New Release: PowerCLI 6.5.3

I’m excited to announce that it’s release day yet again! We have a great new update for you with PowerCLI 6.5.3! Just a few short months ago, two to be exact, the last version of PowerCLI was released. That release introduced a new parameter, some new content library functionality for ISOs, and even new support for certain features.

PowerCLI 6.5.3 comes packed with the following:

• New module for NSX-T functionality
• Addition of a ‘Create’ method when using ‘Get-*Service’ cmdlets
• Several issues have been resolved

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

New NSX-T Module

PowerCLI 6.5.3 introduces a brand-new module in order to manage VMware NSX-T environments. NSX-T was announced this year at VMworld US. In a nutshell, NSX-T is the newest iteration of VMware’s multi-hypervisor NSX platform. It is also the key to multi-cloud, and container infrastructures!

This module is being released as a low-level, API access only, module and will feature the following cmdlets:

• Connect-NsxtServer
• Disconnect-NsxtServer
• Get-NsxtService

An example of connecting to an NSX-T server and listing the nodes included in the cluster:

For more information on the NSX-T RESTful API, it can be viewed on the VMware Code API Explorer.

New Create Method Available

The other major update is around the addition of a ‘Create’ method to the Get-CisService and newly released Get-NsxtService cmdlets. This streamlines the creation of the following objects:

• Parameter
• Elements of a parameter (Limited to types: List, Set, Optional)
• Key and value of parameters (Limited to types: Map)
• Fields of a parameter (Limited to types: Structure)

Here’s some example code on how to use the new ‘Create’ method to make a new VM while using the vSphere Automation SDK API:

# Connect to the vSphere Automation SDK API
Connect-CisServer -Server $serverAddress -User $user -Password $pass

# Get the CIS service for VM management
$vmService = Get-CisService com.vmware.vcenter.VM

# Create a VM creation specification
$createSpec = $vmService.Help.create.spec.Create()

# Fill in the creation details
$createSpec.guest_OS = "WINDOWS_7_64"

# Create a placement specification
$createSpec.placement = $vmService.Help.create.spec.placement.Create()

# Fill in the placement details
$createSpec.placement.folder = (Get-Folder vm).ExtensionData.MoRef.Value
$createSpec.placement.host = (Get-VMHost | Select-Object -First 1).ExtensionData.MoRef.Value
$createSpec.placement.datastore = (Get-Datastore | Select-Object -First 1).ExtensionData.MoRef.Value

# Call the create method passing the specification
$vmService.create($createSpec)

Resolved Issues

This release of PowerCLI also contains some usage improvements to a handful of cmdlets.

• Get-Cluster/Get-VM: The Location parameter has been updated for these two cmdlets to no longer throw an error of “Exception has been thrown…”
• New-TagAssignment: When connected to multiple vCenters and using string based inputs for the ‘Tag’ and ‘Entity’ parameters, the cmdlet has been updated to no longer throw an error of “The specified parameter ‘Tag’ expects a single value, but your name criteria ‘…’ corresponds to multiple values.”
• Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter: When configuring an ESXi host’s virtual NIC to use an IPv6 address which is managed through a vCenter Server of version 6.5, the AutomaticIPv6 property has been corrected to no longer flip the switch to ‘True’.

Summary

We are continuing our commitment to getting the latest and greatest functionalities, performance improvements, and issue resolutions with the release of PowerCLI 6.5.3. After only 2 months, we have released a new module to manage NSX-T environments, added a new ‘Create’ method to the Get-CisService and Get-NsxtService cmdlets, and fixed a handful of issues with existing cmdlets.

Remember, updating your PowerCLI modules is now as easy as: Update-Module VMware.PowerCLI

For more information on changes made in VMware PowerCLI 6.5.3, including improvements, security enhancements, and deprecated features, see the VMware PowerCLI Change Log. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware PowerCLI 6.5.3 User’s Guide. For more information on specific cmdlets, see the VMware PowerCLI 6.5.3 Cmdlet Reference.

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