VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 Release Notes

Released 03 November 2015

Build 3205540 is VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 Release Notes

VMware vSphere PowerCLI provides a Windows PowerShell interface to the VMware vSphere, vCloud, and vRealize Operations Manager APIs. VMware vSphere PowerCLI includes numerous cmdlets, sample scripts, and a function library.

This document contains the following information:

About VMware vSphere PowerCLI

VMware vSphere PowerCLI is a command-line and scripting tool built on Windows PowerShell, and provides more than 400 cmdlets for managing and automating vSphere, vCloud, and vRealize Operations Manager environments.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI Components

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 consists of three components:
  • vSphere PowerCLI is the core component of the PowerCLI package. It contains modules and snap-ins with cmdlets for managing vSphere features:
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Core: Provides cmdlets for automated administration of the vSphere environment.
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Vds: Provides cmdlets for managing virtual distributed switches and port groups.
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core: Provides cmdlets for managing vCloud Suite SDK servers.
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Storage: Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere policy-based storage.
    • VMware.VimAutomation.vROps: Provides cmdlets for automating vRealize Operations Manager features.
    • VMware.VimAutomation.HA: Provides the Get-DRMInfo cmdlet for retrieving Distributed Resource Management dump information.
    • VMware.VimAutomation.License: Provides the Get-LicenseDataManager cmdlet for managing VMware License components.
    • VMware.ImageBuilder: Provides cmdlets for managing depots, image profiles, and VIBs.
    • VMware.DeployAutomation: Provides cmdlets that provide an interface to VMware Auto Deploy for provisioning physical hosts with ESXi software.
  • vCloud PowerCLI is an optional component that you can install during the PowerCLI installation. It provides the VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud and VMware.VimAutomation.PCloud modules with cmdlets for automating vCloud Director and vCloud Air features.
  • vSphere Update Manager PowerCLI is an optional component that you can install during the PowerCLI installation. It provides the VMware.VumAutomation module with cmdlets for automating vSphere Update Manager features.
  • The following are distributed as snap-ins:
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Core
    • VMware.ImageBuilder
    • VMware.DeployAutomation
  • The following are distributed as modules:
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Core
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Storage
    • VMware.VimAutomation.vROps
    • VMware.VimAutomation.HA
    • VMware.VimAutomation.License
    • VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud
    • VMware.VimAutomation.PCloud
    • VMware.VumAutomation

Requirements

For a list of software that you need if you want to work with VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3, see Compatibility Matrixes for vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3.

Supported Platforms

For a list of VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 supported operating systems and PowerShell versions, see Compatibility Matrixes for vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3.

For a list of VMware products with which VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 is compatible, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

What's New in This Release

New Features

This release of vSphere PowerCLI fixes a number of issues and introduces the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP).

vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 introduces the following improvements and fixes the listed issues:

  • You can now help VMware enhance PowerCLI by joining the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). On a user basis, when starting PowerCLI for the first time from the PowerCLI icon, you will be presented with the option to join the CEIP. You can change this option at any time within PowerCLI by using the Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User –ParticipateInCeip cmdlet and parameter.
    For more information on the VMware CEIP, you can use the help about_ceip command within the PowerCLI console.
  • An issue was resolved which resulted in some vSphere Update Manager PowerCLI cmdlets having no help or examples. You can now view these by using the Get-Help cmdlet.
  • An issue was resolved which resulted in the VMware.VimAutomation.License module not loading correctly and preventing access to the cmdlets which are part of this module.

For more information on changes made in vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3, including improvements, security enhancements, and deprecated features, see the vSphere PowerCLI Change Log. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 User's Guide. For more information on specific cmdlets, see the VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 Cmdlet Reference.

Known Issues

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 is known to have the following issues:

