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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.

How to install PowerCLI 13.0 and use new Image Builder & Auto Deploy cmdlets on Apple Silicon?

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PowerCLI 13.0 was just released about a week ago and I have been using it like crazy, especially with the new Image Builder and Auto Deploy cmdlets, which have now been ported over to PowerShell Core and finally removing the Windows-only dependency for these specific cmdlets! 😀

I have both an x86 macOS system and the new Apple Silicon M1 (Arm) and of course, I wanted to have PowerCLI running on both systems! While the installation/upgrade of PowerCLI for x86 is trivial, it was definitely less so on the M1. Part of the challenge is also due to the new requirement with latest PowerCLI 13.0 release, which folks should be aware of as it does have additional implications in how you manage and deploy PowerCLI within your organizations.

PowerCLI 13.0 now has an external dependency on Python 3.7.x runtime, which is specific when needing to use the new Image Builder and Auto Deploy cmdlets. The official PowerCLI User Guide contains instructions on how to install the Python runtime and the required packages across the three OS platforms (Windows, macOS and Linux). While the external dependency of Python is new, the requirement for Python to use these cmdlets has always been there and earlier releases of PowerCLI, it was just packaged as part of PowerCLI.

I only bring up this detail because it ultimately helped me figure out how to get PowerCLI 13.0 working on the Apple M1, especially with the additional Python requirement which includes one specific shared library that is dependent on the x86 architecture.

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How to automate checking for new vCenter Server updates in vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM)?

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A question that I had received during VMware Explore Barcelona, was how to automate the checking for new updates that are available for their vCenter Server? In the vSphere UI, when a new update is available and applicable, you will see a new blue label called Update Available under the Summary view when your vCenter Serve inventory object is selected.


When you click on the label, it will take you the vCenter Server Update Planner, a feature that was introduced back in vSphere 7, which is part of the overall vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) solution.


Here you will be shown a list of all applicable vCenter Server update(s) and/or upgrade(s) for your specific version of vCenter Server, including useful information like severity and even direct links to the release notes, which is extremely useful to quickly get a glance at a particular release.

As you might expect, all of the information displayed within the vSphere UI is available programmatically using the vCenter Server vLCM REST API, enabling users to periodically check when an update is available and create and run interoperability reports using the vCenter Server Update Planner feature.

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