I had two VMs which needed “8 hard disks on SATA and 2 hard disk on SSD” to be added, which means adding 20 disks in total so for preventing suffering from same process in future I made bellow script. ( script demo on YouTube )

Warning:
1. This is first version of script and only work in interactive mode and might have some bug; I’d be really grateful if you could kindly let me know any possible bug/problem you saw. I’d try to update it in a way so it can get parameters or/and accepting file as source.
2. Please test it on one test VM before using it on any production VM.

###################################
# Title: Mass Hard Disk Creator
# Ver: 0.1
# Author: Sohrab Kasraeian Fard (@Kasraeian)
# Date: 11/15/2012
###################################
CLS
# Get VM List
Write-Host "VM List"
Get-VM | sort Name

# Selecting the target VM
$VM = Read-Host ("`nPlease select the target VM to add new hard disk(s) to it")

# Checking VM current state
$CH = Get-HardDisk -VM $VM
$CC = Get-VM -Name $VM | Get-ScsiController

if ($CH.count -ge 2) {
	$AHS = 60 - $CH.count
} elseif ($CH.count -ne "") {
	$AHS = 59
}
if ($CC.count -ge 2) {
	$ACS = 4 - $CC.count
} elseif ($CC.count -ne "") {
	$ACS = 3
}

$vmh = Get-VM -Name $VM | select VMHost
$vmh = $vmh.VMHost.Name
$vmhds = Get-VMHost $vmh | Get-Datastore | sort name

#Main Process
if ($AHS -lt 60 -or $CH.count -ne "") {
	Write-Host "`nThere are $ahs free slot available for adding hard disk for selected VM."

	[Int]$Qty = Read-Host ("How many hard disk(s) do you want to add (Max $ahs)?")
	[Int]$Cap = Read-Host ("Please define new hard disk(s) capacity in GB [Range: 0.001-1024]")
	$NDSR = Read-Host ("Should new hard disk(s) be saved on other datastore?")
	if ($NDSR -like "yes") {
		$k=1; Write-Host "`n"
		$vmhds | %{ Write-Host "$($k).`t$($_.Name)`t$($_.CapacityGB)`t$($_.FreeSpaceGB)"; $k++ }
		$SNDSI = Read-Host ("Please select new datastore from above list")
		$SNDS = $vmhds[$SNDSI-1].Name
	}

	if ($ACS -le 4 -and $ACS -gt 0) {
		$NCR = Read-Host ("Want to add new controller for new disks?")
		if ($NCR -like "yes") {
			$RNCT = Read-Host ("`n[BLP] BusLogic Parallel`n[LLP] LSI Logic Parallel`n[LLS] LSI Logic SAS`n[VPV] VMware Paravirtual`nWhich controller type should be added [Other = OS Default]?")
			switch($RNCT) {
				"BLP" { $NCT = "VirtualBusLogic" }
				"LLP" { $NCT = "VirtualLsiLogic" }
				"LLS" { $NCT = "VirtualLsiLogicSAS" }
				"VPV" { $NCT = "ParaVirtual" }
				default { $NCT = "Default" }
			}
		}
	} else {
		Write-Host "There is no empty slot on selected VM for adding any new SCSI Controller."
	}
	$Approve = Read-Host "Please approve to create new $qty disk(s) for $vm with capacity of $cap GB"