  • Add-EntityBaseline
    The text of the error message that appears when you try to attach a baseline to a non-existing entity is improper.
  • Apply-DrsRecommendation
    Apply-DrsRecommendation runs in asynchronous mode even when called without the RunAsync parameter.
  • Connect-VIServer
    • Connect-VIServer cannot use the Kerberos network authentication protocol to connect to vCenter Server systems that are installed under a custom user account on a Windows system. Connect-VIServer uses NTLM instead.
      Workaround: Install and run vCenter Server under the default system account. Alternatively, you can:
      1. Add another IP to the Windows system where vCenter Server is running.
      2. Register a new A DNS record for the IP.
      3. Run the setspn tool to register an SPN for the new DNS record and associate it with the vCenter Server account under which vCenter Server was installed.
        For example: To register an SPN for the vc-alias.domain.com DNS and the VCAccount account, run:
        setspn -A -HOST/vc-alias.domain.com Domain\VCAccount
      4. Use the new DNS name to connect to the vCenter Server system.
        For example: Run Connect-VIServer vc-alias.domain.com
    • When you use the User and Password parameters to authenticate with a vCenter Server 5.1 or later system, you might not be recognized as a domain user.
      Workaround: Pass the domain name and the user name to the User parameter.
      For example: Run Connect-VIServer my.server.com -Username MyDomain\MyUserName -Password MyPassword
  • Copy-DatastoreItem
    Copy-DatastoreItem throws an error when uploading an item to the root folder of a Datastore Provider drive.
  • Copy-HardDisk
    • On vCenter Server 5.0, Copy-HardDisk cannot change the storage format of the destination hard disk.
    • Using the Thick2GB value for the DestinationStorageFormat parameter is not supported. If you specify this value against an ESX 5.0 host, the connection to the ESX environment is lost.
  • Get-Cluster
    You cannot specify the VM or VMHost parameters in combination with the Location and NoRecursion parameters.
  • Get-Datacenter
    You cannot specify the VM or VMHost parameters in combination with the Location and NoRecursion parameters.
  • Get-HardDisk
    The value of the Persistence property of the object returned by Get-HardDisk is different depending on the way the hard disk is retrieved by the cmdlet.
  • Get-OMAlert
    If you use the AssignedUser parameter to filter alerts and some of the retrieved alerts are assigned to the admin user, Get-OMAlert returns those alerts with empty AssignedUser property.
    Workaround: To retrieve only the non-assigned alerts, use both the AssignedUser and Status parameters as filters.
  • Get-OMResource
    The ResourceKind parameter does not work against vRealize Operations Manager 6.1.
  • Get-OMStat
    The Key parameter does not work against vRealize Operations Manager 6.1.
    Workaround: Use a client-side script to filter by key.
  • Get-OMStatKey
    • If you retrieve statistic keys by OMResource instance, some items might have empty properties. The returned keys that identify metric data for a specific instance object, like a CPU or network adapter, do not contain a description or ExtensionData info.
    • Get-OMStatKey might return statistic keys that are displayed as numbers instead of SI units.
    • Get-OMStatKey does not work against vRealize Operations Manager 6.1.
  • Get-OMUser
    Get-OMUser does not return the vRealize Operations Manager amdin user and other internal users. If you specify admin for the Name parameter, Get-OMUser returns $null. For more information, see the vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.3 Release Notes.
  • Get-ResourcePool
    You cannot specify the VM parameter in combination with the Location and NoRecursion parameters.
  • Get-ScsiLun
    When you use Get-ScsiLun to retrieve Powerpath devices, the value of their MultipathPolicy property is shown as Unknown.
  • Get-Template
    The Location parameter of Get-Template does not accept Cluster objects.
  • Get-UsbDevice
    Get-UsbDevice cannot obtain USB devices from snapshots.
  • Get-VDPortgroup
    When you are connected to a vCloud Director 5.1 or later environment, you cannot use the RelatedObject parameter to retrieve a distributed port group from an organization network backed by the port group.
  • Get-View
    • If you run Get-View with the SearchRoot and ViewType parameters and specify a property path for the Property parameter, the linked view of the cmdlet output is not populated.
    • You cannot retrieve the vSphere PowerCLI view of the underlying port group from the vCloud Director PowerCLI view of a network pool backed by the port group.
  • Get-VIEvent
    • If a nonexisting user is specified, Get-VIEvent returns the events for all existing users.
    • Objects returned by Get-VIEvent contain ManagedObjectReference types that are not compatible with the Get-View cmdlet.
  • Get-VirtualSwitch
    When you are connected to a vCloud Director 5.1 or later environment, you cannot use the RelatedObject parameter to retrieve a distributed switch from a network pool backed by the distributed switch.
  • Get-VirtualPortgroup
    When you are connected to a vCloud Director 5.1 or later environment, you cannot use the RelatedObject parameter to retrieve a distributed port group from an organization network backed by the port group.
  • Get-VM
    During the process of creating a template from a virtual machine, Get-VM returns both the virtual machine and template objects.
