Now that PowerCLI is part of the PowerShell Gallery, you can install it using the native module installer…but there’s a catch. Windows Server 2012 R2 requires a couple of minor updates to get this process underway. You’ll know really quickly if you open up your PowerShell terminal or PowerShell ISE (as Administrator) and try the following command:

Find-Module -name VMware.PowerCLI

The issue is easily solved be deploying a more recent installer for the PackageManagement PowerShell Modules. Download the installer using this link and run the install:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51451

Select the Download within the page once you’re there:

Choose the x64 version (assuming you’re running a 64-bit OS):

Run through the installation and accept the defaults. Nothing significant to worry about with this file as it’s a necessary update for what we need to do.

If you run the Find-Module command again, you’ll see a much better result. You’ll be prompted to update your NuGet components which are used to pull resources from the PowerShell Gallery. Accept the update and then we can keep going: