New-Vm won't work with -Datastore

[mhibist]

I'm a noob at this, just testing the PowerShell CLI to see if we can automate some basic tasks. Have one issue when deploying a vm using New-VM. if the target datastore is available to more than one cluster, the -Datastore parameter fails, stating that its getting more than one parameter, even when explicity entering the DS name. For example:

new-vm -VMhost hostname -Name vmname -template templatename -datastore DSname

returns:

New-VM : 2/10/2010 1:38:12 PM New-VM The specified parameter 'Datastore' expects a single value, but your name criteria 'DSname'

corresponds to multiple values.

If i change the DS to point to local storage on a server, it runs fine.

Issuing a "Get-Datastore DSName" yields this:

Name FreeSpaceMB CapacityMB

-

---

-

---

-

---

DSname 154411 511744

DSname 162610 511744

This is a lab setup, with two clusters sharing the same LUNs.

If I target a LUN in a cluster that is not shared, it works fine as well. Get-Datastore only returns the DSname once

Is there anyway to work around this?

Thx in advance.

[LucD · Accepted solution]

Do I see this correctly that you have 2 datastores with the same name in those 2 clusters ?

That is, afaik, not a good practice.

And you have 2 clusters sharing the same LUN.

I'm not sure that is a good practice either.

In any case, to get at a specific datastore you can select it explicitly.

Something like this for example

$esx = Get-VmHost hostname
$ds = $esx | Get-Datastore DSname
new-vm -VMhost $esx -Name vmname -template templatename -datastore $ds

____________

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Twitter: lucd22

[mhibist]

Thx for the response..yes I figured it wasn;t good practice (not the owner, and it is a lab setup). I'll give that a shot.

Just to clarify, datastores are shared across the clusters, there are not multiple datastores with the same name.

Thx again

[mhibist]

Worked like a champ, thanks!