Applications Systems

PowerShell script that uses VMware PowerCLI functions in SAM

When you try to run PowerShell script in SAM that uses VMware.VimAutomation.Core snapin, you receive following error: "Add-PSSnapin : The type initializer for 'VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk.Interop.V1.CoreServiceFactory' threw an exception. At line:31 char:13 + add-pssnapin <<<< VMware.VimAutomation.Core + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Add-PSSnapin], TypeInitializationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.TypeInitializationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.AddPSSnapinCommand"

First published date

10/11/2018 8:39 PM

Last published date

6/29/2020 5:40 AM

Overview

When you try to run PowerShell script in SAM that uses VMware.VimAutomation.Core snapin, you receive the following error message:

 

"Add-PSSnapin : The type initializer for 'VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk.Interop.V1.CoreServiceFactory' threw an exception. At line:31 char:13 + add-pssnapin <<<< VMware.VimAutomation.Core + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Add-PSSnapin], TypeInitializationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.TypeInitializationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.AddPSSnapinCommand"

Product section

Server Application Monitor

Resolution

It is possible to configure the PoweShell Script Monitor in SAM to correctly load this snapin (using Remote Mode and other advanced settings.) However, connecting to the VMware server using the Connect-VIServer command consumes memory (up to 400 MB) and the polling job fails with an “Out Of Memory” exception. It is not practical to run this type of script in SAM.

 

Workaround: Use the Windows Script Monitor with a Visual Basic script as a wrapper for the PowerShell script.

  1. Place you PowerShell script in a folder where everyone can access it (e.g. C:\Windows\Temp\MyVMwareScript.ps1)
  2. Create the Windows Script Monitor with following script body:
fileName = "C:\Windows\Temp\MyVMwareScript.ps1"

Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate,authenticationLevel=Pkt}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colSettings = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT Architecture FROM Win32_Processor")

For Each objProcessor In colSettings
    If objProcessor.Architecture = 9 Then
              powerpath = "%windir%\sysnative"
       Exit For
    ElseIf objProcessor.Architecture = 0 Then
       powerpath = "c:\windows\system32"
       Exit For
    End If
Next

Set vPSscrIpt = objShell.Exec( powerpath + "\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe " + fileName)
vPSscrIpt.StdIn.Close()

Do While vPSscrIpt.Status = 0
    WScript.Sleep 100
Loop

WScript.Echo(vPSscrIpt.StdOut.ReadAll)
WScript.Quit vPSscrIpt.ExitCode

 

The PowerShell script is now executed in an external poweshell.exe process (not in SAM's JobEngineWorker.exe process) and the text output with an exit code is passed to SAM through the outer VB script.

 

Note: Only exit codes 0 (Up) and 1 (Down) are allowed in this case.

 

 

*** PLEASE NOTE *** 

 

SolarWinds support does not support custom scripting.  Please use the above information at your own discretion.