Script to automatically remove VM's older than 14 days.

Hi guys,

A while back Mr. LucD helped me with a script that automatically deletes any VM that has been powered off longer than 14 days. The script does work as intended but I wanted to see if someone could help me by modifying it so that instead of me having to update the script manually to exclude a VM from being deleted, we could simply make it so that if a virtual machine or multiple virtual machines are inside a folder, these would not get deleted. In other words, if we manually move a VM to a folder, the script will NOT remove any of the virtual machines inside it.

Below is the script I am using.

##Load all VMware related snap-ins

#Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core

Get-Module -ListAvailable VM* | Import-Module

##vCenter connection information

$vcenter = 'vcenter instances'

$vcenteruser = 'vadmin'

$vcenterpw = ''

##Connects to all vCenter instances

Connect-VIServer $vcenter -User $vcenteruser -Password $vcenterpw

#Here's where you can exclude any virtual machines from being removed by the script. You will need to un-comment this line.

#You will also need to comment the $excludedVM = @{} line in order to honor this line.

#$excludedVM = 'Some VM' -----> This is where a folder would be a lot safer to use.

#Here's where you can ignore the exclusions. If you un-comment this line, all virtual machines that meet the 7 day criteria will be removed.

#If you comment this line, then you will need to un-comment the #$excludedVM = 'VM Name Line' in order to honor this line.

$excludedVM = @{}

#Here you're defining the any VM variable

$vms = @{}

#This piece will get all powered off VMs and exclude the ones from the list that were defined in the $excludedVM variable

Get-VM | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff" -and $excludedVM -notcontains $_.Name} | % {$vms.Add($_.Name, $_)}

#Get-VM | where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"} | % {$vms.Add($_.Name, $_)}

#Exclude any virtual machine that was powered off before the last 7 days

Get-VIEvent -Start (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) -Entity $vms.Values -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) | where {$_ -is [VMware.Vim.VmPoweredOffEvent]} | Sort-Object -Property CreatedTime -Unique | % {$vms.Remove($_.VM.Name)}

#Remove the remaining VMs

#Remove-VM -VM $vms.Values -DeletePermanently -Confirm:$false -WhatIf

Remove-VM -VM $vms.Values -DeletePermanently -Confirm:$false