PowerCLI v10.0.0 Released

2 minute read

Introduction

Earlier this month VMware released PowerCLI v10.0.0. The previous version was v6.5.4 so you may be wondering why the big jump in version numbers. This apparently was due to a number of reasons but I personally like it was because PowerCLI is 10 years old so seemed appropriate to be v10.0.0. In this post I will details how to update to it and integrations

The main selling point on this version is that it’s cross platform. You can now run PowerCLI natively on Windows, Mac and Linux. The prerequisite for Mac and Linux is that PowerShell Core must be installed. PowerCLI v10.0.0 works with any version of PowerShell from v3 and up.

New Installation on PowerShell Core v6

Installation is very easy. In this example we are installing on a clean install of PowerShell Core v6.0.1:

PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.1> Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Scope AllUsers

You can confirm with:

PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.1> Get-InstalledModule -Name VMware.PowerCLI -AllVersions

Version              Name                                Repository           Description
-------              ----                                ----------           -----------
10.0.0.7895300       VMware.PowerCLI                     PSGallery            This Windows PowerShell module contains VMware.PowerCLI

Upgrade to PowerCLI 10.0.0 on Existing PowerShell 5.1 and PowerCLI 6.5.x

So on the computer I did this on I opened up the ‘legacy’ PowerShell 5.1 and ran the same command to check it was installed:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-InstalledModule -Name VMware.PowerCLI -AllVersions | Format-Table -AutoSize

Version        Name            Repository Description
-------        ----            ---------- -----------
6.5.3.6870460  VMware.PowerCLI PSGallery  This Windows PowerShell module contains VMware.PowerCLI
6.5.4.7155375  VMware.PowerCLI PSGallery  This Windows PowerShell module contains VMware.PowerCLI

You can see I have PowerCLI versions 6.5.3 and 6.5.4 but no 10.0.0. As you can run PowerShell and PowerShell Core side by side you need to install PowerCLI in both versions.

To update PowerCLI:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Update-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Force

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-InstalledModule -Name VMware.PowerCLI -AllVersions | Format-Table -AutoSize

Version        Name            Repository Description
-------        ----            ---------- -----------
10.0.0.7895300 VMware.PowerCLI PSGallery  This Windows PowerShell module contains VMware.PowerCLI
6.5.3.6870460  VMware.PowerCLI PSGallery  This Windows PowerShell module contains VMware.PowerCLI
6.5.4.7155375  VMware.PowerCLI PSGallery  This Windows PowerShell module contains VMware.PowerCLI

Next I wanted to clean up the old versions of PowerCLI from PowerShell 5.1 and confirm they are gone. You could uninstall each older version and confirm by running the commands:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Uninstall-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -RequiredVersion 6.5.3.6870460
PS C:\Windows\system32> Uninstall-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -RequiredVersion 6.5.4.7155375
PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-InstalledModule -Name VMware.PowerCLI -AllVersions | Format-Table -AutoSize

Version        Name            Repository Description
-------        ----            ---------- -----------
10.0.0.7895300 VMware.PowerCLI PSGallery  This Windows PowerShell module contains VMware.PowerCLI

But an easier way to cycle through them all and just leave the latest version is:

Get-InstalledModule -Name VMware.PowerCLI | ForEach-Object {
$CurrentVersion = $PSItem.Version
Get-InstalledModule -Name $PSItem.Name -AllVersions | Where-Object -Property Version -LT $CurrentVersion
} | Uninstall-Module -Verbose

Credit to Andrew Palmer who posted the code in the comments of the VMware Blog annoucement.

Upgrade Issues

On another computer when I ran the Update-Module command I was getting this error:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Update-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI

PackageManagement\Install-Package : Cannot convert value "10.0.0-beta7721354" to type "System.Version".
Error: "Input string was not in a correct format."
At C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\PowerShellGet\1.0.0.1\PSModule.psm1:1772 char:21
+ ...          $null = PackageManagement\Install-Package @PSBoundParameters
+                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (Microsoft.Power....InstallPackage:InstallPackage) [Install-P
   ackage], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidCastParseTargetInvocation,New-PSGetItemInfo,Microsoft.PowerShell.Packag
   eManagement.Cmdlets.InstallPackage

I found this post on the VMware {code} Forums that fixed the issue. Basically the version of PowerShellGet installed needs updated. To fix it first upgrade NuGet:

Install-PackageProvider -Name Nuget Force

Restart the PowerShell session then run:

Install-Module Name PowerShellGet Force

You can then run the Update-Module command successfully.

Conclusion

This is a milestone release of PowerCLI for VMware. Being cross platform will be a big boon to a lot of people. Also, as Microsoft leave behind the old PowerShell and only develop PowerShell Core kudos to VMware getting a version of PowerCLI that works with Core.

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