If your VMware automation scripts still start with Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI, they are running on a deprecated module. In June 2025 Broadcom renamed and re-versioned the tool: the module every VMware admin has leaned on for a decade is now VCF PowerCLI, it installs from a new package, and it jumped from the 13.x line straight to version 9.0 to line up with VMware Cloud Foundation. That is not a cosmetic change. It arrives in the middle of the most disruptive licensing shift VMware has ever been through, and it makes automation less of a convenience and more of a survival skill.
Here is the reframe. Under the Broadcom subscription model, you pay for VMware by the core, with a raised minimum and consolidated bundles, so every idle host and every hand-built, inconsistent configuration is now a line item you can measure. PowerCLI is how you drive density, repeatability, and speed across a vSphere estate at scale. This guide brings the old PowerCLI story current: what changed in 2025, what the tool does today, and why infrastructure-as-code is now the difference between a VMware environment you control and one that controls your budget.
What PowerCLI Is, in 2026 Terms
PowerCLI is a command-line and scripting tool built on top of PowerShell. It gives VMware administrators more than 7,000 cmdlets, the small, single-purpose commands PowerShell uses, to automate tasks across the VMware stack. Where a GUI makes you click the same screens once per host, a single line of PowerCLI can enact the same change across an entire cluster or data center, the same way every time.
Today that reach extends well past classic vSphere. Current PowerCLI automates vCenter and ESXi, vSAN, NSX networking, VMware Cloud Foundation and SDDC Manager, Cloud Director, Site Recovery Manager, HCX, and VMware Cloud on AWS. Recent releases added cmdlets for SDDC Manager operations, such as querying clusters, domains, hosts, and the embedded vCenters, and for global authorization, so you can manage roles, privileges, and permissions as code rather than by hand.
The value proposition is the same one that made PowerCLI popular, sharpened by scale. Automation adds speed, because a script runs faster than an admin clicking through vCenter. It adds consistency, because an automated task behaves identically on run number one and run number one thousand. And it removes the tired-human error class entirely, because the script does not get distracted at 2 a.m. during a maintenance window.
The 2025 Reset: VMware.PowerCLI Is Now VCF PowerCLI
This is the single most important thing an older PowerCLI article gets wrong. As part of the move to VMware by Broadcom, the tooling was rebranded and realigned to the VMware Cloud Foundation release train.
- New module name. The old
VMware.PowerCLImodule on the PowerShell Gallery is deprecated. The replacement isVCF.PowerCLI. You now install it withInstall-Module -Name VCF.PowerCLI. - New version numbers. VCF PowerCLI 9.0 shipped on June 24, 2025, with 9.1 following, aligned to VCF versioning rather than the old standalone 12.x and 13.x cadence.
- PowerShell 7 is now the floor. VCF PowerCLI officially requires PowerShell 7.4 or later, and Windows PowerShell 5.1 support is being phased out. It still runs cross-platform on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
- Faster under the hood. Core cmdlets were rewritten from PowerShell script functions into compiled .NET classes. Broadcom reports up to 70% faster performance in some scenarios, with module import time on a modern Windows Server dropping from roughly a minute to about eighteen seconds.
Migration is not automatic. Broadcom recommends a clean install: uninstall VMware.PowerCLI first, then install VCF.PowerCLI, using -AllowClobber and -SkipPublisherCheck if needed. The official PowerCLI installation guide walks through the steps and the supported PowerShell versions. If you maintain shared automation, budget time to update module references and re-test in a lab before your scripts fail quietly in production.
| Aspect | Legacy (VMware.PowerCLI 13.x) | Current (VCF PowerCLI 9.x) |
|---|---|---|
| Install command | Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI | Install-Module VCF.PowerCLI |
| Status | Deprecated | Active, aligned to VCF releases |
| PowerShell minimum | Windows PowerShell 5.1 or PS 7.x | PowerShell 7.4+ (5.1 phased out) |
| Cmdlet engine | PowerShell script functions | Compiled .NET classes, up to 70% faster |
| Authentication | Interactive user and password | Adds OAuth / VCF SSO tokens for CI/CD |
Why Automation Matters More Under Broadcom
The licensing change is the reason this stopped being optional. Broadcom eliminated perpetual VMware licenses in favor of subscription, consolidated thousands of SKUs into a handful of bundles led by VMware Cloud Foundation, and, effective April 2025, raised the per-server minimum from 16 cores to 72 cores. Independent analyses of customer renewals have reported cost increases ranging from well over 100% to, in disputed cases, an order of magnitude. Whatever your specific number, the direction is clear: VMware now costs more per core, so wasted capacity and configuration drift cost more too.
