Determining the ESXi installation type
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Determining the ESXi installation type

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Article ID: 312161

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to identify the ESXi type installed on a host. You may want to determine the installed ESXi type if a patch or command fails to run on the host.
 


Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.2
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.3
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable

Resolution

For ESXi 7.0 and later:

On ESXi 7.0 and later, we no longer distinguish between "embedded" and "installable" installation. A host is either disk installed (stateful) or PXE deployed (statelss).

To determine the type of ESXi installation, run the below command in an SSH session (or via PowerCLI):
esxcli system boot device get
 
If the command returns non-empty "Boot Filesystem UUID", this system is disk installed. Otherwise, the system is PXE deployed.

For ESXi 6.7 and earlier:

ESXi installed on a host can be one of these types:

  • Embedded
  • Installable
  • PXE
To determine the type of ESXi installation:
  1. Connect to the host via SSH.
  2. Run this command:

    # esxcfg-info -e

    You see an output similar to:

    boot type: visor-thin

    You can determine the ESXi type based on the output of this command.

    For example:
    • visor-thin indicates an installable deployment
    • visor-usb indicates an embedded deployment
    • visor-pxe indicates a PXE deployment
Alternatively, you can use the information from the bootbank UUID to determine the ESXi installation type.
 
To determine the ESXi installation type from the bootbank UUID information:
  1. Connect to the host via SSH.
  2. Run one of these commands to get the UUID of the current bootbank:
     
    • # esxcfg-info -b

      You see an output similar to:

      281aa0 78-d5936f3d-cdbe-d8c04f5b3cc7
       
    • # esxcfg-info | grep "Boot Filesystem UUID"

      You see an output similar to:

      |----World Command Line.................................grep Boot Filesystem UUID
      |----Boot Filesystem UUID.....................................281aa0 78-d5936f3d-cdbe-d8c04f5b3cc7
       
  3. Examine the 7th character in the UUID returned by these commands (highlighted in red).
    • If the character is e, it is an Embedded deployment.
    • If the character is anything but e, it is an Installable deployment.
    • If there is no UUID and the character is empty, it is a PXE deployment.

In this example, it is an Installable deployment.



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