VMware

VMware vSphere PowerCLI Change Log

This document lists all changes introduced in the following vSphere PowerCLI releases:

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.1 Release 2

Released 11 February 2013 | Documentation

Change Type Description
feature The new VMware.VimAutomation.Vds snap-in introduces a number of cmdlets that let you manage vSphere networking with virtual distributed switches and port groups.
feature Added the Add-VDSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter and Remove-VDSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter cmdlets that let you connect and disconnect physical network adapters to a distributed switch.
feature Added the Add-VDSwitchVMHost and Remove-VDSwitchVMHost cmdlets that let you add and remove hosts to a distributed switch.
feature Added the Get-VDPortGroup, New-VDPortGroup, Remove-VDPortGroup, and Set-VDPortGroup cmdlets that let you retrieve and manage distributed port groups. You can also import from file, clone from a reference port group, or rollback a distributed port group configuration to its last valid state.
feature Added the Get-VDSwitch, New-VDSwitch, Remove-VDSwitch, and Set-VDSwitch cmdlets that let you retrieve and manage distributed switches. You can also import from file, clone from a reference distributed switch, or rollback a distributed switch configuration to its last valid state.
feature Added the Export-VDSwitch and Export-VDPortGroup cmdlets that let you export the configuration of a distributed switch or port group to a .zip archive on your disk. You can later import the .zip archive to create new distributed switches or port groups and modify the settings of existing ones.
improvement The vCloud Director PowerCLI snap-in now lets you manage and automate VMware vCloud Director 5.1 environments.
improvement The newly added support for Windows PowerShell 3.0 provides you with extended scripting options.
improvement The Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter cmdlet now supports migrating virtual network adapters from a standard to a distributed port group.
improvement The Set-NetworkAdapter cmdlet now supports connecting a virtual machine network adapter to a distributed switch or port group.
improvement Added the Portgroup parameter to the New-VM cmdlet to let you set the port groups to which the virtual machine network adapters connect.
improvement Added the RelatedObject parameter to the Get-NetworkAdapter cmdlet to let you retrieve network adapters from related standard and distributed port groups.
improvement Added the Portgroup parameter to the New-NetworkAdapter cmdlet to let you set the port group to which the virtual network adapter connects.
improvement Enhanced PowerCLI views to let you connect to a server by server session ID with the VimClient.Connect() method.
modification Deprecated specifying port group names with the NetworkName parameter of the Set-NetworkAdapter cmdlet. To connect the network adapter to a distributed port group, use the new Portgroup parameter instead.
modification Deprecated specifying port group names with the NetworkName parameter of the New-VM cmdlet. To connect the virtual machine network adapter to a distributed port group, use the new Portgroup parameter instead.
modification Deprecated specifying port group names with the NetworkName parameter of the New-NetworkAdapter cmdlet. To connect the network adapter to a distributed port group, use the new Portgroup parameter instead.
modification Deprecated the Distributed parameter of the Get-VirtualSwitch cmdlet. To retrieve distributed switches, use the new Get-VDSwitch cmdlet instead.
modification Deprecated the Distributed parameter of the Get-VirtualPortGroup cmdlet. To retrieve distributed port groups, use the new Get-VDPortGroup cmdlet instead.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.1 Release 1

