VMware Releases vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 R2

VMware quietly announced the release of vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 R2.  And with it, some great new features are being made available. 
Alan Renouf, a product manager at VMware focusing on automation frameworks and CLI, explained, "In this release we take PowerCLI one step further and allow even more troubleshooting, reporting and automation of vCloud Suite products by introducing easy access to vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) APIs through the core PowerCLI cmdlets."
Some of the new features and enhancements added to vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 Release 2 include:

• Full management of the vCenter SRM Public API - Using the Connect-SRMServer and Disconnect-SRMServer you are now able to connect to vCenter SRM and access all public APIs available
• Support for creating and removing Tags and Tag Categories - create and remove tags and tag categories to complement the tagging functionality offered in existing cmdlets released in the previous version
• Enable/Retrieve information on Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) Mode for Clusters - Adjustments to the Host and Cluster Cmdlets now allow for enabling, disabling and retrieving information for EVC Mode making automated build environments one step easier to accomplish.
• Security policies for vSphere standard switch and port groups - vSphere standard switches and portgoups can be adjusted using the Get/Set-SecurityPolicy cmdelts.
• Added support for Windows PowerShell 4.0
• Added support for IPv6
• Added statistical information - PowerCLI has been updated and we have added the ability to specify all supported types including clusters, datastores, etc and retrieve more statistical information via the Get-Stat and Get-StatType cmdlets.
• 64 bit Support - The New/Set-OSCustomizationSpec cmdlets have been updated to work in 64-bit PowerShell and no longer require running in a 32-bit PowerShell environment.
• Updated the Get-Datastore cmdlet - Filtering can now be done by cluster
• Added support for e1000e network adapter type
• Get-VM cmdlet updated - Allows a virtual machine to be retrieved by virtual switches
  

For a full list of all that has changed, check out the full vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 R2 Release notes here.
And when you are ready, download the latest version here.