Playing with the vRanger 4.5 vAPI (Powershell :-))

Since Vizioncore came out with vRanger 4.x, last year, I been working on porting the VBS script “vRanger Script version 2.0” to Powershell.
During this time I have found several bugs/missing functionality in the vAPI.
Vizioncore have corrected the bugs with new releases of vRanger.
The first vRanger version where all vAPI cmdlets worked in was version 4.2.3.

Porting the script from VBS presented me with a few challenges.

• A reported error in the Get-Date cmdlet in Powershel 2.0.
  Had to use a workaround.

A few words on the scrips functionality.

• Control vRanger backups from vCenter (simple – one interface).
• Perform a FULL backup of DiskO of a VM.
• Perform a FULL backup of all disks of a VM.
• Backup a VM on a specific weekday.
• Control what week (Even/Odd).
• Create a log file.
• Delete previous backup files from repository.
• Delete previous savepoints.
• Send an email when the jobs are completed – incl. succes/errors.
• Offload the files to tape – TSM
• Send mail when TSM is finished offloading backup files.
• And many more…..

When I started coding the script, I found, that if I used functions for all functionality the script was easier to read. Using functions also supplied me with the opportunity of reusing functions – less work :-).

Some of the functions was created using examples posted and mailed by Scott Harold from Quest and TheVesi./vEcoShell.

Prerequirements

• Powershell 1.0 or 2.0 form Microsoft.
• Vizioncore vRanger 4.x
• A VMware vCenter server, a host and a few VMs.

The script can be downloaded here.

A quick overview of the functions.
Include the right PSSnapins

function LoadSnapin{
    Add-PSSnapin vRanger.API.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    Add-PSSnapin vmware.VimAutomation.core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}

LoadSnapin

Delete all previous savepoints – from the repository.

function RemoveAllSavePoints{
	param ($RASP_RepoName)
	$RASP_repoID = Get-Repository | where {$_.Name -eq $RASP_RepoName}
	$RASP_SPlist = Get-RepositorySavePoint -ID $RASP_repoID.Id

	foreach ($RASP_SP in $RASP_SPlist){
		#write $RASP_SP
		Remove-SavePoint -SavePointsToRemove $RASP_SP
	}
}

RemoveAllSavePoints "Remote-Location"

Is a backup job exist with the same name as the one to create – delete it.

function Del-vRangerBackupJobs {
	param ($delJobName)
	$delTemplateID = Get-JobTemplate | where {$_.JobName -eq $delJobName}
	# Verify that a BackupJob named XXX is present before deleting it.
	if ($delTemplateID){
		#write $delTemplateID.JobName
		Remove-JobTemplate -id $delTemplateID.Id
	}
}

Del-vRangerBackupJobs "$Wednesday-Even"

Create the list of VMs to exclude.

function Filter-VMbyCF {
    param ($customF, $val)
    foreach ($vm in $vmlist) {
        $vm.CustomFields | ForEach-Object {
            $cf = $_
            if ($_.Key -like $customF -and $_.Value -like $val){
                    return $vm.name
            }
        }
    }
}

function New-vRangerExcludeList {
    param ($exclude, $include)
    $excludeArray = @()
    $exclude | ForEach-Object {
        if ($include -notcontains $_.Name){
            $excludeArray += ($_.Config.Uuid)
        }
    }
    return $excludeArray
}

$vmlist = Get-VM
$tmplist = Get-Template
$vmlist= $vmlist + $tmplist
$vmFilter = Filter-VMbyCF $customField $CFValue
$vmlistview = $vmlist | Get-View
$excludeList = New-vRangerExcludeList -exclude $vmlistview -include $vmFilter

Create the new backup job.

function New-vRangerBackupJob {
	param ($customJobName, $customCFValue, $customFieldName, $customRepoName, $customExcludeList, $customEmail)
        $jobDesc = "This backup job is created by Logica for use in DR.  All VMs with a Custom Field labeled: $customFieldName with a value of: $customCFValue will be backed up"
        $jobEntity = Get-InventoryEntity -Type VirtualCenter
	$jobRepos = Get-Repository | where {$_.Name -eq $customRepoName}
        $jobFlag = New-BackupFlag -CheckDestinationFreeSpace:$true -UseCompression:$true -PerformNetworkBackupOnFailure:$true