	if ($Approve -eq "Yes" -and $Qty -le $AHS -and $Cap -ge 0.001 -and $Cap -le 1024) {
		for ($j = 1; $j -le $Qty; $j++) {
			if ($j -eq 1 -and $NCR -like "yes" -and $NDSR -notlike "yes") {
				New-HardDisk -VM $VM -CapacityGB $Cap -StorageFormat Thin | New-ScsiController -Type $NCT -Confirm:$false
				$SC = Get-VM -Name $VM | Get-ScsiController
				$SCT = $SC.count - 1
			} elseif ($j -eq 1 -and $NCR -like "yes" -and $NDSR -like "yes") {
				New-HardDisk -VM $VM -CapacityGB $Cap -StorageFormat Thin -Datastore $SNDS | New-ScsiController -Type $NCT -Confirm:$false
				$SC = Get-VM -Name $VM | Get-ScsiController
				$SCT = $SC.count - 1
			} elseif ($j -ge 2 -and $NCR -like "yes" -and $NDSR -notlike "yes") {
				New-HardDisk -VM $VM -CapacityGB $Cap -StorageFormat Thin -Controller "SCSI controller $SCT" -Confirm:$false
			} elseif ($j -ge 2 -and $NCR -like "yes" -and $NDSR -like "yes") {
				New-HardDisk -VM $VM -CapacityGB $Cap -StorageFormat Thin -Controller "SCSI controller $SCT" -Datastore $SNDS -Confirm:$false
			} elseif ($NDSR -notlike "yes") {
				New-HardDisk -VM $VM -CapacityGB $Cap -StorageFormat Thin -Confirm:$false
			} elseif ($NDSR -like "yes") {
				New-HardDisk -VM $VM -CapacityGB $Cap -StorageFormat Thin -Datastore $SNDS -Confirm:$false
			}
		}
	} elseif ($Approve -ne "Yes") {
		Write-Host "Process terminated by user." -BackgroundColor Yellow -ForegroundColor Red
	} elseif ($Qty -gt $AHS) {
		Write-Host "Can't create disk more than available free slot!" -BackgroundColor Yellow -ForegroundColor Red
	} elseif ($Cap -lt 0.001 -or $Cap -gt 1024) {
		Write-Host "Selected capacity is out of possible range!" -BackgroundColor Yellow -ForegroundColor Red
	} else {
		Write-Host "Please check given parameter and try again!" -BackgroundColor Yellow -ForegroundColor Red
	}
} elseif ($AHS -eq 0) {
	Write-Host "There is no empty slot on selected VM for adding any hard disk."
}

Step 1 – Creating new “Port Group”

First of all, I’d checked the networking configuration of two standalone hosts under “HostConfigurationNetworking” and as it shown in the bellow screen shots, there is no “Virtual Machine Port Group” under “vSwitch1″ and it’s only contain one “VMKernel” for vMotion purpose for each host.

After running bellow “PowerCLI” command, one port group would be created on each host with indicated name as shown.

$vmh = Get-VMHost; $vmh | %{ Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost $_ | where {$_.name -like "vSwitch1"} | New-VirtualPortGroup -Name "Sync Channel"}

Now lets check each part of code:

Bellow code would get a list of connected host and insert them in the “$vmh” variable, so this variable would contain names, and other information of connected hosts.

$vmh = Get-VMHost;

Bellow piece of code would repeat internal command which replaced by “dots” for each item in “$vmh” variable. if “$vmh” contain 2 items, internal commands would run twice and if “$vmh” contains 100 items then those commands would be run 100 times, each time for each item.

$vmh | %{ ...... }

Now the first part of internal commands would be “Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost $_” and it will get the vSwitch information for each item passed to it;
For being more clear, command would select 1 item among 100 in “$vmh” and then run the “Get-VirtualSwitch -VMH0st $_” command for it while the host name would be equal to the selected item the pipeline would pass the current information to the next command.

$vmh | %{ Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost $_ | .... }

The first pipeline would help us to filter some data by passing data from left side to the right side, “Where {$_.name -like “vSwitch1″}”; up to now, one host selected and then its virtual switches and now by using “$_.name -like ***” only those switches would be selected which have the given pattern or name.
Here, I’ve filter those switches which had “vSwitch1″ name and then the result would be pass to the next part (right side) by using the pipeline again. :wink:

$vmh | %{ Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost $_ | where {$_.name -like "vSwitch1"} | .... }

The second command which is important and would do the main job is “New-VirtualPortGroup -Name “Sync Channel”"; as it self describe, this command would create new port group with name of “Sync Channel” on the vSwitch1 which passed from previous pipeline (left side) on the selected host from “$vmh”.

