customattributesvcenter
Table of Contents
Export and Import Custom Attributes in vCenter
Summary: When going from one vCenter to another it would be nice if you could just export all of your custom attributes to a csv file and then import them again! Powershell makes it happen again.
Date: Around 2013
Refactor: 21 February 2025: Checked links and formatting.
Note that you don't have to manually create the custom attributes when you import them, they will be created automatically.
Export Custom Attributes
This is the script for exporting the custom attributes:
$timestamp = Get-Date -format "yyyyMMdd-HH.mm" $startdir = "D:\sjoerd" $exportfile = "$startdir\vm-custom-attributes-$timestamp.csv" $vms = Get-VM $Report =@() foreach ($vm in $vms) { $row = "" | Select Name, Notes, DR, "DR Value", DRStorage, "DRStorage Value", Cluster, "Cluster Value", "DataCatagory", "DataCatagory Value" $row.name = $vm.Name $row.Notes = $vm.Notes $customattribs = $vm | select -ExpandProperty CustomFields $row.DR = $customattribs[0].Key $row."DR Value" = $customattribs[0].value $row.DRStorage = $customattribs[1].Key $row."DRStorage Value" = $customattribs[1].value $row.Cluster = $customattribs[2].Key $row."Cluster Value" = $customattribs[2].value $row."DataCatagory" = $customattribs[3].Key $row."DataCatagory Value" = $customattribs[3].value $Report += $row } $report | Export-Csv "$exportfile" -NoTypeInformation
Import Custom Attributes
And this is the script to import the custom attributes again from the (modified) csv file.
$startdir = "D:\sjoerd" $importfile = "$startdir\vm-custom-attributes-adjustedforimport.csv" $NewAttributes = Import-Csv $importfile ForEach ($vm in $NewAttributes){ Write-Host (get-date -uformat %I:%M:%S) "$vm is being done now..." -ForegroundColor Green # Set-VM -vm $vm.Name -Notes $vm.Notes -Confirm:$false Set-CustomField -Entity (get-vm $vm.Name) -Name $vm.DR -Value $vm."DR Value" -confirm:$false Set-CustomField -Entity (get-vm $vm.Name) -Name $vm.DRStorage -Value $vm."DRStorage Value" -confirm:$false # Set-CustomField -Entity (get-vm $vm.Name) -Name $vm.Cluster -Value $vm."Cluster Value" -confirm:$false Set-CustomField -Entity (get-vm $vm.Name) -Name $vm."DataCatagory" -Value $vm."DataCatagory Value" -confirm:$false }
Note that the notes are also listed in the properties of the VM and are therefore kept and transferred to the new vCenter. Also note that the cluster values (ClusterInvariantVMMId) are coming from SCOM and are not required to be transferred.
customattributesvcenter.txt · Last modified: by 127.0.0.1