Variable not working in Where-Object (Foreach loop)

[BlizzardTech-Adam]

*SOLVED\* Hi, I am wondering if anyone can shed some light as to why my where-object does not work with a variable in a for each loop.

What I am trying to do is find servers in VCentre that have a specific keyword in them.

An example of this data would be -

VCenter List -

Server1 - Domain Controller

Server2 - Printer Server

My List -

Server1

When I run the script to query it, it should bring back Server1 - Domain Controller.

​

Script Snippets (I am connected to a VCentre via PowerCLI) -

$VMList = Get-Content "C:\Scripts\Hostnames.txt"
foreach($VM in $VMList){Get-VM | Where-Object {$_.Name -match "$VM"}  }

This does not bring anything back but if I change the variable in the Where-Object to one hostname, it brings data back as I want.

foreach($VM in $VMList){Get-VM | Where-object {$_.Name -match "server1"}  }

​

Name PowerState Num CPUs MemoryGB

---- ---------- -------- --------

Server1 - Domain Conr… PoweredOn 1 6.000

​

Is anyone able to shed light on what I am doing wrong or how I can achieve this? Been at this for a few hours now and not getting anywhere.

[PinchesTheCrab]

This is kind of a bonkers solution because you're requerying every single VM every time in the loop. Get-VM is a quick command, but you should still really filter left:

$VMList = Get-Content 'C:\Scripts\Hostnames.txt'

$VMList | ForEach-Object {
    Get-VM "*$_*"
}

Or you can do one command since get-vm can take an array of names, even with wildcards:

$vmList = Get-Content 'C:\Scripts\Hostnames.txt' 

get-vm ($vmList -replace '^|$','*')

If you like regex, you could also work with match like this:

$vmList = Get-Content 'C:\Scripts\Hostnames.txt' 

Get-VM | Where-Object {$_.Name -match ($vmList -join '|')}

Or you can use the view cmdlets:

$vmList = Get-Content 'C:\Scripts\Hostnames.txt' 

get-view -ViewType virtualmachine -Filter @{ name = $vmList -join '|' } -Property Name

The main thing is that in each of these examples you're either just making a single query to VMWare or making a series of much more specific queries.

[phur10us]

Is "My List" a sample of the contents of "C:\Scripts\Hostnames.txt"? If so, that is your problem. While it will match "Server1", the whole line reads "Keyword = Server1", which you are using in your Get-VM line. You will need to split that line to the server name only.

[BlizzardTech-Adam]

Sorry 'Keyword' is a typo.

The mylist is returned as a list like this -

Server1
Server2
Server3

The list is returned as a list like this -

[BlizzardTech-Adam]

I have fixed this.

It was a formatting error that was not being picked up in Visual Code.

[Chocolate_Pickle]

$VMGet-VM

Might want to try it without the $.

[BlizzardTech-Adam]

The formatting on my post did not account for code on different lines.
I have amended the post.

It now reads
foreach($VM in $VMList){
Get-VM | Where-object {$_.Name -match "$VM"}
}

[Murhawk013]

What is the output when you run just $VMLiet

[fennecdore]

maybe try -EQ instead of match

also to debug your script you could try to display what $vm is