Examine Depot Contents

You can examine software depots and VIBs with vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets. You can use wildcards to examine depot contents. All wildcard expressions are supported.

The workflow itself passes parameters by name. However, you can pass parameters as objects by accessing variables.

You can use filtering options and wildcard expressions to examine depot contents.

Prerequisites

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

Procedure

In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work with.

Option	Action
Remote depot	Run `Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl <depot_url>`.
ZIP file	Download the ZIP file to a local file system. Run `Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\<file_path>\<offline-bundle>.zip`

The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects.

Retrieve image profiles.
You can filter by vendor, name, and acceptance level.
- ```
Get-EsxImageProfiles
```
  Returns an array of ImageProfile objects from all depots you added to the session.
- ```
Get-EsxImageProfile -Vendor "C*"
```
  Returns all image profiles created by a vendor with a name that starts with the letter C.
Retrieve software packages by using the Get-EsxSoftwarePackage cmdlet.
You can filter, for example by vendor or version, and you can use the standard PowerShell wildcard characters.
- ```
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Vendor "V*"
```
  Returns all software packages from a vendor with a name that starts with the letter V.
- ```
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Vendor "V*" -Name "*scsi*"
```
  Returns all software packages with a name that contains the string scsi in it from a vendor with a name that starts with the letter V.
- ```
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Version "2.0*"
```
  Returns all software packages with a version string that starts with 2.0.
Use -Newest to find the latest package.
- ```
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Vendor "V*" -Newest
```
  Returns the newest package for the vendors with a name that starts with the letter V, and displays the information as a table.
- ```
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Vendor "V*" -Newest | format-list
```
  Returns detailed information about each software package by using a pipeline to link the output of the request for software packages to the PowerShell format-list cmdlet.
View the list of VIBs in the image profile.
```
(Get-EsxImageProfile -Name "Robin's Profile").VibList
```
VibList is a property of the ImageProfile object.
Retrieve software packages released before or after a certain date by using the CreatedBefore or CreatedAfter parameter.
```
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -CreatedAfter 7/1/2010
```

Example: Depot Content Examination Using Variables

This workflow example examines depot contents by passing in parameters as objects accessed by position in a variable, instead of passing in parameters by name. You can run the following commands in sequence from the PowerCLI prompt. Replace names with names that are appropriate in your installation.

Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Vendor "V*"
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Vendor "V*" -Name "r*"
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Version "2.0*"
$ip1 = Get-EsxImageProfile -name ESX-5.0.0-123456-full
$ip1.VibList
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -CreatedAfter 7/1/2010