	# Check if all disks or just disk 0
	if ($customJobName -like "*-All*"){
		#write "All - Disks"
		#Add-BackupJobTemplate -JobName $customJobName -JobDescription $jobDesc -JobEntity $jobEntity -ExcludedVMList $customExcludeList -NotificationList $email -TargetRepository $jobRepos -Flags $jobFlag -NumberOfSavePoints 1 -SpaceSavingTechnologyTypeFlag None
		Add-BackupJobTemplate -JobName $customJobName -JobDescription $jobDesc -JobEntity $jobEntity -ExcludedVMList $customExcludeList -NotificationList $customEmail -TargetRepository $jobRepos -Flags $jobFlag -NumberOfSavePoints 1 -SpaceSavingTechnologyTypeFlag None -SpaceSavingCountThreshold 6 -SpaceSavingPercentSizeThreshold 50
	}
	else{
		#write "Only Disk 0"
		#Add-BackupJobTemplate -JobName $customJobName -JobDescription $jobDesc -JobEntity $jobEntity -ExcludedVMList $customExcludeList -NotificationList $email -IncludedDiskList 0 -TargetRepository $jobRepos -Flags $jobFlag -NumberOfSavePoints 1 -SpaceSavingTechnologyTypeFlag None
		Add-BackupJobTemplate -JobName $customJobName -JobDescription $jobDesc -JobEntity $jobEntity -ExcludedVMList $customExcludeList -NotificationList $customEmail -IncludedDiskList 0 -TargetRepository $jobRepos -Flags $jobFlag -NumberOfSavePoints 1 -SpaceSavingTechnologyTypeFlag None -SpaceSavingCountThreshold 6 -SpaceSavingPercentSizeThreshold 50
	}
}

New-vRangerBackupJob "Wednesday-Even" "Wednesday-Even" "Backup" "Remote-Location" $excludeList "to@email.com"

Start the backup job.

function Run-BackupJob{
	param ($runJobName)
	$runTemplateID = Get-TemplateID $runJobName
	Run-JobsNow $runTemplateID
}

Run-BackupJob "Wednesday-Even"

Wait for the backup job to finish.

function Get-TemplateID{
	param($tmpJobName)
	$arrTemplate = get-jobtemplate | where {$_.JobName -eq $tmpJobName}
	return $arrTemplate.ID
}

function WaitForJobToFinish{
	param ($strWaitJob)
	$strCompleted = "NotStarted"
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 300	# 5 minutes
	$jobTemplates = get-JobTemplate | where {$_.JobName -eq $strWaitJob}
	foreach ($job in $jobTemplates){
		do{
			$tasksinfo = get-job |where {$_.ParentJobTemplateID -eq $job.TemplateVersionID}
			foreach ($task in $tasksinfo){
				Start-Sleep -Seconds 300	# 5 minutes
				$strCompleted = $task.JobState

                # Make sure job is running - if not start it...
                if ($task.JobState -eq $NULL -or $task.JobState -eq "NotStarted"){
                    Run-BackupJob $strWaitJob
                    Start-Sleep -Seconds 120	# 2 minutes
                }
			}
		}
		while ($strCompleted -notmatch "Completed")
	}
}

WaitForJobToFinish "Wednesday-Even"

Send TSM finished mail.

function FuncMail {
	#param($strTo, $strFrom, $strSubject, $strBody, $smtpServer)
	param($To, $From, $Subject, $Body, $smtpServer)

	$msg = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage
	$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
	$msg.From = $From
	$msg.To.Add($To)
	$msg.Subject = $Subject
	$msg.IsBodyHtml = 1
	$msg.Body = $Body
	$smtp.Send($msg)
}

FuncMail -To "to@email.com" -From "from@email.com" -Subject "vRanger Pro: TSM backup finished" -Body "Your Body" -smtpServer "your.mailserver.com"