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Released 28 February 2019

VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 Build 12780525

Release notes last updated on 14 March 2019.

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 Release Notes

About VMware PowerCLI

VMware PowerCLI is a suite of Microsoft PowerShell modules to manage VMware products and services. VMware PowerCLI includes over 600 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 11.2.0 User's Guide or the PowerCLI Blog.

VMware PowerCLI Components

In VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0, 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.Sdk: Provides SDK functionality that is needed by 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.Srm: Provides cmdlets for automating VMware Site Recovery Manager features.
VMware.VimAutomation.Nsxt: Provides cmdlets for managing NSX-T servers.
VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc: Provides cmdlets for managing VMware Cloud on AWS features.
VMware.Vim: Provides vSphere low-level binding libraries. This module has no cmdlets.

In VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0, the following module has been added:

VMware.VimAutomation.Hcx: Provides cmdlets for managing VMware HCX (Hybrid Cloud Extension) features.

Requirements

For a list of software that you need if you want to work with VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0, see Compatibility Matrixes for VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0.

Supported Platforms

For a list of VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 supported operating systems and PowerShell versions, see Compatibility Matrixes for VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0.

For a list of VMware products with which VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 is compatible, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

What's New in This Release

New Features

VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 introduces the following new features, changes, and improvements:

The new VMware.VimAutomation.Hcx module provides the ability to manage your hybrid cloud configuration and tasks in VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension through PowerCLI.
The New-VcsOAuthSecurityContext cmdlet has been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc module, providing the ability to create an OAuth2 security context object that you can use to authenticate a user with any VMware Cloud service.
The Get-NsxtPolicyService cmdlet has been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Nsxt module, providing the ability to interact with VMware NSX-T policy services.
The New-VISamlSecurityContext cmdlet has been added to the VMware.VimAutomation.Core module, providing the ability to connect to vCenter Server systems through an OAuth2 security context (VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud only).
The VMware.VimAutomation.Core module has been updated to include the following improvements:

Connect-VIServer
Adds the new SamlSecurityContext parameter, providing the ability to connect to vCenter Server systems through the SAML security context (VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud only).
Import-VApp
Works with NSX-T opaque networks.
Set-NetworkAdapter
Assigns an adapter with an opaque network backing.

The VMware.VimAutomation.Storage module has been updated to include the following improvements:

Get-VsanSpaceUsage
Adds support to query the space usage status if all vSAN objects are assigned the specified storage policy.
Set-VsanClusterConfiguration
Adds the CustomizedSwapObjectEnabled, GuestTrimUnmap, LargeClusterSupported, ObjectRepairTimerMinutes, and SiteReadLocalityEnabled configuration parameters .
Test-VsanNetworkPerformance
Adds the new DurationInSecond parameter to specify the duration of a network performance test.

For more information on changes made in VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0, including improvements, security enhancements, and deprecated features, see the VMware PowerCLI Change Log. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 User's Guide. For more information on specific cmdlets, see the VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 Cmdlet Reference.

Resolved Issues

The following issues have been resolved in VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0:

New-VM
- When running New-VM without the NetworkName parameter specified on VMware Cloud on AWS, the cmdlet throws a NullReferenceException error message.
- When using New-VM, you cannot clone a virtual machine with an SDRS anti-affinity rule.
Remove-VMHostNtpServer
When using Remove-VmHostNtpServer, you cannot remove the NTP servers.
Get-ScsiLun
When running Get-ScsiLun and other ESXCLI cmdlets on a vCenter Server connection, the performance is slow.
Move-VM
Move-VM requires the usage of the Destination parameter.
Copy-DatastoreItem
Copy-DatastoreItem fails when the datastore name contains special characters.
Get-TagAssignment
When running Get-TagAssignment, the cmdlet might fail with а message of type Value cannot be null.
Other
- The WebOperationTimeoutSeconds configuration parameter does not apply to the SSO service.
- When deploying a virtual machine through PowerCLI to an SDRS manual cluster, the operation creates a virtual machine override rule as fully automated.

