PowerCLI 10.0.0 Linux Error in VMware.VimAutomation.Srm Module

VMware released recently version 10.0.0 of PowerCLI. One of the major “selling” points for PowerCLI 10.0.0 is the way it works exactly the same regardless of the platform: Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. As a result, immediately after I updated my Windows installation to 10.0.0, I proceeded to install a Linux version of PowerCLI.

I will document in this article how to install PowerShell Core 6.0.1 on Linux and how to install PowerCLI 10.0.0. I will then write about the error I met (“Import-Module : VMware.VimAutomation.Srm module is not currently supported on the Core edition of PowerShell”) and how I solved it. Update 5 May 2018: VMware released a new version 10.1.0, same error is present.

First stop was “Compatibility Matrixes for VMware PowerCLI 10.0.0”. The only supported Linux OS is Ubuntu 16.04. I then installed a VM running this Ubuntu version. I then followed the Microsoft provided instructions to install PowerShell Core 6.0.1. (On a related note, I ran PowerCLI 10.0.0 on CentOS 7 without other issues – except of course for the modules errors).

Install PowerShell Core 6.0.1 on Ubuntu 16.04

First step for PowerShell installation is to import the public repository GPG keys:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | sudo apt-key add –

I then had to register the Microsoft Ubuntu repository.

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/16.04/prod.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft.list

Next I updated Ubuntu list of products.

sudo apt-get update

And finally, I started to install PowerShell Core 6.1.0.

sudo apt-get install -y powershell

Install PowerCLI 10.0.0 on Ubuntu 16.04

I typed “pwsh” to enter PowerShell. Here we can see the PowerShell version 6.0.1. I then ran the normal command to install PowerCLI 10.0.0:

Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser

Quickly the installer finished its job. I then proceeded with the module import.

Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI

And here is where the magic stopped.

Import-Module : VMware.VimAutomation.Srm module is not currently supported on the Core edition of PowerShell.
At line:1 char:1
+ Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (VMware.VimAutom… of PowerShell.:String) [Import-Module], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : VMware.VimAutomation.Srm module is not currently supported on the Core edition of PowerShell.,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ImportModuleCommand

Import-Module : VMware.VimAutomation.Srm module is not currently supported on the Core edition of PowerShell

I found that some of the PowerCLI modules are not compatible with PowerShell Core. For PowerCLI to work, I had to disable some modules from loading when PowerCLI starts. The file where PowerCLI keeps its dependencies is VMware.PowerCLI.psd1. In my case, the full path to the file was:

/home/titi/.local/share/powershell/Modules/VMware.PowerCLI/10.0.0.7895300/VMware.PowerCLI.psd1

Here you will find this section:

# Modules that must be imported into the global environment prior to importing this module
RequiredModules = @(
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893910″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Common”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893906″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Core”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893909″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Srm”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893900″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.License”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893904″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Vds”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893903″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Vmc”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893902″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Nsxt”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893913″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.vROps”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893921″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893915″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.HA”;”ModuleVersion”=”6.5.4.7567193″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView”;”ModuleVersion”=”7.1.0.7547311″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.PCloud”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893924″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893901″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.DeployAutomation”;”ModuleVersion”=”6.5.2.7812840″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.ImageBuilder”;”ModuleVersion”=”6.5.2.7812840″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Storage”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7894167″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.StorageUtility”;”ModuleVersion”=”1.2.0.0″}
@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VumAutomation”;”ModuleVersion”=”6.5.1.7862888″}
)

We need to disable the incompatible modules: VMware.VimAutomation.Srm, VMware.VimAutomation.License, VMware.VimAutomation.vROps, VMware.VimAutomation.HA, VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView, VMware.VimAutomation.PCloud, VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud, VMware.VimAutomation.DeployAutomation, VMware.VimAutomation.ImageBuilder, and VMware.VimAutomation.VumAutomation. You need to comment each of these lines, by placing a # at the beginning of the line:

#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Srm”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893900″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.License”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893904″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.vROps”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893921″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.HA”;”ModuleVersion”=”6.5.4.7567193″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.HorizonView”;”ModuleVersion”=”7.1.0.7547311″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.PCloud”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893924″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VimAutomation.Cloud”;”ModuleVersion”=”10.0.0.7893901″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.DeployAutomation”;”ModuleVersion”=”6.5.2.7812840″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.ImageBuilder”;”ModuleVersion”=”6.5.2.7812840″}
#@{“ModuleName”=”VMware.VumAutomation”;”ModuleVersion”=”6.5.1.7862888″}

Save the file and retry to import PowerCLI module.

And here I am running PowerCLI 10.0.0.7895300 on Ubuntu 16.04!