[API]New way to gather Horizon Events

A good bunch of my audience has probably already noticed it but with Horizon 8 release 2106 VMware has added a new method to gather Horizon Events: the AuditEventSummaryView query. In this post I will describe how to consume this query using the soap API. I have been told by VMware specialists that this updated version of the eventsummaryview is actually safe to use and wont put a burden on the connection servers.

A quick small script to consume this query could look like this:

[CmdletBinding()]
param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,
    HelpMessage='Credential object as domain\username with password' )]
    [PSCredential] $Credential,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,  HelpMessage='FQDN of the connectionserver' )]
    [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
    [string] $ConnectionServerFQDN
)

if($Credential){
    $creds = $credential
}
else{
    $creds = get-credential
}

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

# Loading powercli modules
Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView
Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Core

$hvserver1=connect-hvserver $ConnectionServerFQDN -credential $creds
$Services1= $hvServer1.ExtensionData

$queryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
$defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
$defn.queryentitytype='AuditEventSummaryView'


$eventlist = @()
$GetNext = $false
$queryResults = $queryservice.QueryService_Create($Services1, $defn)
do {
    if ($GetNext) {
        $queryResults = $queryservice.QueryService_GetNext($Services1, $queryResults.id) 
    }
    $eventlist += $queryResults.results
    $GetNext = $true
}
while ($queryResults.remainingCount -gt 0)
$queryservice.QueryService_Delete($Services1, $queryResults.id)
return $eventlist

I run it like this, show the event count and the last one

$creds = import-clixml d:\homelab\creds.xml
$events = D:\GIT\Scripts\get-horizon-audit-events.ps1 -ConnectionServerFQDN loftcbr01.loft.lab -Credential $creds
$events.count
$events | select-object -last 1

If you want to filter the data a bit more there are plenty of options for that:

I have added some filtering options to the above script, if you supply the filtertype argument the filterdata and filtervalue are mandatory. Filtertype for now can be either Equals or Contains, filterdata can be any of the data types from the image above and the value is the value you’re going to filter on. To be honest not all of the data types worked when I was creating this post but the message actually did.

[CmdletBinding(DefaultParameterSetName='noFilter')]
param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,
    HelpMessage='Credential object as domain\username with password' )]
    [PSCredential] $Credential,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,  HelpMessage='FQDN of the connectionserver' )]
    [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
    [string] $ConnectionServerFQDN,

    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='Filter',Mandatory=$true,HelpMessage = "Name of the data type to filter on.")]
    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='noFilter',Mandatory=$false,HelpMessage = "Name of the data type to filter on.")]
    [string]$filterdata,

    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='Filter',Mandatory=$true,HelpMessage = "Value to filter on.")]
    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='noFilter',Mandatory=$false,HelpMessage = "Value to filter on.")]
    [string]$filtervalue,

    [Parameter(ParameterSetName='Filter',HelpMessage = "FIltertype: Equals or Contains.")]
    [validateset("Equals","Contains")]
    [string]$filtertype

)

if($Credential){
    $creds = $credential
}
else{
    $creds = get-credential
}

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

# Loading powercli modules
Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView
Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Core

$hvserver1=connect-hvserver $ConnectionServerFQDN -credential $creds
$Services1= $hvServer1.ExtensionData

$queryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
$defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
$defn.queryentitytype='AuditEventSummaryView'

if($filtertype){
    if($filtertype -eq "Contains"){
        $defn.Filter= New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterContains -property @{'MemberName'=$filterdata; 'value'=$filtervalue}
    }
    else{
        $defn.Filter= New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -property @{'MemberName'=$filterdata; 'value'=$filtervalue}
    }
}

$eventlist = @()
$GetNext = $false
$queryResults = $queryservice.QueryService_Create($Services1, $defn)
do {
    if ($GetNext) {
        $queryResults = $queryservice.QueryService_GetNext($Services1, $queryResults.id) 
    }
    $eventlist += $queryResults.results
    $GetNext = $true
}
while ($queryResults.remainingCount -gt 0)
$queryservice.QueryService_Delete($Services1, $queryResults.id)
return $eventlist

