Automating Virtual Machine Power Management in VMware vSphere

Welcome to our PowerShell script series where we share practical tools to enhance your VMware vSphere management experience. Today, we present a script that helps you to start or stop virtual machines based on their current power state. This can be particularly useful in scheduling tasks and optimizing resource usage. Be sure to also check out our software, ServerEngine, at [https://serverengine.co](https://serverengine.co) for seamless server management integrations.
### Step 1: Installing VMware PowerCLI
To utilize the script, ensure that you have the VMware PowerCLI module installed. Heres how to do it:
“`powershell

# Install the VMware PowerCLI module if not already installed
Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser -Force

“`
### Step 2: Connecting to Your vSphere Environment
Use the following command to connect to your vSphere server. Dont forget to replace the placeholder values with your actual server details.
“`powershell

# Connect to the vSphere server
$server = "your_vcenter_server"
$username = "your_username"
$password = "your_password"
Connect-VIServer -Server $server -User $username -Password $password

“`
### Step 3: Starting or Stopping Virtual Machines
This script checks the power state of each virtual machine and starts those that are powered off, while stopping those that are powered on. It provides an efficient way to manage VM states.
“`powershell

# Start or stop virtual machines based on their current state
$vms = Get-VM
foreach ($vm in $vms) {
    if ($vm.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff") {
        # Start the VM
        Start-VM -VM $vm
        Write-Host "$($vm.Name) has been started."
    } elseif ($vm.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn") {
        # Stop the VM
        Stop-VM -VM $vm -Confirm:$false
        Write-Host "$($vm.Name) has been stopped."
    }
}

“`
### Step 4: Disconnecting from the vSphere Server
Its important to disconnect from the server once your operations are complete to ensure secure session management.
“`powershell

# Disconnect from vSphere server
Disconnect-VIServer -Server $server -Confirm:$false

“`
### Conclusion
This simple yet effective script allows you to automate the power management of your virtual machines in VMware vSphere, saving you time and resources. To explore more tools and features that enhance your server management capabilities, visit ServerEngine at [https://serverengine.co](https://serverengine.co).