Generate a Visio map of your VMWare network using PowerGUI automatically

*Updated* 16 Oct 2009

Mapping your network manually using Visio can be a time consuming affair on all but the smallest of networks.

After going in-depth into many different articles already on the web, I decided to pull together the pieces I found and drop it into a list to make it easier for you to find and install also.

Step 1: Download and install the Microsoft Windows Powershell 1.0 .

Step 2: Download and install the VMWare PowerCLI . If you receive a warning related to Powershell execution policy, open PowerCLI and type the following command:

Set-ExecutionPolicy remotesigned

Step 3: Download and install PowerGUI.  Make sure that you select the VMWare VI Client Integration feature option.

Also download the VMWare.VIToolkit.powerpack file to your desktop. 

Step 4: Run PowerGUI and in the top left hand corner you will see a button called PowerPack Management. Click on it and you will see the Import button. Click on that and select the VMware.VITookit.powerpack you downloaded earlier.

Step 5: Download the VESI_Visio.zip file and unzip it into your My Documents\MyShapes folder. This assumes you already have Visio installed on this system.

Step 6: **IMPORTANT** You will have to manually rename the Visio Stencil to make it work with PowerGUI per this article. (Resolved by renaming "vesi_visio.vsd" to "Virtualization Visio Stencil.vss")

*Updated*

Step 7: Download the vDiagram zip file and extract its contents (My-VI-Shapes.vss and vDiagram.ps1) to your My Documents\My Shapes folder

Step 8: Once you have completed all the above steps, run PowerGUI and connect it to your VM network by adding either your VirtualCenter server or individual ESX Hosts. Once you have at least one host discovered you can click on it on in the left window and then look to the right window under Actions and find Generate vDiagram. This opens the Parameters box where you can choose what you want to map:

HostToVM, NetworkToVM, DatastoreToVM, HostToDatastore, and MaximumLeafDepth

Click OK. It may take a few seconds but Visio will automatically start and you will see the VMs appear one-by-one as they are discovered, Each type of option will display in its own map page.

I hope you find this how-to informative!