Create multiple VMs using PowerCLI

A couple of days ago i received a request from a customer asking for a PowerCLI script to create VMs. There were a couple of requirements for the script.

• Specify the number of VMs to be created.
• The VMs must be powered on after the creation.
• The VMs must be placed on all ESXi hosts in the vSphere cluster.
• Specify a vCenter Server Folder in the Virtual Machine & Templates view where the VMs will be placed.
• Specify VM datastore/datastore cluster placement.
• Specify the number of VM vCPUs.
• Specify the number of VM RAM.
• Specify the VM disk size.
• Specify the VM disk type (Thin, Thick or Eager Zeroed Thick)
• Specify the VM guest OS type.
• Specify the VM prefix
• Use numeric incremental number after the VM prefix.

Below you’ll find the script i send to my customer that he used for creating and powering on 500 VMs, yes on one single NFS based datastore, and placed them randomly on the ESXi hosts in the vSphere cluster.
I can imagine the next question will be to clone VMs but i’m not sure:)

Updated 2014-02-25 – As i suspected, here you can find a post in which i create multiple VMs, based on one existing vSphere VM, using PowerCLI. 

Change the following parameters in the below script to match your environment:

• $vCenter=”vc-demo01.vcdx56.com”
• $vCenterUser=”vcdx56@magnus”
• $vCenterUserPassword=”notsecret”
• $vm_count = “500”
• $numcpu = “2”
• $MBram = “2048”
• $MBguestdisk = “4096”
• $Typeguestdisk =”Thin”
• $guestOS = “winNetStandardGuest”
• $ds = “VCDX56-DS01”
• $Folder = “Scripttest”
• $Cluster = “VCDX56-02”
• $VM_prefix = “VCDX56-“

#
# PowerCLI to create VMs
# Version 1.0
# Magnus Andersson RTS
#
# Specify vCenter Server, vCenter Server username and vCenter Server user password
$vCenter="vc-demo01.vcdx56.com"
$vCenterUser="vcdx56magnus"
$vCenterUserPassword="notsecret"
#
# Specify number of VMs you want to create
$vm_count = "500"
#
# Specify number of VM CPUs
$numcpu = "2"
#
# Specify number of VM MB RAM
$MBram = "2048"
#
# Specify VM disk size (in MB)
$MBguestdisk = "4096"
#
# Specify VM disk type, available options are Thin, Thick, EagerZeroedThick
$Typeguestdisk ="Thin"
#
# Specify VM guest OS
$guestOS = "winNetStandardGuest"
#
# Specify vCenter Server datastore
$ds = "VCDX56-DS01"
#
# Specify vCenter Server Virtual Machine & Templates folder
$Folder = "Scripttest"
#
# Specify the vSphere Cluster
$Cluster = "VCDX56-02"
#
# Specify the VM name to the left of the - sign
$VM_prefix = "VCDX56-"
#
# End of user input parameters
#_______________________________________________________
#
write-host "Connecting to vCenter Server $vCenter" -foreground green
Connect-viserver $vCenter -user $vCenterUser -password $vCenterUserPassword -WarningAction 0
1..$vm_count | foreach {
$y="{0:D1}" -f + $_
$VM_name= $VM_prefix + $y
$ESXi=Get-Cluster $Cluster | Get-VMHost -state connected | Get-Random
write-host "Creation of VM $VM_name initiated"  -foreground green
New-VM -Name $VM_Name -VMHost $ESXi -numcpu $numcpu -MemoryMB $MBram -DiskMB $MBguestdisk -DiskStorageFormat $Typeguestdisk -Datastore $ds -GuestId $guestOS -Location $Folder
write-host "Power On of the  VM $VM_name initiated"  -foreground green
Start-VM -VM $VM_name -confirm:$false -RunAsync
}

This script was tested using the following software versions:

• VMware vCenter Server 5.5
• VMware ESXi 5.5
• VMware PowerCLI 5.5
• Microsoft PowerShell 2.0

Thanks to Luc Dekens & Christoffer Zettermark for script input.