Thanks to none other than Mr. Luc Dekens the VI Toolkit Community Extensions are growing by leaps and bounds.
Here's a full list of the new advanced functions Luc has added:
| Name | Description |
| Get-TkeAllPrivileges | Show all privileges defined by VirtualCenter. |
| Get-TkeCDPInfo | Gets Cisco CDP info for a given host. This lets you know what switch port your host is on. |
| Get-TkePermissions | Lists permissions assigned to a given object. |
| Get-TkeRolePrivileges | Show all privileges defined by a role. |
| Get-TkeRoles | Gets all roles defined in VirtualCenter For example, Administrator, Read-Only, etc. |
| New-TkeRole | Create a new role in VirtualCenter. |
| Remove-TkePermissions | Remove permissions from an entity. |
| Remove-TkeRole | Remove a role from the system. |
| Set-TkePermissions | Set an entity's permissions. |
| Set-TkeRole | Change the definition of a role. |
As you can see most of these are around roles and permissions. Armed with these cmdlets you have a pretty complete way to automate the setup of permissions.
The other cmdlet is Get-TkeCDPInfo. CDP stands for Cisco Discovery Protocol, and if your ESX host is connected to a switch port that supports CDP, this cmdlet will help you determine what switch port the system is actually connected to.
Also, the VI Toolkit Community Extensions have been updated to support the newly-release PowerShell CTP3. One of the big differences between CTP2 and CTP3 is that script cmdlets are no longer supported, instead they have been replaced by Advanced Functions. Advanced Functions have a number of advantages over script cmdlets, one of the most obvious is support for embedding documentation in the function. If you load the community extensions and type "help Get-TkeCDPInfo" you'll get a full usage listing as well as other help to get you started. All in all, this stuff is starting to get a lot more usable.
If you can't wait to get started, be sure you have CTP3 installed and download the Community Extensions today!
Great work, Luc!
