Start PowerCLI
The execution policy is a PowerShell concept, check the PowerShell course.

get-command –module VMware.* | select name | ogv
(get-command –module VMware.* | measure-object).count
#The result is 528 for PowerCLI 6.3 Release 1 with all optional components installed.

However, you may have noticed after starting PowerCLI in the welcome part the function “get-vicommand”. So you can use instead

Get-vicommand | select name | ogv

Actually get-vicommand is not one of the PowerCLI cmdlets it is in fact a function that is calling

get-command -pssnapin VMware.*

(And pssnapin is an alias of module)
you will find the details of this function in the following folder if you have a 64bits system.
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\Scripts\Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1

Finally, if another user has installed PowerCLI you may end up with issues similar as the one described here. Maybe it has been fixed since.

This is really a PowerShell question. You will get information about the PowerCLI module and Snapin by following the links below.
VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.3 Release 1 Release Notes
PowerCLI 6.0 – Introducing PowerCLI Modules

Start PowerShell

get-module –ListAvailable VMware* | Import-Module
Add-PSSnapin -name Vmware*
(get-command –module VMware.* | measure-object).count
#You will get again 528

At the end, PowerCLI is just an “extension” to PowerShell. This is why you need to be proficient with PowerShell in order to become proficient with PowerCLI.
It is possible for example to start a PowerShell session and load PowerCLI and Microsoft Exchanges modules. You will not get however the “welcome” message associated to PowerCLI.

When you launch “PowerCLI” you just launch PowerShell with some customization specific to PowerCLI.
To be more precise this is linked to “Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1” presented earlier.
It will be also possible to import others PowerShell Modules in a “PowerCLI” session.

Notes:
PowerCLI 6.5 will be 100% modules based.

If your windows account has permission on the vCenter you are connecting to you can use the following command.

connect-viserver –server “ServerNameOrIP”

If it not the case you will have to use

connect-viserver –server “ServerNameOrIP” –user ‘YourUser’ – password ‘YourPassword’

However there is a drawback with this approach, the password is written in clear.
You should use instead

$PSCredential = Get-Credential
connect-viserver –server “ServerNameOrIP” –credential $PSCredential

But what about avoiding typing password every time?
The credential store item is an easy solution in that case.

connect-viserver –server “ServerNameOrIP” –user ‘YourUser’ – password ‘YourPassword’ –savecredentials

Then the next time you will need to connect to the same server you can just type

connect-viserver –server “ServerNameOrIP”

$Global:DefaultViServer
$Global:DefaultViServers

$Global:DefaultViServer or $DefaultViServer is mentioned in Connect-VIServer
To summarise you can connect from PowerCLI to one vCenter or ESXi server.
It is also possible to connect to multiples vCenter and/or ESXi server at the same time.
$Global:DefaultViServer is the last connected server and where the command will be executed by default if the parameter “VIServer” is not used from a PowerCLI command.
$Global:DefaultViServers are all connections currently established.
Consider this at the “top” of the hierarchy for a vCenter or ESXi.

Disconnect-VIServer -Server * -Force

Always disconnect when you have finished to work with a vCenter/ESXi server to avoid “idle” session.

You can also check if you have already some credential in the credential store item using

get-vicredentialStoreItem | select *

You can add credential to the storeitem.

New-VICredentialStoreItem -Host "VcNameOrIP" -User 'domain\user' -Password 'Password'
#Or remove some using
Remove-VICredentialStoreItem

Tips:
Even if it is possible to work on multiple session at the same time it is error prone.
I would recommend initially to work only on one vCentre or ESXi at a time, and always disconnect.
When you will have more experience you can consider connecting to multiples vCenter/ESXi if really needed.

Identify in the official documentation the most relevant PowerCLI cmdlet.
PowerCLI is using PowerShell approved verb, so you should search within the cmdlet starting by Get

Get-vmhost | select name,state,model,version,build| export-csv

Goal is to find the right PowerCLI cmdlet
Here get-vmhost
if you already know PowerShell this is quite straightforward.

Get-VMHostFirmware will give you the Bios version but not the Bios release date.
The PowerCLI CMDLET only provide you information deemed as the most relevant by the PowerCLI team.

The Bios release date is however available in the VMware vSphere API Reference
Search for “BIOS” or “release” in “all Properties” and you should discover the relevant information.

PowerCLI makes the API properties and methods available in many way.
One of them is to use the property “extensiondata” of some PowerCLI object to get the “view / .net object” associated to the “PowerCLI object”
For example try:

(get-vmhost | select –first 1).extensiondata.GetType().fullname
(get-vmhost | select –first 1).extensiondata | select *

Then compare the result with:
HostSystem
Explore the content of exensiondata and API documentation to find the path to relevant bios information.

Finally to monitor the execution time of a command you could use this PowerShell cmdlet
Measure-command

get-vmhost | select Name,@{Name="BiosVersion";Expression={$_.extensiondata.hardware.biosinfo.BiosVersion}},@{Name=" ReleaseDate ";Expression={$_.extensiondata.hardware.biosinfo.ReleaseDate}}| ogv
Measure-command{get-vmhost | select Name,@{Name="BiosVersion";Expression={$_.extensiondata.hardware.biosinfo.BiosVersion}},@{Name=" ReleaseDate ";Expression={$_.extensiondata.hardware.biosinfo.ReleaseDate}}}
#In my environment with 89 ESXi hosts
#47.756 seconds

new-viproperty –objecttype ‘VMHost’ –Name ‘BiosVersion’ –ValueFromExtensionProperty ‘Hardware.BiosInfo.BiosVersion’
new-viproperty –objecttype ‘VMHost’ –Name ‘ReleaseDate’ –ValueFromExtensionProperty ‘Hardware.BiosInfo.ReleaseDate’
#Note the parameter valuefromextentionproperty is case sensitive
get-vmhost | select name,BiosVersion,ReleaseDate | ogv
measure-command {(get-vmhost | select name,BiosVersion,ReleaseDate)}
#Execution time 11.3 seconds
#Then cleaning
get-viproperty –Name ‘BiosVersion’ | remove-viproperty
get-viproperty –Name ‘ReleaseDate’ | remove-viproperty

In this example without the () in the measure-command it was sometime working or hanging.
Maybe a bug somehow in my environment.

