Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Clearly, you have several options for bringing automation into your vSphere environment—
and that is without taking into account any of the numerous third-party solutions available!
In our experience, the most widely adopted automation tool provided by VMware is
PowerCLI. It appeals to people with both Windows and Linux backgrounds, as we will discuss
in later sections. The vCLI on vMA is also widely used and is an easy draw to those with Linux
or general command-line backgrounds. This is especially true for administrators who wish to
execute bash scripts against multiple ESXi hosts with minimal effort.
Adoption of vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) is considerably less common, though we highly
recommend that anyone reading this topic start investing time in understanding how it works.
vCO is becoming tightly woven into many VMware products, including the vSphere Web Client
and vCloud Automation Center (vCAC).
Automation and ESXi Free Version
Testing in production is a bad idea. Because many administrators will want to test and learn the
various automation tools outlined in this chapter, it is important to note some limitations when
using the free version of ESXi. Unfortunately, remote management tools like PowerCLI, vMA, and
vSphere Perl SDK are limited to read-only functionality with the free version of ESXi. Full capabili-
ties are available at no cost by taking advantage of VMware's 60-day trial periods.
Automating with PowerCLI
PowerCLI is VMware's mostly widely adopted and accessible automation tool. Since its incep-
tion as the VI Toolkit, it has been unanimously considered the best tool for automating a
vSphere environment. This claim is supported by PowerCLI's ability to manage most compo-
nents in a vSphere environment and its ease of use. People with Windows administration back-
grounds generally have some familiarity with PowerShell and i nd adopting PowerCLI more
natural than adopting the other tools. Individuals comfortable with console administration will
i nd PowerCLI very easy to pick up and use.
In the following sections, we'll introduce you to PowerShell, cover the initial coni guration
of PowerCLI, show you some essential PowerCLI cmdlets to start using and how to build more
complicated scripts, demonstrate the complex functionality of PowerCLI, and discuss the new
features found in PowerCLI 5.5.
PowerShell and PowerCLI
It is important to understand a little about what Microsoft Windows PowerShell is and how it
works. Without PowerShell, PowerCLI would not be possible. PowerShell is Microsoft's standard
automation platform that has shipped natively with Microsoft Windows since Windows 7 and
Server 2008 but has been available for much longer. Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint admin-
istrators have been using PowerShell for many years because those products were among the
earliest for which Microsoft made PowerShell the management tool of choice. Built on the .NET
framework, PowerShell has tremendous capabilities for managing a wide range of Windows
systems and applications. Additionally, many companies—such as VMware, NetApp, and
Cisco—have developed modules and snap-ins for PowerShell for managing their applications
