How to find and install VMware PowerCLI Module

As most of us would be already aware that, VMware PowerCLI is now available as a PS module and can be installed directly from Microsoft Powershell Gallery, in this post I'll summaries the process of online and offline installation of PowerCLI.

PS commands to be used:

Get-Module : To list the available/already installed modules on you local machine
Find-Module : To find the available modules in an Online PS Gallery
Install-Module : To download and install the specified module from an online gallery
Save-Module : To download and sad save a PS module for offline use

Online installation of PowerCLI : To install the PowerCLI from Microsoft PS gallery, follow these steps,

• If you are not sure about the name of the actual VMware PowerCLI module, use below cmd to find the same,

Find-Module -name *VMware*

• Once you have identified the module name, use Install-Module CMD to install it.

          Here we will install VMware "VMware.PowerCLI"

Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI

Press Y [yes] or A[yes to all], when prompted.

Depending upon your internet connection speed, it would take some time in downloading and installing the requested PS module, once done then close the current Powershell sessions and restart it, now newly installed PowerCLI module will load and you can use it.

In case if you want to limit the scope of this module to current-user only then use following command instead, 

Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI –Scope CurrentUser

Offline installation of PowerCLI: To download and install VMware PowerCLI Module follow these steps,

• On a a system which is connected to internet, you can save the VMware PowerCLI module to your desired location using Save-Module cmd.

• Now, we can copy this module (downloaded folders) to a system which is not connected to internet, and place them in a location where PowerShell can find them, modules folders can be confirmed by typing $ENV:PSModulePath at the PowerShell prompt.

Local User: $home\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules 

All Users: $pshome\Modules

Once you copied these folder to the the modules folders and restarted the PowerShell window, the modules will automatically load this time and you can use them now.

Reference: PowerCLI Installation Walkthrough

That's it... :)