$vmh | %{ Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost $_ | where {$_.name -like "vSwitch1"} | New-VirtualPortGroup -Name "Sync Channel"}

Step 2 – Add new vNIC to VMs and connecting them

I’m checking the VMs network connection both from both host networking view and from “Virtual Machine Properties” as shown in bellow pictures.

As it shown in the above pictures, their two vNIC only connected to default “Virtual Machine Port Group” named “VM Network”; I did same check by using bellow “PowerCLI” commands.
First get all VMs which are started by “NSCE” using “Get-VM NSCE*” and then get their vNICs using bellow line.

Get-VM NSCE* | Get-NetworkAdapter

It’s time to add new vNIC (3rd) to these VMs and it’s possible by just simply replacing the “Get-NetworkAdapter” with “New-NetworkAdapter”; this command needed some parameter in order to correctly and completely work.
When passing the VM name using pipeline (from left to right), it’s possible to run the commend by only providing the “Port Group” which VMs should connect to; bellow I’ve added two more parameters for meeting my VMs requirement.

Get-VM NSCE* | New-NetworkAdapter -NetworkName "Sync Channel" -StartConnected:$true -Type "e1000"

Bellow image showing the VMs network adapter information I get using “PowerCLI”, “Virtual Machine Properties” windows and host networking view.

Note:
There might be other ways for doing these tasks by using “VMware PowerCLI” but as I’m beginner this is as far as I got now, if I find other way for these tasks, I’d update this post as well.

I’ve tried to install it on “Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Core” and here I’m listing some little points needed to take care of.
First of all, “VMware PowerCLI” needs “.NET Framework 2.0″ which is not installed by default, so it should be installed before starting the whole process.

Adding or remove of new feature or rule is possible through command line or by using GUI on other server, here I’d install “.NET Framework” using PowerShell.

Step 1 – installing “.NET Framework”

Run “powershell” command so the normal command prompt would change to the “PS C:>”.

Check the current state of feature and rules by using bellow command

Get-WindowsFeature

For being more detail, filter the output and just look for any rule or feature contains “NET” in their names.

Get-WindowsFeature | where name -like net-*

The box behind “.NET Framework 3.5 Features” is empty but before starting the installation, lets simulate it and check if the process would be successful by using bellow command.

Install-WindowsFeature -Name "NET-Framework-Features" -Source [CD-Network-Source] -Restart -WhatIf

The “WhatIf” option would check the process and let us know the result, for installation, just remove the “WhatIf” and run the command again and after the installation, check the installed feature again.

Install-WindowsFeature -Name "NET-Framework-Features" -Source [CD-Network-Source] -Restart

Step 2 – Installing “vSphere PowerCLI”

The rest is simple and easy installation process as shown bellow.

Notes:

It’s better to have the windows installation media somewhere close as it might be needed by some feature or rules.
If the console (only interaction way) has been maximized, some prompt might go behind that, so making the window smaller might be better during this installation. (Image “P5-05-11″)

Also, There are some other applications or custom build OS which can be used to create a “Virtual Storage Server”.

Update 1 [Nov 10, 2012]:
Thanks to “David Robertson (@daverdfw for his kind help, “FreeNAS, NAS4Free and Nexenta Community Edition” has been added.

Update 2 [Nov 11, 2012]:
“OmniOS”, “NASLite-2/NASLite-M2″ as well as “Info” section has been added.

There might be other VSA as well and I’d be happy and thankful if you kindly share any others VSA you know, so I’d update this table.

Requirements:
Virtual/Physical server with Windows Server 2012
Host/vHost with VMware ESXi 5.x
Server should have some free space to be able to present them as NFS or iSCSI storage.

Config #1 – iSCSI implementation
First of all make sure “VMware ESXi” hosts can use and connect to iSCSI storage, for more information on “Basic software iSCSI setup”, KB1008083 can be checked.

On the server side, “iSCSI Target Server” role should be install from “Server ManagerManageAdd Roles and FeaturesFile And Storage ServicesFile and iSCSI Services” and then configured.

