General

New Release: PowerCLI 11.4.0

August is always a great month when it comes to new releases, and this year is no different. Even before VMworld, there have already been announcements for vSphere 6.7 Update 3, NSX-T 2.4.2, and a new version of HCX. The PowerCLI team has one more exciting release for you in the form of PowerCLI 11.4.0!

PowerCLI 11.4.0 comes with a bunch of new improvements. The Horizon View module has been updated to support the newest release of Horizon View which is version 7.9. There are a handful of updates to the Storage module, including updates and three new cmdlets. Lastly, there are numerous updates to cmdlets in the HCX module.

PowerCLI 11.4.0 comes with the following updates:

  • Add support for Horizon View 7.9
  • Added new cmdlets to the Storage module
  • Updated Storage module cmdlets
  • Updated HCX module cmdlets

Let’s take a closer look at some of the updates.

Storage Module Updates

The Storage module received a number of new updates, many of which are there to support brand new features released with vSAN 6.7U3! The first improvement is to the Get/Set-VsanClusterConfiguration cmdlets. These two cmdlets can now access and make use of the newly added functionalities of Proactive Rebalance and vSphere Update Manager baseline preference.

Example of Get-VsanClusterConfiguration and Set-VsanClusterConfiguration in action:
PowerCLI 11.4.0 - Storage Module Updates

It’s worth noting that those new properties will return no information, nor can you change them, until your vSAN cluster has been updated to version 6.7 U3, as noted in the above error message.

The Storage module also has a couple new cmdlets. The first is the Add-VsanObjectToRepairQueue cmdlet. This cmdlet can repair vSAN objects that are referenced when using the command. This functionality was formerly available with the Repair-VsanObject cmdlet, however this particular cmdlet has been modified to be an alias for Add-VsanObjectToRepairQueue. The other two new cmdlets are Get-VsanResyncingOverview and Get-VsanEnterMaintenanceMode. Both of these cmdlets operate only against vSAN clusters of version 6.7U3 or newer.

HCX Module Updates

The HCX module has seen a flurry of activity since its initial release, and PowerCLI 11.4.0 continues that trend. There are six cmdlets which have been updated to add new capabilities. The Get-HCXAppliance cmdlet returns new information about the current version of an appliance as well as any available versions which exist. This can be combined with the New-HCXAppliance cmdlet that will allow us to upgrade an appliance to one of the available versions. The Get-HCXContainer cmdlet now adds the ability to list containers of a “OrgVdc” type. The Get-HCXNetwork cmdlet adds the ability to view two more types of networks, NsxtSegment and OrgVdcNetwork. Then, there is the New-HCXNetworkExtension cmdlet that can now work with networks of type NsxtSegment. Lastly, we have Get-HCXServiceMesh which has a new property available to view the status of several services.

Example of Get-HCXAppliance and Get-HCXServiceMesh, specifically viewing the new ServiceStatus property:
PowerCLI 11.4.0 - HCX Module Updates

A couple other issues were addressed with the HCX module as well. The Cmdlet Reference has been updated to reflect the .NET object type of an HCX Migration. Get-HCXServiceMesh and Get-HCXInterconnectStatus have both been updated to remedy issues. Lastly, the DestinationNetworkValue property now properly appears for replication objects.

Summary

This release of PowerCLI has some significant updates. PowerCLI 11.4.0 introduces new support for Horizon View 7.9, new functionality for vSAN 6.7 Update 3 objects, and numerous updates to the HCX module!

For more information on changes made in VMware PowerCLI 11.4.0, including improvements, security enhancements, and deprecated features, see the VMware PowerCLI Change Log. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware PowerCLI 11.4.0 User’s Guide. For more information on specific cmdlets, see the VMware PowerCLI 11.4.0 Cmdlet Reference.

Remember, updating your PowerCLI modules is now as easy as ‘Update-Module VMware.PowerCLI’.

Let us know in the comments what you’re looking forward to most!