Conclusion at this stage.
New-VIproperty doesn’t only make your scripts easier to read, it also improves performance.
Tips:
If you would like to have your custom VIproperty available all the time you can for example add them in your PowerShell profile.
However, I will not recommend doing so. To ensure that yours scripts will execute everywhere, it is better to add these “new-viproperty” lines at the beginning of each script that will require them…and remove them at the end.

$VMHOST = get-vmhost | select –first 1
$VMHOST.getype().fullname
$VMHOST | select *
$VMhostVIew = $VMHOST | get-view
#OR better if you have followed the PowerShell course
#Do not use a pipe when not needed
$VMhostVIew = get-view –VIOBJECT $VMHOST
$VMHOSTView.getype().fullname
$VMHOSTView | select *
$VMhostVIObject = Get-VIObjectByVIView –VIView $VMHOSTView
$VMhostVIObject.getype().fullname
$VMhostVIObject | select *

The .extensiondata is one way to access from the View (or .net) object associated to a “VIObject” (or PowerCLI/PowerShell),
Get-View is another way to access from the VIObject the View object.
Get-view can also be used to get many “view” object in one operation, for example to get all virtual machine or all ESXi hosts View objects.
Finally, Get-VIObjectByVIVIew does more or less the reverse of Get-View. Obtain the VIobject from the View object.

Measure-Command {get-vmhost | select name}
Measure-Command { get-view -ViewType hostsystem | select name}
Measure-Command {get-view -ViewType hostsystem -Property name}
#In my environment 89 ESXI hosts
#Execution time 11.9 seconds
#Execution time 31.1 seconds
#Execution time 0.1 seconds

Please note that in the third case we will get the “view object” nearly empty except for the Name property.
If you only need to extract only few properties using get-view and is much faster when dealing with top properties of the View object.

However there is here something strange I do not know if it due to my environment of PowerCLI 6 and using the new version of .net but get-view -ViewType hostsystem is slower than get-vmhost in my environment.
Get-View Part 3: Peformance Impact – Is it really THAT much different?
I used to have better performance with get-view in the past.
Could it be linked to New release: PowerCLI 6.3 R1–Download it today! ?

What’s happening if you need to extract subproperties with get-view?

Measure-Command { get-vmhost | select name,Version,Build}
Measure-Command {get-view -ViewType hostsystem -Property name ,’Config.Product.Version’, ’Config.Product.Build’ | select name,@{Name="Version";Expression={$_.Config.Product.Version}},@{Name="Build";Expression={$_.Config.Product.Build}}}
Measure-Command {get-view -ViewType hostsystem -Property name,’Config.Product.’| select name,@{Name="Version";Expression={$_.Config.Product.Version}},@{Name="Build";Expression={$_.Config.Product.Build}}}
#In my environment 89 ESXI hosts
#Execution time 12.2 seconds
#Execution time 4.3 seconds
#Execution time 2.6 seconds

In the second example, adding two sub-properties has drastically affected performance if we compare by extracting only the top property name.
The example 3 is a way to limit the impact, by extracting every sub properties in Config.Product using “Config.Product.”. However this workaround is valid only for subproperties in the same “node”.
The higher “node” in the hierarchy you will export, slower will be the performance.

Moreover you can also filter vSphere Objects with Get-View to export for example all “windows XP VMs” instead of using a powercli “where-object” operator. This is fast…but at a cost of complexity.
Conclusion:
There are many ways to get the same result, but you need to identify the best for your needs based on the performance and how easy it is to maintain the script.
Test the performance of your scripts using “measure-command”.
Moreover don’t forget that you can execute PowerCLI command only with PowerCLI VIObject and not with View object.

Tips:
Even if get-view can be very fast, especially when using filter and only collecting specific properties it is also complex.
As a general rule I will recommend to keep it simple and use only PowerCLI cmdlets if possible.
You will already be much faster with scripting than in a manual way and you really need a large environment to benefit from optimized scripts.
And a script based on PowerCLI cmdlet will be understandable by any person with PowerShell scripts. If you use API or get-view, it is really necessary to understand the VMware API.

Reminder with .extensiondata and new-viproperty

Measure-Command {get-vmhost | select name,@{Name="Version";Expression={$_.extensiondata.Config.Product.Version}},@{Name="Build";Expression={$_.extensiondata.Config.Product.Build}}}
#Execution time 49.3 seconds

Using extension data has a high cost in term of performance
What about new-viproperty?

new-viproperty –objecttype ‘VMHost’ –Name ‘VersionFromView’ –ValueFromExtensionProperty ‘Config.Product.Version’
new-viproperty –objecttype ‘VMHost’ –Name ‘BuildFromView’ –ValueFromExtensionProperty ‘Config.Product.Build’
Measure-Command {Get-vmhost | Select Name,VersionFromVIew,BuildFromVIew }
#Execution time 14.6 seconds….
Get-viproperty –name ‘VersionFromView’ | remove-viproperty
Get-viproperty –name ‘BuildFromView’ | remove-viproperty

(Get-vmhost | select –first 1).extensiondata.moref | select *
(Get-vmhost | select –first 1).extensiondata.moref | gm

Official documentation ManagedObjectReference

(Get-vmhost | select –first 1).extensiondata.configmanager | select *
(Get-vmhost | select –first 1).extensiondata.configmanager.cpuscheduler | gm
$CPUSchedulerView = get-view –ID ((Get-vmhost | select –first 1).extensiondata.configmanager.cpuscheduler)
$CPUSchedulerView | gm

HostCpuSchedulerSystem

It is critical to understand Moref. This is one of the core concept associated to the API
Start by reading this Managed Object Types Overview
A Moref is a unique identifier for a Managed Objet within ONE vcenter inventory.
You could have identical Moref across multiple vCenter instance

Moreover many view objects have properties that are only “Managed Object Reference” to other Managed Object.
With “Get-view –ID” you can get the View object associated to a Moref.

