Every vSphere admin will get to a day where he wants to automate particular tasks, though he always have to weight the benefits vs the  time required to automate using a vSphere Power CLI script or implementing the vCO Java Script Code required. What if you can generate such scripts and automation procedure in no time and without much of scripting knowledge. What if you can click your way through the VMware vSphere Client and the code magically is written for you in your language of choice of the below languages:

– vSphere Power CLI

– vCO Java Script

– C#

What I have been describing above is a VMware Fling called Onyx. Onyx is a standalone application that serves as a proxy between the vSphere Client and the vCenter Server. It monitors the network communication between them and translates it into an executable PowerShell code. Later, this code could be modified and saved into a reusable function or script. I am sure many of you got excited already, but to get you even more excited and to see Onyx red handed in action check out the below video:

Below you will find the exact steps to get you started with VMware Onyx, the best vSphere Power CLI tool out there.

1. Download VMware Onyx zip from https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/automationtools/onyx
2. Extract it to a folder of your choice and run Onyx.exe.
3. To connect to a server, click the following icon *
4. Enter the IP of the vCenter Server on which you want to work and click Connect.
5. Connect with any of the following clients:

• For vSphere Client in the “IP Address” field enter the following address: http://[IP of the machine where Onyx is running] : [listening port]
• For vSphere PowerCLI, run the following command: Connect VI Server [IP of the machine where Onyx is running] – protocol HTTP – port [listening port] -User[username]  -Pass[password]

VMware Onyx is a magical tool that will leave vSphere admins no excuse not to automate their routine tasks even if they are not the best coder out there. Try it out & I would love to hear your feedback of this magical tool. At last I need to send a shout to the engineers who developed and continued maintaining this tool:  Ignat Ignatov & Yavor Boychev.