Hi all,
In this post we will see how to install and use the PowerCLI tool. Recently on the VMware Blog portal they conducted a survey on the top 10 most used VMware administrators’ tools. A curious fact is that the PowerCLI tool achieved the first place on the list for the year 2021. It is for this reason that I took the initiative to create a series of introduction articles on how to perform basic tasks using PowerCLI.
VMware describes PowerCLI as:
VMware PowerCLI is a command-line and scripting tool built on Windows PowerShell, and provides more than 800 cmdlets for managing and automating VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Director, vRealize Operations Manager, vSAN, VMware NSX-T Data Center, VMware Cloud Services, VMware Cloud on AWS, VMware HCX, VMware Site Recovery Manager, and VMware Horizon environments.
As you can see PowerCLI is directly integrated into the VMware ecosystem and is the main tool for automation and development. With this tool you can create simple scripts as well as schedule or automate tasks in large physical and virtual datacenters.
To start using PowerCLI it is required to install the tool, to achieve this goal you can install it from a PowerShell console. In my case, I will be using ‘PowerShell Core’ on linux, but it can be installed in the same way on Windows or Mac OS. To access PowerShell from Linux we use the pwsh command from a console or shell.
[rebelinux@xxxxx ~]$ pwsh
PowerShell 7.1.5
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.
https://aka.ms/powershell
Type 'help' to get help.
PS /home/rebelinux>
Once you have access to the pwsh console you can use the Install-Module command to install the tool. The following example shows the result:
PS /home/rebelinux> Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI Installing package 'VMware.PowerCLI'
Installing dependent package 'VMware.Vim'
Installing package 'VMware.Vim'
Downloaded 13.78 MB out of 15.25 MB.
[ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo]
PS /home/rebelinux>
To validate which version of PowerCLI you have installed you can use the Get-Module command:
PS /home/rebelinux> Get-Module -ListAvailable VMware.PowerCLI
Directory: /home/rebelinux/.local/share/powershell/Modules
ModuleType Version PreRelease Name PSEdition ExportedCommands
---------- ------- ---------- ---- --------- ----------------
Manifest 12.4.1.18… VMware.PowerCLI Desk
PS /home/rebelinux>
Once PowerCLI is installed the administration modules can be used. To identify which commands or the so-called PowerShell cmdlets are available we can use the Get-command command.
PS /home/rebelinux> Get-Command -Module VMware* *get-vm*
CommandType Name Version Source
----------- ---- ------- ------
Cmdlet Get-VM 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VmcClusterEdrsPolicy 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc
Cmdlet Get-VmcOrganization 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc
Cmdlet Get-VmcSddc 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc
Cmdlet Get-VmcSddcCluster 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc
Cmdlet Get-VmcSddcNetworkService 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc
Cmdlet Get-VmcSddcSiteRecovery 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc
Cmdlet Get-VmcSddcSiteRecoveryInstance 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc
Cmdlet Get-VmcService 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc
Cmdlet Get-VMGuest 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMGuestDisk 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHost 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostAccount 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostAttributes 7.0.2.178… VMware.DeployAutomation
Cmdlet Get-VMHostAuthentication 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostAvailableTimeZone 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostDiagnosticPartition 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostDisk 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostDiskPartition 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostFirewallDefaultPolicy 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostFirewallException 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostFirmware 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostHardware 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostHba 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostImageProfile 7.0.2.178… VMware.DeployAutomation
Cmdlet Get-VMHostMatchingRules 7.0.2.178… VMware.DeployAutomation
Cmdlet Get-VMHostModule 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostNetwork 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostNetworkStack 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostNtpServer 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostPatch 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostPciDevice 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostProfile 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostProfileImageCacheConfiguration 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostProfileRequiredInput 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostProfileStorageDeviceConfiguration 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostProfileUserConfiguration 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostProfileVmPortGroupConfiguration 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostRoute 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostService 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostSnmp 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostStartPolicy 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostStorage 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMHostSysLogServer 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMQuestion 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMResourceConfiguration 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
Cmdlet Get-VMStartPolicy 12.4.0.18… VMware.VimAutomation.Core
PS /home/rebelinux>
In the specific case of the previous example a filter was applied to the command to show only the cmdlet starting with get-vm *. In the next article I will be showing you how to make the initial connection to vCenter or to a standalone ESXi server.
See you soon!
