Obtaining Specific PowerCLI Versions from the PowerShell Gallery

The recommendation is to always be on the latest and greatest version of PowerCLI. However, whether it be for testing and validation or to possibly workaround an issue, there are instances where you may need to use an older version.

The PowerShell Gallery has the potential to make this process incredibly easy when using the RequiredVersion parameter for both Install-Module and Save-Module. These cmdlets download and/or install the indicated module at the specified version. The issue, especially with PowerCLI, comes in how the dependent modules are handled. This is because, in most cases, the module dependencies are specified to be obtained at a particular level or newer.

Example PowerCLI Dependency Listing:

This means if you want to download PowerCLI 6.5.4 with either the Install-Module or Save-Module cmdlets, the end result will not actually give you the requested version of PowerCLI. You would only receive the top-level VMware.PowerCLI module at version 6.5.4. All of the module dependencies which make up the PowerCLI 6.5.4 release will be at the latest and greatest version.

So, how can we properly download prior versions of PowerCLI?

Introducing Save-PowerCLI

Dimitar Milov, a PowerCLI engineer, came up with a function to address the issue and shared it in the comments on the PowerShell Gallery page for the VMware.PowerCLI module. From that point, I added a couple new features and shared it in both the PowerCLI Community repository and the VMware Code Sample Exchange.

Save-PowerCLI In Action

Save-PowerCLI Code

Known Issues

There are a couple issues I’ve noticed when testing this against various versions of PowerShell.

• Older versions of PowerShellGet (Example: 1.0.0.1) will fail because it can’t handle the formatting of one specific PowerCLI version.
  • Workaround: Update PowerShellGet. Example: Install-Module -Name PowerShellGet -Force
• Newly released PowerCLI modules can be found downloaded, even if they did not exist at the time of the specific version release.

Summary

We always recommend how everyone should be on the latest and greatest version of PowerCLI. However, we also recognize that isn’t always possible. Whether it be for testing and validation, working around known issues, and so forth, there are reasons and needs to be able to obtain prior versions of PowerCLI from the PowerShell Gallery. The Save-PowerCLI function can streamline the download process of retrieving those specific versions of PowerCLI.

Let us know what you think of this function in the comments!