PowerShell Script for VMware vSphere: VM Snapshot Management

Welcome to our series of useful PowerShell scripts designed for server management and automation! In this post, were focusing on a PowerShell script that interacts with VMware vSphere to manage virtual machine (VM) snapshots. This script allows you to create a snapshot of a specified VM, ensuring that you have a restore point for your critical workloads.
The following steps detail the process, and you can easily modify the script according to your needs.
### Step 1: Load VMware PowerCLI
Before using the script, ensure that you have VMware PowerCLI installed. This is essential for interacting with vSphere.
“`powershell

# Load the VMware PowerCLI module
Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI

“`
### Step 2: Connect to vCenter Server
Use the following command to connect to your vCenter Server. Replace `vcenter.domain.com`, `username`, and `password` with your vCenter details.
“`powershell

# Connect to vCenter Server
$vcServer = "vcenter.domain.com"
$vcUsername = "username"
$vcPassword = "password"
$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString $vcPassword -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($vcUsername, $securePassword)
Connect-VIServer -Server $vcServer -Credential $cred

“`
### Step 3: Create a Snapshot
After connecting, you can create a snapshot for a specific VM. Replace `YourVMName` with the name of your VM and `snapshotDescription` with a description of the snapshot.
“`powershell

# Create a snapshot of the specified VM
$vmName = "YourVMName"
$snapshotDescription = "Snapshot taken on $(Get-Date)"
New-Snapshot -VM $vmName -Name "Snapshot-$(Get-Date -Format yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss)" -Description $snapshotDescription

“`
### Step 4: Verify the Snapshot
Once the snapshot is created, you can verify it by listing snapshots of the VM.
“`powershell

# Verify the snapshot
Get-Snapshot -VM $vmName | Select-Object Name, Created, Description

“`
### Conclusion
This simple PowerShell script effectively manages VM snapshots in VMware vSphere. By leveraging VMware PowerCLI, you can automate important tasks that enhance your virtual environments resilience.
For more automation tools and to manage your servers efficiently, check out our software, ServerEngine, at [https://serverengine.co](https://serverengine.co). Happy scripting!