topic Adding all volumes on filer to an array in Microsoft Virtualization Discussions

Adding all volumes on filer to an array

lancesimpson — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:05:38 GMT

I am trying to update the snapshot schedules on a large number of filers using a PowerShell script. Each of the filers has a number of standard volumes that include the location of the filer example; volume1xx, volume2xx, volume3xx, where xx would be the location of the filer.

My thought is that I could someone use a "(Get-NaVol | where {$_.Name -contains $location})" type command to populate an array with all of the volumes on a particular filer and then run each of the volumes in the array into the Set-NaSnapshotSchedule command.

Has anyone done this before, or possibly have input into accomplishing getting the array populated with the volumes.

Otherwise, has anyone performed a similar operation with a different process that they can share?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Adding all volumes on filer to an array

paleon — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:13:36 GMT

I would handle this with the following code:

#If $netAppCred equals $null, get credentials
if ($netappCred -eq $null) {
$netappCred = Get-Credential -Credential "root"
}

# Create array of Filer names
$filerNames = @("filer1", "filer2", "filer3")

# Create array for all volumes
$allVols = @()

# Connect to each NetApp filer

# Get volumes from each Netapp filer

# Sort the volumes by name

# Add the "Filer" property

# Add the volume array to $allVols

foreach ($filerName in $filerNames) {
    #Connect to NetApp filer
    $netapp = Connect-NaController -Name $filerName -Credential $netappCred

    # Get volumes and sort by volume name
    $vols = Get-NaVol | Sort-Object -Property "Name"

    # Add filer name as a property named "Filer"
    $vols | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Filer" -Value $filerName

    # Add $vols to $allVols
    $allVols += $vols
}

This will give you an array of volume objects with an added property named "Filer".

Re: Adding all volumes on filer to an array

cknight — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 02:50:36 GMT

Lance, you may not even need to save the volumes to an array. Use wildcards and the pipeline instead, with something like this inside the "foreach $filerName" loop:

$pattern = "volume*" + $filerName

Get-NaVol $pattern | Set-NaSnapshotSchedule <args>

Re: Adding all volumes on filer to an array

rnrepp — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:41:06 GMT

If Get-NaVol returned more than one object, this would raise an exception.

Something simple like

Get-NaVol | Write-Host $_.Name

gets me:

At line:1 char:23
+ Get-NaVol | Write-Host <<<< $_.Name
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (NetApp.Ontapi.Filer.Volume.VolumeInfo:PSObject) [Write-Host], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InputObjectNotBound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteHostCommand

Write-Host : The input object cannot be bound to any parameters for the command either because the command does not take pipeline input or th
e input and its properties do not match any of the parameters that take pipeline input.

But, change that to use the %{pscommands_in_a_for_each} construct, then it works, such as:

Get-NaVol | %{Write-Host $_.Name}

An example of this would be something I did today to find the total size of snapshots on a filer that are more than 1GB

connect-nacontroller
$totalsnapsize = 0
get-NAVol | %{
Write-Host $_.Name -ForegroundColor Green
Get-NaSnapshot $_.Name | %{If ($_.Total -gt 1000000) {Write-Host $_.name ([Math]::Round(([Int64]$_.Total / 1MB),2))GB}$totalsnapsize += $_.Total}
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Blue Total Large Snapshots is ([Math]::round(($totalsnapsize / 1MB),2)) GB

Note I use the ${ } twice in that block of code, once for getting the volumes, then another once I pull each snap from the current volume.

So, to do a setting change to every volume on every filer, you'd get have to walk that one level up and %{ } the filer array list and then set your desired changes to each volume.

Re: Adding all volumes on filer to an array

cknight — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:37:48 GMT

Hi, rnrepp, thanks for posting.

The exception you reported is caused by using the $_ special variable outside of a script block. The snippet I posted does, in fact, work for any number of volumes in the pipeline.

PS C:\> $pattern = "vol*clone"

PS C:\> Get-NaVol $pattern | Set-NaSnapshotSchedule -Weeks 1 -Hours 2 -WhichHours "0,12"

Name                      State       TotalSize Used Available Dedupe FilesUsed FilesTotal Aggregate
----                      -----       --------- ---- --------- ------ --------- ---------- ---------
vol1clone                 online        16.0 GB    5%    15.2 GB True         142       623k aggr1
vol2clone                 online       180.0 GB   46%    97.3 GB True         214         6M aggr1

PS C:\> Get-NaVol $pattern | Get-NaSnapshotSchedule

Volume                          Weeks   Days    Hours Minutes WhichHours                WhichMinutes
------                          -----   ----    ----- ------- ----------                ------------
vol1clone                         1       1       2       0    0,12
vol2clone                         1       1       2       0    0,12

The Where-Object cmdlet (aliased to ?) and the ForEach-Object cmdlet (aliased to %) both operate on script blocks, which is why they can use the $_ variable.

Re: Adding all volumes on filer to an array

rnrepp — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 23:05:51 GMT

Alright, now it makes more sense to me. If only powershell had thrown that as the error description . . .