PowerCLI 12 offline installation problem

[PavelV9]

Hi,

We are working in secure environment, so it is no possible to install PowerCLI from PowerShell Gallery.

There are lot of articles about offline installation, but I have found nothing VMware official.

With PowerCLI 11 there were no problem.
Just save modules and copy it to C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules.
And it worked fine.

But with PowerCLI 12.1 we have received following error when run new-vm:

New-VM -Name testVM -Template template1 -host host01

New-VM : 2/11/2021 8:54:49 AM   New-VM    Could not load file or assembly 'Newtonsoft.Json,
Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=30ad4fe6b2a6aeed' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.    

I have found following KBs where it is said that Newtonsoft.Json.dll must be registered:
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/79793

Does anyone know if there is any official method how to install PowerCLI 12.X offline?

Thanks.

moderator edit by wila: Moved to PowerCLI forum

[LucD]

Try following the PowerCLI Offline Installation Walkthrough post.

[PavelV9]

Hi LucD,

Thanks for replay.

The provided post works for PowerCLI 11.X but not for 12.1.

[LucD]

What does not work?
Any error messages?

Did you use the Save-Module on a station that runs the same PS version as your target station?

[PavelV9]

You can see the error in my first post.

I did not use save-module but I have downloaded modules in zip from VMware Code.

[LucD]

Why can't you use Save-Module?

[PavelV9]

Just because I have found zip with modules on Code webpage.

[LucD]

Can you at least try the Save-Module procedure as documented in the (official VMware) post I linked to earlier?

[LucD]

Btw, you seem to be complaining about a lack of documentation, but the procedure with the ZIP file is documented in the User Guide.

[PavelV9]

You are right, it is for version 12.2.

I have installed 12.1 and there are no info about offline installation in the docs.

It is fine that it is corrected now.

[LucD]

Did you try with 12.2?
Does that give the same error?
Did you clean up (remove) any old PowerCLI installation before installing the new version?

[PavelV9]

I have tested it on computer outside our environment. Both 12.1 and 12.2 versions.

There is no problem.

Now with official docs I can proove that we do installation correctly and there is no error outside our environment.

So I can ask our security team if the library is not blocked by a security software.

It takes a while...

Thanks for your help!

[vXav]

And the procedure stated in the KB doesn't fix it?

[PavelV9]

Hi vXav,

We are working in secure environment.

I cannot register any library because I have found KB with similar (not exactly same) problem.

I need official VMware offline installation steps.

I don´t understand why offline installation is not part of official PowerCLI docs.

I think there must be lot of companies where online installation is not possible.

P.

 

[LucD]

What did you actually try?
The Save-Module procedure or the installation from the ZIP file?