Vista - Powershell, WMI and Hyper-V - Oh My

Hi guys!

I am trying to work out ways to automate the provisioning of virtual
machines under hyper-v.

If I do the following:

$var1 = get-wmiobject -namespace root\virtualization
Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService
$createnewvm = $var1.DefineVirtualSystem()

…it works fine.

So why cant I call the DefineVirtualMachine method in a single gwmi command
like this:

gwmi -namespace root\virtualization
Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService.DefineVirtualSystem()

The detailed help for get-wmiobject seems to suggest it can be done in this
way:

-------------------------- EXAMPLE 5 --------------------------

C:\PS>(get-wmiobject win32_service -filter "name='alerter'").StopService()

This command stops the Alerter service. It calls the StopService method of
the win32_service WMI class.


Am I missing something?

Thanks guys.

Rorschach wrote:Yup! Look again--you need those parentheses to tell powershell to execute
what's inside them before trying to access a member.


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Author, Tech Prosaic blog (http://halr9000.com)
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There is a good series of posts on PowerShell and Hyper-V at
http://dungkhoang.spaces.live.com/



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Richard Siddaway
All scripts are supplied "as is" and with no warranty
PowerShell MVP
Blog: http://richardsiddaway.spaces.live.com/
PowerShell User Group: http://www.get-psuguk.org.uk


"Hal Rottenberg" wrote:

Rorschach wrote:Another thing to add is that classes are composed of members. Members include
methods and properties.
Save yourself some typing and define a variable for this WMI object.

$vmgmt = get-wmi –namespace\virtualization Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService
I think you found the MSDN page but for quick peeks you can do this in
powershell. Learn the Get-Member and Get-Command cmdlets.

ps > $disks = gwmi Win32_LogicalDisk
ps > $disks | Get-Member -MemberType method
<snip>
ps > $disks | Get-Member chkdsk | format-list

TypeName : System.Management.ManagementObject#root\cimv2\Win32_LogicalDisk
Name : Chkdsk
MemberType : Method
Definition : System.Management.ManagementBaseObject Chkdsk(System.Boolean
FixErrors, System.Boolean VigorousIndexCheck, System.Boolean SkipFolderCycle,
System.Boolean ForceDismount, System.Boolean RecoverBadSectors,
System.Boolean OkToRunAtBootUp)
Me too. I don't know hyper-V well (yet), got my head deep into ESX at the
moment. However, if you grab System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM)
it comes with cmdlets to do all of this stuff I believe. You can download the
beta for free now:

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcente...m/default.mspx
The WMI method as explained in your post is actually pretty complex. Don't feel
bad about not immediately getting it! It is probably worth your time to mess
with SCVMM.


--
Author, Tech Prosaic blog (http://halr9000.com)
Webmaster, Psi (http://psi-im.org)
Community Director, PowerShellCommunity.org
Co-host, PowerScripting Podcast (http://powerscripting.net)