An effective approach for checking the NTP server and NTP Service on all ESXi hosts from a vCenter server is through a Powershell script.
This Powershell script has been developed to perform the following tasks:
- Establish a connection to a vCenter server.
- Query all the ESXi hosts to retrieve the configured NTP Server information.
- Query all the ESXi hosts to obtain the status of the NTP Service.
- Compile the gathered information into a list and dispatch it via mail to a designated distribution list.
To automate the process, the script can be configured to run as a Scheduled Task on a Windows server.
Furthermore, for scalability, the script can be modified with the option to set up a list of vCenters and iterate through them using a foreach loop in the script.
Script
#requires -modules VMware.VimAutomation.Core
param (
[CmdletBinding()]
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]$VCenter,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]$Username,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]$Password,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
[string]$Email
)
Import-Module -Name VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -ProxyPolicy NoProxy -DefaultVIServerMode multiple -Scope User -InvalidCertificateAction ignore -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
# Connection to vCenter
try {
Connect-VIServer -Server $VCenter -User $Username -Password $Password -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null
}
catch [VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.InvalidLogin] {
Write-Host "Cannot connect to $VCenter with provided credentials" -ForegroundColor Red
Continue
}
catch [VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.VimException.ViServerConnectionException] {
Write-Host "Cannot connect to $VCenter - check IP/FQDN" -ForegroundColor Red
Continue
}
catch {
Write-Host "Cannot connect to $VCenter - Unknown error" -ForegroundColor Red
Continue
}
$NTPdetails = Get-VMHost | Sort-Object Name | Select-Object Name,
@{Name="NTPServer";Expression={ $_ | Get-VMHostNtpServer }},
@{Name="ServiceStatus";Expression={(Get-VMHostService -VMHost $_ | Where-Object {$_.key -eq "ntpd" }).Running }}
# Email global variables
$ReportTime = Get-Date -Format yyyy.M.d
$MailTitle = "NTP status from $vcenter"
$SMTPServer = "SMTP_SERVER"
$From = "noreply@youremail.com"
$Timeout = "60"
$Subject = "$MailTitle $((Get-Date).ToShortDateString())"
$Message = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage
$Body = $NTPdetails | ConvertTo-Html
$Message.Subject = $Subject
$Message.Body = $Body
$Message.IsBodyHtml = $true
$Message.To.Add($Email)
$Message.From = $From
$Message.Attachments.Add($AttachmentFile)
$SMTP = New-Object System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient $SMTPServer
$SMTP.Send($Message)
}
Disconnect-VIServer -Server $vcenter -Confirm:$false