This is especially useful for the hostsystem object.
The majority of “methods” that you can use against a hostsystem are not associated to the “HostSystem” objects itself, but to one of the “Helping” manager objects.
For example to edit CPU settings, you will need to get from the “configmanager.cpusheduler” property the Moref of the “HostSpuShedulerSystem” associated to this host.
You can then use the methods “DisableHyperThreading” or “EnableHyperThreading” associated to the “view” obect HostCPUShedulerSystem.
On top of the official documentation you can use the following diagram to see a visual representation of all Managed object.

Extracted from VMware vSphere API Object Model

Tips:
Because MOREF are not unique across vCenter it is safer to work on one vCenter at a time.

PowerCLI is using PowerShell approved verb so search for get and set cmdlets.

get-vmhost | select –first 1 | get-advancedSetting -name UserVars.SuppressShellWarning | set-advancedSetting -value 1 -Confirm:$false

The PowerCLI team understands that this kind of operations will be quite common this is why they have created these two cmdlets.

Restore default settings

get-vmhost | select –first 1 | get-advancedSetting -name UserVars.SuppressShellWarning | set-advancedSetting -value 0 -Confirm:$false

Don’t be shy and use “Onyx” it will guide you in the right direction, however you will discover quickly an extra challenge.

OR

Other way is to use the documentation but you will notice very fast that there are no methods associated to a hostsystem to update the advanced settings.
If there is something available in the vSphere Client or the WebClient more often than not the information should be available somewhere in the API.
Start by searching in the All Properties “Settings” and “Advanced” and try to find something that seems linked to host / hostsystem etc.

$VMhost = get-vmhost | select –first 1
$changedValue = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue[] (1)
$changedValue[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue
$changedValue[0].key = "UserVars.SuppressShellWarning"
$changedValue[0].value = [int64]1

$OptionManager = Get-View -Id ($VMHost.ExtensionData.ConfigManager.AdvancedOption)
$OptionManager.UpdateOptions($changedValue)

#Check the result
$OptionManager.QueryOptions("UserVars.SuppressShellWarning").value

#Restore default settings
$changedValue[0].value = [int64]0
$OptionManager.UpdateOptions($changedValue)
$OptionManager.QueryOptions("UserVars.SuppressShellWarning").value

From the OLD ONYX – Output PowerCLI.Net

# ------- UpdateOptions -------

$changedValue = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue[] (1)
$changedValue[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.OptionValue
$changedValue[0].key = "UserVars.SuppressShellWarning"
$changedValue[0].value = 0

$_this = Get-View -Id 'OptionManager-EsxHostAdvSettings-16'
$_this.UpdateOptions($changedValue)

So ONYX doesn’t do all the work, but guide you in the right direction.
The most important is the last line; you now know that you should use a method “UpdateOptions” You can search more information about this method in the official documentation.
There is only one method with this name, you will then know what is expected instead of “$_this”
However the documentation is a little bit confusing here “_this” should not a Moref but a View object associated to a MOREF.
Moreover, there is another challenge. The code reported by Onyx is not working
Exception calling “UpdateOptions” with “1” argument(s): “A specified parameter was not correct
The reason is described at this link.
You could have obtained the same information by exporting the actual value of this property and check what was the type
$OptionManager.QueryOptions(“UserVars.SuppressShellWarning”).value.GetType()

If you are not using ONYX this is actually more challenging than expected because there are no methods associated to hostsystem objects to update option settings.
If you have followed the clue you should have discovered the advancedOption (in HostConfigManager )
Then you would have discovered by clinking on the Type the
Managed Object – OptionManager
And that it has two methods “QueryOptions” and “Update options”
If you have used ONYX you will have discovered that it was much more simple to get the information in this way.
Take away:
Using PowerCLI cmdlets when available is much easier than using the API.
If a PowerCLI cmdlet is not available for specific tasks, you always have the possibility to use the API.
You will still have to tests performance of various options to identify what is the best option for you.

Notes:
Sometime some information will not be available in any “standard way” for example:
Private API like update manager. It is only possible to manage it with PowerCLI
Information is not in the standard API but in another one like “Cloud suite SDK”
Information extracted from CIM like ESXi host hardware status

$FirstHost = (get-vmhost | select –first 1)
$FirstHost = get-vmhost ‘10.0.0.11’
$testVMPowerCLI = new-vm –VMHost $FirstHost –datastore ‘HDD2’–name ‘testVMPowerCLI’
New-HardDisk –VM $testVMPowerCLI -CapacityKB 10240

PowerCLI is easy to use, however you will be limited in term of what you can do.
For example, at this stage, there are no PowerCLI cmdlet that can modify the “latency” setting of a VM.
Maybe it will be added later by the PowerCLI team if they deem it useful.

Use ONYX and create a VM with necessary settings. (The code will not provide you the most basic settings)
Then attempt to create a VM with only the bare minimum settings. (In others words try to reduce the code obtain in the first step to only keep what is mandatory to create a VM)
Then adapt the second script and modify it to add all additional settings based on the script of the step 1.

