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VMware

vSphere is a suite of core infrastructure solutions for managing and monitoring a virtual infrastructure. The term was coined in 2009 with the release of VMware Virtual Infrastructure 4.

VMware vCenter Server server is the management layer of multiple ESXi hosts, allowing clusters to be created and enabling features like vSphere HA and vSphere DRS. It comes as either a Windows application or a virtual appliance running on a stripped-down version of SUSE Linux.

vCenter includes the Platform Services Controller (PSC) which consolidates several previously separate components, such as the SSO, Inventory Service, and Certificate Management. This can be installed on the same host as vCenter, or separately as either a Windows application or Linux appliance.

Processes

- **hostd** ESXi host agent
- **vpxa** vCenter agent

PowerCLI

Setup
Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI # (1)
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser # (2)
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Fail -Scope AllUsers
  1. If the Hyper-V module is installed, the -AllowClobber option must be provided.
  2. Allow local scripts to be run, but not those downloaded from the web or email.
Decommission servers
Connect-VIServer -Server $viserver # (1)

$servers = Import-CSV $args[0]

foreach ($server in $servers) {
    $VM = Get-VM -Name $server.Name
    Stop-VM $VM -Confirm -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    New-TagAssignment -Entity $VM -Tag (Get-Tag -Name TPA_Decomm) # (3)
    Set-NetworkAdapter -NetworkAdapter (Get-NetworkAdapter -VM $VM) -StartConnected $false -Confirm
    Move-VM -VM $VM -Destination DECOMMISSION # (2)
}
  1. Connect-VIServer establishes a connection to a vCenter Server system, checking certificates according to the policy set by Set-PowerCLIConfiguration. The connection can be destroyed with Disconnect-VIServer
  2. If the destination folder is under a parent, then apparently the best that can be done is to retrieve the Folder object first, specifying the parent folder to -Location: 
    Move-VM -VM $VM -Destination (Get-Folder Linux -Location PROD)
  3. Remove tag assignment
    Remove-TagAssignment (Get-TagAssignment -Entity $VM -Tag (Get-Tag -Name TPA_Decomm))