VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0 Release Notes

Released 13 October 2020

VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0. Build 17009493

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0 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 700 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 12.1.0 User's Guide or the PowerCLI Blog.

VMware PowerCLI Components

In VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0, 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.StorageUtility: Provides utility scripts for storage.
  • VMware.VumAutomation: Provides cmdlets for automating vSphere Update Manager features.
  • 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.Security: Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere Security, including virtual Trusted Platform Module.
  • 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.

Supported Platforms

For a list of VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0 supported operating systems and PowerShell versions, see Compatibility Matrixes for VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0.

For a list of VMware products with which VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0 is compatible, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

What's New in This Release

New Features

VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0 introduces the following new features, changes, and improvements:

  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.WorkloadManagement module.
    • New cmdlets for managing Workload Management clusters
      Get-WMCluster
      Set-WMCluster
      Enable-WMCluster
      Disable-WMCluster
  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Core module.
    • New cmdlets for vSphere Lifecycle Manager
      Get-LcmImage
      Test-LcmClusterCompliance
      Test-LcmClusterHealth
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Core module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The BaseImage and VendorAddOn parameters have been added to the New-Cluster and Set-Cluster cmdlets to allow specifying the base image and vendor add-ons for the ESXi hosts in the cluster.
    • The Component parameter has been added to the Set-Cluster cmdlet to allow specifying the ESXi components that the cluster's hosts should comply with.
    • The Remediate and AcceptEULA parameters have been added to the Set-Cluster cmdlet to allow remediation of the cluster's hosts to the target state.
    • The Uri, FileName, and SslThumbprint parameters have been added to the New-ContentLibraryItem cmdlet to allow uploading files from the Internet or datastore URLs.
    • The ItemType parameter has been added to the New-ContentLibraryItem and Set-ContentLibraryItem cmdlets to allow specifying the type of the content library item.
    • The SEVEnabled parameter has been added to the New-VM and Set-VM cmdlets to allow enabling the Secure Encrypted Virtualization feature.
    • The VvolStorageContainer parameter has been added to the New-Datastore cmdlet to allow creating Virtual Volume (vVol) datastores.
    • The DiskType parameter of the New-HardDisk cmdlet has been extended to support the Persistent Memory (PMem) disk type.
    • The performance of the Get-NetworkAdapter and Get-VirtualNetwork cmdlets for opaque networks has been improved.
    • The NoCommandsSwitch and NoBlocksSwitch parameters of the Set-ScsiLun cmdlet have been deprecated when using the cmdlet against ESXi 7.0 or later.
  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc module.
    • New cmdlets for specifying cluster's EDRS policies
      Get-VmcClusterEdrsPolicy
      Set-VmcClusterEdrsPolicy
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The SddcAppliancesSize parameter has been added to the New-VmcSddc cmdlet to allow specifying the SDDC appliances size. The SDDC appliance size can be Medium and Large. The default value is Medium.
    • The StretchedCluster parameter has been added to the New-VmcSddc cmdlet to allow stretching out the SDDC to two availability zones.
    • The HostType parameter has been added to the New-VmcSddc cmdlet to allow specifying the host type. The supported host types are i3 and i3en.
    • The Cluster parameter has been added to the Add-VmcSddcHost cmdlet to allow adding hosts to a specific cluster.
    • The Cluster parameter has been added to the Remove-VmcSddcHost cmdlet to allow removing hosts from a specific cluster.
    • The VCenterHostName and VCenterCredentials properties have been added to the SDDC object to allow easier connection to the SDDC, when using the Connect-VIServer cmdlet.
  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Storage module.
    • New cmdlets for managing vSAN secure disk wipe
      Start-VsanWipeVsanDisk
      Get-VsanWipeDiskState
      Stop-VsanWipeVsanDisk
    • New cmdlets for managing Cloud Native Storage volumes
      Get/New/Set/Remove-CnsVolume
      New-CnsContainerCluster
      New-CnsKubernetesEntityReference
      New-CnsKubernetesEntityMetadata
      New-CnsVolumeMetadata
      Add-CnsAttachment
      Remove-CnsAttachment
    • New cmdlet for managing Virtual Volume (vVol) storage containers
      Get-VvolStorageContainer
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Storage module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The Set-VsanClusterConfiguration and Get-VsanClusterConfiguration cmdlets have been extended to support the vSAN compression only mode and vSAN enforce capacity reservation.
    • The Get-VsanSpaceUsage cmdlet has been improved to return slack space related breakdowns.
    • The Get-VasaStorageArray and Get-VasaProvider cmdlets have been improved to filter the retrieved VASA providers by the vVol storage containers.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Security module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The new Get-TrustedClusterAppliedStatus cmdlet has been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Security module providing the ability to retrieve the applied status of the trusted service information on the trusted clusters.
    • The Set-TrustedCluster cmdlet has been improved to automatically remediate the cluster if its applied status is not healthy in the workload vCenter Server system.
    • The MasterKeyId parameter is obsolete and replaced with the PrimaryKeyId parameter for the New-TrustAuthorityKeyProvider and Set-TrustAuthorityKeyProvider cmdlets.
    • The Server parameter has been added to the Set-TrustAuthorityTpm2AttestationSettings cmdlet.
    • The Add-TrustedClusterAttestationServiceInfo, Add-TrustedClusterKeyProviderServiceInfo, Remove-TrustedClusterKeyProviderServiceInfo, and Remove-TrustedClusterAttestationServiceInfo cmdlets have been improved to provide a warning message when the trusted cluster applied status is not healthy.
  • The Disconnect-Vcs cmdlet has been added to the VMware.CloudServices module to allow disconnecting from a VMware Cloud Services server.
  • The VMware.Vim module has been updated to contain API bindings for vSphere 7.0 Update 1.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Srm module has been updated to support VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.3.1.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView module has been updated to support VMware Horizon 7 version 7.13.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Hcx module has been updated to configure VMware Cloud Director as target for HCX OS Assisted Migration.
  • The Wait-HCXJob cmdlet has been improved to retrieve the status of the Update-HCXSentinel cmdlet.

