Author: user

Setting ESXi DNS and NTP using PowerCLI

In this post i will provide you some of the commands i use when configuring dns and ntp in a new environment. i will also display the commands in a script context as i have used them in practise.



Get-VMHostNetwork -VMHost "VMHost" | Set-VMHostNetwork -DomainName "DomainName" -DNSAddress "DNSAddress_Primary" , "DNSAddress_Secondary" -Confirm:$false

Install PowerCLI 6.5.1

Hi all

From version 6.5.1 of PowerCLI Vmware has made a big change in the way we will install PowerCLI, up until now you downloaded ye old .msi packet and ran the installation the old clasic way.

No more! From now on you do it the Powershell Gallery way. what does that mean you ask? it means that you can install it as a module from inside Powershell. read on to find out how.

How to do it

First of all uninstall any old versions of PowerCLI you might have on your system. If you don’t know how… i might write a tutorial about that sometime….

Now when this is done we can start with the fun part. Lets install the new thing.

You have now the option of doing a online install or do a offline one, so lets see how it is done.

Online Install



Find-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI

The commands lists the modules in Powershell Gallery, in this case Vmware PowerCLI

If it is the first time you access the Powershell gallery you might have to install NuGet provider. its easily done just accept the update/Installation by pressing “Y” and let the installation run.



Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI –Scope CurrentUser

Now we can start the installation of PowerCLIThe command initiates the installation of PowerCLI on our local system for our current user. and can be run without administrative rights. If you want to install for all users you must have administrative rights and change the -Scope to AllUsers



Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI –Scope AllUsers

Now you are done with the installation of the brand new PowerCLI and can start using it.

Using PowerCLI

To start the new PowerCLI you open a Powershell window and load the module with the Import-module command like follows



Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI

 

Information courtesy of VMware Blog

 

Powershell Version Check

When you need to find the version of Powershell you are running you can use the following ways.

Check version with $PSVersionTable

This variable was first introduced in Powershell v2.0



PS C:\> $PSVersionTable



Name                           Value

----                           -----

<strong>PSVersion</strong>                      5.0.10586.117

PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}

BuildVersion                   10.0.10586.117

CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000

WSManStackVersion              3.0

PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3

SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1

From the results you get the following info:

  • PSVersion show that installed version of Powershell is 5.0
  • PSCompatibleVersions shows the backwards compatibility of installed version
  • CLRVersion indicates common runtime version
  • BuildVersion varies depending on the underlying operating system

To make a more detailed Powershell version check



PS C:\&gt; $PSVersionTable.PSVersion



Major  Minor  Build  Revision

-----  -----  -----  --------

5      0      10586  117