VI Toolkit 1.5 Getting Started and Undocumented Functions

0. Installing
Installing or upgrading the VI Toolkit 1.5 is as easy as Next, Next, Finish. And using the new VI Toolkit shortcut on your desktop allows quick and easy access to the Toolkit. But what about running these cmdlets from your scripts or integrating it with other snapins? Read on!

1. Setting up your profile
The new desktop shortcut does two things for you: it starts powershell with the VI Toolkit snapin loaded and it runs a script which modified the look of the Powershell window ánd adds some cool extra functions. If you want to have the same functionality in your normal Powershell window and your scripts, you have to copy some stuff to your Powershell profile. First, set up your profile:

a. Start a normal Powershell window.
b. Run the following command: Test-Path $profile
c. Did it return True? Then you already have a profile file. Did it return False, do step d.
d. Create a profile file by running: New-Item $profile -ItemType File

2. Adding the snap-in
a. Open your profile by running: Invoke-Item $profile
b. Add the following line to the profile file to load the snap-in: Add-PSSnapIn VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

3. Adding undocumented functions
a. Open the file C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VIToolkitForWindows\Scripts\Initialize-VIToolkitEnvironment.ps1
b. Copy the following Function Blocks to your profile file: Get-VICommand, New-DatastoreDrive, New-VIInventoryDrive, Get-VIToolkitDocumentation, Get-VIToolkitCommunity

4. Undocumented Functions?
Ok, you can read about them in the Administrator’s Guide (http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/windowstoolkit/wintk10/doc/viwin_admin.pdf), but you might overlook these functions because they are not cmdlets, so Get-Command won’t show them (nor will Auto-Complete work for them).
Here’s a short description of each of them:

• Get-VICommand: Displays all VI Toolkit cmdlets (equal to: Get-Command -PSSnapIn VMware.VimAutomation.Core);
• New-DatastoreDrive: Allows you to browse a datastore like a drive (Example Usage: New-DatastoreDrive -Name <DriveName> -Datastore (Get-Datastore <DatastoreName>); Then jump to the drive: cd <DriveName>: );
• New-VIInventoryDrive: Allows you to browse your Virtual Infrastructure like a drive (Example Usage: New-VIInventoryDrive -Name <DriveName> -Location (Get-Inventory <Folder-/Cluster-/ResourcePool-/HostName>); Then jump to drive: cd <DriveName>: );
• Get-VIToolkitDocumentation: Opens the VI Toolkit Command Reference Help File;
• Get-VIToolkitCommunity: Opens the VI Toolkit Community website.

More examples and scripts here soon!
Hugo

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