This book is written for readers with a basic, working knowledge of PowerCLI, a command-line tool for managing vSphere and vCloud environments that is based on PowerShell. The book is written in a recipe format, which means that each chapter approaches a topic of vSphere or vCloud administration and walks you through step-by-step commands to handle the common tasks. Each recipe is built on the previous recipes that allow you to learn how to take basic commands and combine them into functions and modules in order to automate tasks for your environment, making your job easier.

It is assumed that you have a working understanding of VMware vSphere, both ESXi and vCenter Server, and the experience with vCloud Director might help you with the chapter focused on this topic. The book is written so that you can go beyond simple commands in PowerCLI and unleash the potential of more complex series of commands that handle real work problems. It is impossible to cover every possible use for PowerCLI, but the book covers some topics in representative ways and gives you techniques to apply to any other need you might encounter.