A Few Steps to Install VMware PowerCLI Tools on macOS

If you are a VMware virtualization administrator, you may want to install VMware PowerCLI on your Mac to perform most vSphere management tasks or automate many operations. This article will teach you A Few Steps to Install VMware PowerCLI Tools on macOS. We provide economical VPS servers, which are the best choice for users. If you want to buy instant VPS server, you can visit the plans offered on the Eldernode website.

Tutorial Setup VMware PowerCLI Tools on macOS

VMware PowerCLI is a command line and set of PowerShell modules that are used to manage, monitor and automate processes in the VMware vSphere environments. Commands of PowerCLI are executed in the Windows PowerShell environment, and these commands are called cmdlets but you can also install it on your Mac. These commands are invoked programmatically through PowerShell APIs and VMware PowerCLI provides more than 700 of them.

Step 1: Installing Homebrew on macOS

First of all, you need to install Homebrew on macOS. Homebrew is a package manager that allows you to install packages like PowerShell directly from the command line. If you have already installed it, skip this step.

You can download Homebrew using the command below:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Verify your installation with the following command:

brew --version

Step 2: Installing PowerShell on macOS

In this step, you will learn how to install PowerShell on macOS. As mentioned earlier, you will install PowerShell on macOS with the help of the Homebrew package you installed in the previous step.

To install PowerShell using Homebrew, just run the following command:

brew install --cask powershell

You can check your PowerShell installation with the following command:

pwsh

To get a newer version of PowerShell, just update the Homebrew formulas and upgrade PowerShell as follows:

brew update  

brew upgrade powershell --cask

Step 3: Installing VMware PowerCLI Tools on macOS

Now it’s time to install VMware PowerCLI Tools on macOS.

First, open PowerShell on macOS as shown below:

pwsh

You can install all PowerCLI modules by running the following commands in PowerShell:

PS /Users/eldernode> Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser

If you get a warning about installing modules from an untrusted repository as shown below, just press “Y” or “A” to confirm the installation.

Untrusted repository  You are installing the modules from an untrusted repository. If you trust this repository, change its InstallationPolicy value by running the Set-PSRepository cmdlet. Are you sure you want to  install the modules from 'PSGallery'?  [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "N"): A

Modules are automatically downloaded and saved in the correct folder. You can use the -Scope parameter to make PowerCLI modules available to AllUsers as shown below:

PS /Users/eldernode> Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Scope AllUsers

List all available modules using the command below:

Get-Module -ListAvailable

The modules will store in the ~/.local/share/powershell/Modules directory on your macOS workstation. To access modules, run the command below:

ls ~/.local/share/powershell/Modules

Step 4: Using PowerCLI on macOS

In this step, we will give an example of using VMware vSphere cmdlets to automatically manage the vSphere environment. First, enter the following command to get details about the installed version of PowerCLI:

PS /Users/eldernode> Get-PowerCLIVersion

You should update the configuration to ignore accepting self-signed certificates for SSL connection. To do this enter the command below:

PS /Users/eldernode> Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore

Step 5: Connecting to the Environment

First, set up a new connection using the command below:

PS /Users/eldernode> Connect-VIServer -Server esxi01.example.com -Protocol https

Pass the username and password in the CLI to connect non-interactively:

Connect-VIServer -Server <ServerIP_or_Hostname> -Protocol https -User <Username> -Password <Password>

Retrieve the datastores available by running a cmdlet as shown below:

PS /Users/eldernode> Get-Datastore

To search for cmdlets commands use regex inPowerCLI as follows:

PS /Users/eldernode> Get-VICommand *switch

That’s it!

Conclusion

In this article, we taught you how to install VMware PowerCLI tools on macOS step by step. I hope you found this tutorial useful and that it helps you to install VMware PowerCLI tools on macOS. If you encounter any issues during the installation process, you can contact us in the Comments section.