How can I find the 'sub properties' of an object in powershell? - powershell

Question

I guess I just don't know the proper name of whatever I'm looking for, but this was probably asked a thousand times before.
I started PowerShell not long ago, and I'm struggling to understand where I can find the 'sub properties'(if you can call it those) of an object.
For instance, I was using the VMware PowerCLI, and was tried to figure out how I can find the IP address of a VM.
So for example, I was using the Get-VM command, and when I piped it into get member, I got the following:
PS C:\Users\eitan.rapaport> get-vm "*VRA*" | gm
TypeName: VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.VM.UniversalVirtualMachineImpl
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
ConvertToVersion Method T VersionedObjectInterop.ConvertToVersion[T]()
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetClient Method VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Interop.V1.VIAutomation VIObjectCoreInterop.GetClient()
GetConnectionParameters Method VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Interop.V1.VM.RemoteConsoleVMParams RemoteConsoleVMIn..
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
IsConvertableTo Method bool VersionedObjectInterop.IsConvertableTo(type type)
LockUpdates Method void ExtensionData.LockUpdates()
ObtainExportLease Method VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference ObtainExportLease.ObtainExportLease()
ToString Method string ToString()
UnlockUpdates Method void ExtensionData.UnlockUpdates()
CoresPerSocket Property int CoresPerSocket {get;}
CustomFields Property System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary[string,string] CustomFields {get;}
DatastoreIdList Property string[] DatastoreIdList {get;}
DrsAutomationLevel Property System.Nullable[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Cluster.DrsAutomationLevel] ..
ExtensionData Property System.Object ExtensionData {get;}
Folder Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.Folder Folder {get;}
FolderId Property string FolderId {get;}
Guest Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.VM.Guest.VMGuest Guest {get;}
GuestId Property string GuestId {get;}
HAIsolationResponse Property System.Nullable[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Cluster.HAIsolationResponse]..
HardwareVersion Property string HardwareVersion {get;}
HARestartPriority Property System.Nullable[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Cluster.HARestartPriority] H..
Id Property string Id {get;}
MemoryGB Property decimal MemoryGB {get;}
MemoryMB Property decimal MemoryMB {get;}
Name Property string Name {get;}
Notes Property string Notes {get;}
NumCpu Property int NumCpu {get;}
PersistentId Property string PersistentId {get;}
PowerState Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.PowerState PowerState {get;}
ProvisionedSpaceGB Property decimal ProvisionedSpaceGB {get;}
ResourcePool Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.ResourcePool ResourcePool {get;}
ResourcePoolId Property string ResourcePoolId {get;}
Uid Property string Uid {get;}
UsedSpaceGB Property decimal UsedSpaceGB {get;}
VApp Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.VApp VApp {get;}
Version Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.VM.VMVersion Version {get;}
VMHost Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.VMHost VMHost {get;}
VMHostId Property string VMHostId {get;}
VMResourceConfiguration Property VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.VM.VMResourceConfiguration VMResourceConfigu..
VMSwapfilePolicy Property System.Nullable[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.VMSwapfilePolicy] VMSwapfile..
As you can see, nothing mentions anything about IP.
I was researching this online, and have found that I should run the following command:
Get-VM | Select Name, #{N="IP Address";E={#($_.guest.IPAddress[0])}}
Which leads me to my question. How can I find the properties under a certain member/property of a command? How could I research the 'sub properties' of 'guest' in that example?

Answer 1

Okay, found it.
In that instance it would be get-vm "*VRA*" | select -ExpandProperty guest | gm

Answer 2

I've been dealing with this for the last two days, so I figured I'd share my solution:
First, I'm saving the VM object to a variable to make it easy to access without searching every time.
$vm = Get-vm -Name steve
To get all the properties of the VM Object
$vm | Select-Object *
If you just want to get the Name you can access it like this:
$vm.Name
If you want to get the Properties of the Guest Object (which is a property of the VM object):
$vm.Guest | Select-Object *
You can access the Properties of the Guest Object through the VM Object like this:
$vm.Guest.VmName
Want the IP addresses of the guest?
$vmip = $vm.Guest.IPAddress
And, because this took me a while to figure out, if that returns ipv4 and ipv6, and you want to filter out the ipv6:
$vmip = $vm.Guest.IPAddress | ?{$_ -notmatch ':'}

Answer 3

Another method of introspection in PowerShell is to just get the class name and then look it up in the API.
PS C:\> $Files = Get-ChildItem *.* -File
PS C:\> $Files[0].GetType().FullName
System.IO.FileInfo
You can then search for that class with either C# or PowerShell to find the API listing.
You can do a similar thing with the VMWare PowerCLI doc. The "all types" list on the left is a list of all the classes used by the module.