Virtually Sober

I’m blogging live from the Boston Summer VMUG Usercon 2017 where I’m sharing my top 10 PowerShell tips and tricks. A big topic at the show, for anyone interested in PowerShell and PowerCLI, is the change with PowerCLI 6.5.1 in how you install, update and load it. This is pretty important because all your scripts are going to need updating! Otherwise, they will potentially stop working if you are about to or have already upgraded to vSphere 6.5.x. There’s no reason that I’m aware of that you can’t upgrade in advance and still interact with vSphere 6.0 etc. So now is as good as time as any to start planning your upgrade.

Before PowerCLI 6.5.1 you would’ve used this at the start of each script:

Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core

If you attempt this command on a computer running PowerCLI 6.5.1 it will result in a lovely “The Windows PowerShell snap-in ‘VMware.VimAutomation.Core’ is not installed on this computer.” error:

From now on you need to use:

Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI

But wait, you can’t just start using this new command otherwise you will get another error “The specified module ‘VMware.PowerCLI’ was not loaded because no valid module file was found in any module directory.”:

You’ll first need to uninstall your current version of PowerCLI from Programs and Features, download the PowerCLI module from the PSGallery then save a copy for future offline use (if needed). While this is certainly much easier than before, it still sounds awfully manual to me! To save you time and effort why not use PowerShell to automate this process? Here is a simple script I wrote to do just that:

#######################
# Configure the variable below
#######################
# Specify a directory to download and install the new PowerCLI module to for future offline access
$PSModulePath = "c:\PowerCLIModule\"
#####################################################################
# Nothing to change below this line, commented throughout to explain
#####################################################################
#######################
# Testing if PS Module path exists, if not creating it
#######################
$PSModulePathTest = test-path $PSModulePath
if ($PSModulePathTest -eq $False)
{
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $PSModulePath
}
#######################
# Checking to see if PowerCLI is installed in Program Files, takes 5-30 seconds
#######################
write-host "Checking if PowerCLI is installed in Program Files, wait 5-30 seconds"
$PowerCLIInstalled = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq "VMware vSphere PowerCLI"}
#######################
# If PowerCLI is installed then removing it, so we can run from the module instead
#######################
if ($PowerCLIInstalled -ne $null)
{
write-host "PowerCLI Installed - Uninstalling to allow for new PowerCLI module"
# Uninstalling PS module
$PowerCLIUninstall = $PowerCLIInstalled.Uninstall()
# Checking return value for success
$PowerCLIUninstallValue = $PowerCLIUninstall.ReturnValue
if ($PowerCLIUninstallValue -ne 0)
{
write-host "Uninstall Of PowerCLI Failed - Most likely due to not running as administrator"
}
# Finished uninstall
}
#######################
# Checking to see if the PowerCLI module is already installed
#######################
$PowerCLIModuleCheck = Get-Module -ListAvailable VMware.PowerCLI
#######################
# If PowerCLI module is not installed, nothing found, then running install...
#######################
if ($PowerCLIModuleCheck -eq $null)
{
write-host "PowerCLI Module Not Found - Installing"
# Not installed, finding module online
Find-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI
# Trusting PS Gallery to remove prompt on install
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted
# Installing module
Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI –Scope AllUsers -Confirm:$false
# If running this is a repeat demo/test, you can uninstall the module using the below:
# Uninstall-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Confirm:$false
# Saving to folder
Save-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Path $PSModulePath
}
#######################
# Testing import of PowerCLI module
#######################
Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI
Try
{
$PowerCLICommandTest = Get-VICommand
$PowerCLIImportTest = $True
}
Catch
{
$PowerCLIImportTest = $False
}
#######################
# Outputting result
#######################
if ($PowerCLIImportTest -eq $True)
{
write-host "New PowerCLI Module Successfully Installed"
}
else
{
write-host "Something went wrong! Maybe you, maybe me. Does this computer have internet access and did you run as administrator?"
}
#######################
# End of script
#######################

Make sure your computer has internet access and you are running the script as administrator, otherwise you can’t download the latest version, uninstall the old or import the module for all users. You can download the full example from here:

AutoUpdatingToPowerCLI6.5.1.zip

Going forward you can now update your PowerCLI version with minimal fuss using:

Update-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI

If you found this useful please like and share. Happy scripting,

Joshua