VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0 Release Notes

Released 04 February 2021

VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0. Build 17538434

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0 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 12.2.0 User's Guide.

VMware PowerCLI Components

In VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0, 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.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.Srm: Provides cmdlets for managing VMware Site Recovery Manager features.
  • 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.WorkloadManagement: Provides cmdlets for managing Project Pacific.
  • VMware.CloudServices: Provides cmdlets for managing VMware Cloud Services.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Nsxt: Provides cmdlets for managing NSX-T servers.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.vROps: Provides cmdlets for automating vRealize Operations Manager features.

Supported Platforms

For a list of VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0 supported operating systems and PowerShell versions, see Compatibility Matrixes for VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0.

For a list of VMware products with which VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0 is compatible, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

What's New in This Release

New Features

VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0 introduces the following new features, changes, and improvements:

  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Common module.
    • New cmdlets for PowerShell runspace support
      Get-PowerCLIContext
      Use-PowerCLIContext
  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.WorkloadManagement module.
    • New cmdlets for managing namespace limits
      Get-WMNamespaceLimits
      Set-WMNamespaceLimits
  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Core module.
    • New cmdlets for vSphere Lifecycle Manager
      Export-LcmClusterDesiredState
      Import-LcmClusterDesiredState
      Get-LcmClusterDesiredStateRecommendation
      Get-LcmHardwareCompatibility
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Core module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The DepotOverride parameter has been added to the Set-Cluster cmdlet to allow specifying a depot address for vSphere LCM operations.
    • The Package parameter has been added to the Set-Cluster cmdlet to allow specifying a package from a hardware support manager that the hosts on a cluster should comply with.
    • The SHAAlgorithm parameter has been added to the Export-VApp cmdlet to enable support for SHA256 signing.
    • The BootDelayMillisecond parameter has been added to the New-VM and Set-VM cmdlets to allow specifying virtual machine boot delay.
    • The OVFConfiguration parameter has been added to the New-VM cmdlet to allow specifying OVF parameters when deploying OVF template from the content library.
    • The DisableOvfCertificateChecks parameter has been added to the New-ContentLibraryItem and Set-ContentLibraryItem cmdlets to allow skiping all OVA and OVF certificate checks during the upload to the content library.
    • The DestinationSslThumbprint parameter has been added to the Move-VM and Move-Inventory cmdlets to allow specifying the SSL thumbprint of the destination server when moving virtual machines between vCenter Server systems.
    • The Get-OvfConfiguration cmdlet has been extended to accept OVF templates from the content library.
    • The New-VM cmdlet has been extended to allow deploying virtual machines from VM templates in the content library.
    • The New-ContentLibraryItem and Set-ContentLibraryItem cmdlets have been extended to allow creating OVF or VM templates in the content library from a virtual machine or vApp.
    • The Move-HardDisk cmdlet has been extended to accept a datastore cluster as a destination to move a hard disk to.
    • The New-Datastore cmdlet has been extended to allow creating virtual volume (vVol) datastores.
  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc module.
    • New cmdlets for site recovery management
      Get-VmcSddcSiteRecoveryInstance
      New-VmcSddcSiteRecoveryInstance
      Remove-VmcSddcSiteRecoveryInstance
      Get-VmcSddcSiteRecovery
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The EnableSiteRecovery, SrmExtensionSuffix, and DisableSiteRecovery parameters have been added to the Set-VmcSddc cmdlet to allow the enabling and disabling of DRaaS on an SDDC.
  • The Get-NsxtGlobalManagerService cmdlet has been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Nsxt module to provide the ability to expose the NSX-T Global Manager API.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView module has been ported to work on macOS and Linux and has been updated for Horizon 2012.
  • The performance of all Get-*Service cmdlets, such as Get-CisService and Get-NsxtService, has been improved.

For more information on changes made in VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0, including improvements, security enhancements, and deprecated features, see the VMware PowerCLI Change Log. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0 User's Guide. For more information on specific cmdlets, see the VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0 Cmdlet Reference. For the full list of PowerCLI documentation, visit the VMware PowerCLI Home Page on code.vmware.com.

Resolved Issues

The following issues have been resolved in VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0:

  • Connect-VIServer
    • PowerCLI creates a temporary file in the %appdata%\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\<user_account> folder and the file is not deleted when no longer needed.
    • The connection to vCenter Server might fail if the client machine is located behind a proxy.
  • Get-DrsVMHostRule
    The Get-DrsVMHostRule cmdlet displays VM group members incorrectly when a VM is removed from the inventory.
  • Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter
    The Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter cmdlet fails and displays a Value cannot be null message on some environments.
  • Install-VMHostPatch
    Installing VIBs by using Install-VMHostPatch -LocalPath fails due to a credentials error on ESXi 6.7.x and ESXi 7.0.x.
  • Move-VM
    When migrating a virtual machine from one resource pool to another in the same DRS cluster, the host might change.
  • New-VM
    When creating a new VM, for some guest operating systems the boot option is set to BIOS, rather than to the default EFI.
  • New-VM and Set-VM
    The MemoryGB parameter accepts only values up to 1024 GB, rather than the actual configuration maximums.
  • Test-HCXMigration and Start-HCXMigration
    You cannot pass the target storage policy details in migration requests.
  • Other
    • In vROps, when calling the DownloadReport API function, you get an error message of type Exception calling "DownloadReport" with "2" argument(s).
    • When configuring SRM settings, the Windows-specific NIC customization settings are not set correctly.

Known Issues

VMware PowerCLI 12.2.0 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 Administrator@VSPHERE.LOCAL.
  • 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.
  • Other
    • 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 the vSphere Web Client to check the actual server-side error.
    • Certain methods in com.vmware.nsx.model.firewall_section enforce optional strings where they are not required.