Retrieving a VM's Logical Path from vCenter using Powershell

In some cases, knowing a Virtual Machine’s Logical Path can be quite useful when the need to perform automated tasks in VMware arise.

One of our objectives during our last VMware Horizon View deployment was to automate the creation of multiple Automatic Linked Clone pools. As a matter of fact, the Cmdlet linked to the pool’s creation (Add-AutomaticLinkedCLonePool) has two parameters which expect both the VM’s Full Path and the path to its Parent Folder.

The PowerShell Function below expects a VM as a parameter and returns the VM’s name, its Full Path and its Parent Folder’s path as shown in the synopsis. Just what we needed for our automation process!

 #requires -version 2
Function Get-VMLogicalPath {
<#
    .SYNOPSIS
            This function will return a VM's logical path within vCenter
    .DESCRIPTION
            This function will return a VM's logical path within vCenter with or without the VM's name
    .PARAMETER  VM
            Specifies a vCenter VM
    .EXAMPLE
            Get-VMLogicalPath -VM (Get-VM -Name "Master")
            Name                 VMPath                                        ParentPath                                           
            ----                 ------                                        ----------                                           
            Master               /KatalyktDC/vm/PoolFolder/Master              /KatalyktDC/vm/PoolFolder  
    .EXAMPLE
            $VMArray | Get-VMLogicalPath
            Name                 VMPath                                        ParentPath                                           
            ----                 ------                                        ----------                                           
            Master               /KatalyktDC/vm/PoolFolder/Master              /KatalyktDC/vm/PoolFolder  
            MasterTraining       /KatalyktDC/vm/PoolFolder/MasterTraining      /KatalyktDC/vm/PoolFolder  
    .NOTES
            NAME:     Get-VMLogicalPath
            AUTHOR:   ROULEAU Benjamin
            LASTEDIT: 2014-02-05
    .LINKS
            http://katalykt.blogspot.fr/
#>
    [CmdletBinding()]
    PARAM(
        [Parameter(
            Mandatory=$true,
            ValueFromPipeline=$true,
            ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
        [VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.VirtualMachineImpl]$VM
    )
    BEGIN {
        
    }
    PROCESS {
        $VM | ForEach-Object {
            TRY {
                Write-Verbose -Message ("[PROCESS - Get-VMLogicalPath] Retrieving path for VM {0}" -f $_.Name)
                # We keep retrieving the parent's folder up to the Datacenter root
                $VMo = $_.Folder
                $Path = ""
                WHILE ($VMo) {
                    $Path = "/" + $VMo.Name + $Path
                    $VMo = $VMo.Parent
                }
                # Compose the VM Path
                $VMPath = $Path + "/" + $_.Name
                
                Write-Verbose -Message ("[PROCESS - Get-VMLogicalPath] Retrieved path {0} for VM {1}" -f $VMPath, $_.Name)
                # Return the desired properties in an object
                New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{
                    Name = $_.Name
                    ParentPath = $Path
                    VMPath = $VMPath
                }
                
            } CATCH {
                Write-Warning -Message ("[PROCESS - Get-VMLogicalPath] Something went wrong: {0}" -f $Error[0].Exception.Message)
            }
        }
    }
    END {
    }
}