Just a few days ago, PowerShell Core v6.0 was released for Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. Alongside this release came the release of VMware PowerCLI 10.0.0.78953 which is VMware’s own “PowerShell-like” utility. In this post, I am going to show how to install both on to a macOS system. Let’s get to it!
There are a few prerequisites needed before PowerShell can be installed on macOS which I will cover, and they are as follows:
- Homebrew – Homebrew installs the stuff you need that Apple didn’t.
- Homebrew-Cask – extends Homebrew and brings its elegance, simplicity, and speed to macOS applications and large binaries alike.
- Xcode Command Line Tools
Per the instructions on the Homebrew site, copy and paste the following command into a terminal window to install Homebrew.
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
This will prompt you to press Enter to continue and the prompt you to enter your password. It will also check if Xcode command line tools are installed, and if not, it will download and install it for you before completing the installation of Homebrew. Nice!
Now, the next step is to install Homebrew-Cask and per its sites installation notes, copy and paste the following command into a terminal window.
brew tap caskroom/cask
Great! With the prerequisites complete, it’s time to install PowerShell Core 6.0.1. Run the following command to do so and enter your password when prompted.
brew cask install powershell
Awesome! Now, to launch a PowerShell session in macOS, enter the following in terminal.
pwsh
Within a PowerShell session, you can check the version of PowerShell by running the following.
$PSVersionTable.PSVersion
As new versions of PowerShell are released, simply update the Homebrew formulae and update PowerShell by running the following commands in terminal.
brew update brew cask upgrade powershell
While leveraging Homebrew is the recommended installation method, there are alternate methods as well. For more information on that along with uninstallation commands, please see the following link.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed PowerShell Core 6.0.1 onto macOS! Next comes the fun stuff for us VMware enthusiasts, installing VMware PowerCLI from the “PSGallery”. Let’s continue!
Since VMware PowerCLI has moved from being its own native installer to the PSGallery, the PSGallery needs to be “Trusted” before anything from it can be installed. To trust the PSGallery, entering the following command in the PowerShell session.
Note: This is optional and if it is skipped, you will be prompted to trust the gallery when entering the PowerCLI module install command
Set-PSRepository -Name "PSGallery" -InstallationPolicy "Trusted"
Next, run the following command to install the VMware.PowerCLI module. This will find and install the latest version of the module available in the PSGallery
Find-Module "VMware.PowerCLI" | Install-Module -Scope "CurrentUser" -AllowClobber
Note: Alternatively, you could set the “-Scope” parameter to “AllUsers” and if you wanted to install a different version you could use the “-RequiredVersion” parameter and specify the version number.
Once this finishes, we can check to make sure the module is installed by running the following command.
Get-Module "VMware.PowerCLI" -ListAvailable | FT -Autosize
And if you’d like to see all of the VMware installed modules, run the following.
Get-Module "VMware.*" -ListAvailable | FT -Autosize
As new versions of VMware.PowerCLI are released, you can run the following command to update it.
Update-Module "VMware.PowerCLI"
With VMware.PowerCLI now installed, you can connect to your vCenter Server or ESXi host and begin using its cmdlets to obtain information or automate tasks!
I went ahead and ran the following to ensure the module was imported.
Import-Module "VMware.PowerCLI"
I noticed one caveat, the SRM module does not seem to be supported in PowerShell Core, so I hope that gets resolved soon.
Let’s test connecting to vCenter server…
Connect-VIServer -Server "<Server_Name>"
I also noticed an error when running the above command stating that the “InvalidCertificateAction” setting was “Unset” and not supported.
To bypass this, enter the following command and then enter “Y” when prompted. This will set the parameter for the current user.
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction "Ignore"
Note: Alternatively, you can also use the “-Scope” parameter and enter “Session”, “User”, or “AllUsers” to apply the setting to those options respectively.
Now, if we try to connect to vCenter again, we should be successful.
Well, that about does it! I hope that you have found this post useful and I thank you for stopping by and reading my content. I’d like to give a shoutout to Mike White for his post on the same topic. Until next time!
-virtualex-
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