Q. How can I quickly get the status of all the virtual machines (VMs) System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) is managing from PowerShell?

A. VMM contains a number of PowerShell cmdlets, including the Get-VM cmdlet, which gathers a huge amount of information about each VM, including its status. You can use the format-table cmdlet to show only specific information, such as VMs' names and status, as shown below.

The command

get-vm | format-table ComputerNameString, Status -auto

gives me

ComputerNameString Status
------------------ ------
SAVDALDC11.savilltech.net Running
savdalclient.savilltech.net Running
savdaldc10.savilltech.net Running
savdalwss10.savilltech.net Running
savdalscvmm.savilltech.net Running
savdalts01.savilltech.net Running
SAVDALRODC01.savilltech.net Running
savdalex01.savilltech.net Running

Related Reading:

• VMware and PowerShell: Managing ESX Server from the Command Line
• Q. How can I mount a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) from Windows PowerShell?
• Essential Windows PowerShell Commands
• Virtual Machine Manager’s Significance