If you manage VMware hosts or if you are interested in writing scripts against VMware hosts using PowerShell, you should take a look at PowerGUI and Quest PowerPack 2.0. When Microsoft launched the new Microsoft PowerShell scripting language, administrators took notice. When VMware tagged on to PowerShell and created the VMware VI Toolkit for Windows, virtualization administrators took notice. This scripting language removed the complexity of learning Perl and other programming languages in order to easily automate many of today’s administrative tasks.Quest Software, a company that has been taking a much larger interest in the virtualization market, has adopted the PowerShell scripting language and has been extending the free PowerGUI tool with its own PowerPack extensions.During the holidays, Quest was busy with the release of versions 2.0 and 2.0.1 of its PowerGUI PowerPack for VMware. The new update includes a full-featured PowerShell script library for VMware to further enhance VMware virtualization management. PowerGUI with VMware PowerPack 2.0 gives administrators a helping hand by automating many management tasks that are common to virtual infrastructures. According to Quest, combining Windows PowerShell, PowerGUI, and their PowerPack for VMware provides the ability to manage not only the applications that organizations depend on, but also the virtual infrastructure that power them — all from a single console.A few highlights in this version include the following:Easy management of multiple VMware Virtual Center, ESX, ESXi, or Virtual Server hosts from within one console. Single sign-on to multiple hosts that use the same credentials. Support for browsing through any of the inventory hierarchical views that are available in Virtual Center. Integration with the VMware SDK for advanced actions not yet supported by the VMware VI Toolkit. Management of virtualization elements within one host or across many hosts through the same set of links and actions. Reporting and management of sessions, datacenters, clusters, resource pools, hosts, folders, virtual machines, templates, snapshots, networks, datastores, files, tasks, and log files. Support for the upcoming VMware VI Toolkit 1.5 release.You can learn more about this PowerPack’s version history and other details from the PowerGUI Web site, and you can also download it from the same location. Software Development