Unable to query the serial number of an NVMe device or SSD in ESXi

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• You are trying to get the serial number of an NVMe disk or SSD in ESXi by querying the host configuration using vim-cmd:

  # vim-cmd hostsvc/hostconfig | grep -A7 canonicalName

• However, when reviewing the output of the command, the serialNumber field only contains "unavailable":

  canonicalName = "t10.NVMe____<device-model>_______________################",
  displayName = "Local NVMe Disk (t10.NVMe____<device-model>_______________################)",
  lunType = "disk",
  vendor = "NVMe",
  model = "<device-model>               ",
  revision = "######## ",
  scsiLevel = 0,
  serialNumber = "unavailable",

• Alternatively the serial number shows the same value as the canonicalName:

  canonicalName = "t10.NVMe____<device-model>_______________################",
  displayName = "Local NVMe Disk (t10.NVMe____<device-model>_______________################)",
  lunType = "disk",
  vendor = "NVMe",
  model = "<device-model>               ",
  revision = "######## ",
  scsiLevel = 0,
  serialNumber = "t10.NVMe____<device-model>_______________################"

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.x

Cause

The NVMe namespace does not have any concept of a per device serial number, the only serial number available is the one of the controller.

For other devices this serial number needs to be provided in the device firmware in order to be readable by the command - if the firmware does not have this information, vim-cmd will simply show it as unavailable.

 

Resolution

For NVMe devices, the controller serial number is usually included in the canonicalName, represented by the # string in the following example:

t10.NVMe____<device-model>_______________################
                                         ----------------
                                                 ^
                                       Controller Serial Number

For any other (non-NVMe) device, please reach out to the hardware vendor for further support.