$FirstHost = (get-vmhost | select –first 1)
$FirstHost = get-vmhost ‘10.0.0.11’

#Below is the folder in the “VMs and Templates view” where will be created the VM
$VMFolderView = get–view –id ((get-datacenter –vmhost $FirstHost).extensiondata.VMFolder)

#First we need to identify the “ComputeResource parent” of the host
$ComputeResourceView = get-view –id ($FirstHost.extensiondata.Parent)
#Then get the resource pool (actually hidden) moref associated to this standalone host.
$ResourcePoolMoref = $ComputeResourceView.resourcepool

#This is all settings necessary to create the VM
$config = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$config.name = "test9"
$config.files = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineFileInfo
$config.files.vmPathName = "[HDD2]"
$config.latencySensitivity = New-Object VMware.Vim.LatencySensitivity
$config.latencySensitivity.level = New-Object VMware.Vim.LatencySensitivitySensitivityLevel
$config.latencySensitivity.level = ‘High’
$config.deviceChange = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec[] (2)
$config.deviceChange[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$config.deviceChange[0].operation = "add"
$config.deviceChange[0].device = New-Object VMware.Vim.ParaVirtualSCSIController
$config.deviceChange[0].device.key = -46
$config.deviceChange[0].device.busNumber = 0
$config.deviceChange[0].device.sharedBus = "noSharing"
$config.deviceChange[1] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$config.deviceChange[1].operation = "add"
$config.deviceChange[1].fileOperation = "create"
$config.deviceChange[1].device = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDisk
$config.deviceChange[1].device.key = -1000000
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing.fileName = ""
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing.diskMode = "persistent"
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing.split = $false
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing.writeThrough = $false
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing.thinProvisioned = $true
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing.eagerlyScrub = $false
$config.deviceChange[1].device.connectable = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConnectInfo
$config.deviceChange[1].device.connectable.startConnected = $true
$config.deviceChange[1].device.connectable.allowGuestControl = $false
$config.deviceChange[1].device.connectable.connected = $true
$config.deviceChange[1].device.controllerKey = -46
$config.deviceChange[1].device.unitNumber = 0
$config.deviceChange[1].device.capacityInKB = 10485760

$VMFolderView.CreateVM($config, $ResourcePoolMoref, $null)

From the OLD ONYX – Output PowerCLI.Net

# ------- CreateVM_Task -------

$config = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$config.name = "bbb"
$config.version = "vmx-10"
$config.guestId = "windows7Server64Guest"
$config.files = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineFileInfo
$config.files.vmPathName = "[HDD1]"
$config.tools = New-Object VMware.Vim.ToolsConfigInfo
$config.tools.afterPowerOn = $true
$config.tools.afterResume = $true
$config.tools.beforeGuestStandby = $true
$config.tools.beforeGuestShutdown = $true
$config.tools.beforeGuestReboot = $true
$config.numCPUs = 1
$config.numCoresPerSocket = 1
$config.memoryMB = 4096
$config.deviceChange = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec[] (5)
$config.deviceChange[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$config.deviceChange[0].operation = "add"
$config.deviceChange[0].device = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualCdrom
$config.deviceChange[0].device.key = -44
$config.deviceChange[0].device.backing = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualCdromRemotePassthroughBackingInfo
$config.deviceChange[0].device.backing.deviceName = ""
$config.deviceChange[0].device.backing.exclusive = $false
$config.deviceChange[0].device.connectable = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConnectInfo
$config.deviceChange[0].device.connectable.startConnected = $false
$config.deviceChange[0].device.connectable.allowGuestControl = $true
$config.deviceChange[0].device.connectable.connected = $false
$config.deviceChange[0].device.controllerKey = 201
$config.deviceChange[0].device.unitNumber = 0
$config.deviceChange[1] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$config.deviceChange[1].operation = "add"
$config.deviceChange[1].device = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualFloppy
$config.deviceChange[1].device.key = -45
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualFloppyRemoteDeviceBackingInfo
$config.deviceChange[1].device.backing.deviceName = ""
$config.deviceChange[1].device.connectable = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConnectInfo
$config.deviceChange[1].device.connectable.startConnected = $false
$config.deviceChange[1].device.connectable.allowGuestControl = $true
$config.deviceChange[1].device.connectable.connected = $false
$config.deviceChange[2] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$config.deviceChange[2].operation = "add"
$config.deviceChange[2].device = New-Object VMware.Vim.ParaVirtualSCSIController
$config.deviceChange[2].device.key = -46
$config.deviceChange[2].device.busNumber = 0
$config.deviceChange[2].device.sharedBus = "noSharing"
$config.deviceChange[3] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$config.deviceChange[3].operation = "add"
$config.deviceChange[3].device = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualE1000
$config.deviceChange[3].device.key = -50
$config.deviceChange[3].device.backing = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo
$config.deviceChange[3].device.backing.deviceName = "Console"
$config.deviceChange[3].device.connectable = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConnectInfo
$config.deviceChange[3].device.connectable.startConnected = $true
$config.deviceChange[3].device.connectable.allowGuestControl = $true
$config.deviceChange[3].device.connectable.connected = $true
$config.deviceChange[3].device.addressType = "generated"
$config.deviceChange[3].device.wakeOnLanEnabled = $true
$config.deviceChange[4] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$config.deviceChange[4].operation = "add"
$config.deviceChange[4].fileOperation = "create"
$config.deviceChange[4].device = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDisk
$config.deviceChange[4].device.key = -1000000
$config.deviceChange[4].device.backing = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo
$config.deviceChange[4].device.backing.fileName = ""
$config.deviceChange[4].device.backing.diskMode = "persistent"
$config.deviceChange[4].device.backing.split = $false
$config.deviceChange[4].device.backing.writeThrough = $false
$config.deviceChange[4].device.backing.thinProvisioned = $true
$config.deviceChange[4].device.backing.eagerlyScrub = $false
$config.deviceChange[4].device.connectable = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConnectInfo
$config.deviceChange[4].device.connectable.startConnected = $true
$config.deviceChange[4].device.connectable.allowGuestControl = $false
$config.deviceChange[4].device.connectable.connected = $true
$config.deviceChange[4].device.controllerKey = -46
$config.deviceChange[4].device.unitNumber = 0
$config.deviceChange[4].device.capacityInKB = 10485760
$config.firmware = "bios"

