How do I get the tasks associated with vCenter objects using PowerCLI?
We are using vSphere 6.7 in our environment.
I am writing a script to look for certain tasks associated with specific target resources in our vCenter environment. However, Get-Task only returns recent tasks that show up in the Recent Tasks view in the HTML5 client. I can get events associated with resources just fine, for example I can get the events associated with a given datastore folder like so:
Get-Folder FOLDER_NAME -Type Datastore | Get-VIEvent
But there doesn't seem to be an equivalent way to get tasks associated with those same resources. Get-Task doesn't accept pipeline input in the same way Get-VIEvent does, and results in an error:
Get-Folder FOLDER_NAME -Type Datastore | Get-Task
Output:
Get-Task: The input object cannot be bound to any parameters for the command either
because the command does not take pipeline input or the input and its properties
do not match any of the parameters that take pipeline input.
Get-Task also doesn't show any tasks that don't show in the Recent Tasks view of the HTML5 client.
Inspecting the object doesn't seem to offer any members that let me see tasks targeting these resources:
Get-Folder FOLDER_NAME -Type Datastore | Get-Member
Output:
TypeName: VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.DatastoreManagement.DatastoreClusterImpl
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
ConvertToVersion Method T VersionedObjectInterop.ConvertToVersion[T]()
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetClient Method VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Interop.V1.VIAutomation VIObjectCoreInterop.GetClient()
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
IsConvertableTo Method bool VersionedObjectInterop.IsConvertableTo(type type)
LockUpdates Method void ExtensionData.LockUpdates()
ToString Method string ToString()
UnlockUpdates Method void ExtensionData.UnlockUpdates()
CapacityGB Property decimal CapacityGB {get;}
ExtensionData Property System.Object ExtensionData {get;}
FreeSpaceGB Property decimal FreeSpaceGB {get;}
Id Property string Id {get;}
IOLatencyThresholdMillisecond Property System.Nullable[int] IOLatencyThresholdMillisecond {get;}
IOLoadBalanceEnabled Property bool IOLoadBalanceEnabled {get;}
Name Property string Name {get;}
SdrsAutomationLevel Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Cluster.DrsAutomationLevel SdrsAutomationLevel {get;}
SpaceUtilizationThresholdPercent Property System.Nullable[int] SpaceUtilizationThresholdPercent {get;}
Uid Property string Uid {get;}
This isn't just for folder tasks, though, I can't seem to enumerate any tasks for a given resource at all if they aren't in the Recent Tasks view of the HTML5 client. Conversely, in the HTML5 client, I can easily enumerate tasks on a given resource using its Monitor tab, but this doesn't help with automation short of crawling through the UI programmatically (not happening):
How do I use PowerCLI to see the tasks targeting specific resources using PowerCLI?
Solution
Luc Dekens wrote a scripted function to tackle your issue. Here's a copy of the function, you can target specific resources with the entity param.
function Get-TaskPlus {
<#
.SYNOPSIS Returns vSphere Task information
.DESCRIPTION The function will return vSphere task info. The
available parameters allow server-side filtering of the
results
.NOTES Author: Luc Dekens
.PARAMETER Alarm
When specified the function returns tasks triggered by
specified alarm
.PARAMETER Entity
When specified the function returns tasks for the
specific vSphere entity
.PARAMETER Recurse
Is used with the Entity. The function returns tasks
for the Entity and all it's children
.PARAMETER State
Specify the State of the tasks to be returned. Valid
values are: error, queued, running and success
.PARAMETER Start
The start date of the tasks to retrieve
.PARAMETER Finish
The end date of the tasks to retrieve.
.PARAMETER UserName
Only return tasks that were started by a specific user
.PARAMETER MaxSamples
Specify the maximum number of tasks to return
.PARAMETER Reverse
When true, the tasks are returned newest to oldest. The
default is oldest to newest
.PARAMETER Server
The vCenter instance(s) for which the tasks should
be returned
.PARAMETER Realtime
A switch, when true the most recent tasks are also returned.
