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Heads Up - Unable to open VIB archive in streaming mode using Export-EsxImageProfile with PowerCLI 13.0

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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.

USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling now supports vSphere 8!

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I know many of you have been holding off on your vSphere 8 upgrade, patiently waiting for a compatible version of the popular USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling. Today, the wait is finally over and you can now head over to the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling page to download latest v1.11 version, which is now compatible with vSphere 8! 😀

For those looking to create a custom ESXi images that also incorporates the Fling, you will need to download the latest PowerCLI 13.0 release (due to changes in vSphere 8 for custom ESXi image creation) and also consider using vSphere Lifecycle Manager whether that is through the vLCM UI or using the new vLCM PowerCLI cmdlets or you can use the old vSphere Image Builder interface.

For those in the US that celebrate and/or observe the holiday, enjoy the long weekend!

Creating custom ESXi images using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) UI and PowerCLI cmdlets for vSphere 8

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I have started to use vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) more and more, especially after upgrading to vSphere 8 as it will be the primary lifecycle management solution going forward for both vSphere image and configuration management.

The other reason for using vLCM is that vSphere Update Manager (VUM) baselines have also been deprecated in vSphere 8 and while you can still use it for now, it should not come as a surprise that VUM and its functionality will be removed in the future and all of its workflows including the use of vSphere Image Builder should also be transitioned over to using vLCM.

One of the most common and basic workflow for customers today is creating custom ESXi images (ISO or Offline Bundle) that includes additional ESXi drivers. Since vLCM is probably new to most folks (including myself), I wanted to share how you can create your own custom ESXi images using both the vLCM UI (which can be a bit non-intuitive) as well as the new PowerCLI cmdlets that was jus released today as part of PowerCLI 13.0 release that adds support for both vLCM and vSphere 8!

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