Known Issues

VMware PowerCLI 11.2.0 is known to have the following issues:

Add-EntityBaseline
The text of the error message that appears when you try to attach a baseline to a non-existing entity is improper.
Apply-DrsRecommendation
Apply-DrsRecommendation runs in asynchronous mode even when called without the RunAsync parameter.
Connect-VIServer
- Connect-VIServer cannot use the Kerberos network authentication protocol to connect to vCenter Server systems that are installed under a custom user account on a Windows system. Connect-VIServer uses NTLM instead.
  Workaround: Install and run vCenter Server under the default system account. Alternatively, you can:
  1. Add another IP to the Windows system where vCenter Server is running.
  2. Register a new A DNS record for the IP.
  3. Run the setspn tool to register an SPN for the new DNS record and associate it with the vCenter Server account under which vCenter Server was installed.
    For example: To register an SPN for the vc-alias.domain.com DNS and the VCAccount account, run:
    setspn -A -HOST/vc-alias.domain.com Domain\VCAccount
  4. Use the new DNS name to connect to the vCenter Server system.
    For example: Run Connect-VIServer vc-alias.domain.com
- When you use the User and Password parameters to authenticate with a vCenter Server 5.1 or later system, you might not be recognized as a domain user.
  Workaround: Pass the domain name and the user name to the User parameter.
  For example: Run Connect-VIServer my.server.com -Username MyDomain\MyUserName -Password MyPassword
- When you want to reconnect to a server in the same session by running Connect-VIServer on Windows 7, you might receive an error message of type Invalid server certificate or similar to this. The issue might occur even if you specify that invalid certificate errors should be ignored.
  Workaround:
  1. Use Windows 10.
  2. Restart the PowerShell session.
  3. Increase the value of [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::MaxServicePointIdleTime to a value that is larger than the expected idle time of the script.
  4. Trust the certificate of the server from the Windows systems certificate store.
Copy-DatastoreItem
Copy-DatastoreItem throws an error when uploading an item to the root folder of a Datastore Provider drive.
Copy-HardDisk
- On vCenter Server 5.0, Copy-HardDisk cannot change the storage format of the destination hard disk.
- Using the Thick2GB value for the DestinationStorageFormat parameter is not supported. If you specify this value against an ESX 5.0 host, the connection to the ESX environment is lost.
Get-CIDatastore
When you specify the ProviderVdc parameter, Get-CIDatastore might return incorrect results if multiple provider virtual data centers share a datastore.
Get-CIVM
When you are logged in as SysAdmin, the Get-CIVM cmdlet returns system vShield Edge virtual machines used to establish perimeter security in the NAT-routed network.
Get-CIVApp
Get-CIVApp returns all virtual appliance objects in the inventory including expired ones.
Get-CIVAppTemplate
Get-CIVAppTemplate returns all virtual appliance templates in the inventory including expired ones.
Get-Cluster
You cannot specify the VM or VMHost parameters in combination with the Location and NoRecursion parameters.
Get-Datacenter
You cannot specify the VM or VMHost parameters in combination with the Location and NoRecursion parameters.
Get-HardDisk
The value of the Persistence property of the object returned by Get-HardDisk is different depending on the way the hard disk is retrieved by the cmdlet.
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].
Get-Log
When you try to retrieve a log from vSphere 6.0 or later, you might receive a There is an error in XML document error message.
Workaround: Use the Bundle parameter to retrieve the whole log bundle, or the StartLineNum and NumLines parameters to retrieve specific lines from the log.
Get-OMAlert
If you use the AssignedUser parameter to filter alerts and some of the retrieved alerts are assigned to the admin user, Get-OMAlert returns those alerts with empty AssignedUser property.
Workaround: To retrieve only the non-assigned alerts, use both the AssignedUser and Status parameters as filters.
Get-OMResource
The ResourceKind parameter does not work against vRealize Operations Manager 6.1.
Note: The parameter works against vRealize Operations Manager 6.2.
Get-OMStat
The Key parameter does not work against vRealize Operations Manager 6.1.
Workaround: Use a client-side script to filter by key.
Note: The parameter works against vRealize Operations Manager 6.2.
Get-OMStatKey
- If you retrieve statistic keys by OMResource instance, some items might have empty properties. The returned keys that identify metric data for a specific instance object, like a CPU or network adapter, do not contain a description or ExtensionData info.
