Month: January 2011

VMware vSphere PowerPack beta, now with PowerCLI 4.1 and later support

Kirk Munro11 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog you probably heard that we hit a bit of a stumbling block with our VMware PowerPack with versions 4.1 and 4.1.1 of the PowerCLI.  There are some changes in those versions that break compatibility with previous versions of the PowerCLI, and this prevented our PowerPack from working with either of those two versions.  I had also mentioned on my blog that I anticipated we would provide two separate versions of our PowerPack in the short term, one that works with PowerCLI 4.0 U1 only and another that works with PowerCLI 4.1 and later.  Well I’m happy to let you know that I just finished uploading a beta version of the VMware vSphere PowerPack with PowerCLI 4.1 support to the PowerGUI® website.  This version has been posted in the same document in the PowerPack Library that contains the other version of the VMware PowerPack, so now there are two files to choose from when you visit the VMware vSphere PowerPack download page:

  1. VMware.VIToolkit.powerpack.  This file contains the version of the PowerPack that requires version 4.0 U1 of the PowerCLI and that ships with PowerGUI Pro and PowerGUI 2.3.
  2. VMware.PowerCLI.4.1.powerpack.  This file contains the beta version of the PowerPack that works with PowerCLI 4.1 and later releases.

A number of you have been asking via twitter if we have PowerCLI 4.1 (and PowerCLI 4.1 U1) support, and now we do, in beta form at least.  The functionality between the two versions is identical, with the exception of two minor bug fixes in the beta version that I came across during testing that are not yet fixed in the other version.

If you want to try out the beta version of this PowerPack, here is what you need to do:

If you are using PowerGUI Pro or PowerGUI 2.4 and you have the VMware PowerPack and PowerCLI 4.0 U1 already installed:

  1. Open the PowerGUI Admin Console.
  2. Select File | PowerPack Management.
  3. Browse down to the VMware PowerPack and select it.
  4. Click on the Remove button to remove the VMware PowerPack.
  5. Click on OK to close the PowerPack Management dialog.
  6. Close the PowerGUI Admin Console.
  7. Uninstall PowerCLI 4.0 U1.
  8. Download and install PowerCLI 4.1 U1 (or 4.1 if you prefer).
  9. Download the VMware.PowerCLI.4.1.powerpack that is linked earlier in this blog post.
  10. Open the PowerGUI Admin Console.
  11. Select File | PowerPack Management.
  12. Click on the Import button.
  13. Browse to the location where you put the VMware.PowerCLI.4.1.powerpack file that you downloaded in step 9, select it, and click on Open.
  14. Click on OK to close the PowerPack Management dialog.

If you do not have the VMware PowerPack installed simply follow steps 7 through 14 in the list above.

At this point you should be up and running with the beta version of the VMware PowerPack with PowerCLI 4.1 U1 (or 4.1 if that is what you installed).

Please use the PowerGUI Forums if you have any feedback you want to share or issues you want to report regarding the beta release of this PowerPack.

Enjoy!

Kirk out.

PowerShell MVP for 2011

Kirk Munro5 Comments

Did I ever mention how much I think my kids are great? Smile

Last year I blogged about a very cool Lego model of PowerGUI® that I received from my kids for my birthday.  It turns out that this was mostly the work of my son, and my daughter (who refused to be outdone) decided she wanted to offer me something equally special on her own for Christmas that I could also share on my blog.  She knows how important my MVP award is to me, so on Christmas morning she gave me this great gift:

Microsoft PowerShell MVP - Kirk A Munro

What more could a person ask for?  And isn’t Lego just the coolest toy ever? Smile

When I first saw this it reminded me of the original Microsoft logo from 1983. It’s not quite the same as that logo, but it definitely came to mind when I saw it.

Of course upon receiving this there was a little nervous anticipation as I waited until January 1, 2011 to see if I was re-awarded the PowerShell MVP award again, but sure enough I received the email that morning.  Thanks Microsoft for allowing me to continue my work as a PowerShell MVP for another year!  PowerShell is a truly exciting product to work with, and with all of the innovative solutions in that space (check out PowerGUI Pro, I highly recommend it!), and the strong community that is really second to none, 2011 looks like it will be another very exciting year to continue working with PowerShell!

Kirk out.