  • Get-VMHostProfileRequiredInput
    On vCenter Server 5.0, Get-VMHostProfileRequiredInput returns a result even if you pass a hashtable with inapplicable elements.
  • Install-VMHostPatch
    • Install-VMHostPatch cannot install patches on diskless ESXi servers.
    • Install-VMHostPatch cannot apply VIB patches.
    Workaround: Use metadata.zip patches.
  • Invoke-VMScript
    When using Invoke-VMScript to invoke multi-line BAT and BASH scripts, the command might not run all the script lines.
  • New-CIVAppNetwork
    You can create a vApp network by specifying inconsistent network settings. While the settings of the newly created vApp network are inconsistent, you can only modify them to restore their consistency. To configure the vApp network, run Set-CIVAppNetwork.
  • New-HardDisk
    New-HardDisk does not prompt for confirmation when you try to create a VMDK anti-affinity rule that overwrites an existing one.
  • New-OrgNetwork
    You cannot create new organization networks in vCloud Director 5.1 or later environments.
  • New-OrgVdc
    To ensure backward compatibility, PowerCLI provides limited support for the StorageAllocationGB parameter on vCloud Director 5.1 environments. When you develop new scripts for vCloud Director 5.1 environments, do not use this parameter.
  • New-OSCustomizationSpec
    You cannot add a virtual machine to a domain by using OS customization.
  • Open-VMConsoleWindow
    If you use Internet Explorer 11, Open-VMConsoleWindow does not display the console. For a list of other supported browsers, see Requirements for Using the VMRC Browser Plug-In.
  • Set-OrgVdc
    The StorageAllocationGB parameter is supported only on vCloud Director 1.5.x environments.
  • Set-ScsiController
    Set-ScsiController cannot set both the Type and BusSharingMode parameters at the same time when running against vCenter Server or ESX/ESXi versions 5.1 or earlier.
    Workaround: First run the cmdlet to set the type and then run it again to configure the bus sharing mode.
  • Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface
    On Windows operating systems, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface becomes non-responsive if the provided IP address conflicts with an existing IP address on the network.
  • Set-VMHost
    • When an ESX/ESXi host is registered with multiple vCenter Server systems, you cannot change the state of the disconnected host to connected.
      Workaround:
      1. Run Remove-VMHost to remove the disconnected host from the vCenter Server system that it is registered with.
      2. Run Add-VMHost to attach the host to the vCenter Server system again.
      3. (Optional) Run Set-VMHost to restore the initial configuration of the host.
      The operation authenticates you with the host and automatically changes its state to connected.
    • When you update the value of the VMSwapfileDatastore parameter and immediately retrieve the host information, the value of VMSwapfileDatastore might appear unchanged. If you retrieve the host information after a brief period of time, the change of the property value should be reflected.
  • Set-VMHostNetwork
    Set-VMHostNetwork cannot clear the values of the ConsoleV6Gateway and VMKernelV6Gateway properties of the input object.
  • Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter
    If you have vMotion enabled on one VMKernel NIC and you enable it on a second NIC on the same switch by using Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter, the VMotionEnabled property of the second NIC might still report that vMotion is not enabled. This is because only one NIC can be selected for vMotion, but more than one can be candidate NICs for vMotion. To change the currently active vMotion NIC, first disable the current one and then enable the one you want.
  • Set-VMHostSNMP
    • The default value of the Set-VMHostSNMP TargetPort parameter is a random number instead of the port number.
    • Set-VMHostSNMP skips the value of the TargetPort parameter.
    • Set-VMHostSNMP fails to enable VMHostSNMP and to set the ReadOnlyCommunityString when called for the first time.
      • Workaround: Run the command again.
    • Against ESXi 5.1 or later hosts, you cannot use the Set-VMHostSNMP cmdlet to modify any trap target-related settings. Attempting to modify any of these settings with the Set-VMHostSNMP cmdlet might cause the ESXi SNMP agent to stop working properly.
  • Get-CIDatastore
    When you specify the ProviderVdc parameter, Get-CIDatastore might return incorrect results if multiple provider virtual datacenters share a datastore.
  • Get-CIVM
    When you are logged in as SysAdmin, the Get-CIVM cmdlet returns system vShield Edge virtual machines used to establish perimeter security in the NAT-routed network.
  • Get-CIVApp
    Get-CIVApp returns all virtual appliance objects in the inventory including expired ones.
  • Get-CIVAppTemplate
    Get-CIVAppTemplate returns all virtual appliance templates in the inventory including expired ones.
  • Inventory Provider
    When run within the Inventory Provider, Get-Datacenter returns the datacenters from the default servers instead from the VIServer folder of the Inventory Provider drive.
  • New-SpbmRule
    When you create an SPBM rule, you can specify a value for the CacheReservation property that is outside the valid range of 0 to 100. You can specify a value from 0 to 1,000,000 and divide it by 10,000 to get the value in percentage. This value in percentage is displayed in the vSphere Web Client, while the actual value that you provide is displayed in PowerCLI.
