VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 Release Notes

Released 13 January 2022

VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0. Build 19195797

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 Release Notes

This document contains the following information:

About VMware PowerCLI

VMware PowerCLI is a suite of PowerShell modules to manage VMware products and services. VMware PowerCLI includes over 800 cmdlets to easily manage your infrastructure on a global scale.

Installation, Upgrade, and Removal of VMware PowerCLI

Management of the PowerCLI modules is provided by the PowerShell Gallery and by using the PowerShell default cmdlets for working with modules in the PowerShell Gallery. For detailed information on how to install, upgrade, or remove PowerCLI, refer to the VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 User's Guide.

VMware PowerCLI Components

In VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0, the following modules have been updated:

  • VMware.PowerCLI: Provides a root module which other modules are dependent on. This ensures the PowerCLI product can be installed, upgraded, and removed as a complete package if needed.
  • VMware.PowerCLI.VCenter.*: Provide PowerShell-based cmdlets for automated administration of the vSphere environment.
  • VMware.PowerCLI.Sdk.*: Provide help functionalities for the PowerShell-based cmdlets. These modules have no cmdlets but are required for other modules to function correctly.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Core: Provides cmdlets for automated administration of the vSphere environment.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Common: Provides functionality that is common to all PowerCLI modules. This module has no cmdlets, but is required for other modules to function correctly.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk: Provides SDK functionality that is needed by all PowerCLI modules. This module has no cmdlets, but is required for other modules to function correctly.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Vds: Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere distributed switches and distributed port groups.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core: Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere Automation SDK servers.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Storage: Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere policy-based storage.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView: Provides cmdlets for automating VMware Horizon features.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc: Provides cmdlets for managing VMware Cloud on AWS features.
  • VMware.Vim: Provides vSphere low-level binding libraries. This module has no cmdlets.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Hcx: Provides cmdlets for managing VMware HCX features.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.vROps: Provides cmdlets for automating vRealize Operations Manager features.
  • VMware.DeployAutomation: Provides cmdlets that provide an interface to VMware Auto Deploy for provisioning physical hosts with ESXi software.
  • VMware.ImageBuilder: Provides cmdlets for managing depots, image profiles, and VIBs.
  • VMware.CloudServices: Provides cmdlets for managing VMware Cloud Services.

Supported Platforms

For a list of VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 supported operating systems and PowerShell versions, see Compatibility Matrixes for VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0.

For a list of VMware products with which VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 is compatible, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

What's New in This Release

New Features

VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 introduces the following new features, changes, and improvements:

  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Core module.
    • New cmdlets to retrieve, start, stop and restart vSphere appliance services.
      Get-VIApplianceService
      Start-VIApplianceService
      Stop-VIApplianceService
      Restart-VIApplianceService
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Core module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The CpuHotAddEnabled, CpuHotRemoveEnabled, and MemoryHotAddEnabled parameters have been added to the New-VM and Set-VM cmdlets to allow the enabling/disabling of cpu/memory hot add/remove.
    • The MigrationEncryption parameter has been added to the New-VM and Set-VM cmdlets to allow the enabling of encrypted migration.
  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc module.
    • New cmdlet to retrieve the outposts available in the organization.
      Get-VmcOutpost
    • New cmdlet to retrieve the available SDDC groups.
      Get-VmcSddcGroup
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The Outpost parameter has been added to the New-VmcSddc cmdlet to allow the specifying of outposts on which to create an SDDC.
    • The SddcGroup parameter has been added to the Get-VmcSddc cmdlet to allow the filtering of SDDCs by SDDC group.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.vROps module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The Get-OMResource cmdlet now supports resources that are monitored by multiple adapter instances. The properties of the OMResource output object type (AdapterInstanceId, Status, State, and StatusMessage) have been deprecated in favor of the newer ResourceStatus property. It is an array of objects, each one representing the status of the resource for a particular adapter instance. The deprecated properties will be removed in a future release.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView module has been updated to support the API features of Horizon 8.4.

