When setting up a new environment it is always good practice to plan out and document everything to avoid errors. From hostnames, cluster names, vDS names, portgroup names & VLANs etc. I was recently asked to help script the creation of the above from a csv to avoid fat fingers and to save time through automation. Enter PowerCli! Here is the script i created. Disclaimer: Its version 1…no error checking and can be made more efficient but it works and may be helpful to others! I’ve also posted it to GitHub with an example csv here https://github.com/LifeOfBrianOC/vmware_scripts

# Script to create vCenter Clusters, Distributed Switches & portgroups from CSV
# Edit the CSV location variable and the vCenter FQDN and run the script
# Tested with PowerCli 6.3.0
# This is version 1.0 There is no error checking in place so if an item
# already exists or cannot be found the script will error but should continue

#
$CSVPath = "C:\Scripts\Example.csv"
$vCenter = "vc01.domain.local"

#####################################
# DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
#####################################

# Load VMware PowerCli Snapins
add-psSnapin VMWare* | out-null

# Connect to vCenter
Connect-VIserver $vCenter

# Get vCenter Datacenter Name
$datacenter = Get-Datacenter

@"
====================================
Creating Clusters
====================================
"@

# Import CSV and only read lines that have an entry in clusterName column
$csv = @()
$csv = Import-Csv -Path $CSVPath |
Where-Object -FilterScript {
$_.clusterName
}

# Loop through all _s in the CSV
ForEach ($_ in $csv)
{
New-Cluster -Location $datacenter -Name $_.clusterName -HAEnabled | out-null
}

@"
====================================
Creating Distributed Switches
====================================
"@

# Import CSV and only read lines that have an entry in switchName column
$csv = @()
$csv = Import-Csv -Path $CSVPath |
Where-Object -FilterScript {
$_.switchName
}

# Loop through all _s in the CSV
ForEach ($_ in $csv)
{
Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
New-VDSwitch -Location $datacenter -Name $_.switchName -Mtu 1600 | out-null
}

@"
==========================================
Creating Distributed Switch Portgroups & Assigning VLANs
==========================================
"@

# Import CSV and only read lines that have an entry in portgroupName column
$csv = @()
$csv = Import-Csv -Path $CSVPath |
Where-Object -FilterScript {
$_.portgroupName
}

# Loop through all _s in the CSV
ForEach ($_ in $csv)
{
Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
New-VDPortgroup -Name $_.portgroupName -VDSwitch $_.addToSwitch -VlanId $_.vlan | out-null
}
@"
==========================================
Setting Trunk Ports
==========================================
"@

# Import CSV and only read lines that have an entry in trunkPortgroup column
$csv = @()
$csv = Import-Csv -Path $CSVPath |
Where-Object -FilterScript {
$_.trunkPortgroup
}

# Loop through all _s in the CSV
ForEach ($_ in $csv)
{
Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
Set-VDPortgroup $_.trunkPortgroup -VlanTrunkRange $_.trunkRange | out-null
}

@"
============================================
Disconnecting from vCenter....Done!
============================================
"@
# Disconnect vCenter
Disconnect-VIServer $vCenter