Windows 8 Hyper-V objects are aLive

For those folks new to PowerShell you need to wrap your brain around the object concept.  It is fundamental to understanding (grok-ing actually) tons of stuff.

In the Hyper-V cmdlet set in Windows 8 if you ‘get’ a VM object  (  $vm = Get-VM –Name Foo) you can simply type of object out and see its properties ( $vm ).

PS C:\Users\Administrator> $vm

Name                    State CPUUsage(%) MemoryAssigned(M)

----                    ----- ----------- -----------------
BrianEhDC.BrianEh.local Off   0           0

  

Now, lets say that Admin Joe or XenDesktop brokering  just turned on that VM that you have captured as your object.  Type its properties again.

PS C:\Users\Administrator> $vm

Name                    State   CPUUsage(%) MemoryAssigned(M)
----                    -----   ----------- -----------------
BrianEhDC.BrianEh.local Running 4           512

Notice that it is now running.  And you didn’t have to re-query to get that.

As stated by the Feature lead for the Hyper-V cmdlets:  “You get it for free” – In other words you didn’t have to do extra work to see that a property changed.  You did not have to do Get-VM again.

Cool!