For more information on changes made in VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0, including improvements, security enhancements, and deprecated features, see the VMware PowerCLI Change Log. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 User's Guide. For more information on specific cmdlets, see the VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 Cmdlet Reference. For the full list of PowerCLI documentation, visit the VMware PowerCLI Home Page.

Resolved Issues

The following issues have been resolved in VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0:

  • New-HardDisk
    New-HardDisk does not allow more than 64 disks on a VM with PVSCSI controller.
  • New-VM
    OVF parameters that have ClassID or InstanceID are not set correctly when deploying a VM from the content library.
  • Get-CisService
    Get-CisService does not work on PowerShell 7.2.
  • Get-NetworkAdapter
    Get-NetworkAdapter fails when the network adapter is connected to an opaque network that has been removed.
  • Get-VIEvent
    The datetime properties of some events are incorrectly converted to the client machine's local time.
  • New-DrsRule
    You can receive an error message when creating a VM affinity rule, although the rule is properly created.
  • Connect-VIServer and Disconnect-VIServer
    Memory usage increases after multiple Connect-VIServer and Disconnect-VIServer operations.
  • Get-AlarmAction
    PowerCLI does not return all alarm action triggers when multiple triggers are specified.
  • Get-SpbmEntityConfiguration
    Get-SpbmEntityConfiguration -VMsOnly fails with a message of type Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  • Get-HCXVM
    Get-HCXVM does not list some networks when the imported DVPG networks have different vCenter Server MoRef IDs.
  • Get-HCXReplication
    Get-HCXReplication fails with a message of type Invalid date time string.
  • Get-OMAlert
    The Resource property of the returned object is empty.
  • New-IsoImage and New-PxeImage
    • New-IsoImage and New-PxeImage fail when the software spec requests reserved VIBs with a message of type Could not download and package reserved VIBs.
    • New-IsoImage and New-PxeImage fail when you omit the Destination parameter and, in the subsequent request to enter it manually, provide a path containing invalid characters.
  • Other
    • Calling UnmarkResourceAsBeingMaintained on an OMResource object fails on PowerShell 5.1.

Known Issues

VMware PowerCLI 12.5.0 is known to have the following issues:

  • Get-HCXMigration
    Тhe Username parameter of the Get-HCXMigration cmdlet is case-sensitive.
    Workaround: Use the username format supported by API. For example, use [email protected].
  • Import-Module
    If you try to import VMware.PowerCLI module on PowerShell Core, you receive an error message and the import process fails.
    Workaround: Import each module separately.
  • New-HCXServiceMesh
    When you run New-HCXServiceMesh, the Service Mesh object accepts destination as an input at the organization virtual datacenter level, but the Service Mesh object is created at an organization level.
  • Set-VsanClusterConfiguration
    When you run Set-VsanClusterConfiguration on vSAN 6.5 or vSAN 6.6, the AddSilentHealthCheck and RemoveSilentHealthCheck parameters do not update any values.
    Workaround: Update to vSAN 6.7.
  • Set-WMCluster
    The default value of the DefaultImageRegistryHostPort parameter is 443, but this is not implemented.
    Workaround: Always define the DefaultImageRegistryHostPort parameter when the DefaultImageRegistryHostname parameter is specified.
  • Test-HCXMigration
    Test-HCXMigration throws an exception instead of a warning. This might mislead you that running Start-HCXMigration is not possible.
  • Get-CustomCertificates, Add-CustomCertificate and Remove-CustomCertificates
    Get-CustomCertificates, Add-CustomCertificate, and Remove-CustomCertificates fail with a message of type Unsupported version URI.
  • Other
    • For Windows PowerShell 5.1, when you run a cmdlet and the operation fails on the server side, you might receive a There is an error in the XML document. error message. This is not a valid server error and it is returned when PowerShell is unable to read the actual server-side error.
      Workaround: Use PowerShell 7 or use the vSphere Web Client to check the actual server-side error.