For more information on changes made in VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0, including improvements, security enhancements, and deprecated features, see the VMware PowerCLI Change Log. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0 User's Guide. For more information on specific cmdlets, see the VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0 Cmdlet Reference.

Resolved Issues

The following issues have been resolved in VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0:

  • Get-HCXMigration
    When using Get-HCXMigration, the migration progress percentage shows 0.
  • Get-HCXNetwork
    When running Get-HCXNetwork, PowerCLI does not recognize the OpaqueNetwork network types.
  • Get-OvfConfiguration
    Get-OvfConfiguration does not display the full network name when it contains ".".
  • Get-SpbmCapability
    When running Get-SpbmCapability, PowerCLI does not interpret correctly capabilities of type System.Array.
  • Get-VMHostHardware
    When using Get-VMHostHardware for some ESXi hosts, the PowerShell process fails.
  • Move-VM
    • When you run Move-VM against vSphere 6.7 or later, you cannot move a virtual machine to the folder destination.
    • When running Cross vCenter vMotion with PowerCLI, an error message of type Object reference not set to an instance of an object appears.
    • When you try to move a powered off virtual machine to a folder, the operation fails with a message of type Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file.
  • New-HCXMigration
    You cannot trigger an HCX OS Assisted Migration, if the destination site is VMware Cloud Director.
  • New-NetworkAdapter
    When using New-NetworkAdapter on some guest operating systems, the cmdlet does not respect the Type parameter and always creates Vmxnet network adapters.
  • Remediate-Inventory
    When you run Remediate-Inventory, the operation fails with a message of type ''registry.proxy.' is invalid or exceeds the maximum number of characters permitted'.
  • Set-DrsClusterGroup
    When using Set-DrsClusterGroup, you cannot add virtual machines to an empty DRS group.
  • Set-DRSRule
    If you try to update multiple DRS rules from different servers and specify virtual machines with identical IDs on different servers, you receive an error message and the process fails.
  • Update-Entity
    When you run Update-Entity, the operation fails with a message of type ''registry.proxy.' is invalid or exceeds the maximum number of characters permitted'.
  • Update-VmfsDatastore
    When you try to upgrade a VMFS5 datastore to VMFS6 by using the Update-VmfsDatastore cmdlet, an error message of type item has already been added. key in dictionary appears.

Known Issues

VMware PowerCLI 12.1.0 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, 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.
    • If you use multiple PowerShell ISE tabs and try to run Import-Module, you might receive an error message.
      Workaround: Use multiple PowerShell ISE instances instead of using multiple ISE tabs within a single ISE instance.
    • Certain methods in com.vmware.nsx.model.firewall_section enforce optional strings where they are not required.