Whether you’re a new user or an advanced user, Learning PowerCLI by Robert van den Nieuwendijk is a fantastic reference to VMware PowerCLI. van den Nieuwendijk covers all the basics to get PowerCLI installed and running – getting you connected to ESXi hosts and vCenter. He also covers all of the basic and advanced PowerCLI cmdlets exposed to users as of vSphere 5.5. But, van den Nieuwendijk doesn’t stop there. He also delves deeper into utilizing esxcli within PowerCLI to accomplish administrative tasks that PowerCLI cmdlets don’t natively expose.
The book progresses users through a series of topics and groups tasks and administrative areas of vSphere together to logically cover a full range of administration.  The book begins at the beginning, helping to get PowerCLI installed and operational and then moves into some of the basic PowerShell concepts that you will need to know before getting into more specific PowerCLI code.  The book steps through the management of ESXi hosts, virtual machines, networking and storage.  It also covers clustering and vCenter administration.  It is a solid guide to the language and how to get things done using PowerCLI.
I had the pleasure of meeting Robert and talking with him about the book briefly at VMworld.  He poured a lot of time and effort into making it a great book and resource for PowerCLI and it shows in the final form.   I was able to read the book while in draft form as a technical reviewer and then again when published.
If you’re at VMworld, its available at the VMworld book store onsite. Â It’s also available at Amazon.com and booksellers around the world.
