How to grab the view that comes from Onyx?

Question

Hello,
  i started using Onyx project recently. That's really amazing what it does. I am wondering if there is some possibility to check the main view ... let my try to explain this.
I want to change option for esxi5 box - advanced/Logging to external syslog server.
While in gui i did my steps and Onyx prints the output:
# ------- UpdateOptions -------
$changedValue = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue[] (1)
$changedValue[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue
$changedValue[0].key = "Syslog.global.logHost"
$changedValue[0].value = "tcp://x.x.x.x:514"
$_this = Get-View -Id 'OptionManager-EsxHostAdvSettings-456'
$_this.UpdateOptions($changedValue)
This is working as expected. I can throw this to powercli and it will set up the option. This will work only for that particular esxi box. I want to create a loop that will change this option for each esxi box in the cluster.
The view that onyx is using is : "Get-View -Id 'OptionManager-EsxHostAdvSettings-456'"
So he already knows the view/host moref .
But if i would like to have this in a loop so it will do it for each host, so  how can i get to that kind of view ?
So far i could only build something like
foreach($vmhostview in (get-view -viewtype HostSystem -Searchroot (get-cluster "xxyyzz").id))
$changedValue = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue[] (1)
$changedValue[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue
$changedValue[0].key = "Syslog.global.logHost"
$changedValue[0].value = "tcp://x.x.x.x:514"
$number=$vmhostview.moref.split("-")[1]
$_this = Get-View -Id OptionManager-EsxHostAdvSettings-$number
$_this.UpdateOptions($changedValue)
Which is totally stupid approach i belive although it's working.. splitting moref...
After some time i noticed that
http://pubs.vmware.com/vi-sdk/visdk250/ReferenceGuide/vim.option.OptionManager.html
Says that OptionManager is the property from Config manager. So from that i could get the id of this view:
((get-vmhost myHost |get-view).ConfigManager.AdvancedOption).ToString()
which will result in output : OptionManager-EsxHostAdvSettings-456
So having this i could do my loop at the end:
foreach($vmhostview in (get-view -viewtype HostSystem -Searchroot (get-cluster "xxyyzz").id))
$changedValue = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue[] (1)
$changedValue[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue
$changedValue[0].key = "Syslog.global.logHost"
$changedValue[0].value = "tcp://x.x.x.x:514"
$_this = Get-View -Id ($vmhostview.ConfigManager.AdvancedOption).ToString()
$_this.UpdateOptions($changedValue)
Now i do not know that it was just a luck that i found the location of this view name or is this the way how i am supposed to find the view id name. I am wondering how other people are handling that kind of case, if there is easier way to do it. If someone could share his experience i would really appreciate it.
Regards,
Greg

Answer 1

There is no need to construct these View-Ids as you see them coming from Onyx.
In fact I would write that script like this
$changedValue = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue[] (1)
$changedValue[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue
$changedValue[0].key = "Syslog.global.logHost"
$changedValue[0].value = "tcp://x.x.x.x:514"
Get-View -ViewType HostSystem -Searchroot (Get-Cluster "xxyyzz").ExtensionData.MoRef | %{
  $optMgr = Get-View $_.ConfigManager.AdvancedOption
  $optMgr.UpdateOptions($changedValue)
Move the part that doesn't change with each HostSystem outside the loop
The ConfigManager is an array with MoRefs that point to the respective Managers. You can just do a Get-View with a MoRef and it will return the object representing the Manager
From the Manager object you can now call the method
Btw, you better consult the latest SDK Reference.
You can find the HostConfigManager here.