Released 10 September 2012 | Documentation

Change Type Description
feature Added the New-DatastoreCluster, Set-DatastoreCluster, and Remove-DatastoreCluster cmdlets for creating, modifying, and removing datastore clusters.
feature Added the Move-Datastore cmdlet for moving datastores across folders and datastore clusters.
feature Added SDRS support for various cmdlets that operate with datastores. Datastore parameters now accept datastore clusters as arguments.
feature Added the Move-HardDisk cmdlet for moving the hard disks of virtual machines across datastores. The cmdlet also supports changing the storage format during moving.
feature Added Kerberos pass-through authentication to the Connect-VIServer cmdlet for connecting to vCenter Server, vCenter Virtual Appliance, and ESX/ESXi servers.
feature Added the Get-CIDatastore cmdlet for retrieving datastores on vCloud Director servers.
feature Added the Add-CIDatastore cmdlet for provisioning datastores to provider virtual datacenters (vDCs).
feature Added the New-Org, Set-Org, and Remove-Org cmdlets for creating, modifying, and removing cloud organizations.
feature Added the New-OrgVdc, Set-OrgVdc, and Remove-OrgVdc cmdlets for creating, modifying, and removing organization vDCs.
feature Added the Get-NetworkPool cmdlet for retrieving network pools on vCloud Director servers.
feature Added the New-OrgNetwork, Set-OrgNetwork, and Remove-OrgNetwork cmdlets for managing organization networks in the cloud.
feature Added the Get-VAppNetwork, New-VAppNetwork, Set-VAppNetwork, and Remove-VAppNetwork cmdlets for retrieving and managing vApp networks in the cloud.
feature Added the Get-CINetworkAdapter and Set-CINetworkAdapter cmdlets for retrieving and modifying virtual network adapters of virtual machines in the cloud.
feature Added the New-CIVApp, Set-CIVApp, and Remove-CIVApp cmdlets for creating, modifying, and removing vApps in the cloud.
feature Added the New-CIVAppTemplate cmdlet for creating vApp templates from existing vApps in the cloud.
feature Added the Set-CIVAppTemplate and Remove-CIVAppTemplate cmdlets for modifying and removing vApp templates.
feature Added the Get-CIAccessControlRule, New-CIAccessControlRule, Set-CIAccessControlRule, and Remove-CIAccessControlRule cmdlets for retrieving and managing access control rules for vApps and catalogs in the cloud.
feature Added the Start-CIVApp, Stop-CIVApp, Restart-CIVApp, and Suspend-CIVApp cmdlets for starting, stopping, resetting, and suspending vApps in the cloud.
feature Added the Stop-CIVAppGuest and Restart-CIVAppGuest cmdlets for shutting down and restarting the guest operating systems of all virtual machines within a vApp in the cloud.
feature Added the Start-CIVM, Stop-CIVM, Restart-CIVM, and Suspend-CIVM cmdlets for starting, stopping, resetting, and suspending virtual machines in the cloud.
feature Added the Stop-CIVMGuest and Restart-CIVMGuest cmdlets for shutting down and restarting the guest operating system of a virtual machine in the cloud.
feature Added the Get-CIVAppStartRule and Set-CIVAppStartRule cmdlets for retrieving and configuring the start rules for the virtual machines in a vApp in the cloud.
improvement Enhanced the Get-DrsRule cmdlet with the Type and VMHost parameters to retrieve virtual machine affinity and anti-affinity rules, and virtual machine to host affinity rules.
improvement Various cmdlets have been extended with the RelatedObject parameter for retrieving related vSphere objects from vCloud Director objects. For more information, see the VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.1 User's Guide.
improvement The Get-Task and Wait-Task cmdlets now support working with vCloud Director tasks.
improvement Added support for custom vSphere PowerCLI session initialization through the Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment_Custom.ps1 script file. For more information, see the VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.1 User's Guide.
