How to get hardware report of a esxi host

[rks238]

Hi,

Can anyone help me figure out how we can fetch a hardware report from esxi host (from vSphere client or vCenter). This is for dell power edge server and esxi host installed with few running VMs on it.

Let me know if any one know how to do it.

Thanks

Rajeev

www.gotzu.com

[Abhilash Basavarajaiah]

What do you mean by hardware report? Do you want the hardware status of components on the physical server or inventory report of all the VM's running on it?

[rks238]

At the moment I am looking for inventory but any additinal info alongwith is not bad.

Thanks for taking out time to respond.

[Abhilash Basavarajaiah]

RVTools - Home

This is a really good tool which gives you all the inventory from network to datastore,disk,vNICS, IP and many more things.

You can export your inventory into a CSV or an excel.

And the best part is its a free tool. All you need to do is connect to your vCenter and pull the data.

Please mark correct answer and consider awarding points :smileyhappy:

[rks238]

This tool proves to be helpful only if you need information about resources assigned to VMs and info related to to vHardware. But I am looking for report of Esxi host's Hardware (Bare-metal). For example this tool does not display information about motherboard, DRAC etc. Those were the things I am looking for.

[BostonTechGuy]

You may want to look at PowerCLI script that pulls the Host System Information.  Something like GET-VIEW. However I am uncertain if it can pull items like version of DRAC (Dell) or ILO (HP)

Something like this may work.

$Test = Get-VMHost -Name "your ESXi Host" | Get-View

$Test.Hardware.Systeminfo | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Path "C:\Scripts\report1.csv"

$Test.Hardware.Systeminfo.OtherIdentifyingInfo | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Path "C:\Scripts\report2.csv"

Also there are a few posts located here that goes into the more detailed info you can pull from GET-VIEW.

http://tech.zsoldier.com/2011/08/hardwaresysteminfootheridentifyinginfo.html

http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/07/08/powercli-host-hardware-one-liner/

The fact there are other posts means you are not alone in trying to get this information from vCenter.  I believe a majority of what you want can be pulled from vcenter and host using PowerCLI.  Its just getting the correct attributes of Hardware View info.

-Boston TechGuy

[admin]

To confirm hardware compatibility:

1. Check the ESX/ESXi host for host hardware info by running following command on ssh terminal as root:
   
   # esxcfg-info | less -i
   
   You see an output similar to:
   
   |----Product Name.............................................ProLiant DL380 G6
   |----Vendor Name..............................................Hewlett-Packard
   
   Note: Log in to the ESXi host physical console using Tech Support Mode. For more information, see Tech Support Mode for Emergency Support (1003677).
   
   

2. Identify the SCSI shared storage devices by doing the following:

   For ESX 3.x, run the command:
   
   # cat /proc/vmware/scsi/vmhba#/#:#
   
   Note: The vmhba#/#:# represents the canonical name for the path. For more information, see Identifying disks when working with VMware ESX (1014953).

   The output for ESX 3.x is similar to:
   
   Vendor: DGC Model: RAID 5 Rev: 0324

   For ESX/ESXi 4.x and 5.x, run the command:
   
   # esxcfg-scsidevs -l | egrep -i 'display name|vendor'

   The output for ESX/ESXi is similar to:
   
   Display Name: Local ServeRA Disk (mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0)
   Vendor: ServeRA Model: 8k-l Mirror Revis: V1.0
   
   

3. Run the following command from the ESX host service console and ESXi 5.x to find additional peripherals and devices:
   
   # lspci -vvv
   
   You see an output similar to:
   
   02:0e.0 RAID bus controller: Dell Computer Corporation PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 4E/SI/DI (rev 06)
   Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 016d
   Flags: bus master, stepping, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 24
   Memory at d80f0000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K]
   Memory at dfdc0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
   Expansion ROM at dfe00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
   Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
   Capabilities: [d0] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue=0/1 Enable-
   Capabilities: [e0] PCI-X non-bridge device.
   
   06:07.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 8254NXX Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 05)
   Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 016d
   Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 25
   Memory at dfae0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
   I/O ports at ecc0 [size=64]
   Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
   Capabilities: [e4] PCI-X non-bridge device.
   
   07:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 8254NXX Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 05)
   Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 016d
   Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 26
   Memory at df8e0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
   I/O ports at dcc0 [size=64]
   Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
   Capabilities: [e4] PCI-X non-bridge device.
   
   

4. Compare your hardware information to the VMware ESX Server Systems, I/O, and SAN Compatibility guides.

[PhilBB]

That's exactly what I was looking for too.

Everybody needs the hardware inventory of the server to check against the hardware compatibility list e.g. before an upgrade.

[vijayrana968]

You can take a look at

Audit and Manage ESXi Hosts with PowerCLI - VMware PowerCLI Blog - VMware Blogs

and

Collecting ESXi Host Hardware Information with PowerShell

Specifically for Hardware Inventory.