$pool = New-Object VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference
$pool.type = "ResourcePool"
$pool.Value = "resgroup-162"

$_this = Get-View -Id 'Folder-group-v3'
$_this.CreateVM_Task($config, $pool, $null)

Using API is slightly more complicate.
However you will have access to 100% of all settings available.
Moreover, you have the possibility to create a complex VM with multiples disks in one operation.
Just think in the “lego” way.
A complex object at the end is just the association of many bricks.
Each of these bricks can also be complex object.
But at the end you will get very simple object like “number” or “string”
Even with Onyx you will still have some “homework” needed to identify what is the “_this” and the “pool”.
Regarding device.key, for each device added this must be a negative value, and all keys must be unique.
device.controllerKey = -46 The controller key property of the disk must match the device key of the controller.

It you learn how to use the API and Onyx it will pay off in the long term.
As good is the PowerCLI team is, they will never create cmdlets to handle everything.
This is not their goal neither a desirable goal. PowerCLI is supposed to handle the most common scenario.

To understand a little bit more about the “Folder” structure. Please check the following link
Folder
ServiceInstance

Everything start from the “ServiceInstance” (We will cover it in a later stage)
You will get the root folder from the service Instance

$RootFolderView = get-view -id ((get-view -id ServiceInstance).content.rootfolder)

And now check the “ChildType” and “ChildEntity” properties.
For all folders the “ChildEntity” will give you Moref of subfolders or others objects.
In fact you can create a hierarchy of folder above one or many datacenter objects.

Then each datacenter have 4 properties “VmFolder” / “HostFolder” / “DatastoreFolder” / “NetworkFolder” that are Moref pointing to hidden folder.
These 4 properties are in fact matching the different Inventory view you will get from vSphere Client or WebClient.
Everything above datacenters will be identical in the 4 inventory view.

One area is a little bit complex there are hidden folders below each datacenter.

(get-view ((Get-Datacenter “MYDATACENTER”).extensiondata.vmfolder)).name
#vm

In the same way the others hidden folders are “host” “datastore” “Network”.
The “top” root folder of a vCenter is also hidden “Datacenters”

Try it. If you use get-folder “VM” you will get the “hidden” folder AND any folder that you have created with the name “VM”
Finally you have 5 types of Folder 1 above the datacenter, 4 below datacenter one type for each view.
At this level PowerCLI is easier to use you have a different FolderType
From the API i think that the only way is to check the “ChildType”

And some objects will be present on two “views”, a VirtualApp is an object inherited from “resourcepool”…but it is also in the VirtualMachine folder.
Tips:
Never use as folder name “vm/host/datastore/network/datacenters” to avoid confusion with the hidden folders.

$FirstHost = (get-vmhost | select –first 1)
$FirstHost = get-vmhost ‘10.0.0.11’

#Below is the folder in the “VMs and Templates view” where will be created the VM
$VMFolderView = get–view –id ((get-datacenter –vmhost $FirstHost).extensiondata.VMFolder)

$VMFolderView | gm
#Now you can see the

#First we need to identify the “ComputeResource parent” of the host
$ComputeResourceView = get-view –id ($FirstHost.extensiondata.Parent)
#Then get the resource pool (actually hidden) moref associated to this standalone host.
$ResourcePoolMoref = $ComputeResourceView.resourcepool

#This is all settings necessary to create the VM
$config = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$config.name = "VM1WithoutTask"
$config.files = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineFileInfo
$config.files.vmPathName = "[HDD2]"

$VMFolderView.CreateVM($config, $ResourcePoolMoref, $null)

$config.name = "VM2WithTask"
$VMFolderView.CreateVM_Task($config, $ResourcePoolMoref, $null)

$config.name = "VM3WithoutTask"
$VM3WithoutTask = $VMFolderView.CreateVM($config, $ResourcePoolMoref, $null)

$config.name = "VM4WithTask"
$VM4WithTask = $VMFolderView.CreateVM_Task($config, $ResourcePoolMoref, $null)

$VM3WithoutTask.gettype().fullname
$VM4WithTask.gettype().fullname

Get-view –id $VM3WithoutTask | gm
Get-view –id $VM4WithTask | gm

Details:
If you check the API for Folder you will notice that there is a method «CreateVM_Task” but no “CreateVM”.
The “CreateVM” is a gift from the PowerCLI team.
By default, the only way to create a VM with the API is to do it in an asynchronous way.
You use “CreateVM_Task” and get the moref of the “VMware.Vim.Task”.
It will be possible to execute others PowerCLI commands just after, and if you want information about this task (Like when it will be completed) you will have to check the task.

The “CreateVM” is synchronous it means that it will execute the command and wait for the command to be completed (or fail) before executing the next commands.

Which one should you use?
I will recommend by default to use the “synchronous” version because it is easier and you will avoid affecting your infrastructure.
Like for example creating 100 VMs simultaneously than can affect storage performance.
However, the asynchronous is the way to go if you are executing long tasks that can be executed in parallel without affecting your environment.
You will find more information about how to deal with Asynchronous command in books in the appendix.

You will probably find many scripts using the following approach:
Export for all VMs the guest OS IP
Filter to keep only the VMs matching specifics IPs.
This approach works but it is slow.