I run and check it like this:

$events = D:\GIT\Scripts\get-horizon-audit-events.ps1 -ConnectionServerFQDN loftcbr01.loft.lab -Credential $creds -filtertype Contains -filterdata message -filtervalue "has logged in"
$events | Select-Object message -last 10

The last version shown here can be downloaded from my github: Various_Scripts/get-horizon-audit-events.ps1 at master · Magneet/Various_Scripts (github.com)

 

Powercli script to assign a dedicated Horizon machine to multiple users

Yesterday Robin Stolpe again reached out that he was having issues assigning multiple accounts to the same dedicated machine. He couldn’t get this running with the vmware.hv.helper and looking that with how it is implemented now it will probably never work. I decided to put together some of the functions I have used for ControlUp script based actions and some of my other work to put together the following script (that can be found on Github here.)

[CmdletBinding()]
Param
(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$False,
    ParameterSetName="separatecredentials",
    HelpMessage='Enter a username' )]
    [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
    [string] $Username,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,
    ParameterSetName="separatecredentials",
    HelpMessage='Domain i.e. loft.lab' )]
    [string] $Domain,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,
    ParameterSetName="separatecredentials",
    HelpMessage='Password in plain text' )]
    [string] $Password,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,  HelpMessage='FQDN of the connectionserver' )]
    [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
    [string] $ConnectionServerFQDN,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,
    ParameterSetName="credsfile",
    HelpMessage='Path to credentials xml file' )]
    [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
    [string] $Credentialfile,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,  HelpMessage='username of the user to logoff (domain\user i.e. loft.lab\user1')]
    [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
    [string[]] $TargetUsers,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage='Name of the desktop pool the machine belongs to')]
  [string] $TargetPool,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage='dns name of the machine the user is on i.d. lp-002.loft.lab')]
  [string] $TargetMachine,

    [Parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage='domain for the target users')]
  [string] $TargetDomain
)

if($Credentialfile -and ((test-path $Credentialfile) -eq $true)){
    try{
        write-host "Using credentialsfile"
        $credentials=Import-Clixml $Credentialfile
        $username=($credentials.username).split("\")[1]
        $domain=($credentials.username).split("\")[0]
        $secpw=$credentials.password
        $BSTR = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($secpw)
        $password = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)
    }
    catch{
        write-error -Message "Error importing credentials"
        break
    }
}
elseif($Credentials -and ((test-path $credentials) -eq $false)){
    write-error "Invalid Path to credentials file"
    break
}
elseif($username -and $Domain -and $Password){
    write-host "Using separate credentials"
}


function Get-HVDesktopPool {
    param (
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true,
        HelpMessage = "Displayname of the Desktop Pool.")]
        [string]$HVPoolName,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true,
        HelpMessage = "The Horizon View Connection server object.")]
        [VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView.Impl.V1.ViewObjectImpl]$HVConnectionServer
    )
    # Try to get the Desktop pools in this pod
    try {
        # create the service object first
        [VMware.Hv.QueryServiceService]$queryService = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryServiceService
        # Create the object with the definiton of what to query
        [VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition]$defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
        # entity type to query
        $defn.queryEntityType = 'DesktopSummaryView'
        # Filter on the correct displayname
        $defn.Filter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -property @{'memberName'='desktopSummaryData.displayName'; 'value' = "$HVPoolname"}
        # Perform the actual query
        [array]$queryResults= ($queryService.queryService_create($HVConnectionServer.extensionData, $defn)).results
        # Remove the query
        $queryService.QueryService_DeleteAll($HVConnectionServer.extensionData)
        # Return the results
        if (!$queryResults){
            write-host "Can't find $HVPoolName, exiting."
            exit
        }
        else {
            return $queryResults
        }
    }
    catch {
        write-host 'There was a problem retreiving the Horizon View Desktop Pool.'
    }
}

