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

Posted on by Kirk Munro

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.

11 thoughts on “VMware vSphere PowerPack beta, now with PowerCLI 4.1 and later support”

  8. Thanks kirk,
    I will be posting some problems with the commands on the new beta powerpack. I have quite the list. I will try posting to the forums but since I am doing alot of auditing you will be getting a great deal of testing. I am sure some people have already noted somethings, but do you know what the turnaround may be for updating and maintaining it? I still need to learn how to export scripts via powergui and setting them up for scheduled taks. I know its doable but obviously I haven’t had time yet :). Never enough time..

    1. My pleasure. Note that in PowerGUI Pro 3.0 beta 2, it now ships with the VMware PowerPack that supports PowerCLI 4.1 and later.

      I appreciate you logging issues you come across and sharing them on the forums. I saw your first post, but have been a little busy, so didn’t get to respond yet. I can completely relate to your comment about never enough time.

      The beautiful thing about PowerPacks is that they can be updated and published quickly, and the auto-update feature will allow users to get new fixes automatically if they so desire. That said, if issues are a high priority for you, we need to know about it so that we can triage accordingly. Please indicate on any issues you find a relative priority (and highlight anything that is simply broken with no workaround) so that we can push in changes.

      It would also be useful to hear how you’re using PowerGUI and the VMware PowerPack, find out what you would like to see in terms of enhancements going forward. We have some cool things already in our 2nd beta of PowerGUI Pro 3.0, including being able to use the VMware PowerPack from a webkit-enabled web browser (i.e. iPad, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry 6, Safari, Chrome), and being able to create executable programs from PowerShell script (may make your scheduled tasks work easier and we have more planned in the future in this area). I recommend you give those a look if you can find the time.

  9. That sounds awesome Kirk, I appreciate the reply and will contribute in anyways I can to the furthering of this great solution. Where would it be best to share these ideas and such? Are the forums the best place? If you want you can also email me direct too if you like. I am working with Alan on some of the cmd-let problems with the community powerpack so anything I can do to help you guys out. I will look into testing the beta product since I am already doing a lot of auditing. To give you an idea of what I am doing in a nut shell is we have Several VMware Virtual Environments – all non-standard. No one knows anything about configuration and such. Not to mention, We will be consolidating and migrating all these as well into on central vcenter. I hear good things about the visio portion of PowerGui and need to really look into that as well. Anyways, I am sure there is a better way to chat about it other then blowing up the comments of your blog ;). As of right now Our environment is pretty much locked down for mobile use but I can always use it in my home lab 😀

    1. The forums are probably the best place so that we can link back to them from our internal CR database, and so that you can provide as little or as much detail as you like for anyone to see. Of course if you’re not getting a response from me in the forums, feel free to ping me in comments here as well. 🙂

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