After installation of role completed successfully, open the “Server Manager” and select “File and Storage Services”; now by selecting “iSCSI” option, server can create new virtual disk and present them (as LUN) to other server (initiators) or simply edit/delete existing iSCSI virtual disks and targets.

For creating new iSCSI virtual disk and target, right click on free space area of “iSCSI VIRTUAL DISKS” and select “New iSCSI Virtual Disk”; in the first step of wizard window select one drive with sufficient disk space and press “Next”.

In “iSCSI Virtual Disk Name” type file name for new virtual disk and for future use and simplicity enter short description for it and press “Next”. for example:
Name: Pro-iSCSI-C1
Description: iSCSI virtual disk for production server on cluster 01

Now, based on free space showing and space needed to present to other servers enter the disk size.

It’s possible to create new iSCSI Target or use the existing one;
By creating new one, new virtual disk would be presented as LUN0 on new target.
By selecting from existing “Targets”, the new virtual disk would be other LUN on that target, for example LUN2 on Target1.

Check the confirmation information and if everything is correct press the “Create” button, after short time new virtual disk (LUN) would be ready to present.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 is like other iSCSI servers/targets and VMware ESXi host can connect to this “iSCSI Target” as well and work.

Notes:
Please note that “Microsoft Windows Server 2012″ would create one file on selected drive for each virtual disk and would assign disk space to that file based on size which would be configure later! for example if 40 GB selected for size of one virtual disk, one file with 40 GB size would be created. (Pre-allocate)

Config #2 – NFS implementation

Creating and using NFS on Windows Server is easy and straight forward process; bellow steps can help to prepare and present NFS Storage to the VMware ESXi 5.x. 

First of all, install “Server for NFS” role from “Server ManagerManageFile And Storage ServicesFile and iSCSI Services” and then few clicks is needed to make this feature up and running.

After successful installation of NFS role, right click on selected drive or folder and select “Properties”. then select “NFS Sharing” tab and press the “Manage NFS Sharing …” button; as this share would be presented to VMware ESXi, few changes should be made to the default settings.

Make sure the “Allow unmapped user Unix access (by UID/GID)” radio button should be selected.

If this “NFS Share” should be able to be written by VMs and Hosts, the “Type of access” on the “NFS Share Permission” window should be change from “Read-Only” to “Read-Write”.

The last step would be adding NFS Share to the VMware ESXi hosts and it can be easily done by pressing “Add Storage …” from “HostConfigurationStorage”; in the new window select the “Network File System” and in the next step provide the server name/ip and “NFS Share” address.

“NFS Share” address or “Folder” would be the name of NFS starting with “/“; for example, if I made folder on Windows with name of NFS_Share and share that with same name on “NFS Share Tab” I should give “/NFS_Share” as the folder or address here.

And the last part would be “Datastore Name” which would be appear on the “Datastores” list.

Notes:
One drive can be selected for NFS share and the whole process is the same as for folders, but if the drive is selected for  be done simply for one or more folder with same process.

If drive is selected for being shared as “NFS Share” two or more hidden folders might be visible on the “Datastore Browser”; folders like “$RECYCLE.BIN” or “System Volume Information”.

Kerberos option can be checked or unchecked and this change don’t prevent hosts from adding and using “NFS Share”.

Also it’s possible to use “NFS Shares” with both “Root Access Disallowed” and “Root Access Allowed” configuration.

All in one place:
Thanks to “Eric Siebert“, Here is a another great post on his site (vSphere-Land) which will help you find all links for applications, documents and KB and lots more.

