PowerScript

Ping utility function/module for PowerShell

After needing to ping large lists of servers I created a quick function to do exactly that. It will accept pipeline input or you can provide server names via an input parameter. It also has input parameters for buffer size and count as well as creation of a logfile for output. This is a function I probably use on more or less a daily basis. It’s incredibly useful due to it being pipeline enabled.

As per the examples in the comments, you can pipe the content of the textfile in and the function will go away and ping all machines in the list. I also use it to ping all machines on a VMware host quite frequently if the host’s management agents have died. If the -Count parameter is set to 1 then the ping results will come back incredibly quickly. Essentially you can ping 50+ servers in a couple of seconds. Feel free to suggest improvements.

function Ping-RemoteHosts {
<# 
.SYNOPSIS 
    Performs a ping request to one or more server names or IP addresses
    and returns the results with optional output to file. This command
    accepts parameterised server names or will accept pipelined input
    from a file or server list from another command.
.DESCRIPTION 
    Ping-RemoteHosts sends an ICMP request to the specified hosts or IP
    addresses.
.PARAMETER ComputerName 
    One or more computer names or IP addresses.
.PARAMETER BuffSize
    Sets the number of packets to send in the ping request.
.PARAMETER Count
    Sets the number of ping requests to send to the remote host.
.PARAMETER LogOutput 
    Specify this switch to create a text log file of results of the ping
    requests.
.PARAMETER OutputLog 
    When used with -LogOutput the command will generate an output log of
    ping results. Defaults to C:\Temp as output location.
.PARAMETER Full
    Sets the output to display the full information from the ping request
    rather than the summarised default.
.EXAMPLE 
    Get-Content servernames.txt | Ping-RemoteHosts 
.EXAMPLE 
    Ping-RemoteHosts -ComputerName SERVER1,SERVER2
.EXAMPLE
    Ping-RemoteHosts -ComputerName SERVER1,SERVER2 -LogOutput -Count 1 -BuffSize 32 | Select-Object ComputerName,ComputerIp4,PingStatus,TimeRes
#>
  [CmdletBinding()]
  param(
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $True,
    ValueFromPipeline = $True,
    ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $True,
    HelpMessage="Computer name or IP")]
    [string[]]$ComputerName,
    [int]$BuffSize = 16,
    [int]$Count = 3,
    [string]$OutputLog = "C:\Temp\Ping-RemoteHosts_Output_$(Get-Date -Format "MM-dd-yyyy_HH-mm-ss").log",
    [switch]$LogOutput,
    [switch]$Full
  )
  BEGIN {
    if ($LogOutput){ 
      "ComputerName".PadRight(25) + `
      "ComputerIp4".PadRight(19) + `
      "PingStatus".PadRight(18) + `
      "Time(ms)" | Out-File $OutputLog 
      "".PadRight(70,"-") | Out-File $OutputLog -Append
    } 
  }
  PROCESS {
    foreach($Computer in $ComputerName) {
      Try { 
        $PingTest = Test-Connection -ComputerName $Computer -BufferSize $BuffSize -Count $Count -ErrorAction Stop

        foreach($Ping in $PingTest) {
          $PingOut = @{
            'ComputerName' = $Computer;
            'ComputerIp4' = $Ping.IPV4Address.IPAddressToString;
            'PingStatus' = "OK"
            'BytesSent' = $Ping.BufferSize;
            'TimeRes' = $Ping.ResponseTime;
          }
        }

        $PingObj = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $PingOut
        $PingObj.PSObject.TypeNames.Insert(0,'DzAdmToolsPS.Ping-RemoteHosts');
                
        if($Full) {
          Write-Output $PingObj
        }
        else {
          Write-Output $PingObj | Select-Object ComputerName,PingStatus
        }

        if($LogOutput) { 
          $PingObj.ComputerName.PadRight(25) + `
          $PingObj.ComputerIp4.PadRight(19) + `
          $PingObj.PingStatus.PadRight(18) + `
          $PingObj.TimeRes | Out-File $OutputLog -Append
        } 
      } 
      Catch {
        $DnsLookup = Resolve-DNSName -Name $Computer -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

        if($DnsLookup.IPAddress -eq $null) {
          $IpAddress = "N/A"
        }
        else {
          $IpAddress = $DnsLookup.IPAddress
        }

        $PingOut = @{
          'ComputerName' = $Computer;
          'ComputerIp4' = $IpAddress;
          'PingStatus' = "DOWN"
          'BytesSent' = $BuffSize;
          'TimeRes' = "N/A";
        }

        $PingObj = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $PingOut
        $PingObj.PSObject.TypeNames.Insert(0,'DzAdmToolsPS.Ping-RemoteHosts');
                
        Write-Output $PingObj

        if($LogOutput) { 
          $PingObj.ComputerName.PadRight(25) + `
          $PingObj.ComputerIp4.PadRight(19) + `
          $PingObj.PingStatus.PadRight(18) + `
          $PingObj.TimeRes | Out-File $OutputLog -Append
        } 
      } 
    } 
  }
  END {
  }
}

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function Ping-RemoteHosts {

.SYNOPSIS

Performs a ping request to one or more server names or IP addresses

and returns the results with optional output to file. This command

accepts parameterised server names or will accept pipelined input

from a file or server list from another command.

