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

Presentation from Sydney and Melbourne VMUG UserCon 2019

Transcript

1. Documenting Your
   Virtual Infrastructure with
   PowerShell & PowerCLI
   

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2. Tim Carman
   Thomas Duryea Logicalis
   Team Lead – Hybrid Infrastructure
   Twitter @tpcarman
   Blog www.timcarman.net
   GitHub github.com/tpcarman
   2
   

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3. Matt Allford
   Parallo
   Platform Practice Lead
   Twitter @mattallford
   Blog www.virtualtassie.com
   GitHub github.com/mattallford
   3
   

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4. Everyone wants current
   as-built documentation
   …but it’s always been difficult to keep accurate and up to date.
   

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5. 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   ● Missing, incomplete or outdated documentation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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6. ● 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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7. As Built
   Report
   A configuration document framework
   which uses Windows PowerShell to
   generate as-built documentation in
   multiple document formats.
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8. 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
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9. 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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10. 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.
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11. 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
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12. 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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13. As Built Report
    Live Demo
    Technical Preview – AsBuiltReport PowerShell Modules
    

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14. 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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15. 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.
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    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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16. 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. 17
    Thanks!
    Want more information?
    Twitter @AsBuiltReport
    Blog www.timcarman.net/as-built-report
    Slack VMware {code} or PowerShell Slack
    GitHub github.com/AsBuiltReport
    

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