Introduction

Whether you are preparing for an audit, building an inventory system, or handing off documentation, exporting a list of all VMs is one of the most common tasks for any vSphere administrator. PowerCLI allows you to automate this process and include exactly the metadata your team or auditors need.

In this article, you will learn how to:

• Export VM lists by folder, cluster, or globally
• Include VM name, power state, IP address, OS type, host, and notes
• Format reports in CSV or HTML
• Filter exports by tag or state
• Schedule the export weekly or monthly

Step 1: Connect to vCenter and List All VMs

Connect-VIServer -Server "vcenter.lab.local"
Get-VM

Step 2: Create a Full VM Inventory Report

Get-VM | Select Name, PowerState, VMHost, @{N="IPAddress";E={$_.Guest.IPAddress}}, @{N="OS";E={$_.Guest.OSFullName}}, Notes

Step 3: Export to CSV

Get-VM | Select Name, PowerState, VMHost, @{N="IPAddress";E={$_.Guest.IPAddress}}, @{N="OS";E={$_.Guest.OSFullName}}, Notes | Export-Csv "C:ReportsVM_Inventory.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Include date in the filename:

$timestamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd"
Export-Csv -Path "C:ReportsVM_Inventory_$timestamp.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Step 4: Filter by Folder or Cluster

Get-Folder -Name "Production" | Get-VM | Export-Csv "C:ReportsProduction_VMs.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Or by cluster:

Get-Cluster -Name "FinanceCluster" | Get-VM | Export-Csv "C:ReportsFinanceCluster_VMs.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Step 5: Filter by Power State or Tag

Powered off only:

Get-VM | Where-Object {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOff"} | Export-Csv "C:ReportsPoweredOffVMs.csv" -NoTypeInformation

By tag (e.g., “BackupEnabled”):

Get-TagAssignment -Tag "BackupEnabled" | Select Entity | Export-Csv "C:ReportsTaggedVMs.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Diagram: VM Export Workflow with PowerCLI

Use Case: Monthly Reporting to Finance or Asset Team

You can create a reusable scheduled task that:

• Connects to vCenter
• Pulls all VMs with size and OS
• Emails a CSV to the finance or ops team

Bonus: Export to HTML for Browsing or Dashboards

Get-VM | Select Name, PowerState, VMHost, @{N="IPAddress";E={$_.Guest.IPAddress}}, @{N="OS";E={$_.Guest.OSFullName}} | ConvertTo-Html -Title "VM List" | Out-File "C:ReportsVM_List.html"

Troubleshooting

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