.DESCRIPTION

Ping-RemoteHosts sends an ICMP request to the specified hosts or IP

addresses.

.PARAMETER ComputerName

One or more computer names or IP addresses.

.PARAMETER BuffSize

Sets the number of packets to send in the ping request.

.PARAMETER Count

Sets the number of ping requests to send to the remote host.

.PARAMETER LogOutput

Specify this switch to create a text log file of results of the ping

requests.

.PARAMETER OutputLog

When used with -LogOutput the command will generate an output log of

ping results. Defaults to C:\Temp as output location.

.PARAMETER Full

Sets the output to display the full information from the ping request

rather than the summarised default.

.EXAMPLE

Get-Content servernames.txt | Ping-RemoteHosts

.EXAMPLE

Ping-RemoteHosts -ComputerName SERVER1,SERVER2

.EXAMPLE

Ping-RemoteHosts -ComputerName SERVER1,SERVER2 -LogOutput -Count 1 -BuffSize 32 | Select-Object ComputerName,ComputerIp4,PingStatus,TimeRes

[CmdletBinding()]

param(

[Parameter(Mandatory = $True,

ValueFromPipeline = $True,

ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $True,

HelpMessage="Computer name or IP")]

[string[]]$ComputerName,

[int]$BuffSize = 16,

[int]$Count = 3,

[string]$OutputLog = "C:\Temp\Ping-RemoteHosts_Output_$(Get-Date -Format "MM-dd-yyyy_HH-mm-ss").log",

[switch]$LogOutput,

[switch]$Full

)

BEGIN {

if ($LogOutput){

"ComputerName".PadRight(25) + `

"ComputerIp4".PadRight(19) + `

"PingStatus".PadRight(18) + `

"Time(ms)" | Out-File $OutputLog

"".PadRight(70,"-") | Out-File $OutputLog -Append

}

PROCESS {

foreach($Computer in $ComputerName) {

Try {

$PingTest = Test-Connection -ComputerName $Computer -BufferSize $BuffSize -Count $Count -ErrorAction Stop

foreach($Ping in $PingTest) {

$PingOut = @{

'ComputerName' = $Computer;

'ComputerIp4' = $Ping.IPV4Address.IPAddressToString;

'PingStatus' = "OK"

'BytesSent' = $Ping.BufferSize;

'TimeRes' = $Ping.ResponseTime;

}

$PingObj = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $PingOut

$PingObj.PSObject.TypeNames.Insert(0,'DzAdmToolsPS.Ping-RemoteHosts');

if($Full) {

Write-Output $PingObj

}

else {

Write-Output $PingObj | Select-Object ComputerName,PingStatus

}

if($LogOutput) {

$PingObj.ComputerName.PadRight(25) + `

$PingObj.ComputerIp4.PadRight(19) + `

$PingObj.PingStatus.PadRight(18) + `

$PingObj.TimeRes | Out-File $OutputLog -Append

}

Catch {

$DnsLookup = Resolve-DNSName -Name $Computer -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

if($DnsLookup.IPAddress -eq $null) {

$IpAddress = "N/A"

}

else {

$IpAddress = $DnsLookup.IPAddress

}

$PingOut = @{

'ComputerName' = $Computer;

'ComputerIp4' = $IpAddress;

'PingStatus' = "DOWN"

'BytesSent' = $BuffSize;

'TimeRes' = "N/A";

}

$PingObj = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $PingOut

$PingObj.PSObject.TypeNames.Insert(0,'DzAdmToolsPS.Ping-RemoteHosts');

Write-Output $PingObj

if($LogOutput) {

$PingObj.ComputerName.PadRight(25) + `

$PingObj.ComputerIp4.PadRight(19) + `

$PingObj.PingStatus.PadRight(18) + `

$PingObj.TimeRes | Out-File $OutputLog -Append

}

END {

}

CPU ready times for virtual machines made easy

When measuring virtual machine performance data there is one important metric that is often overlooked; CPU ready time of a virtual machine. The ready time is the amount of time the virtual machine waits for processor time. This means that the virtual machine has data to process but the processing core(s) are yet to be allocated to complete the task. This amounts to milliseconds at a time, but obviously, the more virtual machines you have the worse this figure gets.

