After creating the Restart-VMs.ps1 script, I also created a script to schedule vHardware changes. With this script, you’re able to upgrade or downgrade the amount of memory and or the amount of vCPU’s of a VM. Just lik the restart script, you can schedule this script and change the recommended parameters.

These are the parameters you need to supply to the script. The first two parameters are mandatory. When you supply all the parameters, you are able to add/remove Memory and add/remove vCPU’s.

This is how the script works.

1. Connect to vCenter
2. Shutdown the selected VM
3. Add/remove memory and or vCPU’s
4. Poweron the selected VM
5. Disconnect vCenter

Now it’s time for an example. I have a VM called NAGIOS and needed to remove 512MB RAM and needed to add an extra vCPU. So I started the script with the following parameters:

.\Change-VM_Memory_CPU_Count.ps1 -vCenter vc01.ict-freak.local -vmName NAGIOS -MemoryMB 512 -MemoryOption Remove -CPUCount 1 -CPUOption Add

The VM is powered off and the memory is downgraded to 1024MB RAM and the total number of vCPU’s upgraded to 2.

You can download the script below.

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I created the following script to schedule some restart jobs overnight. The goal for this script was to add some parameters so you don’t have to edit the script file itself to schedule it for another VM or a group of VM’s.

####################################################################
#
# Restart-VMs.ps1
# 
# -vCenter vCenter Server or Servers to connect to. #  Example -vCenter "vc01","vc02"
# -vmName the VM or VMs to restart. #  Example -vmName "VM1" or -vmName "VM1","VM2"
#
# Example:
#.\Restart-VMs.ps1 -vCenter vc01.ict-freak.local -vmName "VM1","VM2"
#
# Version 1.0 May 2010 Arne Fokkema www.ict-freak.nl @afokkema
#
#####################################################################


param(
    [parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
    [string[]]$vCenter,
    [parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
    [string[]]$vmName
)

$VIServer = Connect-VIServer $vCenter
If ($VIServer.IsConnected -ne $true){
    Write-Host "error connecting to $vCenter" -ForegroundColor Red
    exit
}

foreach($vm in $vmName){
        Write-Host "Going to restart $vm"
        Restart-VMGuest -VM (Get-VM $vm) -Confirm:$false
}

Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false

Let’s start to run the script from the PowerCLI console first:

I started the script without setting any of the parameters. Since these two parameters are necessary  to run the script, you will be asked to enter the parameters, before you can continue.

Now it’s time to schedule the script in Windows Server 2008. Just create a simple scheduled task with the following settings:

The first line below is the Program/script: setting. The second line is the Add arguments setting.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe

-PSConsoleFile "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\vim.psc1" " &  "C:\Scripts\Restart-VMs.ps1" -vCenter vc01 -vmName "VM1","VM2"

When you are going to use this script, be absolutely sure you are allowed to restart the VM’s you scheduled.