If you have used the vSphere client you are probably, familiar with the “Search Inventory”
It is possible to use it to find matches by Virtual Machine IP address…and it is very fast.
So do we have an API to perform the same search?
Yes

Tips:
Before spending time to create a script, always spend a little bit more time to check if there is a native function that will provide you exactly what you need.

Quick note on the searchindex and the function “FindByDatastorePath”
If you are planning to use it you must know that you need to include the “hidden” folders that we have mentioned earlier in the path (But not the “datacenters” that is already at the top)

Onyx always 😉

$ServiceInstanceView = get-view ‘serviceinstance’
$ServiceInstanceView | gm
$ServiceInstanceView | select *
$global:DefaultViServer | gm
$global:DefaultViServer |select *
($global:DefaultViServer).extensiondata | gm
($global:DefaultViServer).extensiondata | select *

The ServiceInstance is really the “top” object that you get when connecting to a vCenter or directly to a ESXi server.
If you connect directly to an ESXi server you will not get all properties and methods available in vCenter.

$ServiceContentView = $ServiceInstanceView.content
$ServiceContentView | select *

ServiceContent
Many properties of ServiceContent are related to the management of vCenter.
The rootfolder has been covered earlier
The ipPoolManager will be the one interesting for the next challenge

$IpPoolManager = get-view –id ($ServiceContentView.ipPoolManager)
$DatacenterMoref = (Get-datacenter ‘V6’).extensiondata.moref
$pool = New-Object VMware.Vim.IpPool
$pool.name = "test20"
$pool.ipv4Config = New-Object VMware.Vim.IpPoolIpPoolConfigInfo
$pool.ipv4Config.subnetAddress = "10.20.20.0"
$pool.ipv4Config.netmask = "255.255.255.0"
$pool.ipv4Config.gateway = "10.20.20.1"
$pool.ipv4Config.range = "10.20.20.10#15"
$pool.ipv4Config.dns = New-Object System.String[] (1)
$pool.ipv4Config.dns[0] = ""
$pool.ipv4Config.dhcpServerAvailable = $false
$pool.ipv4Config.ipPoolEnabled = $true
$pool.ipv6Config = New-Object VMware.Vim.IpPoolIpPoolConfigInfo
$pool.ipv6Config.subnetAddress = ""
$pool.ipv6Config.netmask = "ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::"
$pool.ipv6Config.gateway = ""
$pool.ipv6Config.dns = New-Object System.String[] (1)
$pool.ipv6Config.dns[0] = ""
$pool.ipv6Config.dhcpServerAvailable = $false
$pool.ipv6Config.ipPoolEnabled = $false
$pool.dnsDomain = ""
$pool.dnsSearchPath = ""
$pool.hostPrefix = ""
$pool.httpProxy = ""

$IpPoolManager.CreateIpPool($DatacenterMoref, $pool)

Note: My datacenter has the name “V6” you will need to edit the script as needed for your environment

I do not think that there is any PowerCLI cmdlet to manage this area yet.
The key take away is that you will find many useful from the object referenced in ServiceContent.
Finally you could also have accessed directly the $IpPoolManager by using “get-view IpPoolManager”

There are actually many shortcuts. LUCD has created a script to get this information if you are interested available in Chapter18 of https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/vmware-vsphere-powercli/9781118925119/

Onyx

# ------- CreateIpPool -------

$dc = New-Object VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference
$dc.type = "Datacenter"
$dc.Value = "datacenter-2"

$pool = New-Object VMware.Vim.IpPool
$pool.name = "test"
$pool.ipv4Config = New-Object VMware.Vim.IpPoolIpPoolConfigInfo
$pool.ipv4Config.subnetAddress = "10.20.20.0"
$pool.ipv4Config.netmask = "255.255.255.0"
$pool.ipv4Config.gateway = "10.20.20.1"
$pool.ipv4Config.range = "10.20.20.10#15"
$pool.ipv4Config.dns = New-Object System.String[] (1)
$pool.ipv4Config.dns[0] = ""
$pool.ipv4Config.dhcpServerAvailable = $false
$pool.ipv4Config.ipPoolEnabled = $true
$pool.ipv6Config = New-Object VMware.Vim.IpPoolIpPoolConfigInfo
$pool.ipv6Config.subnetAddress = ""
$pool.ipv6Config.netmask = "ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::"
$pool.ipv6Config.gateway = ""
$pool.ipv6Config.dns = New-Object System.String[] (1)
$pool.ipv6Config.dns[0] = ""
$pool.ipv6Config.dhcpServerAvailable = $false
$pool.ipv6Config.ipPoolEnabled = $false
$pool.dnsDomain = ""
$pool.dnsSearchPath = ""
$pool.hostPrefix = ""
$pool.httpProxy = ""

$_this = Get-View -Id 'IpPoolManager-IpPoolManager'
$_this.CreateIpPool($dc, $pool)

If the change has been done recently you may use with PowerCLI something like this

Get-VIEvent -MaxSamples 1000 | where {$_.fullformattedMessage -match "Created virtual machine *"} | ogv

MaxSamples is by default 100. Adjust as needed.
However get-viEvent has some main issues:
If you do not select an entity it will collect ALL EVENT during the period select up to the maximum of MaxSamples so if you have multiples datacenter cluster, everything will be collected.

If you use instead the parameter “entity” and select one datacenter for example, you will get only events for this datacenter. No events related to child entities and not option to perform a recursive search.

It is not possible to search for “Created Virtual Machine” event only. You can filter by event category but this is not precise enough.

