Simple PowerShell Question regarding get-navol and get-nasnapshot

[#1]

So, i'm just starting to play with powershell, so bare with the basic questions....

I want to know what the difference between

get-navol | get-nasnapshot -snapname "{*"

and

get-navol | get-nasnapshot -snapname "{*" | Select Name,Created,Total,CumulativeTotal | format-table -autosize

The first one gives me more of a friendly view, but all i did is pipe get-nasnapshot to get-member to review the properties and I was just trying to reproduce what the first query has, but the second query gives me results like.

Name	Created	Total CumulativeTotal
----	-------	----- ---------------
{4b74d573-74bf-4475-818e-42ab85ef2b4d} 3/10/2012 11:33:46 AM  4177997824	14790995968

Instead of something like

Name	Created	Total Cumulative Dependency
----	-------	----- ---------- ----------
{4b74d573-74bf-4475-818e-42ab85ef2b4d}	3/10/2012	3.9 GB	13.8 GB

Also, what i'm looking to do is loop this through a list of filers and have it list volume name first and then snapshot info.. I was having an issue with that query.

Any assistance is appreciated.

[#2]

The PowerShell Toolkit includes data formatters, which provide the tabular output with neatly formatted values for the most common output types.  When you pipe the output to Select-Object and Format-Table, you're bypassing the built-in formatters so you get the raw underlying data instead and it's up to you to format the data however you like.

[#3]

Ah.. Ok, sweet.. That explains that.. Now time to get the query...

Ok, here's my little script

gc $hostFile |% {

    $nacontroller = Connect-NaController $_ -Credential $cred -Transient:$true

     Get-NaVol -Controller $natcontroller | get-nasnapshot -snapname "{*"

}

What's the proper way to get the volume name along with snapshot name. 

[#4]

Try something like this to replicate what the built-in formatters are doing:

PS C:\> Get-NaVol vol* | Get-NaSnapshot -SnapName nightly.* | select TargetName,Name,Created,Total,CumulativeTotal,Dependency | ft @{Expression={$_.TargetName};Label="Volume";Width=20},@{Expression={$_.Name};Label="Name";Width=25},@{Expression={$_.Created.ToShortDateString()};Label="Created";Width=12},@{Expression={ConvertTo-FormattedNumber $_.Total DataSize "0.0"};Label="Total";Width=10},@{Expression={ConvertTo-FormattedNumber $_.CumulativeTotal DataSize "0.0"};Label="Cumulative";Width=10},@{Expression={$_.Dependency};Label="Dependency"}

Volume               Name                      Created      Total      Cumulative Dependency

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

vol0                 nightly.0                 3/14/2012    20.6 MB    31.4 MB

vol0                 nightly.1                 3/13/2012    21.5 MB    75.3 MB

vol0                 nightly.2                 3/11/2012    20.4 MB    166.3 MB

vol1                 nightly.0                 3/14/2012    88.0 KB    172.0 KB

vol1                 nightly.1                 3/13/2012    88.0 KB    348.0 KB

vol1                 nightly.2                 3/11/2012    88.0 KB    704.0 KB

vol1clone            nightly.0                 3/14/2012    112.0 KB   200.0 KB

vol1clone            nightly.1                 3/13/2012    104.0 KB   408.0 KB

vol1clone            nightly.2                 3/11/2012    88.0 KB    800.0 KB

vol3                 nightly.0                 3/14/2012    52.0 KB    108.0 KB

vol3                 nightly.1                 3/13/2012    60.0 KB    228.0 KB

vol3                 nightly.2                 3/11/2012    60.0 KB    460.0 KB

[#5]

Clinton,

Ok, i like the output and what you did for the built in formatters.  I had to adjust column width based on lenght of name of vol and snap.

[Quote}

gc $hostFile |% {

    $nacontroller = Connect-NaController $_ -Credential $cred -Transient:$true

    Get-NaVol | Get-NaSnapshot -SnapName "{*" | select TargetName,Name,Created,Total,CumulativeTotal | ft @{Expression={$_.TargetName};Label="Volume";Width=40},@{Expression={$_.Name};Label="Name";Width=40},@{Expression={$_.Created.ToShortDateString()};Label="Created";Width=12},@{Expression={ConvertTo-FormattedNumber $_.Total DataSize "0.0"};Label="Total";Width=10},@{Expression={ConvertTo-FormattedNumber $_.CumulativeTotal DataSize "0.0"};Label="Cumulative";Width=10}

}

[/quote]

So I have some questions.  Why on earth is the loop not going through the file.  It keeps hitting the first controller in the file.  Its driving me nuts..

Also, based on your expression statement, when you are adjusting the size you use DateSize "0.0".  What is that actually doing behind the scenes?  Im curious?

Thanks

[#6]

Josh, you are passing -Transient to Connect-NaController, which causes that cmdlet to not store the connection context in the session variable $global:CurrentNaController.  If you do that, then you must pass the controller context to each subsequent cmdlet.  It's simpler to use the global variable, like this:

PS C:\> gc controllers.txt | % { $c = Connect-NaController $_; Write-Host "`nController: $c`n"; Get-NaVol vol* }

Controller: dunn

Name                      State       TotalSize  Used  Available Dedupe  FilesUsed FilesTotal Aggregate

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

vol0                      online       101.4 GB   14%    86.7 GB  True         83k         4M aggr0

vol1                      online        16.0 GB    5%    15.2 GB  True         142       623k aggr1

vol1clone                 online        16.0 GB    5%    15.2 GB  True         142       623k aggr1

vol2                      online       180.0 GB   53%    83.8 GB  True         242         6M aggr1

vol2clone                 online       180.0 GB   93%    12.9 GB  True         214         6M aggr1

vol3                      online       420.0 MB    0%   419.6 MB  True         143        16k aggr1

Controller: benson

vol0                      online        86.2 GB    5%    82.1 GB False         14k         4M aggr0

vol1                      online       901.5 GB   62%   344.6 GB False         45k        28M aggr1

vol4                      online       150.0 GB   80%    29.6 GB False         238         5M aggr1

>> Also, based on your expression statement, when you are adjusting the size you use DataSize "0.0".  What is that actually doing behind the scenes?

The Toolkit cmdlet ConvertTo-FormattedNumber is a convenience cmdlet used primarily by the data formatters, though you can use it directly as well.  The "DataSize" parameter instructs the cmdlet to include units like MB or GB.  "0.0" is the formatting string passed to String.Format() (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0c899ak8.aspx); in this case, we're just requesting a single digit to the right of the decimal point.