How to Inventory VMware vSphere VMs and Clean Up Snapshots with PowerShell
Inventory vSphere VMs, surface old snapshots, and run safe, scheduled cleanup with one repeatable workflow.
VMware vSphere environments tend to grow quietly. New VMs get deployed, snapshots get taken before changes — and not always removed afterwards. Datastores fill up. Performance dips. Then someone has to dig through it all.
PowerCLI handles this work elegantly. The challenge is keeping the inventory and cleanup logic consistent across hosts, clusters, and admins.
A workflow approach makes it repeatable.
What a healthy vSphere review looks like
Most environments benefit from regularly checking:
- VM inventory by host, cluster, and folder
- Snapshot age and size
- Datastore usage trends
- Powered-off VMs with no clear owner
- Resource reservations and oversize allocations
Why snapshots get out of hand
Snapshots are easy to create and easy to forget. Old snapshots consume datastore space, slow down VMs, and complicate backup and restore.
Catching them early — and removing them safely — is exactly the kind of recurring task a workflow should own.
How PSForge helps
PSForge brings together the PowerCLI tasks needed to inventory VMs, audit snapshots, and trigger safe cleanup actions, then generates the PowerShell so you can run it on a schedule.
Example vSphere inventory and cleanup workflow
- Connect to vCenter
- Export VM inventory with host, cluster, and folder
- Export datastore usage and capacity
- List all snapshots with age and size
- Flag snapshots older than a configurable threshold
- Remove approved snapshots in a controlled batch
- Export a cleanup report for change tracking
Final thoughts
vSphere environments reward consistent attention. Snapshot cleanup is the easiest place to start.
PSForge helps you turn that ongoing work into a PowerShell workflow that pays off every time it runs.