- Get-OMStatKey does not work against vRealize Operations Manager 6.1.
  Note: The cmdlet works against vRealize Operations Manager 6.2.
Get-OMUser
Get-OMUser does not return the vRealize Operations Manager amdin user and other internal users. If you specify admin for the Name parameter, Get-OMUser returns $null. For more information, see the vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.3 Release Notes.
Get-ResourcePool
You cannot specify the VM parameter in combination with the Location and NoRecursion parameters.
Get-ScsiLun
When you use Get-ScsiLun to retrieve Powerpath devices, the value of their MultipathPolicy property is shown as Unknown.
Get-SpbmStoragePolicy
If you try to retrieve storage policy contents and any VASA provider does not comply with the constraints in the resource storage policy, you receive a validation error for these resource storage policies. All valid storage policies are returned by the cmdlet.
Get-TagAssignment
If you run Get-TagAssignment against a vCenter Server 6.0.x system that uses a non-default HTTPS port, the cmdlet fails.
Workaround: Configure the vCenter Server 6.0.x system to use the default HTTPS port (443).
Get-Template
The Location parameter of Get-Template does not accept Cluster objects.
Get-UsbDevice
Get-UsbDevice cannot obtain USB devices from snapshots.
Get-View
- If you run Get-View with the SearchRoot and ViewType parameters and specify a property path for the Property parameter, the linked view of the cmdlet output is not populated.
- You cannot retrieve the VMware PowerCLI view of the underlying port group from the vCloud Director PowerCLI view of a network pool backed by the port group.
Get-VIEvent
- Filtering by type might return incorrect results. For example, if you specify Warning as the value for the Types parameter, you might receive Info and Error type events in addition to the Warning events.
- If a nonexisting user is specified, Get-VIEvent returns the events for all existing users.
- Objects returned by Get-VIEvent contain ManagedObjectReference types that are not compatible with the Get-View cmdlet.
Get-VM
- If a virtual machine is in the root virtual machine folder within a vApp and you try to retrieve the virtual machine by using the NoRecoursion parameter of Get-VM and specifying the root folder for the Location parameter, the virtual machine is not returned.
- If a virtual machine is in the root virtual machine folder within a vApp and you try to retrieve the virtual machine by using Get-VM, the <vm>.Folder and <vm>.FolderId properties are returned as $null.
- During the process of creating a template from a virtual machine, Get-VM returns both the virtual machine and template objects.
Get-VMHostProfileRequiredInput
On vCenter Server 5.0, Get-VMHostProfileRequiredInput returns a result even if you pass a hashtable with inapplicable elements.
Get-VsanResyncingComponent
Even if vCenter Server 6.0.x shows there are synchronizing components, Get-VsanResyncingComponent returns $null.
Workaround: Upgrade to vCenter Server 6.5 or later.
Get-VTpmCertification
When you run Get-VTpmCertification on Linux or macOS, the Subject and SubjectName parameters do not appear correct.
Import-Module
- If you try to import the VMware.ImageBuilder module in a clean PowerShell session, you receive an error message and the import process fails.
  Workaround: Import the VMware.VimAutomation.Core module before importing the VMware.ImageBuilder module.
- If you try to import VMware.PowerCLI module on PowerShell Core 6.0.1, you receive an error message and the import process fails.
  Workaround: Import each module separately.
Import-vApp
When you try to import a vApp and specify a datastore cluster to the Datastore parameter, PowerCLI automatically selects datastores from the specified cluster where to store the vApp, and if some of the datastores do not have enough free space, you receive an Invalid datastore format error message.
Workaround: Ensure that there is enough free space on all datastores in the cluster, or use the Datastore parameter to specify a datastore that has enough free space.
Install-VMHostPatch
- Install-VMHostPatch cannot install patches on diskless ESXi servers.
- Install-VMHostPatch cannot apply VIB patches.
  Workaround: Use metadata.zip patches.
Invoke-VMScript
When using Invoke-VMScript to invoke multi-line BAT and BASH scripts, the command might not run all the script lines.
Move-VM
- When you run Move-VM and you try to pass two virtual machines by pipelinе, the destination vApp might fail.
  Workaround: Use the following syntax:
- When you use Move-VM to migrate a virtual machine to another vCenter Server system, the operation fails with a message of type A general system error occurred: Signature verification error. No verification key available.
New-CIVAppNetwork
You can create a vApp network by specifying inconsistent network settings. While the settings of the newly created vApp network are inconsistent, you can only modify them to restore their consistency. To configure the vApp network, run Set-CIVAppNetwork.
New-DrsRule
If you try to create a new DRS rule by specifying multiple clusters from different servers and virtual machines with identical IDs on different servers, you receive an error message and the process fails.
Workaround: Create a new DRS rule for each cluster separately.
New-HardDisk
New-HardDisk does not prompt for confirmation when you try to create a VMDK anti-affinity rule that overwrites an existing one.
New-OSCustomizationSpec
You cannot add a virtual machine to a domain by using OS customization.
New-SpbmRule
When you create an SPBM rule, you can specify a value for the CacheReservation property that is outside the valid range of 0 to 100. You can specify a value from 0 to 1,000,000 and divide it by 10,000 to get the value in percentage. This value in percentage is displayed in the vSphere Web Client, while the actual value that you provide is displayed in PowerCLI.
New-VAIOFilter
If you try to install a VAIO filter on a cluster, the VAIO filter might install successfully on some hosts, but fail to install on other hosts.
Workaround: Use Get-VAIOFilter to check whether the same VAIO filter is already installed on the cluster. If installed, use Remove-VAIOFilter before trying to install the same VAIO filter again.
New-VM
When you are connected to a server which uses an invalid certificate and you specify the ContentLibraryItem parameter when running New-VM, the process might become non-responsive.
Workaround: Run Set-PowerCLIConfiguration and set the value of the InvalidCertificateAction parameter to Ignore or Fail.
New-VMHostNetworkAdapter
When you run New-VMHostNetworkAdapter against vSphere 6.7 and specify the FaultToleranceLoggingEnabled parameter, you might receive an error message of type The VirtualNic capability 'faultToleranceLogging' is not supported on VMHost.
Workaround:
1. Create a network adapter without specifying the FaultToleranceLoggingEnabled parameter.
2. Update the network adapter by running Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter and specifying the FaultToleranceLoggingEnabled parameter.
Set-DRSRule
If you try to update multiple DRS rules from different servers and specify virtual machines with identical IDs on different servers, you receive an error message and the process fails.
Workaround: Update each DRS rule separately.
Set-NetworkAdapter
You cannot connect virtual machine network adapters to opaque networks.
Set-OSCustomizationSpec
When you try to set the Workgroup parameter of Set-OSCustomizationSpec against .NET core on macOS, the cmdlet may fail with а message of type Value cannot be null.
Set-ScsiController
Set-ScsiController cannot set both the Type and BusSharingMode parameters at the same time when running against vCenter Server or ESX/ESXi versions 5.1 or earlier.
Workaround: First run the cmdlet to set the type and then run it again to configure the bus sharing mode.
Set-SpbmEntityConfiguration
You cannot disable SPBM on clusters in vSphere 6.0 environments.
Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface
On Windows operating systems, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface becomes non-responsive if the provided IP address conflicts with an existing IP address on the network.
Set-VMHost
- When an ESX/ESXi host is registered with multiple vCenter Server systems, you cannot change the state of the disconnected host to connected.
  Workaround:
  1. Run Remove-VMHost to remove the disconnected host from the vCenter Server system that it is registered with.
  2. Run Add-VMHost to attach the host to the vCenter Server system again.
  3. (Optional) Run Set-VMHost to restore the initial configuration of the host.
  The operation authenticates you with the host and automatically changes its state to connected.
- When you update the value of the VMSwapfileDatastore parameter and immediately retrieve the host information, the value of VMSwapfileDatastore might appear unchanged. If you retrieve the host information after a brief period of time, the change of the property value should be reflected.
Set-VMHostNetwork
Set-VMHostNetwork cannot clear the values of the ConsoleV6Gateway and VMKernelV6Gateway properties of the input object.
Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter
- If you connect to a vCenter Server 6.5 system and set an IPv6 address to a virtual NIC, the value of the AutomaticIPv6 property is changed to $true instead of $false.