improvement Added support for specifying the effective scope of vSphere PowerCLI settings (current session, current user, or all users). For more information, run Get-Help Get-PowerCLIConfiguration -Detailed and Get-Help Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Detailed.
improvement Added support for creating linked clones with the New-VM cmdlet
improvement Added support for thin provisioning in the Import-VApp cmdlet through the DiskStorageFormat parameter.
improvement The Get-AdvancedSetting, Set-AdvancedSetting, New-AdvancedSetting, and Remove-AdvancedSetting cmdlets now support working with VM and VMHost advanced settings, and cluster DRS settings.
improvement Added gigabyte (GB) units to storage and memory-related parameters for various cmdlets and output types.
improvement Added the Datastore parameter to the Get-Template and New-Template cmdlets.
improvement Enhanced the IntervalMins parameter of the Get-Stat cmdlet. For more information, run Get-Help Get-Stat -Detailed.
improvement Added Id parameters to several Get-* cmdlets that did not support object retrieval by ID.
modification The Get-View cmdlet now accepts VIServer objects.
modification Deprecated the Get-VIServer alias. Use Connect-VIServer instead.
modification Deprecated the Datastore and StorageFormat parameters of the Set-HardDisk cmdlet. To move hard disks across datastores or chang their storage format, use the new Move-HardDisk cmdlet instead.
modificaton Deprecated the Entity parameter of the Get-Datastore cmdlet. Use the new RelatedObject parameter instead.
modification Deprecated the VMHost parameter of the Get-Datastore cmdlet. Use the new RelatedObject parameter instead.
modification Deprecated the VM parameter of the Get-Datastore cmdlet. Use the new RelatedObject parameter instead.
modification Deprecated the Datacenter parameter of the Get-Datastore cmdlet. Use the new RelatedObject parameter instead.
modification Deprecated the VApp parameter of the New-VM cmdlet. Use the ResourcePool parameter instead.
modification Deprecated the Get-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration cmdlet. Use the Get-AdvancedSetting cmdlet instead.
modification Deprecated the Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration cmdlet. Use the Set-AdvancedSetting cmdlet instead.
modification Deprecated the Datastore.Accessible property. Use the new Datastore.State property instead.
modification Removed the Sample.EntityId property. Use the Entity property instead.
bug fix The Get-NetworkAdapter cmdlet does not throw an error message if you try to retrieve a nonexistent adapter.
bug fix Cloning a server-side customization specification with the New-OSCustomizationSpec cmdlet changes the values of the PlainText properties from true to false.
bug fix If you use the New-VIPermission cmdlet to create a permission for a distributed switch, the value of the Entity property of the returned object is $null.
bug fix The Set-Annotation cmdlet cannot set an annotation for a custom attribute if another custom attribute with the same name exists.
bug fix Increasing the size of a system partition on Windows 7 and Windows 2008 by using the GuestDiskResize parameter of the Set-HardDisk cmdlet is not supported.
bug fix On vCenter Server 5.0, when you use the Set-VM cmdlet to upgrade the hardware version of a virtual machine, the output of the cmdlet displays the old value although the version has been updated successfully.
bug fix Changing the value of the IPPolicy parameter to Static with the Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface cmdlet changes the value of the WinsPolicy parameter to Static as well.
bug fix The Model and Vendor properties of ScsiLun objects are always filled up with white-spaces to 16 (for Model) or 8 (for Vendor) characters.
bug fix The Get-VIEvent cmdlet should not require the MaxCount parameter when a time period is specified.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.0.1

