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I would like to find out how could I be able to retrieve the system-serial-number of virtual machines installed on Citrix XenServer. I had referred to How to get unique ID of a Citrix XenServer VM from the guest OS? but still could not get with the given solution in this post.

I am able to get the system-serial-number for the virtual machines install on vSphere Client using

Example:

   $ dmidecode -t 1 | grep -i serial
        Serial Number: VMware-xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx-xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx

The virtual machines were running on RHEL 6.5 (for both Xen and vSphere). When the same command was being executed to retrieve the serial number on the Citrix XenServer VM, the below error messages will be displayed:

   $ dmidecode -t 1 | grep -i serial
     # dmidecode 2.12
     # No SMBIOS nor DMI entry point found, sorry.

Had also tried the below command on the Xen Server, it does not work too.

   $ lshal | grep -i serial
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Win.T
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  • Have you tried `serverfault.com` or perhaps even `superuser`? This doesn't sound like a programming question, and is probably better there. – Andrew Dec 31 '14 at 03:44
  • Oh sorry I am quite new here, do not know which forum for what type of questions. Thanks for help, so should I remove this post? – Win.T Dec 31 '14 at 04:11
  • It's a good question, and well written, so I wouldn't worry about it. It may get closed as "off topic" and it may also get answers in the meantime :D Either way, consider putting it up on server fault as well; it may turn out they are a better help and you get a quicker response. – Andrew Dec 31 '14 at 04:15
  • Thanks! I will post it in SuperUser, and Serverfault. Thanks a lot for your guidance! Happy New Year! =) – Win.T Dec 31 '14 at 04:21
  • Good luck... and I'd say start with one first, whichever seems to have the more active xen group, probably server fault. – Andrew Dec 31 '14 at 04:29

1 Answers1

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On VMware, both serial numbers and system UUID returns equivalent values. Exemple:

Serial Number: VMware-56 4d 36 0a d3 df f6 ad-8c 21 07 c2 4d 58 d6 42
UUID: 564D360A-D3DF-F6AD-8C21-07C24D58D642

Basically the serial number is the UUID (with some extra spaces) prefixed with VMware.

There is a standard and easy way to get the system UUID which works on VMware and VirtualBox (and maybe other hypervisors):

# dmidecode -s system-uuid
564D360A-D3DF-F6AD-8C21-07C24D58D642

Hope this helps.

Huygens
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