Use get-vieventplus

With event-o-matic you will find the exact name of events you are looking for:
After connecting Event-O-Matic to your vcenter search “created virtual machine”
You will see only one event on the left “VmCreatedEvent” select it and it will be on the selected event on the right.
Click the box “Use Get-ViEvent” plus and click generate code you will get that

Get-VIEventPlus -EventType "VmCreatedEvent"

Copy the function get-vieventplus to your prompt and then execute the above command
(Or add it in your profile)
You will get a result very fast because this time we just use the API to get only event of type VmCreatedEvent
But get-vieventplus has others advantage:
You can filter on one specific entity AND use a recuse switch to get child event

Notes:
EventOMatic will not get you information about the “Task”
All tasks can be exported with:

Get-VIEventPlus -EventType "TaskEvent"

Finally get-vieventplus works with UTC time. It you want to use Start or Finish use UTC time, and result are in UTC time by default.
You can convert local time in utc in this way

$MYdate = get-date
$MyDate
$MyDate.ToUniversalTime()

Conclusion:
If you start to be lost while trying to understand how something works in the API check if someone has already done it.

If you don’t tick the “Get-VieventPlus” box you will get that

Get-VIEvent -MaxSamples ([int]::MaxValue) | Where-Object {$_ -is [VMware.Vim.VmCreatedEvent]}

This one is quite similar to the first suggested, get all events, and then filter but this time based on type and no on “full formatted message”
This will be very slow.

Not really needed here, just list all PowerCLI command and you will find only one related to esxcli.

$esxcli2 = Get-ESXCLI -VMHost (Get-VMhost | Select -first 1) -V2
$arguments = $esxcli2.network.diag.ping.CreateArgs()
$arguments.count = 3
#Replace below by relevant IP or DNS name of vCenter level
$arguments.host = “10.0.0.8”
($esxcli2.network.diag.ping.Invoke($arguments)).summary

Being able to use esxcli from PowerCLI is really powerful.
There were some challenges in the past with the V1 but they have been fixed with the V2.

However the PowerCLI team listen to VMware customers.
The example provided in the blog for the v1 and challenge associated is actually extracted from exchanges I got with Alan Renouf.
The V2 was the answer and it is really a good answer.

Before creating a function using esxcliv2 I invite you to check Get-EsxCli on steroids V2
This is a script that generate a PowerCLI function for every esxcli function.
You can then use for example:

(Get-VMhost | Select -first 1 | ping-EsxCLI.network.diag –host2 “10.0.0.8” –count 3).summary

about_vimdatastore
Get-PSDrive
Get-PSProvider
Manage Datastores Through Datastore Drives

connect-viserver “vcentername”
get-psdrive
#4 PS drive are related to VMware and based on the providers “VimInventory” or “VimDatastore”

vmstores shows all datastores available on all vSphere servers connected within the current vSphere PowerCLI session
vmstore displays the datastores available only on the last connected vSphere server
vis show all all datastores available on all vSphere servers connected within the current vSphere PowerCLI session
vis and vi follow the same logic however with a focus on the inventory of objects.
To be more precise it follows the logic presented in “Create VM with API”, so you will find as child item of a dacenter the hidden folders “vm,network,host and datastore”

You can “connect” to one of them using
set-location vis:
Then you can navigate using
get-childitem
set-location (auto completion with TAB will be useful)
For example

set-location vis:
Get-childItem
Set-location .\\IpOfVcenter@443
Set-location .\DatacenterName

etc

$FirstVM = get-vm | select -first 1
$LogDirectory = $FirstVM.ExtensionData.Config.Files.LogDirectory
$LogDirectory
#LogDirectory only contains the datastore name and not the moref.
#It means that if two datastores have the same name in the environment it will be ambigious
#Always have a good naming convention to avoid duplicate, special characters to reduce extra work later
$LogDirectorySplited = $LogDirectory.split(" ")
$DatastoreNameUnfiltered = $LogDirectorySplited[0]
$DatastoreName = $DatastoreNameUnfiltered.substring(1,$DatastoreNameUnfiltered.length -2)
#Take out the "[" and "]" around the datastore name.
$VMPathInDatastore = $LogDirectorySplited[1]
$Datastore = get-Datastore -name $DatastoreName
$DatastoreBrowserPath = $Datastore.DatastoreBrowserPath
new-PSDrive -Name "TempDatastorePSDrive" -PSProvider "VimDatastore" -Root $DatastoreBrowserPath
set-location TempDatastorePSDrive:
set-location $VMPathInDatastore
#Then you need to copy the file...using the same provider so "copy-item" doesn't seem to be an option

copy-DatastoreItem *.log C:\temp\ccalvet\
set-location C:
remove-PsDrive -name "TempDatastorePSDrive"

#Or as a shortcut
copy-DatastoreItem -item ($DatastoreBrowserPath + "\" + $VMPathInDatastore + "*.log") -Destination C:\temp2

I have seen many scripts including in the official PowerCLI guide that are based on new-psdrive and the parameter “–location”
However I do not see this parameter in the documentation of new-psdrive or while using tab for autocompletion.
I am just wondering if it has been deprecated.
I have tried to use also copy-item, as in the official PowerCLI documentation, but got the following error:
copy-Item : Source and destination path did not resolve to the same provider.
I have not investigated further on this area.
It seems to be very slow so I guess there are probably way to improve this script or adapt it to copy to a local folder on the workstation with the name of the VM.
Or use it as part of a function.

It will be quite easy to find the relevant PowerCLI cmdlet based on the name of this exercise.

connect-viserver “FirstVIServer”
connect-viserver “SecondVIServer”
$global:DefaultVIServers
#At this stage you should have two VIServer connections.
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration –DefaultVIServerMode Single –Scope session – Confirm:$false
$global:DefaultVIServers
#At this stage you should only have the second or last VIServer connection
connect-viserver “FirstVIServer”
$global:DefaultVIServers
#At this stage you should only have the connection to the first VIServer

Configure “DefaultVIServerMode” to Single could be convenient to ensure that you are working only with one VIServer at a time.
There are also others settings that can be configured with Set-PowerCLIConfiguration if you need them.

