VMUG UserCon 2019 - Documenting Your Virtual Infrastructure with PowerShell & PowerCLI

Transcript

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   Documenting Your Virtual Infrastructure with PowerShell & PowerCLI

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   Tim Carman Thomas Duryea Logicalis Team Lead – Hybrid Infrastructure

   Twitter @tpcarman Blog www.timcarman.net GitHub github.com/tpcarman 2
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   Matt Allford Parallo Platform Practice Lead Twitter @mattallford Blog www.virtualtassie.com

   GitHub github.com/mattallford 3
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   Everyone wants current as-built documentation …but it’s always been difficult

   to keep accurate and up to date.
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   The common problem • Missing, incomplete or outdated documentation •

   Lack of comprehensive reporting tools • Reporting tools are inconsistent in output, style and formatting • Manually generating documentation is time consuming and error prone • Every environment is different 5
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   • Be simple to build, maintain, deploy and use •

   Be consistent in operation, styling and output formats • Be modular to work with different vendors and technologies • Be granular to provide diverse levels of detail • Be automated to generate documents quickly and easily 6
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   As Built Report A configuration document framework which uses Windows

   PowerShell to generate as-built documentation in multiple document formats. 7
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   PowerShell Modules As Built Report is installable from the PowerShell

   Gallery, providing a quick and simple method to install and update What’s new with As Built Report? GitHub Organization Moving to a GitHub organization allows each report to have its own repository, management and project independence 8
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   Multiple Document Formats DOC, HTML, XML, Text Custom Formatting Style

   documents to your look & feel Tailor the report information detail level Health Checks Highlight configuration issues Timestamps Append date and time to filename Email Delivery Attach and send reports via email 9 As Built Report
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    Customise the style & configuration As Built Configuration Configure settings

    of the report such as company information, user folder and email settings. Report Configuration Set the level of detail to report on by section. Enable or disable health checks to highlight configuration issues. Configure additional options for the report type. Report Styles Use a default style or create your own to match your corporate identity. Set page orientation, text and table formatting with fonts, colours, borders and highlighted cells/rows. 10
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    Generating an As Built Report in 4 easy steps 11

    1 Open Windows PowerShell console Ensure PowerShell version 5.1 or higher is installed. Install 3rd party PowerShell cmdlets Ensure that you have pre- installed any 3rd party PowerShell cmdlets 2 Install-Module AsBuiltReport Install AsBuiltReport module from PowerShell Gallery 3 New-AsBuiltReport Run New-AsBuiltReport specifying the –Report, -Target, -Credential, -Format, -OutputPath and other parameters 4
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    Multi vCenter Support Multiple Sections vCenter, Resource Pools, Clusters, Hosts,

    Network, vSAN, Datastores, Datastore Clusters, VMs, Update Manager 6 Information Detail Levels Disabled, Summary*, Informative, Detailed, Adv Detailed, Comprehensive Health Checks Toggle health checks on/off individually 12 VMware vSphere Report * Future Release
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    As Built Report Live Demo Technical Preview – AsBuiltReport PowerShell

    Modules
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    Place your screenshot here 14 Contribute to the project Provide

    feedback, raise issues, suggest new features, develop new reports. https://github.com/AsBuiltReport
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    Let’s review some concepts Simple to Deploy & Use Installable

    from the PowerShell Gallery. Uses common toolsets which are widely available and adopted. Supports Multiple Reports As Built Report is a configuration document framework that can support one to many reports. Supports Multiple Document Formats Generate reports in MS Word, HTML, XML or Text. MS Word does not need to be installed to generate reports. 15 Customisable Customise the look and feel of the report. Specify different configurations for different environments. Fully Automated Generate documentation which is accurate and current in a consistent and automated fashion. Open Source Free to use. Contribute to the project to improve it’s functionality and capabilities.
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    What’s next? • Rewrite existing as built reports ◦ Nutanix

    ◦ Cisco UCS • Develop new as built reports (these are some on the ToDo list) ◦ VMware Site Recovery Manager, vRealize Operations & vRealize Automation ◦ HPE Nimble & iLO ◦ DELL EMC Isilon, iDRAC, OpenManage • PowerShell Core Functionality Testing 16
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    17 Thanks! Want more information? Twitter @AsBuiltReport Blog www.timcarman.net/as-built-report Slack

    VMware {code} or PowerShell Slack GitHub github.com/AsBuiltReport