.PARAMETER Details
A switch, when true more task details are returned
.PARAMETER Keys
A switch, when true all the keys are returned
.EXAMPLE
PS> Get-TaskPlus -Start (Get-Date).AddDays(-1)
.EXAMPLE
PS> Get-TaskPlus -Alarm $alarm -Details
#>
param(
[CmdletBinding()]
[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Alarm.AlarmDefinitionImpl]$Alarm,
[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.InventoryItemImpl]$Entity,
[switch]$Recurse = $false,
[VMware.Vim.TaskInfoState[]]$State,
[DateTime]$Start,
[DateTime]$Finish,
[string]$UserName,
[int]$MaxSamples = 100,
[switch]$Reverse = $true,
[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.VIServerImpl[]]$Server = $global:DefaultVIServer,
[switch]$Realtime,
[switch]$Details,
[switch]$Keys,
[int]$WindowSize = 100
)
begin {
function Get-TaskDetails {
param(
[VMware.Vim.TaskInfo[]]$Tasks
)
begin {
$psV3 = $PSversionTable.PSVersion.Major -ge 3
}
process {
$tasks | ForEach-Object {
if ($psV3) {
$object = [ordered]@{ }
}
else {
$object = @{ }
}
$object.Add("Name", $_.Name)
$object.Add("Description", $_.Description.Message)
if ($Details) { $object.Add("DescriptionId", $_.DescriptionId) }
if ($Details) { $object.Add("Task Created", $_.QueueTime) }
$object.Add("Task Started", $_.StartTime)
if ($Details) { $object.Add("Task Ended", $_.CompleteTime) }
$object.Add("State", $_.State)
$object.Add("Result", $_.Result)
$object.Add("Entity", $_.EntityName)
$object.Add("VIServer", $VIObject.Name)
$object.Add("Error", $_.Error.ocalizedMessage)
if ($Details) {
$object.Add("Cancelled", (& { if ($_.Cancelled) { "Y" }else { "N" } }))
$object.Add("Reason", $_.Reason.GetType().Name.Replace("TaskReason", ""))
$object.Add("AlarmName", $_.Reason.AlarmName)
$object.Add("AlarmEntity", $_.Reason.EntityName)
$object.Add("ScheduleName", $_.Reason.Name)
$object.Add("User", $_.Reason.UserName)
}
if ($keys) {
$object.Add("Key", $_.Key)
$object.Add("ParentKey", $_.ParentTaskKey)
$object.Add("RootKey", $_.RootTaskKey)
}
New-Object PSObject -Property $object
}
}
}
$filter = New-Object VMware.Vim.TaskFilterSpec
if ($Alarm) {
$filter.Alarm = $Alarm.ExtensionData.MoRef
}
if ($Entity) {
$filter.Entity = New-Object VMware.Vim.TaskFilterSpecByEntity
$filter.Entity.entity = $Entity.ExtensionData.MoRef
if ($Recurse) {
$filter.Entity.Recursion = [VMware.Vim.TaskFilterSpecRecursionOption]::all
}
else {
$filter.Entity.Recursion = [VMware.Vim.TaskFilterSpecRecursionOption]::self
}
}
if ($State) {
$filter.State = $State
}
if ($Start -or $Finish) {
$filter.Time = New-Object VMware.Vim.TaskFilterSpecByTime
$filter.Time.beginTime = $Start
$filter.Time.endTime = $Finish
$filter.Time.timeType = [vmware.vim.taskfilterspectimeoption]::startedTime
}
if ($UserName) {
$userNameFilterSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.TaskFilterSpecByUserName
$userNameFilterSpec.UserList = $UserName
$filter.UserName = $userNameFilterSpec
}
$nrTasks = 0
}
process {
foreach ($viObject in $Server) {
$si = Get-View ServiceInstance -Server $viObject
$tskMgr = Get-View $si.Content.TaskManager -Server $viObject
if ($Realtime -and $tskMgr.recentTask) {
$tasks = Get-View $tskMgr.recentTask
$selectNr = [Math]::Min($tasks.Count, $MaxSamples - $nrTasks)
Get-TaskDetails -Tasks[0..($selectNr - 1)]
$nrTasks += $selectNr
}
$tCollector = Get-View ($tskMgr.CreateCollectorForTasks($filter))
if ($Reverse) {
$tCollector.ResetCollector()
$taskReadOp = $tCollector.ReadPreviousTasks
}
else {
$taskReadOp = $tCollector.ReadNextTasks
}
do {
$tasks = $taskReadOp.Invoke($WindowSize)
if (!$tasks) { break }
$selectNr = [Math]::Min($tasks.Count, $MaxSamples - $nrTasks)
Get-TaskDetails -Tasks $tasks[0..($selectNr - 1)]
$nrTasks += $selectNr
}while ($nrTasks -lt $MaxSamples)
$tCollector.DestroyCollector()
}
}
}
More info at https://www.lucd.info/2013/06/01/task-data-mining-an-improved-get-task/#more-4464
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