PowerCLI Reference

vSphere Imagebuilder Reference

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot

Synopsis

Syntax

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot [-DepotUrl] <String[]> [-WarningAction <ActionPreference>] [-WarningVariable <String>] [<CommonParameters>]

Related Commands

Detailed Description

Adds an ESX software depot or offline depot ZIP file to the current PowerCLI session. Use this cmdlet right after you start Image Builder by adding the Image Builder snap-in. The cmdlet imports metadata from the specified depots. You can then create new image profiles and generate ISOs from the image profiles and VIBs in the depots. The metadata from the depots is kept in memory until the PowerCLI session ends. When you run the cmdlet, Image Builder downloads and parses the metadata from the depot and analyzes the VIBs for dependencies.

The depot will be added to the list of depots maintained in the implicit session variable $DefaultSoftwareDepots that stores all software depots (similar to $DefaultVIServers).

If the software depot was previously added, metadata from the depot will be downloaded again.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Required?	Pipeline Input
DepotUrl	String[]	Either a string or an array of strings; each string represents the URL of a depot or a file path to an offline depot ZIP file. The offline depot ZIP file must have the .zip extension.	true	true (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
WarningAction	ActionPreference		false	false
WarningVariable	String		false	false

Return Type

Notes

Examples

---------- Example 1 ----------

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot http://www.vmware.com/go/ESXi/patches/

Connect to a depot.

---------- Example 2 ----------

$depot = Add-EsxSoftwareDepot http://www.vmware.com/go/ESXi/patches/

Connect to a depot, saving it to a variable.