  Workaround: When you set the IPv6 address, explicitly specify the value of the AutomaticIPv6 parameter as $false.
- If you have vMotion enabled on one VMKernel NIC and you enable it on a second NIC on the same switch by using Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter, the VMotionEnabled property of the second NIC might still report that vMotion is not enabled. This is because only one NIC can be selected for vMotion, but more than one can be candidate NICs for vMotion. To change the currently active vMotion NIC, first disable the current one and then enable the one you want.
Set-VMHostSNMP
- The default value of the Set-VMHostSNMP TargetPort parameter is a random number instead of the port number.
- Set-VMHostSNMP skips the value of the TargetPort parameter.
- Set-VMHostSNMP fails to enable VMHostSNMP and to set the ReadOnlyCommunityString when called for the first time.
  Workaround: Run the command again.
Set-VsanClusterConfiguration
When you run Set-VsanClusterConfiguration, the AddSilentHealthCheck and RemoveSilentHealthCheck parameters do not update any values.
Workaround: Update to vSAN 6.7.
Inventory Provider
When run within the Inventory Provider, Get-Datacenter returns the data centers from the default servers instead from the VIServer folder of the Inventory Provider drive.
Other
- If you have installed the SAP Crystal Reports runtime engine for .NET Framework and try to start the 64-bit version of PowerCLI, you might receive an error message of type Could not load file or assembly ‘log4net, Version=1.2.10.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
  Workaround: Start Windows PowerShell (x86) and import the PowerCLI modules that you want to use.
- 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 the vSphere Web Client to check the actual server-side error.
- If you use multiple PowerShell ISE tabs and try to run Import-Module, you might receive an error message.
  Workaround: Use multiple PowerShell ISE instances instead of using multiple ISE tabs within a single ISE instance.
- If you apply a policy created from VASA 1.0 capabilities to a virtual machine created on a vSAN datastore, the compliance status of the virtual machine is incorrectly displayed as non-compliant instead of not-applicable.
- If you clone a virtual machine from a NFS datastore to a vSAN datastore with a mixed storage policy that has both VASA 1.0 and vSAN rule sets, the policy associated with VM Home is removed from the virtual machine.
- If you create a linked clone of a virtual machine which is associated with a VASA 1.0 profile and then move the cloned virtual machine to a vSAN datastore, the virtual machine's VM Home and HardDisk properties are incorrectly displayed as compliant.
- If you apply a storage policy that has vSAN capabilities to a HardDisk object, the SPBM compliance status of the HardDisk object changes to outOfDate.
- You can modify the SPBM configuration of VirtualMachine and HardDisk objects after disabling SPBM on the cluster in which the objects are located.
- Users without the Profile-driven storage update privilege can modify SPBM configuration on VirtualMachine and HardDisk objects, and can also enable or disable SPBM on Cluster objects.
- You cannot create a storage policy if you do not specify a description for a tag or tag category.
- You can create a storage policy by using a tag that has already been deleted from the SPBM server. When you retrieve information about the policy, the tag is shown as missing.
  Workaround: Use the Get-Tag cmdlet to verify that the tag you want to use exists on the SPBM server.
- You can create rules by specifying a value for vSAN capabilities of the type ValueType. However, PowerCLI cannot verify whether the value assigned to the capability is within the allowed range of values because the AllowedValue property is not populated.
- If you are logged in to vCloud Director as a regular user or an organization administrator, you might not be able to retrieve CIView by ID for some of the cloud objects.
  Workaround: Pass the object to the Get-CIView cmdlet.
- If you try to run a script or binary code which creates new instances of the VimClient class from the VMware.Vim.dll module, you might receive a MissingMethodException error message.
  Workaround: Create new instances of the VimClientImpl class instead of the VimClient class.
- The types labels in the UpdateViewData property are case-sensitive.
- All guest OS cmdlets support use of SSPI for Windows guest machines if the underlying vCenter Server is version 5.0. This might not be valid for users who are local, and not domain users. Gest OS cmdlets are Invoke-VMScript and Set-HardDisk when used for guest disk resizing.