You will probably manage to make a function working with the VMhost
But you will have issues with the Distributed Port Group…this is exactly the purpose of this exercise.

function check-vmhost{
param(
[VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.VMHost]$VMhost
)
Process{
$VMhost.name
}
}
Check-vmhost –vmhost (get-vmhost | select –first 1)

function check-VDPortgroup{
param(
[VMware.VimAutomation.Vds.Types.V1.VmwareVDPortgroup]$VDPortgroup
)
Process{
$VDPortgroup.name
}
}
Check-VDPortgroup –VDPortgroup (get-vdportgroup | select –first 1)

The classic error here is to get the type of an object and use it as a strong parameter for the function.
For example:

(get-vmhost | select –first 1).GetType().fullname

You will get for the two exercise
VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.VMHostImpl
VMware.VimAutomation.Vds.Impl.V1.VmwareVDPortgroupImpl

However if you try to use them as a strong type parameter for your function
VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.VMHostImpl OK
VMware.VimAutomation.Vds.Impl.V1.VmwareVDPortgroupImpl Fail with the error:
Unable to find type [VMware.VimAutomation.Vds.Impl.V1.VmwareVDPortgroupImpl].

You should use instead:
VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.Inventory.VMHost OK
VMware.VimAutomation.Vds.Types.V1.VmwareVDPortgroup OK

More details here:
https://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2016/04/powercli-best-practice-correct-use-strong-typing.html
Take Away:
If you want to create a future proof function never use an “Impl” type as a strong parameter.

New-TagCategory –name “TagCategoryTest”
New-TagCategory –name “TagCategoryTest2”
Get-TagCategory | ogv

Is is quite easy to manipulate Tag with the PowerCLI tags cmdlets.
Actually using these PowerCLI cmdlets was the only way to automatize TAG related tasks in the past.

Read the title of this exercise. You will need to connect to vCloud Suite
VMware vCloud Suite SDKs and Tagging Service
Sample Scripts for Managing the vCloud Suite SDK with VMware vSphere PowerCLI

Connect-CisServer -Server “yourVC”
#Optional to list all cloud service you can work with
#get-CisService | ogv

$TagCategory = Get-CisService "com.vmware.cis.tagging.category”
$AllTagCategoryURN = $TagCategory.list().value
$AllTagCategoryURN | ForEach-Object {$TagCategory.get($_)} | ogv
Disconnect-CisServer * -Confirm:$false

The take away is that among other things TAG and Content Library are managed at the “vCloud Suite” and not at the “vSphere Management” level.
Moreover in order to extract information or perform change it will be necessary to use CisService.
Note:
CisServer has also the concept of $global:DefaultCisServers very similar to $global:defaultViServers

Sample Scripts for Managing vCloud Director with VMware vCloud Director PowerCLI

Connect-CIServer «vcloud server name»
get-org | ogv
$global:DefaultCiServers
$CiServer = $global:DefaultCiServers | select –first 1
$CiServer.extensiondata | gm
$CiServer.GetOrg().org | ogv
Disconnect-ciserver

It is possible to connect to cloud director, and you have many PowerCLI cmdlets already available to perform the most standard tasks.
Using the extensiondata you have also access to others methods but it doesn’t seem to be all methods available with API.

Sample Scripts for Managing vRealize Operations Manager with VMware vSphere PowerCLI
http://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2016/05/working-recommendations-statistics-vr-ops-powercli.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2016/05/using-entire-api-vrealize-operations-via-powercli.html

Connect-viServer "VCenterName"
Connect-OMServer "OPSServerName"
#Maybe you will to specify the AuthSource
#Connect-OMServer "OPSServerName" -AuthSource "VCenterName"
#Optional List All metrics for HostSytem
# get-omstatkey | where {$_.ResourceKind -eq "hostsystem" } | ogv
$OMStatKey = Get-OMStatKey -Name "cpu|workload" -ResourceKind "hostsystem"
$OMResource = Get-OMResource –entity (get-vmhost | select –first 1)
$FinishDate = get-date
$StartDate = $FinishDate.AddDays(-1)
$OmStat = Get-OMStat -resource $OMResource -Key $OMStatKey -from $StartDate -to $FinishDate
$OmStat | ogv
$OMServer = $global:DefaultOMServers[0]
$OMServer.extensiondata | gm
$OMServer.extensiondata.GetLicenseKeysForProduct().solutionlicense | ogv
Disconnect-Omserver
Disconect-ViServer

vRealize Operations Manager is really powerful.
The PowerCLI team has provided useful cmdlets for the most common operations.
On top of that if needed it is possible to access the entire API using “extensiondata”
http://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2016/05/using-entire-api-vrealize-operations-via-powercli.html

Sample Scripts for Managing vCenter Site Recovery Manager with VMware vSphere PowerCLI

connect-viserver «vCenterServer»
connect-SrmServer “SRMServer”
$global:DefaultSrmServers
$SrmServer = $global:DefaultSrmServers[0]
$VirtualMachineProtectedMoref = $SrmServer.ExtensionData.Protection.ListProtectedVms().moref
$VirtualMachineProtectedMoref | ForEach-Object { (get-view ($_)).name} | ogv
Disconnect-SrmServer
Disconnect-Viserver

SRM is definitely one of the VMware product that benefits the most from automatization.
It is critical to have a consistent “view” between SRM and the VMware infrastructure protected and PowerCLI will help to identify mismatch.
It seems that the extensiondata provides access to the whole SRM API.

Get-VICommand | where {$_.name -like “*-PI*”}
Managing vCloud Air with VMware vCloud Air PowerCLI