vSAN Analytics for Skyline – How to locate vCenter UUID

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to locate the vCenter Server UUIDs.

Environment

Various Versions.

Resolution

There are various ways to retrieve the vCenter Server UUID. This UUID is useful for determining if vSAN Analytics for Skyline is available to the user.
 
To find the vCenter UUID, there are six alternative methods:
 

1: Using vSphere Web Client (6.5 Patch 2 and Later)

Starting with vCenter Server 6.5 Patch 2, the user can retrieve the Support Tag in the vSphere Web Client (Flex). Navigate to the vSAN Cluster > Configure > vSAN > Health and Performance > Online Health Check. The Support Tag is of the form <VCUUID>:<ClusterUUID>.

HTML5 UI for vSAN 6.7, 7.0, & 8.0 includes the UUID under:
vSAN Cluster > Monitor > vSAN > Support

2: Using the Managed Object Browser (MOB) (This works for all versions of vSAN)

Point a web browser to https://<vc>/mob, log in using [email protected] credentials (or whatever you may have changed the domain too), click on RetrieveServiceContent, then Invoke. See the UUID in instanceUuid returned.
 
3: Using PowerCLI

In the PowerCLI terminal, run command:
 
Get-VC -Server <hostname or IP Address> | fl 
 
See the vCenter UUID output under InstanceUuid.
 
4: Using vCenter Server Appliance shell (This works for all versions of vSAN)

From the vCenter Server Appliance shell (Example via. SSH, and then into bash), grep instanceUuid /etc/vmware-vpx/instance.cfg.
root@vcsa01 [ ~ ]# grep instanceUuid /etc/vmware-vpx/instance.cfg
instanceUuid=09860060-6f0a-428b-bce7-d7755b08d958

Note: For the Windows-Based vCenter Server, the default location is \ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\instance.cfg.
 
5: Using ESXi shell (vSAN 6.6.1/ESXi 6.5 Update 1 and Later)

From an ESXi shell (Example via. SSH), run command grep -i vcUUID /etc/vmware/esx.conf. See the vCenter UUID under /vsan/configGen/vcUuid.
 
6: Using ESXi shell (pre-vSAN 6.6.1/ESX 6.5 Update 1 when HA is enabled)

From an ESXi shell (Example via. SSH), run command grep faultDomain /etc/opt/vmware/fdm/hostlist. See the vCenter UUID under faultDomainId.

7: Using ESXi shell (All vSAN versions)

From an ESXi shell (Example via SSH) run command esxcli vsan cluster get|grep "Config Generation:"
[root@esxi01:~] esxcli vsan cluster get|grep "Config Generation:"
   Config Generation: 09860060-6f0a-428b-bce7-d7755b08d958 8 2023-04-30T15:33:00.416

 

 

Additional Information