Key FeaturesThis is first book on the market that will enlighten you on the latest version of PowerCLI and how to implement itEffectively manage virtual machines, networks, and reports with the latest features of PowerCLIA comprehensive and practical book on automating VMware vSphereBook DescriptionVMware vSphere PowerCLI, a free extension to Microsoft Windows PowerShell, enables you to automate the management of a VMware vSphere or vCloud environment.This book will show you how to automate your tasks and make your job easier. Starting with an introduction to the basics of PowerCLI, the book will teach you how to manage your vSphere and vCloud infrastructure from the command line. To help you manage a vSphere host overall, you will learn how to manage vSphere ESXi hosts, host profiles, host services, host firewall, and deploy and upgrade ESXi hosts using Image Builder and Auto Deploy. The next chapter will not only teach you how to create datastore and datastore clusters, but youll also work with profile-driven and policy-based storage to manage your storage. To create a disaster recovery solution and retrieve information from vRealize Operations, you will learn how to use Site Recovery Manager and vRealize Operations respectively. Towards the end, youll see how to use the REST APIs from PowerShell to manage NSX and vRealize Automation and create patch baselines, scan hosts against the baselines for missing patches, and re-mediate hosts.By the end of the book, you will be capable of using the best tool to automate the management and configuration of VMware vSphere.What you will learnExplore PowerShell and PowerCLI cmdlets and their output objectsSee how to manage virtual machines and work with virtual networksManage vCloud Director from PowerCLIUse Site Recovery Manager from PowerCLI to create a disaster recovery solutionManage NSX and vRealize Automation using REST API with PowerCLICreate and configure vSphere HA and DRS clustersUse vSphere Update Manager with PowerCLI to create patch baselines and scan hostsExplore reporting techniques to retrieve log filesAbout the AuthorRobert van den Nieuwendijk is an IT veteran from the Netherlands with over thirty years of experience in Information Technology. He holds a bachelor degree in software engineering. After working a few years as a programmer of air traffic control and vessel traffic management systems, he started his own company Van den Nieuwendijk Informatica in 1988. Since then he has worked as a freelance systems administrator of OpenVMS, Windows Server, Linux, and VMware vSphere systems, for Dutch governmental organizations and cloud providers. During winter he is also a ski and snowboard instructor at an indoor ski school.With his background as a programmer, he always tries to make his job easier by writing programs or scripts to perform repeating tasks. In the past, he used the C programming language, OpenVMS DCL, Visual Basic Script and KiXtart to do this. Now, he uses Microsoft PowerShell and VMware PowerCLI for all of his scripting work.Robert is a frequent contributor and moderator at the VMware VMTN Communities. Since 2012 VMware awarded him the vExpert title for his significant contributions to the community and a willingness to share his expertise with others.He has a blog at http://rvdnieuwendijk.com where he writes mainly about VMware PowerCLI, Microsoft PowerShell, and VMware vSphere.If you want to get in touch with Robert, then you can find him on Twitter. His username is @rvdnieuwendijk.Robert is also the author of Learning PowerCLI, Packt Publishing.Table of ContentsIntroduction to PowerCLILearning Basic PowerCLI ConceptsWorking with Objects in PowerShellManaging vSphere Hosts with PowerCLIManaging Virtual Machines with PowerCLIManaging Virtual Networks with PowerCLIManaging StorageManaging High Availability and ClusteringManaging vCenter ServerPatching ESXi Hosts and Upgrading Virtual MachinesManaging VMware vCloud Director and vCloud AirUsing Site Recovery ManagerUsing vRealize Operations ManagerUsing REST API to manage NSX and vRealize AutomationReporting with PowerCLI