VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0 Release Notes

Released 08 April 2021

VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0. Build 17860403

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0 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 12.3.0 User's Guide.

VMware PowerCLI Components

In VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0, 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.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.Security: Provides cmdlets for managing vSphere Security, including virtual Trusted Platform Module.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.Srm: Provides cmdlets for managing VMware Site Recovery Manager features.
  • VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView: Provides cmdlets for automating VMware Horizon 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.VimAutomation.Nsxt: Provides cmdlets for managing NSX-T servers.
  • 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.

Supported Platforms

For a list of VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0 supported operating systems and PowerShell versions, see Compatibility Matrixes for VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0.

For a list of VMware products with which VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0 is compatible, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

What's New in This Release

New Features

VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0 introduces the following new features, changes, and improvements:

  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Storage module.
    • New cmdlets to manage vSAN file service snapshots
      Get-VsanFileShareSnapshot
      New-VsanFileShareSnapshot
      Remove-VsanFileShareSnapshot
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Storage module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The Get-KeyProvider and Set-KeyProvider cmdlets have been extended to support the native key provider type.
  • A number of new cmdlets have been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Security module.
    • New cmdlets to support the native key provider type
      Import-KeyProvider
      Export-KeyProvider
  • A new cmdlet has been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.WorkloadManagement module.
    • New cmdlet to create a namespace network specification
      New-WMNamespaceNetworkSpec
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.WorkloadManagement module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • A new parameter set has been added to the Enable-WMCluster cmdlet to enable workload management on a cluster that uses vSphere networking.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Core module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The New-VM, New-HardDisk, Set-VM, Set-HardDisk, and Set-VMHost cmdlets have been extended to support the native key provider type for encryption operation.
    • The New-VM cmdlet has been extended to support cross-vCenter cloning.
    • The KeyProvider parameter has been added to the New-VM cmdlet to support VM encryption during cloning.
    • The Reason parameter has been added to the Set-VMHost, Stop-VMHost, and Restart-VMHost cmdlets to allow adding an explanation for putting a host in maintenance mode, stopping, or restarting it.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Hcx module has been updated to include the following improvements:
    • The ReplicateSecurityTags parameter has been added to the New-HCXMigration and New-HCXMobilityGroupConfiguration cmdlets to enable turning on and off the replicate security tags feature for migrations.
    • The Get-HCXMigration cmdlet has been updated to show migration status as Cancelled and not as Aborted as the latter term has been deprecated.
  • The VMware.Vim module has been updated to support VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView module has been updated to support VMware Horizon 2103.
  • The VMware.VimAutomation.Srm module has been updated to support VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.4.

For more information on changes made in VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0, including improvements, security enhancements, and deprecated features, see the VMware PowerCLI Change Log. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0 User's Guide. For more information on specific cmdlets, see the VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0 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 12.3.0:

  • Connect-NsxtServer
    When running Connect-NsxtServer, you cannot connect to VMware NSX-T Data Center version 2.5.
  • New-VM
    The StorageProfile parameter is not accounted for when deploying from an OVF template in a content library.
  • Use-PowerCLIContext
    Use-PowerCLIContext occassionally fails to import the PowerCLI context.
  • Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter
    Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter fails with a message of type Value cannot be null. Parameter name: collection.
  • Get-VsanStat
    When using the TimeRange parameter with value LastWeek, duplicated records are returned.
  • Get-VasaProvider and Get-VasaStorageArray
    For PowerCLI 12.x, Get-VasaProvider fails to populate registered standby provider information which causes Get-VasaStorageArray to fail with a message of type Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  • Get-SpbmStoragePolicy
    For PowerCLI 12.2.0, Get-SpbmStoragePolicy fails with a message of type Rule set has other line of service rules without any persistence line of service rule.
  • Set-TrustedCluster
    Set-TrustedCluster acts incosistently when some serviceInfos are configured.
  • New-HCXMobilityGroup
    • Networks mapping is not displayed on the migration tracking page.
    • The MAC address and network adapters to a networks mapping issue are not retained.
    • The storage policy is not applied after migration.
  • Get-HCXVM
    If a source virtual machine consists of bonded interfaces, Get-HCXVM retrieves duplicated network output entries for the bonded interfaces.
  • Other
    • Calling PowerCLI cmdlets in parallel and specifying parameters by name causes exceptions of type Could not find object with name... or An item with the same key has already been added.

Known Issues

VMware PowerCLI 12.3.0 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.
  • 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.
    • Certain methods in com.vmware.nsx.model.firewall_section enforce optional strings where they are not required.