function Get-HVDesktopMachine {
    param (
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true,
        HelpMessage = "ID of the Desktop Pool.")]
        [VMware.Hv.DesktopId]$HVPoolID,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true,
        HelpMessage = "Name of the Desktop machine.")]
        [string]$HVMachineName,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true,
        HelpMessage = "The Horizon View Connection server object.")]
        [VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView.Impl.V1.ViewObjectImpl]$HVConnectionServer
    )

    try {
        # create the service object first
        [VMware.Hv.QueryServiceService]$queryService = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryServiceService
        # Create the object with the definiton of what to query
        [VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition]$defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
        # entity type to query
        $defn.queryEntityType = 'MachineDetailsView'
        # Filter so we get the correct machine in the correct pool
        $poolfilter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -property @{'memberName'='desktopData.id'; 'value' = $HVPoolID}
        $machinefilter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -property @{'memberName'='data.name'; 'value' = "$HVMachineName"}
        $filterlist = @()
        $filterlist += $poolfilter
        $filterlist += $machinefilter
        $filterAnd = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterAnd
        $filterAnd.Filters = $filterlist
        $defn.Filter = $filterAnd
        # Perform the actual query
        [array]$queryResults= ($queryService.queryService_create($HVConnectionServer.extensionData, $defn)).results
        # Remove the query
        $queryService.QueryService_DeleteAll($HVConnectionServer.extensionData)
        # Return the results
        if (!$queryResults){
            write-host "Can't find $HVPoolName, exiting."
            exit
        }
        else{
            return $queryResults
        }
    }
    catch {
        write-host 'There was a problem retreiving the Horizon View Desktop Pool.'
    }
}

function Get-HVUser {
    param (
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true,
        HelpMessage = "User loginname..")]
        [string]$HVUserLoginName,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true,
        HelpMessage = "Name of the Domain.")]
        [string]$HVDomain,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true,
        HelpMessage = "The Horizon View Connection server object.")]
        [VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView.Impl.V1.ViewObjectImpl]$HVConnectionServer
    )

    try {
        # create the service object first
        [VMware.Hv.QueryServiceService]$queryService = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryServiceService
        # Create the object with the definiton of what to query
        [VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition]$defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
        # entity type to query
        $defn.queryEntityType = 'ADUserOrGroupSummaryView'
        # Filter to get the correct user
        $userloginnamefilter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -property @{'memberName'='base.loginName'; 'value' = $HVUserLoginName}
        $domainfilter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -property @{'memberName'='base.domain'; 'value' = "$HVDomain"}
        $filterlist = @()
        $filterlist += $userloginnamefilter
        $filterlist += $domainfilter
        $filterAnd = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterAnd
        $filterAnd.Filters = $filterlist
        $defn.Filter = $filterAnd
        # Perform the actual query
        [array]$queryResults= ($queryService.queryService_create($HVConnectionServer.extensionData, $defn)).results
        # Remove the query
        $queryService.QueryService_DeleteAll($HVConnectionServer.extensionData)
        # Return the results
        if (!$queryResults){
            write-host "Can't find user $HVUserLoginName in domain $HVDomain, exiting."
            exit
        }
        else {
            return $queryResults
        }
    }
    catch {
        write-host 'There was a problem retreiving the user.'
    }
}

$hvserver1=connect-hvserver $ConnectionServerFQDN -user $username -domain $domain -password $password
$Services1= $hvServer1.ExtensionData

$desktop_pool=Get-HVDesktopPool -hvpoolname $TargetPool -HVConnectionServer $hvserver1

$poolid=$desktop_pool.id

$machine = get-hvdesktopmachine -HVConnectionServer $hvserver1 -HVMachineName $TargetMachine -HVPoolID $poolid
$machineid = $machine.id
$useridlist=@()

foreach ($targetuser in $TargetUsers){
    $user = Get-HVUser -HVConnectionServer $hvserver1 -hvdomain $TargetDomain -HVUserLoginName $targetUser
    $useridlist+=$user.id
}

$Services1.Machine.Machine_assignUsers($machineid, $useridlist)

So first I have 3 functions to get the Pool, the machine and users. With a foreach on the $Targetusers list I create a list of the userid’s that is required to use for the Machine_assignUsers function of the machine service.