Pages:
VMware vSphere PowerCLI ( Link )
VMware vSphere Command-Line Interface [vCLI] ( Link )
VMware vSphere Management Assistant [vMA] ( Link )

Applications:
VMware vSphere PowerCLI ( Main, Tenant )
VMware vSphere Command-Line Interface [vCLI] ( Main )
VMware vSphere Management Assistant [vMA] ( Link )

Documentation:
VMware vSphere PowerCLI ( Main, Tenant )
VMware vSphere Command-Line Interface [vCLI] ( Main )
VMware vSphere Management Assistant [vMA] ( Link )

Posters:
VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.1 Poster ( Page, PDF )
VMware vCloud Networking Poster ( Page, PDF )

I’ve made a little online presentation (road map) using “SlideRocket” for “Microsoft Certifications” and I’m going to update time to time based on “Microsoft” announcements.
When I tried to place it here (tested both post and page), I just found out “WordPress” is not supporting “iframes” for some reasons so after searching for solution online (instead of looking for it in “SildeRocket” Support portal) I found multiple plugins for handling this situation and bellow you can find some of them; I’ve chosen “iframes” plugin just based on its information on “Other Notes” tab.

1. iframes
2. embed-iframe
3. Advanced iframe
4. Iframe Preserver

And now, here is the presentation; it’s based on certifications related to “Windows Server 2012″ and it made on “June 8, 2012″.

If you are interested on “Microsoft Certification” you can check “Microsoft Learning” or visiting/bookmarking this link as I’m going to keep it simple and update.

Bellow, you can find related steps I’ve taken so far …

[Show as slideshow]

• Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
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Update #1
I Found this post by “Niklas” ( @vniklas about “PowerShell Web Access” on “Windows Server 2012″.

And here, just part of great news about “Free Edition”:

• Backup & Recover VMs form Environments based on both hypervisor (VMware and Microsoft)
• Support both managed and standalone hosts (VMware vCenter/Microsoft SCVMM).
• Do Compression and Deduplication (included my own result in screen shot)
• Recover file/files from VM
• Recover file/files from guest OS inside VM
• And now, it’s possible to “Migrate VMs between hosts and/or datastores“

One other great thing about “Veeam Backup Free Edition” is the upgrade path (from administration point of view), there’s no need to uninstall/re-install this software if the license bought latter, just enter the license in the software and use same UI* and same system.
* Some features/options might not be shown in “Free Edition” but they would be shown as soon as software get proper license. 

New product got lots of improvement from new interface, Veeam ZIP, capability of migrating live VMs and lot more.
Bellow I’ve attached few screen shots from internally ran beta version on my lab but I highly recommend to get it yourself and work with it, sure you’d love it as well!

[Show as slideshow]

• Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
• 1
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Here, are some review and posts from VMware Experts, vExperts, SME and …

• “Veeam Backup & Replication 6.1 released” by “Gabrie van Zanten” ( @gabvirtualworld )
• “#Veeam Backup & Replication 6.1 is out” by “Luca Dell’Oca” ( @dellock6 ) [Italian Version]
• “Veeam Backup & Replication 6.1” by “Andrea Mauro” ( @Andrea_Mauro ) [Italian Version]
• “Veeam Backup & Replication 6.1 released and brings also a Free Version” by “Vladan SEGET” ( @vladan )
• “Awesome! Veeam Backup & Replication 6.1 released” by “Marek Zdrojewski” ( @MarekDotZ )
• “Veeam Backup and Replication 6.1 is Virtualization’s Best Friend” by “Elias Khnaser” ( @ekhnaser )
• “Veeam released Backup & Replication v6.1” by “Marco Broeken” ( @mbroeken )
• “Something Awesome From #Veeam – Backup and Replication 6.1 is here (and it’s free!!!)” by “Mike Preston” ( @mwpreston )
• “VEEAM INTRODUCES FREE BACKUP FOR VMWARE AND HYPER-V WITH “THE NEW FASTSCP”” by “Veeam Software” ( @Veeam )

This new product can be found by this link and for comparison of “Free Edition vs. Full (paid) Edition” this PDF can be used.

Note:
This document was created using the official VMware icon and diagram library. Copyright © 2012 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents.

VMware does not endorse or make any representations about  third party information included in this document, nor does the inclusion of any VMware icon or diagram in this document imply such an endorsement.