The metric returned by vCenter is called the summation. This value is not straight forward to understand and it’s also changed based on the sample interval too, so you never get the same static figure for comparison, or easy comparison at least. A more meaningful way to look at CPU ready data is as a percentage. This allows you to look at a virtual machine and know for x percent of the given sample interval (day, week, month) it was waiting for CPU cycles. VMware give a formula on their website for calculating this, which is great, but it’s far more useful to have it as a handy PowerShell function sat in my modules file. This module will accept pipeline input so it’s really useful for using with Get-VM, amongst other things. Hopefully it will help you as much as it does me.

function Get-VmReady {
<# 
.SYNOPSIS
    Gets VMware CPU ready times based on interval provided by parameter. This
    calculation is done from the formula from the VMware KB article.
.DESCRIPTION
    Get-VmReady performs a calculation on the cpu.summation value provided
    by the VMware stats engine.
.PARAMETER VmList
    One or more virtual machine naes or objects.
.PARAMETER Interval
    Parameter to indicate calculation timeframe. Can be Day, Week or Month.
.EXAMPLE
    Get-Content servernames.txt | Get-VMReady -Interval Day 
.EXAMPLE
    Get-VmReady VM1,VM2 -Interval Week
.EXAMPLE
    Get-VM | Get-VmReady -Interval Day
#>
	[CmdletBinding()]
	param(
		[Parameter(Mandatory = $True,
		ValueFromPipeline = $True,
        ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $True,
        HelpMessage="Virtual machine(s)")]
		[string[]]$VmList,
        [string]$Interval = "Day"
    )
    
	BEGIN{
        Switch($Interval){
            "day"   {$Days =- 1; $Mins = 5; $Divider = 3000}
            "week"  {$Days =- 7; $Mins = 30; $Divider = 18000}
            "month" {$Days =- 30; $Mins = 120; $Divider = 72000}
        }
    }
	PROCESS {
        foreach($Vm in $VmList) {
            Try {
                $VmDetails = Get-VM -Name $Vm -ErrorAction Stop
                
                if($VmDetails.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn") {
                    $VmHost = $VmDetails | Get-VmHost
                    
                    $StatGrp = $VmDetails | Get-Stat -Stat cpu.ready.summation `
                        -Start (Get-Date).AddDays($Days) `
                        -Finish (Get-Date) `
                        -Interval $Mins `
                        -Instance "" `
                        -ErrorAction Stop | Group Entity 

                    foreach($Stat in $StatGrp) {
                        $ReadyTimes = @{
                            'VM Name' = $Vm;
                            'Ready %' = “{0:n2}” -f (($Stat.group | Measure-Object Value -ave).average / $Divider);
                            'Num CPUs' = $VmDetails.NumCpu;
                            'Host' = $VmHost.Name
                        }
                    }
                    $ReadyObj = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $ReadyTimes
                    $ReadyObj.PSObject.TypeNames.Insert(0,'DzVmToolsPS.Get-VmReady');
                
                    Write-Output $ReadyObj
                }
            } 
            Catch {
                Write-Warning "Virtual Machine $Vm not found!"
            } 
        } 
    }
}

function Get-VmReady {

.SYNOPSIS

Gets VMware CPU ready times based on interval provided by parameter. This

calculation is done from the formula from the VMware KB article.

.DESCRIPTION

Get-VmReady performs a calculation on the cpu.summation value provided

by the VMware stats engine.

.PARAMETER VmList

One or more virtual machine naes or objects.

.PARAMETER Interval

Parameter to indicate calculation timeframe. Can be Day, Week or Month.

.EXAMPLE

Get-Content servernames.txt | Get-VMReady -Interval Day

.EXAMPLE

Get-VmReady VM1,VM2 -Interval Week

.EXAMPLE

Get-VM | Get-VmReady -Interval Day

[CmdletBinding()]

param(

[Parameter(Mandatory = $True,

ValueFromPipeline = $True,

ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $True,

HelpMessage="Virtual machine(s)")]

[string[]]$VmList,

[string]$Interval = "Day"

)

BEGIN{

Switch($Interval){

"day" {$Days =- 1; $Mins = 5; $Divider = 3000}

"week" {$Days =- 7; $Mins = 30; $Divider = 18000}

"month" {$Days =- 30; $Mins = 120; $Divider = 72000}

}

PROCESS {

foreach($Vm in $VmList) {

Try {

$VmDetails = Get-VM -Name $Vm -ErrorAction Stop

if($VmDetails.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn") {

$VmHost = $VmDetails | Get-VmHost

$StatGrp = $VmDetails | Get-Stat -Stat cpu.ready.summation `

-Start (Get-Date).AddDays($Days) `

-Finish (Get-Date) `

-Interval $Mins `

-Instance "" `

-ErrorAction Stop | Group Entity

foreach($Stat in $StatGrp) {

$ReadyTimes = @{

'VM Name' = $Vm;

'Ready %' = “{0:n2}” -f (($Stat.group | Measure-Object Value -ave).average / $Divider);

'Num CPUs' = $VmDetails.NumCpu;

'Host' = $VmHost.Name

}

$ReadyObj = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $ReadyTimes

$ReadyObj.PSObject.TypeNames.Insert(0,'DzVmToolsPS.Get-VmReady');

Write-Output $ReadyObj

}

Catch {

Write-Warning "Virtual Machine $Vm not found!"

}

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