(I can't take credit for this, I'm just formatting and publishing instructions received from VMware.)
Establish a connection to your the server using the Connect-VIServer command:
Connect-VIServer -Server
for example,
Connect-VIServer -Server 192.168.10.10
When prompted, provide the administrator's username and password to authenticate access on the server.
Get the root folder of the server:
$root = Get-Folder -NoRecursion
Create a PowerShell drive named VI, based on the server root folder. You can use the built-in New-psDrive cmdlet.
New-PSDrive -Location $root -Name vi -PSProvider VimInventory -Root '\'
In this release, a single backslash is the required value for the -Root parameter.
Access the new drive by typing the following command:
cd vi:
To list the drive content, use Get-ChildItem or its alias Dir.
Navigate through your server inventory using the cd command with the full path to the host. For a fictional VI inventory it may looks like the following:
cd Folder01\DataCenter01\host\Web\LiveHost01