Automation is the lever that pushes back. When you script provisioning, configuration, and decommissioning, you pack workloads more densely, you reclaim idle capacity on a schedule instead of when someone remembers, and you enforce a known-good configuration everywhere so you are not paying to troubleshoot snowflakes. VCF PowerCLI 9.1 also added token-based authentication through a new OAuth security context cmdlet and auto-discovery of the integrated VCF single sign-on instance, which makes it far cleaner to run PowerCLI inside a CI/CD pipeline without embedding credentials. Broadcom has been pushing language parity across PowerCLI, Python, Java, and Terraform through a shared OpenAPI definition, so infrastructure-as-code for VMware is more first-class than it has ever been.
The takeaway is not only that automation saves admin hours, which it always did. It is that automation now directly offsets a licensing bill that got materially larger, which is a very different conversation to have with a CFO.
Getting Started: The Cmdlets You Will Use First
The fundamentals still hold. A PowerShell command pairs a verb, the action, with a noun, the object, plus parameters for specificity. That grammar is why PowerCLI is approachable: once you know a handful of cmdlets, you can read and write most of it.
Connect to your environment with Connect-VIServer, or, in a modern pipeline, with a VCF SSO or OAuth token so no password ever touches the script. From there, a small set of cmdlets covers most day-to-day vCenter work. Use Get-VM to retrieve information about a virtual machine, such as its name, power state, guest OS, and host. Use Set-VM to modify an existing VM, Start-VM to power on one or many at once, and Stop-VMGuest for a graceful shutdown rather than pulling virtual power. For file operations, Copy-VMGuestFile moves files between a local machine and a guest, with parameters like credentials and direction to fine-tune the transfer. Each of these runs at scale: pipe a cluster of VMs into the cmdlet and the action fans out across all of them.
The natural progression is to stop running commands interactively and start committing them. Put your scripts in version control, parameterize them, and run them from a pipeline against a token-authenticated connection. That is the point where PowerCLI stops being a faster way to click and becomes genuine infrastructure-as-code, with an auditable history of every change made to the estate.
PowerCLI Is Now Part of a Bigger Automation Story
A decade ago, PowerCLI was largely a standalone tool for VMware admins who lived in PowerShell. That is no longer the whole picture. Broadcom now maintains parity across multiple automation languages built on a shared OpenAPI definition, so the same operations you can script in PowerCLI are also available through Python, Java, and Terraform. For teams standardizing on infrastructure-as-code, that matters: you can manage VMware alongside the rest of your cloud estate in the same declarative workflow instead of treating it as a special case.
In practice, most shops end up using more than one of these together. Terraform declares the desired state of the environment and reconciles it. PowerCLI handles the imperative, operational tasks that do not fit a declarative model cleanly, such as orchestrating a maintenance window, running a one-off remediation, or generating a detailed report. The Python SDK slots in where a broader application or data pipeline needs to touch vSphere. PowerCLI remains the most approachable entry point of the group, because its verb-noun grammar reads almost like English and it ships thousands of ready-made cmdlets, but it now lives inside a toolchain rather than beside it.
The practical advice for a team modernizing its VMware automation is to start where you already are. If your people know PowerShell, lead with VCF PowerCLI, get your scripts into version control, and add token-based authentication so they run safely in a pipeline. Layer in Terraform when you want declarative, drift-corrected state. The goal is not to pick one tool and defend it. It is to make every change to your VMware environment reviewable, repeatable, and recoverable, whichever language expresses it best.
What Teams Actually Automate With PowerCLI
The fastest way to see the payoff is to look at the repetitive, error-prone work that PowerCLI turns into a single reviewable script. These are the patterns that show up again and again in real VMware estates.
