Manage Datastores Through Datastore Drives

You can use the PowerCLI Datastore Provider to browse datastores from datastore drives.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to a folder on the ds: drive.
    cd VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine
  2. View the files of the folder by running the ls command.
    ls
    ls is the UNIX style alias of the Get-ChildItem cmdlet.
  3. Rename a file by running the Rename-Item cmdlet or its alias ren.

    For example, to change the name of the vmware-3.log file to vmware-3old.log, run:

    ren vmware-3.log vmware-3old.log
    All file operations apply only on files in the current folder.
  4. Delete a file by running the Remove-Item cmdlet or its alias del.

    For example, to remove the vmware-3old.log file from the XPVirtualMachine folder, run:

    del ds:\VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-2.log
  5. Copy a file by running the Copy-Item cmdlet or its alias copy.
    copy ds:\VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-3old.log ds:\VirtualMachines\vmware-3.log
  6. Copy a file to another datastore by running the Copy-Item cmdlet or its alias copy.
    copy ds:\Datacenter01\Datastore01\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-1.log ds:\Datacenter01\Datastore02\XPVirtualMachine02\vmware.log
  7. Create a new folder by running the New-Item cmdlet or its alias mkdir.
    mkdir -Path ds:\VirtualMachines -Name Folder01 -Type Folder
  8. Download a file from the datastore drive to the local machine by running the Copy-DatastoreItem cmdlet.
    Copy-DatastoreItem ds:\VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-3.log C:\Temp\vmware-3.log
  9. Upload a file from the local machine by running the Copy-DatastoreItem cmdlet.
    Copy-DatastoreItem C:\Temp\vmware-3.log  ds:\VirtualMachines\XPVirtualMachine\vmware-3new.log