An issue that I ran into after upgrading to the latest PowerCLI 13.0 release after it GA'ed was attempting to export an ESXi image profile that I had created to an ISO file using the Export-EsxImageProfile cmdlet and immediately hit the following error:
Export-EsxImageProfile: Error retrieving file for VIB 'VMware_bootbank_esx-update_8.0.0-1.0.20513097': ('vib20/esx-update/VMware_bootbank_esx-update_8.0.0-1.0.20513097.vib', "Unable to open VIB archive in streaming mode: '_SharedFile' object has no attribute 'writing'").
I am an avid use of this cmdlet and have never ran into this issue before and I was not sure if this could be related to the porting of the Image Builder and Auto Deploy cmdlets to PowerShell Core, which was new with the PowerCLI 13.0 release. I have already filed an internal bug and the PowerCLI Engineering team have not had a chance to look at it, but over the past week, I have noticed a number of reports on my blog, VMTN community forums, Reddit and Twitter that other users were also hitting this issue.
As I have already responded in a few of these channels already, a bug has been filed and there is currently not a work around that I am aware of. As I have any updates, I will update this article with more details.
UPDATE - Several readers have informed me that if you update to Python 3.7.9 or greater, the issue should go away.
The options right now is to either use the vSphere Image Builder UI OR vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) UI or the new vLCM PowerCLI cmdlets, both of which requiring a vCenter Server running vSphere 8.0.
Hope to have fix soon for this
Thank you for your post, ithought i was alone with that !
Look forward for good news soon i hope... no Vsphere 8 here....
My homelab cant wait 🙂
Spent around 3 hours before I found out this was a stupid bug... thank you. I hope this fixed. Cant figure out how to get intel i226 drivers on any esxi without having vserver.
In the same spot trying to build the iso for my nuc. Hope to see a fix soon, thanks for what you do William!
I rolled back powercli to 12.7 and was able to make it work that way.
Seems like a Python issue: https://bugs.python.org/issue34035
I got the same error, resolved by installing Python 3.7.9
Thanks for this suggestion. I was looking for a tip in what's causing this error. 👍
This fixed the issue for me too. Successfully created a custom 8.0 image. Thank you!
I finally got ESXi 8.0 running with a Startech USB31000S (after many hours scouring blog comments!).
This allowed me to generate an ISO for ESXi 8.0 with Fling drivers. I hope this helps others:
Prereqs:
1. Python 3.7.9 (not 3.7) - refer https://williamlam.com/2022/11/heads-up-unable-to-open-vib-archive-in-streaming-mode-using-export-esximageprofile-with-powercli-13-0.html
2. PowerCLI 13.0
Helpful links:
https://gist.github.com/gspivey/69b5c12962e00bf85c9cfdc954ad13f6
https://www.virten.net/2020/04/how-to-add-the-usb-nic-fling-to-esxi-7-0-base-image/
PowerShell Dump:
Windows PowerShell
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PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> cd 'D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO\'
PS D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO> Add-EsxSoftwareDepot .\ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard.zip
WARNING: Please consider joining the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program, so you can help us make PowerCLI a
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Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User -ParticipateInCEIP $true
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To disable this warning and set your preference use the following command and restart PowerShell:
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User -ParticipateInCEIP $true or $false.
Depot Url
---------
zip:D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO\ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard.zip?index.xml
PS D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO> Add-EsxSoftwareDepot .\ESXi800-VMKUSB-NIC-FLING-61054763-component-20826251.zip
Depot Url
---------
zip:D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO\ESXi800-VMKUSB-NIC-FLING-61054763-component-20826251.zip?index.xml
PS D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO> New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile "ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard" -name "ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard-USBNIC" -Vendor "VMW"
Name Vendor Last Modified Acceptance Level
---- ------ ------------- ----------------
ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standar... VMW 23/09/2022 6... PartnerSupported
PS D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO> Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard-USBNIC" -softwarePackage "vmkusb-nic-fling"
Name Vendor Last Modified Acceptance Level
---- ------ ------------- ----------------
ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standar... VMW 28/12/2022 8... PartnerSupported
PS D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO> Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard-USBNIC" -ExportToIso -filepath ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard-USBNIC.iso -force -NoSignatureCheck
PS D:\ESXi Images\ESXi Fling ISO>
Thanks to everyone for sharing helpful comments and the Python PR. To resolve this, I was able to replace the file lib/zipfile.py from my python install folder with the same file from a newer python 3.7.9+ build and restart my PowerCLI session. Hope that brings about a quick fix for some one else.