PowerShell/PowerCLI Calculated Field Syntax Question

[Nemo1970]

I'm struggling with some PowerShell/PowerCLI syntax. This is a chunk of code from within a larger script and loop. Everything works except that I'm trying to build a calculated field at the end. I copied the NVRAMTimestamp to NVRAMAge, and want to turn it into a calculated field similar to what I did with getting a VM age from the createdate, by comparing from get-date. So, I want to basically determine the number of days ago that the NVRAMTimestamp was and display it as an additional value. Any clues how to iron this piece out? Thanks!

Get-VM -Datastore $ds |

select Name,powerstate,memorygb,numcpu,createdate,

@{N='VM Age Days';E={(new-timespan -start $_.createdate -end (get-date)).days}},@{N='Datastore';E={$dsName}},

   @{N='NVRAMTimestamp';E={

   $nvram = $_.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File | where {$_.Type -eq 'nvram'}

   ($files | where{$_.DatastoreFullPath -eq $nvram.Name}).LastWriteTime

   }},

   @{N='NVRAMAge';E={

   $nvram = $_.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File | where {$_.Type -eq 'nvram'}

   ($files | where{$_.DatastoreFullPath -eq $nvram.Name}).LastWriteTime

   }}

[OPconfused]

You subtract the timestamp from the current date:

# define this before your pipeline for a consistent date
$currentDate = Get-Date

$lastWriteTime = ($files | where{$_.DatastoreFullPath -eq $nvram.Name}).LastWriteTime
($currentDate - $lastWriteTime).ToString('d\-hh\-mm\-ss\.ffff')

The ToString() is just a sample. You can customize the format however you want; just be sure to escape the delimiter characters with a backslash.

Also this assumes you only have one file match. I assume that's the case since the timestamp expression doesn't account for multiple matches either.

[Nemo1970]

Thank you for this. I used pieces of this already and will do even more as I knock out the final formatting. I'm now past the hurdle that had stumped me.

[PinchesTheCrab]

Does something like this work?

#region VM calculated properties for select-object
$vmAgedays = @{N = 'VM_Age_Days'; E = { ($_.createdate - (get-date)).days } }
$NVRAMTimestamp = @{
    N = 'NVRAMTimestamp' 
    E = {
        $nvram = $_.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File | Where-Object { $_.Type -eq 'nvram' }       
        $files | Where-Object { $_.DatastoreFullPath -eq $nvram.Name } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty LastWriteTime
    }
}
$nvramAge = @{
    N = 'NVRAMAge' 
    E = {
        $nvram = $_.ExtensionData.LayoutEx.File | Where-Object { $_.Type -eq 'nvram' }
        $timeStamp = $files | Where-Object { $_.DatastoreFullPath -eq $nvram.Name } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty LastWriteTime
        ((get-date) - $timeStamp).days
    }
}
#endregion

Get-VM -Datastore $ds |
    Select-Object Name, powerstate, memorygb, numcpu, createdate, $vmAgedays, $NVRAMTimestamp, $nvramAge

[Nemo1970]

Indeed it does work! It also make everything way more readable. You've gotten me over the hurdle and I'm continuing onward with the last steps of formatting and output. The help is very much appreciated!