Released 09 January 2012 | Documentation

Change Type Description
Change Type Description
feature Added the Connect-CIServer cmdlet for establishing connection to a cloud server.
feature Added the Disconnect-CIServer cmdlet for closing connection to the cloud server.
feature Added the Get-Catalog cmdlet for retrieving catalogs.
feature Added the Get-ExternalNetwork cmdlet for retrieving all external networks of the cloud.
feature Added the Get-Media cmdlet for retrieving media items.
feature Added the Get-Org cmdlet for retrieving organizations.
feature Added the Get-OrgNetwork cmdlet for retrieving organization networks.
feature Added the Get-OrgVdc cmdlet for retrieving the organization's virtual datacenters.
feature Added the Get-ProviderVdc cmdlet for retrieving the cloud provider's virtual datacenters.
feature Added the Get-CIRole cmdlet for retrieving user roles available in the cloud.
feature Added the Get-CIUser cmdlet for retrieving cloud users.
feature Added the Get-CIVApp cmdlet for retrieving cloud virtual appliances.
feature Added the Get-CIVAppTemplate cmdlet for retrieving cloud virtual appliance templates.
feature Added the Get-CIView cmdlet for retrieving cloud view objects.
feature Added the Get-CIVM cmdlet for retrieving cloud virtual machines.
feature Added the Import-CIVApp cmdlet for importing vSphere virtual machines to the vCloud as a virtual appliance.
feature Added the Import-CIVAppTemplate for importing vSphere virtual machines or OVF packages as virtual appliance templates.
feature Added the Search-Cloud cmdlet to enable searching for cloud objects of a specified type.
feature Added the RelatedObject parameter of the Get-View cmdlet for retrieving related vSphere objects from Cloud objects.
improvement Added a new configuration setting that controls behavior upon encountering an invalid SSL certificate when establishing secure connections.
improvement Added support for XML-formatted parameters in the ESXCLI method.
improvement Added security improvements.
fixed issue The values of the FreeSpaceGB and CapacityGB properties of the object returned by Get-Datastore, are now swapped to show the correct values.
fixed issue The ESXCLI integration is now fixed to work for arrays.
fixed issue The LocalPath parameter set of the Install-VMHostPatch cmdlet now works properly.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.0

