Community feedback has always played an important role in how PowerCLI has evolved and improved. Whether it’s the desire to convert from snapins to modules, adding additional functionalities to existing cmdlets, or creating brand new cmdlets and modules, the feedback we receive has always been extremely important.
This time we have an ask to help shape the future of PowerCLI’s packaging, installation, and upgrade process in the form of an online poll available here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HGQDJFQ
Giving a little context around the poll, there have been a lot of asks around getting PowerCLI into the PowerShell Gallery. The PowerShell Gallery is an online repository containing an amazing amount of PowerShell modules and scripts. The PowerShell Gallery allows users the ability to search, install, update, and uninstall these resources directly from a PowerShell session.
Taking a look at how we distribute PowerCLI today, this move would have some major impacts. Instead of logging into my.vmware.com then downloading and installing PowerCLI through an MSI, users could simply open PowerShell and run:
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Install-Module -Name PowerCLI |
Updating would change as well, as users could then run:
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Update-Module -Name PowerCLI |
With the changes in these installation methods, it would also mean the start menu and desktop shortcuts would no longer be automatically created at time of install.
Last big impact would be to offline installations. Since the PowerShell Gallery is an online repository, users would have to access the gallery using a system that has internet access, running a command that looks something like the following, and then completing the install by copying the module over to the offline system where it can now be imported:
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Save-Module -LiteralPath "C:\MyLocalModules\" -Name PowerCLI |
The last question is optional and is asking for an email address since we’ll have some goodies available as giveaways!
If you’d like some additional information about the PowerShell Gallery, see the following link: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/gallery/psgallery/psgallery_gettingstarted
Here’s a link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HGQDJFQ
Again, thanks to everyone for helping make PowerCLI awesome!
