Book Review: VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration - 2nd Edition
PowerCLI PowerShell VMware
Published on 7 April 2016 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 418. Reading Time: 2 mins.
Power CLI 2nd Edition - A “must have” book for anyone who is working with VMware products and wants to add value and save time.
The book has been helpful to me for three reasons: it has taught me how to automate those mundane tasks that everybody hates to, it has enabled me to remove the human error - making sure results are consistent, and most importantly it has given me back some much needed time to tackle more interesting problems/tasks (after all once you have written a script once it can be re-used on many projects!).
Firstly, I will admit I have not read every single line on every single page. However, in my opinion, this is not the kind of book you will necessarily read from cover to cover in one sitting. It is, after all, a reference book, therefore whilst some people may read it cover to cover, some people (like myself) will read the sections/pages that are relevant at the specific project or task at that point in time. One thing is clear, it is a book you will keep returning to when you are sitting there scratching your head and mutter to yourself “there has to be a better/faster and more consistent way to do this”.
The authors have a created a good balance of both empowering and informing the reader. Where it needs to, it is specific about the steps required to accomplish a particular task and the end goal, but the book is more than that. The book is about providing the reader with the concise information and background they need to be able to create their own scripting toolkit which will help them make their day to day work easier. The Code Listings provided throughout the book (which are downloadable from the publishers website) provide an invaluable source to add to your own scripting toolkit and I would advise anyone reading to ensure they download and use them.
In my opinion, the mark of a good technical reference book is when it is the first book you think of when you have to solve a problem/complete a task and over the last few months this has been one of those books. In my continual journey through PowerShell and VMware PowerCLI, this is definitely a book I will be referring back to again and again.
What are you waiting for? If you are planning to buy a PowerCLI book, you will not find better.
Available in paperback or kindle from Amazon.
Published on 7 April 2016 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 418. Reading Time: 2 mins.
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