WilliamLam.com

PowerCLI Module for managing vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO)

by // 18 Comments

A few years back I had submitted a PowerCLI Feature Request (PCLI-44) via the public PowerCLI Ideas platform requesting for a PowerCLI module that would support vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO) Administrative functionality such as managing SSO Users, Groups, Password, Lockout Policy and Identity Sources.


This was one of the most popular Idea voted by the PowerCLI community, which also stressed the need for such functionality which I came across on a regular basis on some of the Automation I was writing. In the past, I have written numerous blog articles in working around this limitation as the vCenter SSO Admin APIs were not and leveraging Guest Operations API, one could still automate various SSO operations using the various SSO CLIs that is included within the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA).

Today, I received a notification from the PowerCLI Ideas platform that this feature as "Shipped" and it looks like the PowerCLI team has just released an Open Source Module called VMware.vSphere.SsoAdmin that includes the following 12 cmdlets:

  • Add-ActiveDirectoryIdentitySource
  • Add-GroupToSsoGroup
  • Add-LDAPIdentitySource
  • Add-UserToSsoGroup
  • Connect-SsoAdminServer
  • Disconnect-SsoAdminServer
  • Get-IdentitySource
  • Get-SsoAuthenticationPolicy
  • Get-SsoGroup
  • Get-SsoLockoutPolicy
  • Get-SsoPasswordPolicy
  • Get-SsoPersonUser
  • Get-SsoTokenLifetime
  • New-SsoGroup
  • New-SsoPersonUser
  • Remove-GroupFromSsoGroup
  • Remove-IdentitySource
  • Remove-SsoGroup
  • Remove-SsoPersonUser
  • Remove-UserFromSsoGroup
  • Set-LDAPIdentitySource
  • Set-SsoAuthenticationPolicy
  • Set-SsoGroup
  • Set-SsoLockoutPolicy
  • Set-SsoPasswordPolicy
  • Set-SsoPersonUser
  • Set-SsoSelfPersonUserPassword
  • Set-SsoTokenLifetime

To get started with the new PowerCLI SSO Module, take a look at the instructions below.

[Read more...]

Updating the VSAN HCL & Release Catalog DB using VSAN API

by // 3 Comments

Both the VSAN Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) and the VSAN Release Catalog database which provides VSAN build recommendations should be updated periodically to ensure that you have the latest VSAN recommendations from VMware. In addition to using the vSphere UI to perform these update, customers can also automate either of these tasks using the VSAN Management API which can be consumed using any of the supported VSAN Management SDKs including PowerCLI.


I recently had a question about which VSAN API to use to update VSAN Release Catalog.

[Read more...]

Workload Management PowerCLI Module for automating vSphere with Kubernetes

by // 3 Comments

One of the last things on my to-do list after creating my Automated vSphere 7 and vSphere with Kubernetes Lab Deployment Script which is still the quickest and most reliable way to have a fully deployed and configured environment to try out vSphere with Kubernetes using Nested ESXi, was to also automate the enablement of Workload Management for a given vSphere Cluster.

There are two new vCenter Server REST APIs to be aware of as it pertains to vSphere with Kubernetes:

  • namespaces = Manages the lifecycle and access control to a vSphere Namespace
  • namespace-management = Despite the name, this refers to lifecycle and management of a Workload Management Cluster

I also have to mention that Vikas Shitole, who works on vCenter Server, has fantastic blog series covering various parts of the new vSphere with Kubernetes API along with Python examples if you want to dive further. Since Vikas has done a great job covering Python, I figure I will demonstrate how to consume these new vSphere with Kubernetes API using PowerCLI, which many of our customers use to automate.

I have created a new WorkloadManagement.psm1 PowerCLI module which includes following functions:

  • Get-WorkloadManagement
  • New-WorkloadManagement
  • Remove-WorkloadManagement

Below are the two steps required to get started with the Workload Management PowerCLI Module.

Step 1 - Install the WorkloadManagement PowerCLI Module by running the following command:

Install-Module VMware.WorkloadManagement.psm1

Step 2 - A connection to the vCenter REST API endpoint using the Connect-CisServer cmdlet is required for enabling and disabling Workload Management Cluster

Connect-CisServer -Server pacific-vcsa-2.cpbu.corp -User *protected email* -Password VMware1!

A connection to vCenter Server using Connect-VIServer cmdlet is only required if you wish to retrieve information about an existing Workload Management Cluster

Connect-VIServer -Server pacific-vcsa-2.cpbu.corp -User *protected email* -Password VMware1!

[Read more...]