Installation PowerShell Core and PowerCLI 10 on Debian or Ubuntu
Some of you know that already, but the latest PowerCLI 10 release works very nice with PowerShell Core that can be installed on Linux.
That is an amazing step forward to simplify reporting and automation without the requirement of a running Microsoft Windows system – means, no license questions and flexible ways of distribution.
Let´s directly get into it and start with a Debian system.
Installation PowerShell Core
To install the PowerShell Core you should visit the main project site and download the corresponding linux package. For this blog post I have a Debian 8 system, but you can just download the project that fits your system.
Visit https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell and download the file or just use wget:
wget https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v6.0.2/powershell_6.0.2-1.debian.8_amd64.deb
# Install the debian package
sudo dpkg -i powershell_6.0.2-1.debian.8_amd64.deb
If you haven´t already installed some less common packages, you´ll end up with an installation error that some packages are missing:
sudo apt-get -f install
After apt-get installed all the missing packages, you can run the dpkg -i powershell*.deb command again and all should work fine.
You can start the PowerShell using the command pwsh
get-host shows you the current version of the installed PowerShell Core.
Installation PowerCLI 10
The PowerCLI project website can be found here: https://code.vmware.com/tool/vmware-powercli/10.0.0
To install the PowerCLI 10, you just need to open the PowerShell with the pwsh command and run a install-module:
# either for the system – you need higher permissions of course
Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI
# or for the current logged in user
Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser
The installation takes a while and you need to agree to trust the PSGallery modules, as PowerCLI is one of them.
Many customers run VMware vCenter with self-signed or even invalid certificates, therefore if you´re one of them make sure to run the following PowerCLI Configuration command before connecting to any vCenter server:
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore
First commands
That was already it, PowerShell Core and PowerCLI 10 are installed and we can connect to a VMware vCenter or ESXi host.
Connect to a vCenter:
Connect-VIServer vcenter.dns.name -user <username> -pass <password>
Exceptions:
The PowerShell is extremely tolerant when it comes to syntax and shortcuts. On a Linux system that can be annoying, especially if you´re not familiar with Linux vs. PowerShell commands.
As a rule of thumb – make sure not to use any system commands that are also PowerShell shortcuts, i. e. sort-object instead of sort.
If you don´t use sort-object, the linux sort command will be used by the PowerShell and you typically run into issues. Use the full cmdlet names and no alias and you will be on the safe side.