Released 24 August 2011 | Documentation

Change Type Description
feature Added UID/DistinguishedName utilities (global variable $UidUtil with methods for manipulating UIDs).
feature Added support for storage I/O control for Set-Datastore, Get-VMResourceConfiguration, and Set-VMResourceConfiguration.
feature Added support for vCenter Servers in linked mode through Connect-VIServer.
feature Get-View/UpdateViewData now accept property paths containing managed objects. You can find the result in the corresponding LinkedView property.
feature Added ability to retrieve vCenter users and groups through the Get-VIAccount cmdlet.
feature Added the Get-VMHostAuthentication and Set-VMHostAuthentication cmdlets for joining hosts into active directory. (for versions 4.1 and later)
feature Added support for creating virtual machines and hard disks on datastore clusters and defining anti-affinity rules for them. (requires vCenter Server 5.x )
feature Added the Get-DatastoreCluster cmdlet for retrieving datastore clusters.
feature Added the Get-VMHostProfileRequiredInput cmdlet for verifying whether the provided information is sufficient to apply a host profile..
feature Added the Move-VApp cmdlet for moving virtual appliances.
feature Added the Get-VIProperty cmdlet for retrieving extended object properties.
improvement Added Type parameter to Get-Folder.
improvement Added Name parameter to Get-NetworkAdapter.
improvement Get-Datastore returns NasDatastore and VmfsDatastore types, that contains specific properties:
  • NasDatastore has RemoteHost, RemotePath, and UserName properties.
  • VmfsDatastore has FileSystemVersion property.
improvement Added Id and Name parameters to more Get-* cmdlets.
improvement Added IsLocal property to ScsiLun objects.
improvement Added support for cloning templates through New-Template.
improvement Improved the PowerCLI console prompt.
improvement Enabled auto-completion for values of enumeration-typed parameters.
improvement Improved the output formatting of Invoke-VMScript.
improvement Optimized retrieving objects by ID through Get-* cmdlets.
improvement Extended the OBN (specifying objects by name) support.
improvement Made improvements to New-VM:
  • Added support for creating a virtual machine on a DRS cluster by specifying only a cluster for the ResourcePool parameter.
  • The ResourcePool parameter accepts ResourcePool, VMHost, VApp, and Cluster objects and specifies the location where to create the virtual machine. The VMHost parameter is no longer mandatory.
improvement Added support for the SSPI passthrough feature of VIX. Guest operating system credentials are not required anymore. (requires vCenter Server 5.0 or later).
improvement Added vCenter Server support for Get-VMHostModule and Set-VMHostModule. (requires vCenter Server 5.0 or later)
improvement Added Windows 2008 and Windows 7 support for the Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Get-VMGuestRoute, New-VMGuestRoute, Set-VMGuestRoute, and Remove-VMGuestRoute cmdlets, and for the guest-related features of Set-HardDisk.
improvement Added vCenter Server support for copying, moving, and inflating virtual hard disks. (requires vCenter Server 5.0 or later)
improvement Added vCenter Server support for Get-EsxCli. (requires vCenter Server 5.0 or later)
improvement Made Copy-VMGuestFile enhancements.
  • Pipelining items returned by the Get-Item cmdlet is allowed when copying from local to guest operating system.
  • Wildcards are allowed only at the end of the source path. If you are copying files from the guest operating system of a virtual machine to a local directory, the Source parameter supports wildcards only on vCenter Server 5.0 and later.
improvement Import-VApp and Export-VApp support OVA format.
improvement Enhanced Import-VApp to import compressed and chunked files.
bug fix On 64-bit operating systems, Invoke-VMScript works only in 32-bit mode. (requires vCenter Server 5.0 or later)
bug fix Invoke-VMScript does not work if the guest operating system is installed on a drive other than C: or D:.
bug fix Running Invoke-VMScript against outdated VMware Tools might make the console non-responsive.
bug fix Invoke-VMScript might become non-responding.
bug fix Set-PowerCLIConfiguration does not set a persistent proxy policy.
bug fix Set-VM cannot modify the DrsAutomationLevel property of the virtual machine if the current value of the property is Disabled.
bug fix Set-VM accepts only values that are powers of 2 for the Numcpu parameter.
bug fix On Linux Red Hat 5, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface cannot set static DNS addresses.
bug fix Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface cannot set the WinsPolicy property to DHCP.
bug fix Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface throws an error if there is a disconnected network adapter.
limitation Parameters CommandsToSwitchPath, BlocksToSwitchPath, NoCommandsSwitch, and NoBlocksSwitch of Set-ScsiLun do not work against vCenter Server 4.0 and later.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 4.1 Update 1

