I wrote a function to open VMRC from a PowerCLI prompt and although it's quick and dirty I thought I would share it with the community.
function Open-VMRC {
<#
.Synopsis
Function to replicate Open-VMConsoleWindow but use the VMware Remote Console Application
.Description
Connect to the virtual machine using the currently connected server object.
.Example
Get-VM "MyVM" | Open-VMRC
.Parameter VirtualMachine
Virtual Machine object
#>
#[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$True)][VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.InventoryItemImpl]$vm
)
$ServiceInstance = Get-View -Id ServiceInstance
$SessionManager = Get-View -Id $ServiceInstance.Content.SessionManager
$vmrcURI = "vmrc://clone:" + ($SessionManager.AcquireCloneTicket()) + "@" + $global:DefaultVIServer.Name + "/?moid=" + $vm.ExtensionData.MoRef.Value
Start-Process -FilePath $vmrcURI
}
I didn't bother with error handling for it, but if you drop it in your PowerShell $profile it can be a handy way to open a VM console while you're otherwise working in PowerCLI. I've tested it on Windows 10 with PowerCLI 6.3 to standalone VMware 6.0u2 hosts and vCenter 6.0u2. Its worth noting that if you connect directly to a host, you'll need to enable MOBs using the command:
Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Config.HostAgent.plugins.solo.enableMob -Entity ( Get-VMHost ) | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value $true
