PS | How to read content of any file inside GuestOS without logging in?

I am doing lot around powershell these day. Let's see one more Challenge given and provided solution.

Basically, this challenge belongs to my last blog. Here I was asked to read the content of a file in a VM without accessing RDP. Sound interesting? isn't it?

#Start here
Connect-VIServer vCenter1
$VM = read-host "Enter VM Name " #here is the target vm name

$Chpass = @"
#below command will read and give output for entire file
(Get-Content -Path C:\DRTask\vm-startup-regIpDns_v9.ps1
#below command will read line number 8 and will give you output
    (Get-Content -Path C:\DRTask\vm-startup-regIpDns_v9.ps1 -TotalCount 8)[-1]

"@

Invoke-VMScript -VM $VM -ScriptText $Chpass #-GuestUser "$user" -GuestPassword "$pass"  -ScriptType Powershell

#Start here

Below is output- I got the text in line number8 that that has the IP address in file inside the guest OS.

Basically it read the file with the help of VMware tools in vcenter server.

Cheers! let me know if it worked for you as well. In case of any error please don't shy to put a comment or mail me.




Thank you,
Team vCloudNotes