Released 1 Dec 2010 | Documentation

Change Type Description
feature Added support for the ESX CLI functionality through the Get-EsxCli cmdlet.
feature Added support for ESX Top statistics through the Get-EsxTop cmdlet.
feature Enhanced Get-VirtualSwitch, Get-VirtualPortGroup, Get-VMHost, Get-VM, New-NetworkAdapter, Set-NetworkAdapter, and Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter to add support for distributed switches and distributed switch port groups.
feature Added support for SCSI controllers through the New-ScsiController, Get-ScsiController, and Set-ScsiController cmdlets, and the new Controller parameter of New-HardDisk and Set-HardDisk.
feature Added support for querying and modifying vCenter Server alarms through the Get-AlarmDefinition, Set-AlarmDefinition, Get-AlarmAction, New-AlarmAction, Remove-AlarmAction, Get-AlarmActionTrigger, New-AlarmActionTrigger, and Remove-AlarmActionTrigger cmdlets.
feature Added the Get-AdvancedSetting, Set-AdvancedSetting, New-AdvancedSetting, and Remove-AdvancedSetting cmdlets for managing advanced vCenter Server settings and Cluster HA advanced options.
feature Added the Wait-Tools cmdlet that allows you to wait for VMware Tools of the specified virtual machines to load before proceeding.
feature Added support for querying disk and disk partition information of hosts through the Get-VMHostDisk and Get-VMHostDiskPartition cmdlets.
feature Added support for formatting host disk partitions through the Format-VMHostDiskPartition cmdlet.
feature Added support for querying the primary HA cluster nodes through the Get-HAPrimaryVMHost cmdlet.
feature Added support for zeroing out a virtual machine hard disk through a new ZeroOut parameter to Set-HardDisk cmdlet.
improvement Added the DeletePermanently parameter to Remove-HardDisk for deleting hard disk files from the datastore.
improvement Enhanced the Get-VICredentialStoreItem, New-VICredentialStoreItem, and Remove-VICredentialStoreItem cmdlets to store encrypted passwords.
improvement Added the Menu parameter to Connect-VIServer for storing a list of the last visited servers.
improvement Enhanced the restoring ESXi configuration functionality of the Get-VMHostFirmware and Set-VMHostFirmware cmdlets to provide the bundle path as a directory. This allows you to restore multiple hosts in one command.
improvement Added support for converting hard disks from Thin to Thick and vice versa through the DiskStorageFormat parameter of Move-VM.
improvement Added HA Slot size information in the objects returned by the Get-Cluster cmdlet.
improvement Added ability to power off non-responding virtual machines by using the Stop-VM cmdlets.
improvement The Invoke-VMScript, Copy-VMGuestFile, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface, New-VMGuestRoute, Get-VMGuestRoute, and Remove-VMGuestRoute cmdltes now do not require host credentials on ESX 4.0 and newer.
bug fix Add-PassthroughDevice cannot add more than fifteen SCSI passthrough devices to a virtual machine.
bug fix If a ManagedObjectReference object that points to StorageResourceManager is specified for the Id parameter of Get-View, the cmdlet returns no result.
bug fix Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface does not work when the network is disconnected.
bug fix Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface throws an error if there is a disconnected network adapter.
bug fix On Windows operating systems, the Persistence property of the objects returned by Get-VMGuestRoute is incorrect.
bug fix Invoke-VMScript does not work if the guest operating system is installed on a drive different than C: and D:.
bug fix Running Invoke-VMScript against outdated VMware Tools might cause the console to stop responding.
bug fix Invoke-VMScript might become non-responding.
bug fix New-OSCustomizationSpec clones only the first object if an array of objects is provided.
bug fix vSphere vClient shows an error message Error reading password when opening specifications that have been created by using New-OSCustomizationSpec with empty passwords.
bug fix Set-HardDisk fails to resize the hard disk, if the helper virtual machine cannot access the datastore where the target hard disk is located.
bug fix Set-HardDisk fails to resize the hard disk, if the helper virtual machine is powered on.
bug fix Set-PowerCLIConfiguration cannot set a persistent proxy policy.
bug fix Set-VM cannot modify the DrsAutomationLevel property of the virtual machine if the current value of the property is Disabled.
bug fix Set-VM accepts only values that are powers of 2 for the NumCpu parameter.
bug fix Sizes of snapshots are not calculated correctly for some vSphere API versions.
bug fix On Linux RedHat 5, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface cannot set static DNS addresses.
removed feature Removed the Set-VMGuestRoute cmdlet due to low usability and stability reasons.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 4.1

