Datacenter CLI (DCLI) is back with a brand-new release in the form of version 2.12.0!
DCLI 2.12.0 introduces the following improvements and changes:
- Added Python Prompt Toolkit 2.0+ integration
- Added support for color themes
- Updated the handling of authentications
Let’s check out a couple of these updates in more detail.
Python Prompt Toolkit Integration
The newest version of DCLI adds an integration of the Python Prompt Toolkit. This integration allows us to add a handful of new features. One of the more noticeable features is when entering passwords and other secure inputs. Previously, there would be a single lock icon displayed when entering characters for these fields. Due to the integration, DCLI now displays asterisks for each character entered.
Adding Some Color
The other noticeable addition to DCLI, thanks to the Python Prompt Toolkit, is support for four separate color themes. The default theme is “bw”, or black and white. The other themes are “autumn”, “monokai”, and “paraiso-dark”. There’s a variety of items which are impacted by the different color themes. As we can see by the example below, the prompt has a unique color as do the parameter names and certain values of the response.
The color themes can be configured in the local DCLI environment service. Here’s an code sample to configure your session to use the autumn theme:
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env style color theme set --theme autumn |
The formatter parameter also has a couple updated options. We can take note of the options due to the addition of a ‘c’, which has been appended to the end of the name. At the time of this release, the following formatter ouputs are available: htmlc, jsonc, simplec, xmlc.
Authentication Handling Updates
The last major update for DCLI involves how commands handle authentication. DCLI 2.12.0 will attempt to reuse prior sessions for each subsequent command. When using interactive mode, the sessions will be stored in memory. When using scripting mode, the sessions will be stored in the credential store. This update will reduce the amount of calls as well as reducing the total amount of sessions opened to the endpoint, whether that be a vCenter Server, the VMware Cloud on AWS service, or an NSX-T Manager (when used in conjunction with VMware Cloud on AWS).
Overview
Datacenter CLI (DCLI) 2.12.0 has been released and it comes with some great, colorful new updates! From an improvement around how commands handle authentication to better visibility into the characters having been entered for secure strings, you’ll want to update to DCLI 2.12.0 today!
If you already updated to DCLI version 2.9.1 or newer, the upgrade process is extremely simple and follows the standard Python Package Index (PyPI) upgrade method:
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pip install dcli --upgrade |
If you haven’t already installed DCLI from PyPi, repeat the same command from above only without the ‘upgrade’ parameter:
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pip install dcli |
For more information on changes made in VMware DCLI 2.12.0, including improvements, security enhancements, and more, see the VMware DCLI 2.12.0 Release Notes. For more information on specific product features, see the VMware DCLI 2.12.0 User’s Guide.
Let us know in the comments what you’d like to see released in the next version!
