I like thin provisioning on vSphere. I also like not over-allocating datastores by half a terabyte without knowing it. To prevent crazy amounts of over-allocation (but still keep the environment going with a slightly-less-crazy amount of over-allocation) it is important for me to know the “true” free space on all of my datastores. By this, I do not mean what vCenter tells me is the free space, but rather a blend of a couple things: the actual usage on the datastore, and the current allocation on that datastore. With these, I can determine how far I can push the provisioning of virtual machines before I need to worry about running out of space and DOSing other VMs on the same datastore.
Lucky for me, this data is readily available with the PowerCLI, here’s the source code: http://bit.ly/eMLjVk
Syntax:
.\StorageCapacity.ps1 -server <string> -dbserver <string> -db <string> -overallocate <int>
Where -overallocate is the percentage by which you want to overallocate storage (if at all) & the account you run the script as must have at least Read-Only access to vCenter Server and data reader role on the virtualcenter SQL db.
This script is a work-in-progress, but has come in very handy when I am placing VMs, and their virtual disks, in our environment. Also, I reuse parts of this script in a series of scripts that auto-provision VMs for our group and external customers via a custom web request form. (more on the auto-provisioning stuff another time…)
Right now, the script scours the virtual environment for VMs & templates, then tracks how much space their virtual disks and swap files take up. After adding that all up, it displays (and outputs a CSV of) all of the useful information per datastore, including the “real” free space available, capacity that includes your over-allocation %, provisioned space, and normal free space. In a future (more accurate) version, I plan to also include log files, since those can actually take up significant space.
Notes from a Sysadmin 
Hi
Did you complete writing this powershell script? I’ve tried it but it fails with the following error:
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\scripts\StorageCapacity.ps1:75 char:39
+ $vmDisks = $DataSet.Tables[0].Select <<<< ("Name LIKE '$vmName'")
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (Select:String) [], RuntimeExc
eption
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
I'm no expert on powershell scripts but think it's because $DataSet has not been populated.
Can you help please, would love to get it working.
Scott
Hi Scott,
Yes, I actually use this script regularly in our environment. Can you include the values (masked for anything you don’t want to paste here) that you used for each parameter when calling the script?
– Curtis
Hi Curtis
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Parameters as follows:
StorageCapacity.ps1 -server vcservername -dbserver vcservername -dbname VirtualCenter -overallocate 150
Hi Scott,
A couple of questions, just as a sanity check:
– is the database a local installation? (as in SQL is installed on the vCenter Server system)
– does the account you are using to run the script have explicit db reader rights on the SQL db?
If the first question is a “yes”, I will have to bring up a test instance to see if I can replicate the problem, as all of my testing involved a remote SQL instance and I don’t know how SQL Express handles this. I would hope it doesn’t make a difference…
– Curtis
Hi Curtis
The answer is yes to both questions.
Regards
Scott
Hi Curtis
I’m not sure this is an issue with the SQL and vCenter being on the same server. The script does output the vmfs volume name, available and free space, see below. That proves it can connect to the DB.
Name : volume1
Capacity : 439.725
Provisioned : 0
Available : 439.725
Free Space : 399.203125
Hi Scott,
Can you paste the following snippet from the script into an open PS window (after defining $dbserver and $db):
$SqlQuery = “SELECT VPX_VM_CONFIG_INFO.name,cast(VPX_VM_DS_SPACE.commited_space/1073741824 as decimal(10,0)) + cast(VPX_VM_DS_SPACE.uncommited_space/1073741824 as decimal(10,0)), VPX_DATASTORE.Name FROM VPX_VM_DS_SPACE INNER JOIN VPX_VM ON VPX_VM_DS_SPACE.VM_ID = VPX_VM.ID INNER JOIN VPX_DATASTORE ON VPX_DATASTORE.ID = VPX_VM_DS_SPACE.DS_ID INNER JOIN VPX_VM_CONFIG_INFO ON VPX_VM.ID = VPX_VM_CONFIG_INFO.ID WHERE (VPX_DATASTORE.Name LIKE ‘%’) order by VPX_VM_CONFIG_INFO.name”
$SqlConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$SqlConnection.ConnectionString = “Server = $dbserver; Database = $db; Integrated Security = True”
$SqlCmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$SqlCmd.CommandText = $SqlQuery
$SqlCmd.Connection = $SqlConnection
$SqlAdapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
$SqlAdapter.SelectCommand = $SqlCmd
$DataSet = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
$SqlAdapter.Fill($DataSet)
If there are any errors, please paste them here, if not, please paste the results of entering the following at the PS prompt:
$Dataset.Tables[0]
Hi Scott,
Figured this one out after looking carefully back through this thread. In my post (and in the script) my example uses a parameter $dbname, which is not the actual parameter name for identifying your database. It is actually $db, so:
StorageCapacity.ps1 -server vcservername -dbserver vcservername -db VirtualCenter -overallocate 150
should get you what you need. I’ll also update the post and sample in the .ps1 to reflect this error. Sorry for the confusion,
– Curtis
My Virtual Center server is running 4.1 Update 1 and my SQL server is running SQL server 2008. Has your script been tested in that environment?
Hi Don,
Yes, that’s the environment in which I did the most testing actually. 🙂
Curtis
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Hi, I tried this script, I am getting error post executing last command $SqlAdapter.Fill($DataSet)
PS C:\Scripts> $SqlAdapter.Fill($DataSet)
Exception calling “Fill” with “1” argument(s): “Incorrect syntax near ‘`’.”
At line:1 char:17
+ $SqlAdapter.Fill <<<< ($DataSet)
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException
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Thin Provisioning and Storage Capacity on vSphere | Notes from a Sysadmin
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