PowerCLI and VMware Player

[MariusRoma]

I am studying VMware PowerCLI and I want to perform tests in a lab environment before using it in a production environment.

Can I use PowerCLI to manage VMs hosted by VMware Player?

Can I use it to manage VMs hosted by free ESXi hosts?

Regards

marius

[MKguy]

Can I use PowerCLI to manage VMs hosted by VMware Player?

No. PowerCLI only works against vCenter or ESXi hosts.

Can I use it to manage VMs hosted by free ESXi hosts?

Yes, but the free ESXi license only allows you to perform read-only actions, i.e. things like Get-VM, Get-Datastore etc. You can't actually change settings with writing cmdlets (New-VM, Set-VM etc).