EXAMPLE PS> Get-VMHost ESXi01,ESXi02 | Set-VMHostDumpCollector -HostVNic "vmk0" -NetworkServerIP "192.168.0.100" -NetworkServerPort 6500 #> \[CmdletBinding()\]

Param (

\[parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$true)\] \[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()\] \[PSObject\[\]\]$VMHost,

\[parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$false)\] \[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()\] \[String\]$HostVNic,

\[parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$false)\] \[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()\] \[String\]$NetworkServerIP,

\[parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$false)\] \[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()\] \[int\]$NetworkServerPort )

begin {

}

process {

foreach ($ESXiHost in $VMHost){

try {

if ($ESXiHost.GetType().Name -eq "string"){

try { $ESXiHost = Get-VMHost $ESXiHost -ErrorAction Stop } catch \[Exception\]{ Write-Warning "VMHost $ESXiHost does not exist" } }

elseif ($ESXiHost -isnot \[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.VMHostImpl\]){ Write-Warning "You did not pass a string or a VMHost object" Return }

\# --- Set the Dump Collector config via ESXCli Write-Verbose "Setting Dump Collector config for $ESXiHost" $ESXCli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost $ESXiHost

$ESXCli.System.Coredump.Network.Set($null, $HostVNic, $NetworkServerIP, $NetworkServerPort) | Out-Null $ESXCli.System.Coredump.Network.Set($true) | Out-Null

Write-Verbose "Successfully Set Dump Collector config for $ESXiHost" } catch \[Exception\]{

throw "Unable to set Dump Collector config" } } } end {

} }