  • New-VAIOFilter
    If you try to install a VAIO filter on a cluster, the VAIO filter might install successfully on some hosts, but fail to install on other hosts.
    Workaround: Use Get-VAIOFilter to check whether the same VAIO filter is already installed on the cluster. If installed, use Remove-VAIOFilter before trying to install the same VAIO filter again.
  • Remove-SpbmStoragePolicy
    If you run Remove-SpbmStoragePolicy with an array of storage policy objects, and one of the objects does not exist, you receive a terminating error.
  • Set-SpbmEntityConfiguration
    You cannot disable SPBM on clusters in vSphere 6.0 environments.
  • Set-SpbmStoragePolicy
    • If you try to retrieve storage policy contents and any VASA provider does not comply with the constraints in the resource storage policy, you receive a validation error for these resource storage policies. All valid storage policies are returned by the cmdlet.
    • You can assign the same name to multiple storage policies in the same environment.
  • Other
    • If you apply a policy created from VASA 1.0 capabilities to a virtual machine created on a Virtual SAN datastore, the compliance status of the virtual machine is incorrectly displayed as non-compliant instead of not-applicable.
    • If you clone a virtual machine from a NFS datastore to a Virtual SAN datastore with a mixed storage policy that has both VASA 1.0 and Virtual SAN rule sets, the policy associated with VM Home is removed from the virtual machine.
    • If you create a linked clone of a virtual machine which is associated with a VASA 1.0 profile and then move the cloned virtual machine to a Virtual SAN datastore, the virtual machine's VM Home and HardDisk properties are incorrectly displayed as compliant.
    • If you apply a storage policy that has Virtual SAN capabilities to a HardDisk object, the SPBM compliance status of the HardDisk object changes to outOfDate.
    • You can modify the SPBM configuration of VirtualMachine and HardDisk objects after disabling SPBM on the cluster in which the objects are located.
    • Users without the Profile-driven storage update privilege can modify SPBM configuration on VirtualMachine and HardDisk objects, and can also enable or disable SPBM on Cluster objects.
    • You cannot create a storage policy if you do not specify a description for a tag or tag category.
    • You can create a storage policy by using a tag that has already been deleted from the SPBM server. When you retrieve information about the policy, the tag is shown as missing.
      Workaround: Use the Get-Tag cmdlet to verify that the tag you want to use exists on the SPBM server.
    • You can create rules by specifying a value for Virtual SAN capabilities of the type ValueType. However, PowerCLI cannot verify whether the value assigned to the capability is within the allowed range of values because the AllowedValue property is not populated.
    • If you are logged in to vCloud Director as a regular user or an organization administrator, you might not be able to retrieve CIView by ID for some of the cloud objects.
      Workaround: Pass the object to the Get-CIView cmdlet.
    • If you try to run a script or binary code which creates new instances of the VimClient class from the VMware.Vim.dll module, you might receive a MissingMethodException error message.
      Workaround: Create new instances of the VimClientImpl class instead of the VimClient class.
    • The types labels in the UpdateViewData property are case-sensitive.
    • When running in 64-bit mode, PowerCLI cannot detect the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware vSphere PowerCLI\, which is used for determining the PowerCLI installation folder. Instead, you can use the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware vSphere PowerCLI.
    • All VIX cmdlets support use of SSPI for Windows guest machines if the underlying vCenter Server is version 5.0. This might not be valid for users who are local, and not domain users. VIX cmdlets are Invoke-VMScript, Copy-VMGuestFile, *-VMGuestNetworkInterface, *-VMGUestRoute, and Set-HardDisk when used for guest disk resizing.

Resolved Issues

The following issues have been resolved in VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3:

  • Some vSphere Update Manager PowerCLI cmdlets do not return help or examples when using the Get-Help cmdlet.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.License module does not load correctly, preventing access to the cmdlets which are part of this module.

Installing VMware vSphere PowerCLI

VMware provides a single installer for VMware vSphere PowerCLI.

To install VMware vSphere PowerCLI components

  1. Download VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3.
  2. Navigate to the local folder that contains the PowerCLI installer file you downloaded and double-click the executable file.
  3. On the Welcome page, click Next.
  4. Accept the license agreement terms and click Next.
  5. On the Custom Setup page, select the PowerCLI components you want to install.
  6. (Optional) To change the default location to install VMware vSphere PowerCLI, click Change and select a different Destination Folder.
  7. Click Next.
  8. On the Ready to Install the Program page, click Install to proceed with the installation.
  9. Click Finish to complete the installation process.

For more information about installing PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3, see the VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.0 Release 3 User's Guide.