VMware vSphere™ PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration

Appendix A

Basic PowerShell

In this appendix you will learn to:

• Discover PowerShell’s Origins
• Develop Your Understanding of Objects
  • What Is an Object?
  • The PowerCLI Objects
  • Creating Your Own Objects
• Uncover Cmdlets and Get Help
  • What Is a Cmdlet?
  • Tab Completion
  • Built-In Help
  • The Get-Member Cmdlet
• Utilize the PowerShell Pipeline
  • Using the Pipeline in PowerShell
  • Bringing It All Together
• Build Your Toolkit of Basic Cmdlets
  • Reporting
  • Enhancing Script Writing

PowerCLI is a toolkit in its own right for managing a vSphere infrastructure. However, since PowerCLI is a snap-in for Microsoft’s Windows PowerShell, a good understanding of basic PowerShell will not only help you with learning PowerCLI, but it will also enable you to improve command-line ...