Released 13 July 2010 | Documentation

Change Type Description
feature Enhanced Get-StatType to retrieve the available counters for real time statistics.
feature Enhanced New-FloppyDrive to create floppy image files.
feature Added the New-VIProperty and Remove-VIProperty cmdlets for customizing cmdlets output objects.
feature Added the ExtensionData property for exposing the View object that corresponds to an output object.
feature Added the Get-VMHostRoute, New-VMHostRoute, Set-VMHostRoute, and Remove-VMHostRoute cmdlets for retrieving, adding, and removing routes from the host route table.
feature Enhanced New-VM and Set-VM to allow specifying the virtual machine version.
feature Added the Get-ErrorReport cmdlet for generating error reports.
feature Added the Get-VMHostPatch cmdlet for retrieving host patches.
feature Enhanced New-VM, New-NetworkAdapter, Set-NetworkAdapter, Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter, and Remove-VMHostNetworkAdapter to support adding and removing virtual machines and network adapters from virtual distributed switches (vDS).
improvement Enhanced Get-View to support VIObject as a positional parameter.
improvement Added support for passing object IDs to properties of the ManagedObjectReference type.
improvement Improved the pipeline support for Get-ScsiLun.
improvement Added the PersistentId property to enhance identifying virtual machines in ESX and vCenter Server.
improvement Added the ProvisionedSpaceGB and UsedSpaceGB properties for creating storage reports for virtual machines.
improvement Added the Mtu parameter to the Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter and New-VMHostNetworkAdapter cmdlet for supporting jumbo frames for VMHostNetworkAdapter objects.
improvement Added the InnerException property to allow including the full exception chain in the error records.
improvement Improved the OBN support for New-VirtualSwitch.
improvement Enhanced Set-VMHostNetwork to allow changing the VMKernel gateway device for a host.
improvement Enhanced Get-Stat to allow retrieving instance statistics.
improvement Optimized the performance of Get-Snapshot.
improvement Optimized the performance of the Datatastore Provider operations.
improvement Enhanced Set-HardDisk and Remove-HardDisk to support managing hard disks that are attached to powered on virtual machines.
improvement Introduced the Ctrl + C key combination for terminating the completion of the Connect-VIServer cmdlet.
improvement All Task objects now display the local time.
bug fix Add-PassthroughDevice does not modify the objects passed to the PassthroughDevice parameter.
bug fix PowerCLI automatically removes the accidentally disconnected default servers from the $global:defaultVIServers variable.
bug fix Get-VIObjectByVIView populates the properties of the returned VMHostNetwork objects.
bug fix Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface runs successfully on Windows virtual machines even when the name of the guest network adapter is different than Area Connection.
bug fix On Windows operating systems, Get-VMGuestRoute updates properly the Persistence property of the returned objects.
bug fix New-NetworkAdapter updates properly the MAC address property of the returned object on ESX Server 4.0 and ESXi Server 4.0 .
bug fix Set-OSCustomizationSpec updates properly the Domain property of an OS customization specification object.
bug fix Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface updates properly the RouteInterfaceId property of the returned object, when the WinsPolicy parameter set to dhcp.
bug fix Set-VMHost updates properly the VMSwapfileDatastoreId property of the returned object, when the VMSwapfilePolicy and VMSwapFileDatastore parameters are set to $true.
bug fix The tab completion of the commands in the Datastore Provider is optimized.
bug fix The vSphere PowerCLI installer does not stop responding on specific machine configuration environments.

