You can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets to check which depots are available, to add a depot, to view image profile information, and to create a new image profile by cloning one of the available image profiles.

Published profiles are usually read-only and cannot be modified. Even if a published profile is not read-only, cloning instead of modifying the profile is a best practice, because modifying the original profile erases the original. You cannot revert to the original, unmodified profile except by reconnecting to a depot.

A profile cloning workflow might include checking the current state of the system, adding a software depot, and cloning the profile.

Prerequisites

Verify that PowerCLI and prerequisite software is installed. See Install vSphere ESXi Image Builder and Prerequisite Software.

Procedure

  1. In a PowerShell window, check whether any software depots are defined for the current session. 
    $DefaultSoftwareDepots

    PowerShell returns the currently defined depots, or nothing if you just started PowerShell.

  2. If the depot containing the profile that you want to clone does not appear in the results, add it to the current session.
    Option Action
    Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url.
    ZIP file
    1. Download the ZIP file to a local file path.
    2. Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\file_path\offline-bundle.zip
    PowerShell adds the specified depot to your current session and lists all current depots.
  3. (Optional) Check the $DefaultSoftwareDepots variable, which now returns the newly added depot.
  4. View all available image profiles. 
    Get-EsxImageProfile
  5. To clone an image profile, enter its name, a new name for the new profile, and a name of the vendor. 
    $ip = New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile base-tbd-v1 -Name "Test Profile 42" -Vendor "Vendor20"
  6. (Optional) View the newly created image profile, $ip.
    PowerShell returns the information about the image profile in tabular format. 
    Name                Vendor          Last Modified          Acceptance Level
----                ------          -------------          ----------------
Test Profile 42     Vendor20        9/15/2010 5:45:43...   PartnerSupported

Example: Creating Image Profile by Cloning Using Variables

This workflow example repeats the steps of this workflow by passing in parameters as objects accessed by position in a variable, instead of passing in parameters by name. You can run the following cmdlets in sequence from the PowerCLI prompt. 

$DefaultSoftwareDepots
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url
$DefaultSoftwareDepots
$profs = Get-EsxImageProfile
$profs
$ip = New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile $profs[2] -Name "new_profile_name" -Vendor "my_vendor"
$ip