VSphere 8.0 Continued

Prerequisites

• Configured ESXi Host
• Basic PowerShell Knowledge
• PowerCli Installed
• Windows Server 2022 Evaluation ISO
• Download link
• VMWare's VMRC Installed
• Download link

Connecting to ESXi host

$eSXi01Root = Get-Credential root

Connect-VIServer -Server '10.0.1.50' -Credential $eSXi01Root

Copying ISO to Datastore

Get-PSDrive

To find out the datastore path we're going to use Get-PSDrive.

Get-PSDrive

Name           Used (GB)     Free (GB) Provider      Root
----           ---------     --------- --------      ---
Alias                                  Alias
C                 418.38         46.61 FileSystem    C:\  
Cert                                   Certificate   \
D                   8.85         50.89 FileSystem    D:\
Env                                    Environment
Function                               Function
HKCU                                   Registry      HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKLM                                   Registry      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Variable                               Variable
vi                                     VimInventory  \LastConnectedVCenterServer
vis                                    VimInventory  \
vmstore                                VimDatastore  \LastConnectedVCenterServer
vmstores                               VimDatastore  \
WSMan                                  WSMan

Make a Directory to Store the ISOs

We're going to make a new folder named iso on the datastore data that we setup in the last post. You can use tab completion to find the correct path.

mkdir vmstores:\10.0.1.50@443\ha-datacenter\data\iso

Transferring the ISO to the ESXi Host

The command we're going to use is Copy-DatastoreItem. It requires an Item source and a Destination path.

Copy-DatastoreItem -Item 'C:\Temp\ISO\Windows Server 2022.iso' -Destination 'vmstores:\10.0.1.50@443\ha-datacenter\data\iso\Windows Server 2022.iso' -Force

The transfer time will depend on your network and disk speeds.

Provisioning a Virtual Machine

Gathering Required Information

GuestID; Information can be found on the vSphere API documentation link.

• Click All Enumerations
• In the -- Quick Index -- bar search for VirtualMachineGuestOsIdentifier and a list will appear.

NetworkName; We can get this the Get-VirtualNetwork command.

New-VM

We're going to use a PowerShell Splat to keep the code easier to read. You can read about Splat on Microsoft's docs. To find all available properties you can use the Get-Help command or the VMWare docs.

Get-help New-VM -Full

$NewVM_Properties = @{
    CD             = $true
    CoresPerSocket = 4
    Datastore      = 'data'
    DiskGB         = 50
    GuestId        = 'windows2022srvNext_64Guest'
    MemoryGB       = 16
    Name           = 'TTE-DC-01'
    NetworkName    = 'VM Network'
    Notes          = 'Primary Domain Controller for AD.TimewellTech.ca'
    NumCpu         = 4
}

New-VM @NewVM_Properties

Name                 PowerState Num CPUs MemoryGB
----                 ---------- -------- --------
TTE-DC-01            PoweredOff 4        16.000

Add a Secondary HDD to the VM for the Active Directory Database

$NewHardDisk_Properties = @{
    CapacityGB = '40'
    Datastore = 'data'
    Persistence = 'Persistent'
    VM = "$($NewVM_Properties.Name)" 
    # I can't remember what this is called, but it allows us to get the VMName
}

New-HardDisk @NewHardDisk_Properties

CapacityGB      Persistence                                                    Filename
----------      -----------                                                    --------
40.000          Persistent                            [data] TTE-DC-01/TTE-DC-01_1.vmdk

Connect the ISO to New VM's CD Drive

$NewVM_Properties.Name Using dot notation to get the VM's Name.

[data] Is how you have to reference the datastore. I found this out by looking at the GUI

Get-CDDrive -VM $NewVM_Properties.Name | 
    Set-CDDrive -IsoPath '[data] iso/Windows Server 2022.iso' -StartConnected $true

Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Performing the operation "Setting IsoPath: [data] iso/Windows Server 2022.iso, StartConnected: True, NoMedia: False." on    
target "CD/DVD drive 1".
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"):

Press Enter to continue.

IsoPath              HostDevice                             RemoteDevice
-------              ----------                             ------------
[data] iso/Window...

Start the Virtual Machine & Open a Virtual Console

Start-VM -VM $newVMArguments.Name

Name                 PowerState Num CPUs MemoryGB
----                 ---------- -------- --------
TTE-DC-01            PoweredOn  4        16.000

You must have VMRC installed on your local machine otherwise head to your web-gui.

Open-VMConsoleWindow -VM $newVMArguments.Name

A remote console will appear.

Next post we're going to be configuring the Primary Domain Controller.