VMware Infrastructure Toolkit (for Windows)
Release Notes

Released 14-March-2008

Build 81351 is the Beta release of the VMware Infrastructure Toolkit (for Windows).

About the VMware Infrastructure Toolkit (for Windows)

The VMware Infrastructure Toolkit (for Windows) is a command-line and scripting tool that you can use to manage your virtual infrastructure. The VI Toolkit (for Windows) is built on Windows PowerShell and provides more than 100 powerful cmdlets that make managing and automating your VMware Infrastructure easier than ever before.

Requirements

To use the VI Toolkit (for Windows) console, you need to have installed the following software:

• Microsoft .NET 2.0
• Microsoft Windows PowerShell 1.0

VI Toolkit (for Windows) is compatible with the following VMware products:

• VMware ESX Server 3.5
• VMware ESX Server 3i
• VMware VirtualCenter 2.5
• VMware ESX Server 3.0/VirtualCenter Server 2.0

Supported Platforms

• Windows Vista (32-bit only)
• Windows XP (Service Pack 2) (32-bit)
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit)

Obtaining the Software

You can obtain the VI Toolkit (for Windows) from the download page.

Known Issues

The VI Toolkit (for Windows) beta release has the following known issues:

• General Note: Some cmdlets properties have no effect on older versions, such as ESX Server 3.0 and VirtualCenter Server 2.0 systems, as they are supported on newer versions of these products only.
• There is no cmdlet for closing Vmware Infrastructure connections. Connections are automatically closed after five minutes timeout.
• Update-Tools, Mount-Tools, Dismount-Tools do not return a proper error message when they are invoked without arguments.
• Update-Tools automatically restarts the virtual machine after successful install of VMTools.
• New-Datastore is working only when adding a NFS storage.
• New-VMHostNetworkAdapter fails when the default connection is not available.
• Get-Event invoked with a username argument does not filter events when executed against a ESX host.
• Get-CDDrive and Get-FloppyDrive do not work on snapshots.
• When working without administrator privileges the user is not able to see debug messages in the VI Toolkit logs. Workaround: Work as an administrator on the local machine where the VI Toolkit is installed.
• Get-Stat cmdlet crashes when DateTime.MinValue is passed to the -Start parameter.
• Cannot specifiy a datastore when Move-VM is run between hosts.
• Set-VmHostNetwork cmdlet does not work against ESX 3i Visor.
• Online Reference Documentation (CHM) Files: The “Overview” pages in the online references may be out-of-synch with the product, and can be disregarded. All other content in the online references reflects the beta version of the VI Toolkit (for Windows).

Installing the VI Toolkit (for Windows)

VMware provides a single installer for the VI Toolkit (for Windows).

To install the VI Toolkit (for Windows)

• Download and install PowerShell 1.0 from the Microsoft PowerShell 1.0 download page .
• Launch the VI Toolkit (for Windows) installer by double-clicking the executable file you downloaded from the VI Toolkit (for Windows) download page.
• Follow the instructions of the wizard.
• If you do not want to install the toolkit in the default location, click Change and select a different directory. The default location is: C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VIToolkitForWindows.
• In the Ready to Install the Program page, choose whether to create a desktop shortcut.
• Click Install to proceed with the installation.
• Click Finish to complete the installation process.

For more information about the VI Toolkit (for Windows) installation process and prerequisites, see the Installation Guide.

Last updated 14-Mar-2008 8:30 am [PDT]