{"id":13808,"date":"2012-11-20T11:49:25","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T11:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=13808"},"modified":"2012-11-20T11:49:25","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T11:49:25","slug":"create-lots-of-hyper-v-virtual-machines-from-a-csv-file-using-powershell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=13808","title":{"rendered":"Create Lots Of Hyper-V Virtual Machines From A CSV File Using PowerShell"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend of mine works for a software company, looking after a test rig for one of their product families.\u00a0 The test rig is based on Hyper-V, and they have to frequently provision lots<\/em> of virtual machines to test new products.\u00a0 We were chatting about how they do this a few weeks ago and I thought \u201cI bet I could do that using PowerShell, and I bet I could create a very nice solution too\u201d.\u00a0 What I wanted: A PowerShell script that would make lots of Windows Server 2012 (WS2012) Hyper-V VMs from a comma separated values (CSV) file.\u00a0 I also thought that this would be a great demonstration of PowerShell during WS2012 Hyper-V demos that I\u2019m frequently doing.<\/p>\n

So I put some work into it.\u00a0 The concept is based on a previous script<\/a> that I wrote, but I took it to the Nth degree.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how my script works:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You create a CSV file that specifies the configuration of each VM (1 row per VM).<\/li>\n
  2. You edit the script to read that file (easy change near the top)<\/li>\n
  3. You run the script<\/li>\n
  4. The results are recorded in a log file that you specify in the script (a second easy change near the top)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I\u2019ve put instructions in the script<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also supplied a sample CSV file in the zip file to show three different types of VHDX creation.<\/p>\n

    The script allows you to specify the following in the CSV:<\/p>\n