VMware PowerCLI has been around for ages and at first, the name was vSphere PowerCLI. But over the years, VMware went and added more and more modules which can also managed other VMware Products. That's why with the release 10 of PowerCLI the name changes to VMware PowerCLI. VMware PowerCLI 10 Released.
PowerCLI is an executable which you can download from VMware and install it on your OS, to manage your vSphere infrastructure. You can also install it from a PowerShell Window. (from PowerShell Core 6 minimum).
Quick quote:
Today, we release PowerCLI 10.0.0. This release adds support for PowerShell Core 6 which can be run on Linux and Mac OS systems. There are also a handful of VMGuest related cmdlets which have been removed from the release. Their functionality can be replaced with the usage of Invoke-VMScript. Lastly, there have been several corrections. Many of which are thanks to our amazing community for bringing them to our attention.
If you don't know PowerCLI at all and want to learn, there are tons of resources online, books and other supports. If you're not scripting guy, you can always look for examples which you can easily adapt to your environment.
What's new in VMware PowerCLI 10?
New modules, new modules, new modules… -:). There are some phased out modules too. Please check the source article at VMware.
This release brings support for the following modules:
VMware.VimAutomation.Common
VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk
VMware.VimAutomation.Core
VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core
VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
VMware.VimAutomation.Storage
VMware.VimAutomation.StorageUtility
Install PowerCLI via PowerShell
VMware PowerCLI can be installed on Windows, Linux or MAC. Truly Multi OS. There is no more war between OS. VMware and Microsoft finally got it and gets the software you need, where you need.
On my Windows system, I tested few things.
You can install VMware PowerCLI via PowerShell, and you can even install it side-by-side (if you want) with an existing older PowerCLI version by specifying a “-Force” parameter:
I did not know that.
If not, do a clean install, fire up a PowerShell and enter this command:
Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser
And you're done. All the modules are installed in
$home\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules.
You can check the version of PowerCLI via this:
Get-Module VMware.PowerCLI -ListAvailable
To see this:
There is a change when connecting to vCenter server without a good certificate. Previously, PowerCLI windo just showed a yellow warning, but after you install the v10 you'll get an error. You must use a special command to override this.
If you are using an invalid certificate, you can correct the error with the ‘Set-PowerCLIConfiguration’ cmdlet. The parameter needing to be configured is ‘InvalidCertificateAction’ and the available settings are Fail, Warn, Ignore, Prompt, and Unset.
The following code will configure the ‘InvalidCertificateAction’ parameter to be Ignore:
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore
The output looks like this:
If you want to run scripts and load configuration files with PowerCLI, you must set the execution policy of Windows PowerShell to RemoteSigned. You must run
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
But this isn't new…. -:).
The original source article lists also a sample code to change the IP Address of a Windows VM using netsh, which is cool. Go and have a look.
Source: VMware
Links:
- VMware PowerCLI 10.0.0 User’s Guide.
- VMware PowerCLI 10.0.0 Cmdlet Reference.
- Getting Started with PowerCLI
- PowerCLI Workshop
- PowerCLI Blog
And below, find some more content which might be interesting to read.
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- Mastering VMware vSphere 6.5
- VMware Desktop Watermark Free Utility is Similar to BgInfo
- What is VMware vSphere On-Disk Metadata Analyzer – VOMA
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