I'm running into what seems like a bug when deploying a VM from template via New-VM to a Datastore Cluster while using the DiskStorageFormat option.

The following code throws an error:

New-VM -Name "testvm" -ResourcePool (Get-Cluster MyCluster1) -Datastore (Get-DatastoreCluster MyDatastoreCluster1) -Template (Get-Template MyTemplate) -DiskStorageFormat Thin



New-VM : 19.03.2014 12:51:11
New-VM



Required property datastore is missing from data object of type VirtualMachineRelocateSpecDiskLocator
while parsing serialized DataObject of type vim.vm.RelocateSpec.DiskLocator
at line 1, column 1073
while parsing property "disk" of static type ArrayOfVirtualMachineRelocateSpecDiskLocator
while parsing serialized DataObject of type vim.vm.RelocateSpec
at line 1, column 1017
while parsing property "location" of static type VirtualMachineRelocateSpec
while parsing serialized DataObject of type vim.vm.CloneSpec
at line 1, column 1006
while parsing property "cloneSpec" of static type VirtualMachineCloneSpec
while parsing serialized DataObject of type vim.storageDrs.StoragePlacementSpec
at line 1, column 324
while parsing call information for method RecommendDatastores
at line 1, column 218
while parsing SOAP body
at line 1, column 207
while parsing SOAP envelope
at line 1, column 38
while parsing HTTP request for method recommendDatastores
on object of type vim.StorageResourceManager



at line 1, column 0
In Zeile:1 Zeichen:1



+ New-VM -Name "testvm" -ResourcePool ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




+ CategoryInfo      
: NotSpecified: (:) [New-VM], InvalidRequest



+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Client20_VmServiceImpl_ApplySdrsRecommendation_ViError,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.NewVM





 

Omitting -DiskStorageFormat however works fine:

New-VM -Name "testvm" -ResourcePool (Get-Cluster MyCluster1) -Datastore (Get-DatastoreCluster MyDatastoreCluster1) -Template (Get-Template MyTemplate)

Using a Datastore object instead of a DatastoreCluster object while keeping -DiskStorageFormat also works fine:

New-VM -Name "testvm" -ResourcePool (Get-Cluster MyCluster1) -Datastore (Get-DatastoreCluster MyDatastoreCluster1 | Get-Datastore | Select -first 1) -Template (Get-Template MyTemplate) -DiskStorageFormat Thin

It doesn't matter whether Thin, Thick or EagerzeroedThick is specified for DiskStorageFormat. Creating a new VM from scratch (no Template) also works fine in all cases

It worked without any issues before I upgraded to PowerCLI 5.5 R2. (Was using PowerCLI 5.1 R2 before)

Get-PowerCLIVersion

PowerCLI Version

----------------

  VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 Release 2 build 1671586

---------------

Snapin Versions

---------------

  VMWare AutoDeploy PowerCLI Component 5.5 build 1598391

  VMWare ImageBuilder PowerCLI Component 5.5 build 1598391

  VMware License PowerCLI Component 5.5 build 1265954

  VMware VDS PowerCLI Component 5.5 build 1671576

  VMware VDS vSphere PowerCLI Component 4.1.1 build 000001

  VMware vSphere PowerCLI Component 5.5 build 1671576

  VMware vSphere Update Manager PowerCLI 5.1 build 782803

The target environment I'm connected to is running vCenter 5.1U2 and ESXi 5.1U2.