VMware vSphere PowerCLI 4.0 Update 1

19 November 2009 | Documentation

Change Type Description
feature Added the Get-NicTeamingPolicy and Set-NicTeamingPolicy cmdlets for managing the failover and load-balancing policies of VirtualSwitch and VirtualPortGroup objects.
feature Added the Copy-VMGuestFile cmdlet for copying files in and out of guest operating system.
feature Added the Restart-VM cmdlet for restarting virtual machines.
feature Added the Start-VMHost, Restart-VMHost, Suspend-VMHost, and Stop-VMHost cmdlets for managing the power state of hosts.
feature Added the Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Get-VMGuestRoute, New-VMGuestRoute, Remove-VMGuestRoute, and Set-VMGuestRoute cmdlets for managing guest networks.
feature Added the Get-UsbDevice and Remove-UsbDevice cmdlets for retrieving and removing USB devices.
feature Added the Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping, New-OSCustomizationNicMapping, and Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping cmdlets for managing NIC customization settings.
feature Added the Get-VMQuestion and Set-VMQuestion cmdlets for handling virtual machine questions.
feature Added the Get-VMHostHba, Set-VMHostHba, Get-iScsiHbaTarget, New-iScsiHbaTarget, Remove-iScsiHbaTarget, Set-iScsiHbaTarget, and Set-VMHostStorage cmdlets for working with host storages and iSCSI HBA devices.
feature Added the Move-Template cmdlet for moving templates and enhanced Move-Inventory to support moving templates.
feature Added the Get-VIPrivilege, Get-VIRole, New-VIRole, Remove-VIRole, Set-VIRole, Get-VIPermission, New-VIPermission, Remove-VIPermission, and Set-VIPermission cmdlets for managing the access control system.
feature Added the Get-VApp, Export-VApp, Import-VApp, New-VApp, Remove-VApp, Set-VApp, Start-VApp, and Stop-VApp cmdlets for managing virtual appliances.
feature Added the Get-DrsRecommendation and Apply-DrsRecommendation cmdlets.
feature Added the Install-VMHostPatch cmdlet for upgrading hosts.
feature Added the Add-PassthroughDevice, Get-PassthroughDevice, and Remove-PassthroughDevice cmdlets for managing PCI and SCSI passthrough devices.
feature Enhanced New-VM to support creating virtual machines with thin provisioned disks.
feature Enhanced New-VM to support cloning of powered-on virtual machines.
feature Enhanced Invoke-VMScript to support BAT (Windows) and BASH (Linux) scripts.
feature Enhanced Set-HardDisk to support resizing of virtual disks and guest partitions.
feature Enhanced Set-VMHostFirmware to support uploading of firmware packages.
feature Enhanced Copy-HardDisk, New-HardDisk, and Set-HardDisk to support extending, cloning, inflating, and reallocating virtual hard disks.
feature Enhanced New-VMHostAccount and Set-VMHostAccount to support granting and revoking shell access.
feature Created default drives for the Datastore Provider and Inventory Provider. Added support for working with files and directories in datastores.
improvement Extended the VMHost output object to contain extra information.
improvement Enhanced Update-Tools to upgrade VMware Tools without restarting the Windows guest operating system.
improvement Extended the Snapshot output object to contain extra information.
improvement Enhanced Set-VMHost to support evacuation of virtual machines.
improvement Enhanced Get-HardDisk to support RDM disks.
improvement Improved the performance of Get-VM.
improvement Extended the VIServer object to include server version information.
improvement The vmware.vim assembly loads automatically.
improvement Added support for working with multiple servers. Disconnect-VIServer disconnects the last connected server.
improvement Enhanced Set-VM to support converting virtual machines to templates.
improvement Enhanced New-VM and Set-VM to support virtual machine swap file policy modification.
improvement Added IPv6 support in some of the cmdlets.
improvement Added the Get-VMHostAvailableTimeZone cmdlet and enhanced Set-VMHost to support managing the host time zones.
modification Deprecated Get-VIToolkitDocumentation, Get-VIToolkitCommunity, Get-VIToolkitConfiguration, and Get-VIToolkitVersion and added Get-PowerCLIDocumentation, Get-PowerCLICommunity, Get-PowerCLIConfiguration, and Get-PowerCLIVersion.
modification Deprecated the Get-CustomField, New-CustomField, Remove-CustomField, and Set-CustomField cmdlets and replaced the deprecated functionality with the Get-CustomAttribute, New-CustomAttribute, Remove-CustomAttribute, Set-CustomAttribute, Get-Annotation, and Set-Annotation cmdlets.
modification Deprecated the NIC information in the VMHostNetworkInfo object and added the Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter cmdlet for retrieving NIC information.
bug fix After a virtual machine is powered on, (Get-Datastore).FreeSpaceMB returns the actual datastore free space without requiring that the datastore be refreshed first.
bug fix The output of Get-LogType cmdlet can be pipelined to the Get-Log cmdlet.
bug fix When running Get-ScsiLunPath, the SCSI device can be specified by name.
bug fix Get-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration returns correct output when run against vCenter Server and ESX.
bug fix New-HardDisk can create new virtual hard disks on a virtual machine that has no other hard disks.
bug fix New-VMHostNetworkAdapter accepts object names as arguments for the VirtualSwitch parameter.
bug fix If a user tries to remove a nonexisting CD drive or a CD drive that belongs to a powered-on or suspended virtual machine, a terminating error is thrown and the following message is displayed: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
bug fix If a user tries to remove a nonexisting floppy drive or a floppy drive that belongs to a powered-on or suspended virtual machine, a terminating error is thrown and the following message is displayed: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
bug fix Update-Tools does not stop responding if the mouse, VGA, and network drivers are not signed.
bug fix The output of the dir command run within the Inventory Provider is made easy to read.
bug fix Files can be copied in or out of the Datastore Provider using the Copy-DatastoreItem commandlet.
security enhancement PowerCLI assemblies are digitally signed.