- Bulk provisioning and decommissioning. Stand up dozens of VMs from a template with consistent naming, folders, resource pools, and tags, then tear them down just as cleanly. What takes an afternoon of clicking becomes a parameterized script that runs in minutes and never forgets a step.
- Configuration and compliance reporting. Sweep every host and VM for drift against your standard: NTP settings, syslog targets, VM hardware version, snapshot age, orphaned VMDKs, and lockdown-mode state. A nightly report catches the misconfiguration before an auditor or an attacker does.
- Capacity and licensing visibility. Under per-core subscription pricing, knowing exactly how many cores you run, how densely VMs are packed, and where capacity sits idle is now a financial control. PowerCLI can produce that inventory on a schedule so the number is never a surprise at renewal.
- Snapshot and storage hygiene. Find and remove snapshots older than a threshold, flag datastores crossing a capacity line, and reclaim space automatically. Runaway snapshots are one of the most common and preventable causes of a storage outage.
- Host lifecycle and patching support. Rotate hosts into and out of maintenance mode, evacuate VMs with vMotion, and orchestrate a rolling update across a cluster without a human babysitting each step.
Each of these is small on its own. Together they are the difference between an environment that an admin holds together by memory and one that documents and enforces its own standard. And because current PowerCLI can authenticate with a VCF single sign-on or OAuth token rather than an interactive password, these scripts run safely from a scheduler or pipeline, unattended, with the connection scoped to exactly what the job needs. That is the moment automation graduates from a personal time-saver into an operational control the whole team can rely on.
Where a Managed VMware Cloud Changes the Math
Automation solves the how. It does not solve the underlying decision every VMware shop now faces: whether to absorb the new licensing and operational burden in-house, or run VMware in a managed private cloud where someone else carries it. This is where the tooling conversation meets the platform conversation.
IT Vortex runs fully managed, VMware-powered VMware cloud services and private cloud hosting (IaaS), with automation and lifecycle management built into the platform rather than bolted on after the fact. You get the density, consistency, and repeatability that PowerCLI enables, without owning the VCF licensing headache, the hardware refresh, or the 2 a.m. maintenance window. For teams reconsidering their platform entirely after the Broadcom changes, we also deliver Nutanix private cloud as an alternative, and wrap both in a fully managed service so your team writes the automation that matters to your business and we run the plumbing underneath it.
The through-line of the last decade of PowerCLI has not changed. Automate the repetitive, standardize the configuration, and treat your infrastructure as code you can review and replay. What changed in 2025 is the stakes. The tool has a new name, a new version, and a new authentication model, and it sits inside a licensing regime that rewards efficiency and punishes waste more than ever. If your scripts still call the old module, updating them is the smallest and most overdue step. Deciding who should carry the VMware platform underneath those scripts is the bigger one, and it is worth having now rather than at your next renewal.
Talk with IT Vortex about moving your VMware workloads to a managed private cloud where automation, lifecycle management, and predictable licensing come standard.
PowerCLI in 2026: Frequently Asked Questions
Is VMware.PowerCLI still supported?
No. The VMware.PowerCLI module is deprecated. Broadcom replaced it with VCF.PowerCLI, installed via Install-Module VCF.PowerCLI. The Gallery listing for the old module now points users to the new one. Existing scripts keep working for now, but new features, fixes, and support target VCF PowerCLI, so you should plan a migration.
What version of PowerShell does VCF PowerCLI need?
PowerShell 7.4 or later. Windows PowerShell 5.1, which older PowerCLI supported, is being phased out. VCF PowerCLI runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS as long as PowerShell 7.4 or later is installed.
What can PowerCLI automate?
vCenter and ESXi operations, vSAN, NSX networking, VMware Cloud Foundation and SDDC Manager, Cloud Director, Site Recovery Manager, HCX, and VMware Cloud on AWS. With more than 7,000 cmdlets, it covers provisioning, configuration, reporting, power management, and lifecycle tasks, all scriptable and repeatable at data-center scale.
Why does automation matter more after the Broadcom acquisition?
Broadcom moved VMware to subscription licensing, consolidated the product line, and raised the per-server core minimum, which increased costs for many customers. Automation offsets that by driving higher consolidation, reclaiming idle capacity, and enforcing consistent configurations, so you get more value from every licensed core and spend less time fixing drift.
